Report by Daniel Mortlock:
With 17 players having made themselves available for this evening's scheduled fixture against Trinity College High Table, it seemed the only administrative difficulty would be working out who would, sadly, miss out on a game. Unfortunately, a few days ago messages started coming in from Cam that the number of available players they had was decreasing at the rate of about one a day (and no, not because they're that old). Moreover, the few players of theirs who remained committed to the fixture were almost all Remnants - by the morning of the game there were only two players left in their depleted line-up who haven't turned out at least once for us this season. At around lunchtime it was decided to repurpose the game to be an impromptu internal fixture between the Remnants of Fitzwilliam and the (literal) Remnants of Trinity.
Come game time it was almost as if all this organisational chaos had sapped Team Trinity of its life-force, as Team Fitz found themselves standing around ready to start the game for about 15 minutes before opening batters Cam and Lahiru Wijedasa finally emerged from the changing room. Such was the delay that, despite it being mid-summer, we were forced to retreat to 15x8s - although even then we didn't finish until after 9pm.
The cricket did at least start with a bang as Cam (19 off 10 balls) smacked a series of boundaries before being run out by Lahiru . . . who'd called him through for what turned out to be a foolish run as CJ Barrie executed a superb one-handed pick-up and direct hit. (Lahiru had only just survived earlier in the over after CJ's foot-only run out attempt.) Naveen Chouksey (2/10) then continued the good work for Team Fitz, taking two more wickets in the over, including that of a decidedly unhappy Neil Grover plumb LBW first ball. Shikhar Asthana (1/15) and Pete Ames (1/30) both got wickets as well, although this was double-edged as Team Trinity's strong middle order then came in with more than enough time to set a big total. Hume Fisher (19 off 16 balls) looked untroubled until Sasha Vail (1/38) lured him down the track, whence he lost his bat and was well stumped by Marcus Baker. That meant Sasha now got a second crack at the two batters she'd bamboozled in last week's internal game: Natasha Rutterford and Neeban Balayasoderan. Natasha (13 off 20 balls, with some spectacularly aggresssive calling) and Neeban (21 off 13 balls) got their revenge today, Neeban in particular waiting very effectively for the ball to reach him this time around. Neeban did eventually get tempted into a rash shot, being well caught by Daniel Mortlock diving forward on the square boundary off the bowling of Temoor Khan (1/7). That left Chris Badger to finish things off with a largely effortless 30* off 23 balls, going to the retirement score off the final ball of the innings from Daniel (0/33, and wicketless for only the second time this season - both the internal games).
Team Fitz's reply began slowly, as expected given that TK was, as in the same fixture last year, facing up to Iqtedar Alam with Hume behind the stumps. Needless to say there were no wild marches down the pitch; but the result was that the innings started with four dot balls, which broadly seemed to represent a psychological victory for Iqtedar.
TK's then opened his - and the team's - account with a lofted drive which went comfortably over Neil at mid-on, who set off in pursuit, doing well to catch up with the ball just inside the boundary. We were then treated to some of the most extraordinarily "village" cricket most of us have ever seen. It was easily up there with the best of the "that's so village" videos that we've all watched millions of times, with the bonus feature that there were two simultaneous theatres of action. Near the boundary Neil had now gathered the ball, so the batters, TK and Quentin, started to hedge a few yards down the pitch in the hope of getting a run on the throw but, critically, were both looking pleadingly at each other for a decisive call: TK because he was now at the non-striker's end, so it was his partner's call; and Quentin for . . . reasons that were mysterious even at the time. Any doubt should have been removed when Neil's throw went awry, the ball travelling in a high vertical arc from long-on towards, er, long-off. With Neil now faced with a second chase the second run was a doddle and the only question should have been whether to go for a third - but Quentin and TK had now entered into a sort of mid-pitch dance, edging forwards and backwards before finally completing the most protacted of second runs as Neil gathered the ball a second time. Neil's second attempt at returning the ball was on target, but even then it was such a long boundary that a relay was required, so the third run should have been comfortable - but the two batters were now, perhaps understandably, taking separate meditation breaks to try and get their heart rates down. Or perhaps to get their stories straight, as the post-match interviews revealed somewhat conflicting perspectives on what had happened:
After this things rather calmed down as the Remnants of Trinity inexorably took control of the game, as Iqtedar (2/16), Andy Owen (2/10) and Neeban (1/5) all took wickets while giving away few runs. There were a few good innings from The Remnants of Fitz, as TK (30* off 24 balls) and Seb Hammersley (30* off 20 balls) both made it to retirement, but once Marcus Baker (18 off 18 balls) was dismissed by Natasha (1/27) the chase petered out, as just 43 runs came from the final 7 (eight-ball) overs.
