Report by Tom Serby:
A little before 9pm Remnant Felix Serby stood at the top of his mark preparing to bowl the last over of the evening to A. Haynes, the Enzymes number seven. The light was holding - just - and, apart from the sporadic buzz of traffic on the Ely ring road and the odd rush of a nearby passing train, a tense quiet fell on the immaculate treelined greensward of King's Ely's playing fields (no "rough as guts" country town north of Melbourne this).
By this point, after about two and a half hours' of cricket,
thirty nine overs had been sent down in which 316 runs had been scored,
and a paltry 7 more were needed by Enzymes for victory, 6 wickets in hand.
We were very much in
"There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night
Ten to make and the match to win"
territory of Henry Newbolt's famous 1892 Vitai Lampada poem.
Were the Travelling Remnants, a bunch of cricketers from Cambridge now
on the road for the love of the game,
on the cusp of avenging previous trouncings by the talented youngsters,
"old boys" of King's School Ely?
Or would it be a case of "close, but no cigar"?
The Travelling Remnants were only in this position now because of the excellent stranglehold imposed by in particular opening bowler Jack Hutchinson (0/12 runs from 4 overs) and Rahul Jhawar (1/25 from 4 overs at the death), well supported by debutante Natasha Rutterford (0/23 from 2 overs), Waqas Haque (1/22 off 2 overs) and ringer David Coglan opening with Jack (0/43 from 4 overs, figures which don't reflect how well he bowled)- which had kept a check on the flashing blades of the young King's guns, smartly attired in matching white shirts and blue trackie bottoms, parading the very fashionable late cuts and reverse hits for four, that spoke to their batting quality and youth.
The match started with Remnants opening up their innings with J-P Joubert (17 off 12 balls) taken by a very fine catch just as he was getting into gear. His opening partner, Felix, started solidly scoring 7 runs from his first 7 balls; but on receipt of some short-pitched stuff laid into the Enzymes' bowling with the aweseome sequence of 3 4 1 2 2 6 6 4 4 1 4 0 6 0 4 6 1 (i.e., 54 off 17 balls). The only other Remnants to make it into double figures were Tom Serby (11 off 12 balls) and Rahul (23 off 13 balls). All out in the nineteenth for 161, with Felix, having come back in, finishing on an incredible 61* off 24 balls (the fastest innings of 60+ on record for Remnants).
Over an hour later and, after Felix succeeded in sending down five straight balls, none particularly hittable, it's down to the final ball of the match, still two to win for Enzymes. A swing of the bat; contact only with pad; batters haring down the wicket; wicket-keeper Neil Grover in hot pursuit of the ball; Neil picks it up and hurls it to the bowler, who's run to the stumps at the striker's end; the batters haring back for the second run that would win the match . . . calm as you like, the keeper/bowler combo sees the batter a yard short, match tied.