2014 Remnants dinner

This year's Remnants annual dinner was held on Friday, November 21, at the Burleigh Arms pub on Newmarket Road. Some thirty Remnants (and partners/supporters) attended and once again we were fed and watered (well, not exactly watered) superbly.

The scene at the Burleigh Arms.

The formalities began with the annual quiz:

Remnants quiz 2014

(To see the answers simply highlight the region below the questions with your mouse by dragging the cursor across the screen with the left button held down.)

    Early doors

  1. Who bowled the first over of the season? (1 run)

    Naveen Chouskey (not that he knew this himself).

  2. Who took a wicket with his first ball of the season? (1 run)

    Felix Serby.

  3. Who scored more runs in his first Remnants match than any other debutant? (2 runs)

    Robin Eddington.

  4. Which former first class 'keeper bowled against Remnants? (2 runs)

    Chris Scott.

  5. Who hit his first ball for four years for four? (2 runs)

    Daniel Brown.

  6. Who caught Sam Grimshaw off the first delivery of the Woozlers match, and who bowled the ball? (2 runs)

    John Moore took the catch off the bowling of Naveen Chouksey (not that he knew this himself).

    From the stats

  7. Who played his 300th game for Remnants? (1 run)

    Dave Green.

  8. What is the club's record 20-over score? (2 runs)

    220/5, made against Xaar in 2000.

  9. Who equalled whose 1989 record, claiming 17 dismissals behind the stumps in the season? (2 runs)

    Andy Owen equally Geoff Hales's record for the most dismissals in a season.

  10. Which two batsmen averaged over 100? (2 runs)

    Andy Owen (18?.??) and Dave Norman (1??.??).

  11. Who scored the most runs and who took the most wickets? (2 runs)

    Andy Bell (2?? runs at ??.??) scored the most runs and Alec Armstrong (1? wickets at ??.??) took the most wickets.

  12. Which six Rexes (Reges?) won the end of season six-a-side tournament? (6 runs)

    Richard, Olly, Ferdi, Max(imus), Henry and ???.

    8-ball over

  13. Whose work was called "a delight" by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES)? (1 run)

    Richard Rex.

  14. Who sent a bail 72 feet towards fine leg? (1 run)

    Joe White (as recorded by Dave Williams, although no points were awarded for that).

  15. Which team of ringers ended an era? (1 run)

    Hart-McLeod.

  16. Who bowled "a bewitching combination of leg spinners and faster balls" but still went for 24 off his last over? (2 runs)

    Dave Williams.

  17. Who was "unluckily" bowled off a double-bouncer? (2 runs)

    Eli Ellwood (not that he knew this himself).

  18. Which batsmen took us from 6/1 off 5 overs through 48/1 off 10 overs and to a winning 133/2 at Abington, and who was the batsman who missed out? (4 runs)

    Michael McCann (39*) and Ferdi Rex (??) made the big partnership; ?? was there to finish the job; and John Richer (??) was the early wicket.

  19. Who maintains that "there's always a run if you hit it"? (2 runs)

    Michael McCann.

  20. Who said (of whom) that "I don't know what you're like in the bedroom, but you're a real tease on the cricket field"? (2 runs)

    Paul Jordan said that off Matt Hughes (after he almost dropped a catch).

    Catherine Owen and her retinue won the quiz with a score of something like 29/40, and so she (and they) were awarded a collection of wine samplers - a conveniently shareable prize.

    Denise and Catherine Owen hold up their quiz prize.

    The Champagine Moment of the year almost went to Eli Ellwood (for his great catches) and could have been awarded to Michael McCann (for his innings at Abington), but in the end headed in the direction of Michael Moore for his catch to dismiss Sam Grimshaw off the first ball of the Woozlers game.

    The moment that Geoff Hales handed over the Champagne to John Moore.

    The Les Collings pickled egg award was mayhem, with Les awarding Grahame Hart the eponymous jar only for Geoff to produce a second supply which was promptly given to Les.

    John Moore and Eli Ellwood hope that Les Collings isn't going to give the pickled eggs to them . . .

    . . . and their smiles at the fact that it's going to Graham Hart are very understandable.

    Tom Serby, holder of the Phil Watson memorial grotesque, attempted to award the, er, thing to himself on the pretext that he was the only person who managed to dismiss Andy Owen all year . . . and so instead gave the, er, thing to Andy.

    The Watson memorial thing, now with added baseplate, passes from Tom Serby to Andy Owen.

    The last award was a new one: the silver salver donated to the club by Graham Hart to commemorate two decades of stuffings (largely, but not completely, by Hart-McLeod and of Remnants). It had been decided that this would go to the most improved player, defined by the canonical points system (1 per run, 20 per bowling dismissal and 10 per catch and stumping), by which criterion Ferdi Rex was the runaway winner, having accrued 532 points this year, up from 209 in 2013. Proud father Richard accepted on Ferdi's behalf, after which Graham took the chance to let us know i) just how much we grumbled about his club's ringers and ii) just how much playing for - and then against - Remnants has meant to him over the years.

    Richard Rex accepts the award for most improved player on behalf of Ferdi Rex, while Geoff Hales prays that Richard has more male children.

    Graham Hart tries to justify his old team's ringer-heavy selection policy.

    After that it was time to deal with the problem of lots of half-empty wine bottles - the solution was to spend the next hour or two emptying them into a steadily decreasing number of glasses until the last Remnant left closer to 1am than midnight.