After a long cold winter the cricket season had finally returned. However the celebrations were tempered by the fact that spring had not arrived, and, whilst the rest of the nation lay in the grip of foot-and-mouth disease, Cambridgeshire was feeling the full effects of wet-pitch syndrome, with cricket matches being cancelled leg, off and middle. Consequently no-one thought that there would be any matches this week. No-one was right.
Our first outing of the season saw us at home, on Dave Norman's remarkably solid Fitzwilliam ground, up against The Globe pub team. Phil Watson, in his first match as captain of the club (and not just the team du jour), sent the opposition in, the theory being that it was more difficult to field in the dark than to bat in the dark. All six bowlers got wickets (including Remnants debutantes Phil Marshall and Ross Williamson, as well as more seasoned members of the attack, Paul Jordan, Daniel Mortlock, Mark Burrows and Colin Anderson) and, together with good fielding, this was sufficient to keep the opposition to less than a hundred.
Clearly this wasn't a huge target to chase, but the Sun was already nudging the horizon when we started our innings, and The Globe had a couple of rather sharp bowlers. Wickets fell regularly, and we just limped over the line, with some cavalier hitting by (today's) wicketkeeper Andy Owen chiefly responsible.