Things didn't go quite as planned today -- we took the field with two players not on the official team list and a rather clueless, and hence nervous, first-time captain (i.e., me). But Paul Henderson (0/11) and Rupert Brown (1/21) gave us a brilliant start -- we had the Computer Laboratory struggling at 3/1 after the first two overs and this whole captaincy lark seemed pretty straightforward.
The rest of the innings was something of a contrast, however: the next 104 balls saw us concede 143 runs and take just the one wicket. Clearly not much went right -- we endured the indignity of repeatedly extracting the ball from a mud-filled ditch; we fielded through torrential rain; we saw one of the batsmen run out by such a distance that he almost walked, but the umpire missed the incident. After those first few overs we also bowled pretty poorly, although it was appropriate that Rob Harvey (1/21) nabbed the second wicket as he'd induced a number of mis-hits and top edges. At least our fielding held up, with Dave Green, John Young, Geoff Hales and Anton Garrett all being prepared to put various body parts in front full-blooded strokes, the latter also going agonisingly close to pulling off the what would have been the catch of the season on two separate occasions.
I don't think any of us thought we had a realistic chance of overhauling the Computer Lab's mammoth total, but the visiting Tony Malik's prediction that ``you won't make eighty'' seemed a tad pessimistic. Unfortunately it was spot on the money -- Nev Fidler (10), Rupert Brown (unlucky to be run out after making an elegant 16) and Daniel Mortlock (15) all got starts, but with the score a measly 35/3 at the half-way mark the match was already over.
Fortunately the game didn't peter out as it might have -- we got to see some of the less-heralded Remnants batsmen strut their stuff, the most successful of whom was one Geoffrey Hales. By the start of the final over he seemed likely to end up with the top score but, having made it to 14*, he lost the strike and didn't get to face another ball. We were also scarily close to Tony's predicted score, with Dave Green's last ball single taking us to the fairly lame total of 79/6, our worst effort since last August when we limped to 78/8 against -- would you believe it -- the Computer Laboratory.
