Report by Daniel Mortlock and Max Ayliffe:
"Wet" was Dave Norman's summary of conditions at Fitz after the (very accurately) forecast 4pm deluge, which induced the Grantchester organiser to say "I think calling off is probably the best course of action." And yet, as was the case yesterday, the wind drove the clouds away and dried the pitch; but, unlike yesterday, we had an opposition; and, in the end, we played out a full-length match in broadly reasonable conditions.
Grantchester were fully assembled first and so they allowed us to bat, which gave us the chance to send out a married couple - Stuart Cronin and Natasha Rutterford - as our opening pair. (The general assumption was that this was a club first, but Sally was roped into playing a game back in 1986 and both she and Geoff batted, so there is a chance they also had a partnership partnership.) We got a fascinating window into Stu and Tash's relationship dynamic on the fifth ball of the innings when Stu hit a nice off drive which would ordinarily have gone for four, but pulled up on the damp outfield; they easily completed two runs before the fielder had even picked up the ball so Stu, running to the "danger end", loudly called for the third, only for a slightly puffed Tash to even more assertively respond in the negative. We all presumed that would be the end of it, but Stu charged down the wicket, leaving Tash with little choice but to head off to the presumptive safety of the striker's end. Except that was where the fielder had directed their throw: it was clear that the ball was going to get there first, so if it was accurate Tash would be run out without facing a ball . . . but, unfortunately, it was a bit off line, so the third run was duly completed - and the club saved the expense of a couples' consellor.
Divorce successfully avoided, Stu then took over, with a remarkable sequence of 6 . 6 4 3 + 2 + 6 4 . 4 4 1 . . 6 . 6, at which point he had to retire on 52* off 16 balls, the fastest Remnants innings on record. At this stage we were on 61/0 after 3.5 (eight-ball) overs, and scoring at more than two runs a ball, so theoretically on target to our highest ever total . . . but for the fact that, like last Wednesday we had a decidedly bowling-heavy side out today. Predictably enough, we lost three wickets in the next few overs and 76/3 at the end of the 7th didn't look so rosy.
The later part of our innings was then defined by our second top great batting effort of the day as Seb Hammersley (51* off 36 balls) dealt beautifully with both considerably improved bowling, as highlighted by Alex Stafford's superb spell of 0/11 (which may not seem particularly noteworthy, but his economy rate was less than half that of everyone else who bowled this evening), and our incredibly generous wide (non-)calling, which left little choice but to try to hit balls that were barely within reach. Seb's innings, which took his season's batting average exactly 150.00 (potentially fourth on the all-time list), stood in stark contrast to that of Daniel Mortlock (14* off 28 balls), who played the better balls reasonably well but failed to dismiss - or even score off - the plentiful supply of full-tosses which came has way. Daniel's only only real contribution to their 77-run partnership was to take an opportunistic approach to running between the wickets, which at least provided some entertainment with a sequence of cheeky singles off mis-fields. Our eventual total of 158/3 really should have been at least 20 more, although was still surely enough for the win.
One of the joys defending a high target is the possibility that just one or two good overs are sufficient to put it out of reach - which is why it was a pity that we struggled with the basics of putting the ball on a length on our outside the stumps. The best position we found ourselves in was when the score was 36/0 after 4 overs; and even when Sasha Vail (1/32) managed to break the opening partnership, the only material result was to bring their best batter, the perviously mentioned Alex Stafford, to the crease. He and the surviving opener, J. Anderson, took Grantechester to 136/1 afer 11.2 overs, at which point they needed just 23 runs from 30 balls . . .
. . . but with the critical point that both Stafford and Anderson had to retire in quick succesion. While it might be tempting to think we were rescued by the slightly artificial mid-week rules, it's important to remember that our scoring was curtailed to an even more extreme degree when Stu had been forced to retire an hour earlier. With so few runs left to defend there were no second chances - so it's pleasing to report that we stepped up: Daniel (1/22) conceded just 7 runs from his final 14 deliveries; and Sasha conceded just 9 from her final over. The result was that Grantchester started the final over of their innings still needing 7 more runs to win - they were clearly favourites, but we were in with a chance. And that was the message given to Max Ayliffe as he was thrown the ball: Grantchester should win from here, so the pressure's all on them, so think of this just as a chance for Remnants immortality . . .
