Report by Grant Kennedy:
"Can't be late", I told myself as I left my desk at about 5:20pm. "Hi, you must be Tim, where is everyone?" I said as I arrived at Fitz at 5:25pm, having clearly let my fear of being late ensure I was way too early. Thereafter Remnants arrived in dribs and drabs, but with nary a sign of the "Cambridge under 25s" (which seemed to mean Cherry Hinton minus their oldies, of which I can think of maybe one from last week). Come our appointed start time of 5:45pm it was clear that we should field, with some assistance to our numbers from Andy and Catharine Owen, who I think had expected picnicking rather than fielding a few overs while most of the last few Remnants arrived. At the start I think our opposition managed enough numbers for two batters, 1.5 semi-competent umpires, and maybe 0.5 scorers. We were to play 13 eight-ball overs in the hope of getting a pint in before it was pitch black, plus a game of cricket before that.
Having expected to open with the pace of as-yet to arrive Joe White, I turned instead to Robin Eddington (0/21) and Ferdi Rex (0/15). The no-nonsense clubbing of Ramiz Muhammad, which was great when he did it for Remnants earlier this year, was a bit painful to watch, as was some more careful stroke playing by Adeel Kursheed at the other end. With the now arrived Joe White also failing, and not for lack of chances, to snag a wicket it was Faruk Kara who got the first wicket with the first of four Ev Fox stumpings [equalling his own record - ed.]. This wicket was sorely needed, having been clubbed for more than 10 an over for the first 7 (eight-ball) overs. From here it was more subdued, a few catches went down, perhaps victims of the dreaded orange ball - though to be honest despite what I hope looked like a heroic dive I just grassed my chance. A lack of calling sent Ferdi from slip to square leg to almost catch a ball pretty much right where Faruk was standing. While the out-fielding effort was actually pretty good, Ev Fox behind the stumps was the star, with a further three stumpings off the bowling of Richard Rex (3/7). I have it on good authority from Faruk that Dave Williams (1/12) always gets a wicket, and today was no different, though he chose to bowl straight enough to save Ev the effort of yet another stumping. The under 25s' total was 117, a lowish total given their incredible start and that we'd fielded with 10 players.
Is it okay to put yourself right up the order when you're captain? [Certainly no obligation to bat low - ed.] I wasn't sure and it's been a pretty good year [Er, understatement of the year, a total of 592 runs being sixth on the all-time list. - ed.] so I didn't, and Tim Cannings (40* off 35 balls) and Ferdi Rex (43* off 30 balls) were sent in to sort things out. An array of mostly orthodox shots and some really rather skillful batting followed, interspersed by Ferdi's less graceful, but unsuccessful, attempts to get himself run out. Having decided on retirements at 40, it appears they decided on a tactic of amassing the runs with wides once they had reached the thirties. They both eventually retired, leaving Chris Badger (1 off 3 balls), Dave Williams (5* off 4 balls), and Mihir Chandrekar (4* off 1 ball) to finish with most of three overs to spare.
We still had a bit of light left for a yarn and a pint, not that a bit of darkness would have stopped us anyway.