This year's dinner was held on Saturday, November 29 at Kami's restaurant on Hills Road. Once again about thirty Remnants remained sober and sensible despite being plied with excellent food and wine.
With everyone sated (well almost -- there was soon a steady flow of half-empty plates in Anton's direction) Geoff began the evening's formalities by awarding the season's Champagne Moment. This ran a little differently this year: firstly, due to budgetary restrictions, it was actually an Asti Spumante moment; secondly there were also several honourable mentions:
Next, of course, came the quiz.
(To see the answers simply highlight the region below the questions with your mouse by dragging the cursor across the screen with the left button held down.)
Openers (one run each)
Rob Harvey, in one of the almost Spumante moments mentioned above.
Colin Anderson.
Russell Woolf, and served him right, too, for playing for Romsey instead of us.
Mike Scanlon (albeit not in the Romsey game), and a profitable one it was too, not only removing one of the opposition's best batsmen, but also netting him a bottle of bubbly.
Who said it? (two runs each)
Nick Clarke, when bravely batting with a bad back.
Tony Malik, of course, when he'd pulled a ``muscle'' and had been fussed over by hordes of adoring nurses at Addenbrookes (``We need more nurses to hold him to one side'' was Les's suggestion).
Chris Woolley was not going to be fooled when Ev Fox, having whipped off the bails in a final over thriller against The Beehive, appealed incredulously for a second time after the first was turned down.
Geoff Hales, responding to the batsman's assertion that the final ball of the UCLES game (which we won by a single run) was a wide.
Opponents (one run each)
The Cavendish Laboratory (i.e. the physics department) was the intended answer, but such were our mixed fortunes this season that Cambridge Granta was also an acceptable answer.
The City Council were the culprits here: their captain informed us that ``we have a few batsmen who'll bat forever if they get in''; I guess none of them did.
The Computer Laboratory, our perennial whipping boys, managed not only this thrashing, but also defended a low total later in the season.
It was The CB XI who kindly provided a barrage of bowlers who were too fast for their 'keeper (and their fine leg).
Thanks, take a breather? (two runs each)
Whose bowling analyses were these?
Mike Jones (one of many to suffer that day).
Paul Jordan (one of several to profit that day).
Daniel Mortlock. (Move along; nothing to see here.)
Les Collings (and he was on a hat-trick, too).
Russell Woolf (although it would have been the first Remnants five-for in at least four years if we could catch a little better).
George Speller. (But lest you get the idea that The Globe had a weak batting line-up, they scored at about ten-an-over against us later in the season.)
Man of the match (one run each)
That would be Dave Norman, single-handedly ensuring a Remnants victory against a very strong Fathers And Sons team.
Ev Fox was the accomplice in question.
It was Mike Sneyd who left it all to the last possible moment, although there was some suggestion of collusion as Martin Law -- it was an internal match -- appeared to help the ball over the boundary.
Les Collings was robbed . . . but, by way of compensation, he was presented with a jar of J Sainsbury's pickled eggs to dull the pain.
Bizarre or what? (two runs each)
Rob Harvey destroyed his wicket in an over-enthusiastic attempt to smash a Phil Watson lob across the line.
The Tom in question is Paul Jordan's son, and he managed to dismiss a rampant Nick Clarke when everyone else had failed. To commemorate this achievement Mike Sneyd presented Tom with the inaugural Junior Achievement Award.
Neville Fidler -- somewhat predictably -- made the call, but Rich Savage begged to differ, the inevitable result being that yet another catch went to ground.
Mike Jones made this confident call in his Remnants debut, but experience and height won out as Geoff Hales held his ground, body-checked the eager young pup, and held onto the second chance Phil Watson had offered in three balls.
Rupert Brown held his nerve and the ball after his son, Alex, had induced a rash shot from an opposition batsman.
Hello and goodbye (one run each)
No, not Mike Sneyd -- he made his comeback last year. Instead it was Martin Law, who straight away found his form with both bat and ball.
Paul Henderson seemed to have ensured the perfect exit, but ruined it all by subbing for Phil Marshall on a flying visit a few months later. (Incidentally, I'd had lunch with Paul earlier in the day and, whilst disappointed that he couldn't make the dinner, his main concern appeared to be that he mightn't get a mention in the quiz . . .)
Rich Savage headed off on this slightly less spectacular note (but maybe will get a chance to craft a more appropriate farewell on some future visit to Cambridge).
Phil Marshall had the last laugh in the duel of the astrophysics students in the season's final internal match, but almost immediately scarpered off to California for reasons best known only to himself.
Andy Owen managed to finish things off in style once again, even if there were a few balls to spare this time around.
After some confusion (mainly stemming from Colin providing his age instead of his score on the quiz) it was determined that the winners were Mike Scanlon, John Young and George Speller, with a highly creditable 36/50. For their efforts they received two superb cricket books, kindly provided by G Davids Antique Bookshop.
The evening's formalities ended with a big thank-you to our absent leaders, Daves Rowson and Williams, our scorer Sally Hales and, finally, the man without whom none of this would ever happen, Geoff Hales.