The thought of playing cricket at Churchill College is something of a cricketing fantasy for many Remnants: the immaculate ground bathed in the golden light of the afternoon sun; full value for Bradmanesque shots played along the ground; adoring groups of nubile young proto-intellectuals "ooh"ing and "aah"ing at our magnificent physiques and distinguished silvery hair. Lovely image, isn't it?
Well pay it no mind, and instead picture Geoff, Nick and Daniel snuggled together for warmth in a sub-Arctic cross-wind, trying to fit eight balls an over into the world's smallest scorebook. The one compensation was that not much actual scoring was required during periods of up to twenty consecutive dot balls as Remnants raced to 11/0 off the first five of those soporific eight-ball overs.
After struggling early both John Gull (19 off 34 balls) and Faruk Kara (25 off 41 balls) got out just as they hit their stride, but this set the scene for an Andy Owen special. There were lots of paddle-pulls to the square boundary, and even a few "drives" (the quotation marks because these were also played with a horizontal bat); the result was 59 runs from just 37 balls, and instant residence in his customary spot at the top of the batting averages. We scored at more than 10 an over for the last half of the innings, and the consensus was that 125 was a highly defendable total, especially with the sun already sinking behind the distant trees.
Our time in the field started brilliantly, with Nick Clarke snaffling a sharp catch at silly mid-on, and Max Shone, Alex Brown and John Gull running themselves ragged in the deep. With the exception of Bryan Lea (1/12 in his first spell for the club), however, the bowling was a bit too short and a bit too leg-side, and Churchill scored at the required rate with a minimum of fuss. This was largely due to a rather loquacious blonde chap (cf "Scouse" in 2001's game against the same opposition) whose wagon wheel was even less varied than Andy's had been earlier in the day. His pull shots were, if anything, even more forcefully struck, the main evidence for which is the collection of purple fingers with which we eventually left the ground.
But we're getting ahead of oursleves here - we did mount something of a comeback when Daniel Mortlock (4/14, thus ending John Gull's 24 hour reign in the bowling averages) rather unsportingly used the cover of darkness to fire in a few nippy yorkers. With the help of Robin Woolley's two-star catch at square leg the game had maybe swung back in our favour; the only problem was that the above-mentioned slugger was still in and still scoring very freely indeed. Cheered on by an increasingly vocal band of supporters -- who, one could imagine, were of the "nubile young proto-intellectual" variety mentioned above -- he got his team to within a 12 runs of their target at the start of the final over.
A few more big pulls, and then a scampered single of the penultimate delivery and it was all over. It would have been nice to have come away with a win (or even a second tie for the season), but we had to be content with a good, close game, a few cheese and ham sandwiches, and only minimal frostbite.