Report by Daniel Mortlock:
In 2003 Remnants took on just one new team, The CB XI. Our first match against them was probably the best of the entire season, being so much fun that a second fixture was hastily organised. The two matches saw an amazing total of 642 runs scored off 80 eventful overs and, with conditions every bit as perfect tonight, some more heavy scoring seemed to be on the cards.
We fielded first, and never let The CB XI batsmen get away. Joe White (1/10), Andy Owen (1/12) and Phil Watson (1/10) were all economical, but Les Collings (2/25) took the honours by mixing his usual fast offies with the first outing of the leg break which so terrified batsmen in the nets. Combined with some good fielding, highlighted by Steve Tyrrell's first stumping for the club, this all meant that we'd restricted The CB XI to just 104/8, comfortably below the usual break-even point of a run a ball.
For a while it looked like our good work in the field would be undone: despite Andrew Lea scoring a handy 24 in his first Remnants innings, we were 27/3 with half our overs used up. Dave Williams (12) and James Steggles (9) were both out in the name of quick runs, but they left us still in with a chance, needing 48 off 40 balls. Possibly more relevant, though, was that we had our two best finishers at the crease, and they didn't let us down. Andy Owen (19*) and Phil Watson (9*) combined brilliantly to grab lots of quick singles, hit bad balls to the boundary and, er, politely accept the unexpected spate of wides that The CB XI bowlers delivered.
So, two consecutive wins to even up our season's ledger, and another top bowling performance - we took wickets at the rate of one every fifteen balls this week - but our batting has been a tad lame, as illustrated by the fact that extras were our top score in both victories.