Report by Daniel Mortlock:
Every year the first game in August inevitably brings a sense that the season is coming to an end, and with it a desire to play as much cricket as possible . . . and then the reality check that games need to be shortened to avoid finishing in darkness, so we actually have to play less cricket even if the weather holds. This conflict played out pre-match today as Daniel found himself in negotiations with ARM's captain, the inevitable Sumit Sahai, playing against Remnants for the sixth time this year. Sumit wanted a high number of overs with a low retirement score on the grounds that so many of his players wanted to bat or bowl; we eventually settled on 15 eight-ball overs, but with just one change of ends - although even then we had to swap to a pink ball for the final over. Everyone knew it was going to be difficult to bat later on, so the toss - not of a coin, but of an Institute of Physics keyring disc supplied by John Moore - was crucial. There was a moment of tension as the disc landed and then rolled on its edge for while . . . before finally toppling onto the side which Daniel had called, leaving Sumit to start gesturing to his side that they'd be fielding even before Daniel had announced his decision.
The early indications were, however, that it was also going to be pretty hard to bat early as well, with the ball really sticking in the pitch. Martin Heginbotham was dropped before scoring; then both Cam Petrie (2 off 4 balls) and Matty Wills (2 off 2 balls) were caught at point after getting through their their attempted cut shots way too early; and then Martin almost made it a three-peat with a similar shot next over.
Fortunately, we had plenty of batting to come and over the next hour Martin (26* retired off 17 balls), Chris Badger (30* off 27 balls), Tom Serby (15 off 22 balls) and Marcus Baker (23 off 23 balls) built towards a solid total, albeit in stops and starts: there were 6 overs which yielded just (or fewer) three runs, despite being eight balls long. At 97/2 in the 12th over we might have hoped to accelerate to 130-odd, but instead lost 3/0 thanks largely to canny bowling by Sumit and his son, Rohan, who at one point had combined figures of 2/16 from 4 miserly (eight-ball) overs. To add injury to insult, Chris had also had to retire hurt as his famously damaged knee "went" . . . but it didn't even require a mention of Chris Woakes's heroics at The Ovel this week to have him marching back out at the fall of the next wicket. How he was able to do this was a mystery, but it certainly worked as he, with good support from Daniel Mortlock (10* off 11 balls), took us to a healthy total of 126/6, finishing the innings with a huge six (which he claimed he knew before the ball was even bowled).
The golden light from the setting sun then seemed to bestow on us the Midas touch, as we reduced ARM to 13/3 after 4 overs. Daniel (3/13) started with a double-wicket maiden, thanks in big part to Neil Grover's diving catch at mid-wicket, and then himself took a nice low catch off Lahiru Wijedasa (2/14). Of course it couldn't last - perhaps some clouds moved in - and the strong ARM fourth wicket pair then mounted a quality comeback, putting together a solid half-century partnership, albeit slowly - at the 8-over change of ends they were just 54/3.
From here everything got a bit wild, with a maelstrom of runs, wickets, retirements, and dropped catches as the game burst into life in the encroaching darkness. Faruk Kara (1/22 and recorded as "Karan F" in the scorebook), John Moore (1/26) and Martin (1/22) all got wickets - although all three could have had more but for a spate of catches going down. That said, we also took plenty: John held onto a high spinning ball at point; a now immobile Chris fortuntely only had to move down to catch a low pull at square-leg; Cam executed a triple juggle above his head at long-off to get rid of danger-man Sumit; and Marcus completed two amusingly static stumpings, both cases taking the ball close to the wicket and then just executing the absolutely minimum movement to surgically remove a bail. Our eventual total of seven fielding dismissals equalled the club record for an evening game.
With two overs to go ARM were 85/7, so needed 42 runs off 16 balls, which ordinarily would have been game over, but for two factors: the first was that we only had two fully-operational boundary fielders (Cam and Martin), as Chris and Daniel both had knee issues, Lahiru had aggravated his groin injury, and Matty was still protecting his broken finger; the second was that we'd taken so many wickets that the strong retired batters were now coming back in. Sure enough, 27 runs came from the last two overs, meaning ARM ended up just 14 short (or three big hits) short of our total.