Another match against a Remnant-led team -- tonight it was Xaar, comprised of various members of Rob Harvey's company (and a few ringers). The whole evening was a bit anarchic -- at one stage Xaar had thirteen fielders, and later on one of their first-time players didn't seem too keen to leave the crease after hitting his wicket -- so it's not too surprising that cricket was rather scrappy at best.
We batted first, and Phil Watson (73*) and Nick Clarke (60) had a fine time whacking the erratic Xaar bowling to all corners of the ground on their way to a 143 run opening stand off just 96 balls. There were a few edges and the like, but when they slashed, they slashed hard, so much so that what were technically dropped catches were more like excellent saves. And whilst Phil was outscored by his partner, he did have the compensation of hitting the shot of the day, an effortless on-drive that bounced just inside the boundary, but was at no stage more than ten feet off the ground. Our final score of 163/1 was impressive, but maybe should have been even higher: when the score had reached 68/0 after 5 (eight-ball) overs 200 seemed well within reach.
That said, 164 was never going to be reasonable target for Xaar and, possibly as a consequence, the Remnants fielding left a little to be desired. There were endless misfields, overthrows, non-pick ups, dropped chances, etc., although there were two notable exceptions to this general malaise. First was Colin Anderson's stunning diving catch at long off -- it would have been brilliant in any conditions but we weren't even sure he could see the ball hurtling towards him in the gloom. What made it truly remarkable, however, was the casual lope towards the ball, followed by an almost distracted dive to catch it inches above the ground. The other stunning effort was Faruk Kara's caught-and-bowled: a one-handed, diving effort that also required him to avoid the non-striker. That Faruk held the chance was also poetic justice, as the hit wicket non-dismissal mentioned in the first paragraph was the previous ball.
The bowling was also interesting, with a few non-regulars getting a go (and wickets as well). Pride of place, however, goes to Clan Anderson. Colin opened the bowling with a tidy spell of 3/17 that included wickets off his final two balls (and no chance for a carry over hat-trick); then Jack took over from the same end and got 2/21, including the prize wicket of Xaar star Rob Harvey. Phil Marshall, after a horror start dominated by wides, ended up with 1/20 (and the frustration of two chances going down); and Dave Rowson (1/13) and Faruk Kara (1/25) were both tidy. But the final word goes to Dave Williams: he netted 1/8 off his only over of the season, making him a late favourite for the "unrestricted" bowling averages.