Report by Tom Serby:
The buildup to the game on WhatsApp featured a detailed itinerary and commentary on likely/possible delays in the South East rail service, and hence whether Neil Grover would therefore be a part of the starting line-up, as well as the old favorite of how many overs would we get, this being April still. As it transpired it was wonderful and very, unseasonably, warm weather for the season's curtain-raiser at Fitz versus the cast of ringers styling themselves as Cambridge Assessment - you'd think with several thousand employees they wouldn't need ringers. Remnants were relatively ringerless although we did have newbies/very new players in the shape of Waqas Haque, Shikhar Asthana and Prabhdeep Singh and returning occasional Rahul Jhawar.
But leading the bowling attack having been inserted in a 12 eight-ball over innings match, with the seasonal extremity rite of only changing bowling ends once, were stalwarts Faruk Kara and John Moore with a dash of medium pace thrown in in the form of Tim Simmance. Club secretary Daniel Mortlock was in attendance, for the first five overs only, spectating (it was nice to have Dave Green and Marcus Baker watching also) although he didn't seem chuffed at what he saw . . . and it did indeed given the plundering of runs off rusty bowling that we endured mean that in all likelihood the match was settled as a competitive affair after twenty minutes. [Can confirm it was pretty dismal watching - one ball into the fourth over the opposition total was already 59/0. - ed.]
Nevertheless, Remnants raised their game, Faruk (2/24) rediscovering his mojo and being in the wickets, with one smart stumping by Rahul; and Tim (0/45) also returning from the Windsor Road end for a decent second spell. Prabhdeep (1/9) was the star bowler deputising for Naveen who felt out of sorts. The fielding was generally symptomatic of cricketers eagerly returning from an overlong winter layoff.
Batting-wise Rahul retiring on 32* (off 21 balls) was the star, the only other batters making it into double figures being Tom Serby (14 off 25 balls) and Prabhdeep (11 off 18 balls). So, as forecast after a quarter of an hour, we were a distant second. But the taking part was the thing. The subplot involving Neil's travel arrangements was resolved involving him in very lengthy delays, and the optimists who said we could have played 14 eight-ball overs were right as I cycled back to Comberton in bright sunshine.