Report by Tom Serby (but note that all figures are approximate due to the rather, er, un-Sally-like scoring):
At five to six there was the usual smattering of Remnants gathered at Fitzwilliam Sports field awaiting the arrival of their team mates while eleven youthful cricketers from Fen Ditton, identically turned out in their smart team strip, practised on the outfield.
Fortunately, Fen Ditton's professionalism did not extend to their bowling strategy which entailed rotating almost all their players with two overs each. A testing opening bowling partnership gave way to successively more friendly offerings, which allowed Richard Rex (27 run out) and Tom Serby (63 also run out) to put on a century opening partnership - more than their combined age, but not by much. Fen Ditton's fielding was enlivened by the technique of one of their players, Tommy "shins of steel", who stopped the ball each time it came to him by falling towards it in a manner suggesting he was praying, and trapping the ball not with his hands but with his whole body, in particular his legs. It emerged that this was Tommy's role in the team and he was not expected to bowl (he didn't) or bat, which he did (see below). John Gull (23*) and Tom Jordan (30*) capitalised on Tom and Richard's opening stand, and Fen Ditton were set 169 to chase.
Joe White (0/17) and Paul Jordan (0/11) were the pick of the Remnants bowlers, well supported by Tom Jordan (3/22) and Andy Bell (1/10). Thanks to tight bowling and some excellent outfield catches by Matt and John Gull, Fen Ditton regularly lost wickets and were never ahead of the rate required. It was all looking good for a Remnants win, which would have balanced the season's ledger. 30-odd were required off the last two overs when Tom Serby stepped up to bowl the penultimate over. After the first two balls went for sixes (both balls lost) the game had taken an irreversible turn. Joe came back on to bowl the last over and after another four from Fen Ditton's big hitting lower order batsman, he was caught, bringing Tommy "shins of steel" to the crease. To his team mates' joy he hit the winning runs with four balls to spare.
