Report by John Richer:
The underrated English summer once again provided a near-perfect evening for cricket.
This was an evening when the Remnants went to great lengths to disprove the adage that catches win matches, and lent support to the idea that it's actually stumpings that you need. At least 7 catches went down during The Philanderer's innings (I think I lost count), all but one in the outfield, with one very sharp chance at the wicket also going begging. But with a series of 3 consecutive dismissals via stumpings, glovesman Andy Owen's redemption was immediate.
After captain Owen lost the toss, Remnants fielders found themselves rapidly doing the Oxford Road runaround, as The Philanderer's opening bat took a shine to Chris McNeil and Simon McAdam's opening overs, bludgeoning 19 off the first 12 balls, with the new cherry being lost to the eastern hedge in the second over. Their youthful number one bat, Pearson, had the look of a man who could rapidly post a very big score against our bowling attack. But our opening bowlers then found their control, the carnage abated, and in the 5th (six-ball) over, Chris McNeil (2/24) bowled a straight one, perhaps a slower ball, which was obligingly clipped back to Chris who took a simple catch, and the visitors were 25/1, 22 of those going to Pearson. After this bright opening, the visitors innings stuttered as the next three batsmen fell to well-taken stumpings by Owen off three different bowlers: Russell Woolf (3/20), Quentin Harmer (1/20) and Faruk Kara (2/11).
The Philanderers' middle order of Dean (32) and Pelham (23*) then consolidated and started to score more freely, aided and abetted by the series of 7 doppped catches already recorded. A big score was again looking on the cards as Dean and Pelham struck the ball cleanly and mostly straight and high (and mostly dropped). But then Russell Woolf trapped Dean leg before and John Richer finally managed to hang on to a couple of catches in the deep, leaving The Philanderers rocking at 89/7. But a respectable total total to defend was then assured by a hard-hitting cameo from The Philanderers' number ten, Hakimi, who hit a very rapid 26 to take their total on 120/8, a perfect half-dozen per over. With the EU about to ban the sale of eggs by the dozen, can we trust our new coalition to protect us from the tyranny of decimalised cricket?
Anyway, at least the arithmetic was easy in any number base: a run a ball. John Richer and Sean Dennis opened up for Remnants. Unfortunately for Sean, his first ball was unplayable: straight, short and slow, it bounced twice before gently striking his pad in front of middle an inch off the ground; even the bowler had to admit it was the worst ball he had ever taken a wicket with. With Sean gone for first-ball duck, and Remnants 5/1, Richard Rex joined John Richer at the crease, a pairing that worked well at Churchill earlier in the season, and they set about chasing down the below-par target on an excellent batting track.
The Philanderers' bowling was tight and varied throughout, as evidenced by several 4 and 5 dot-ball overs, but with enough quickly-taken singles and the occasional loose ball dispatched to the boundary, Rex and Richer kept the scoreboard ticking over at close to the required rate without taking too many risks. And so it continued. Richer was dropped at the wicket on about 30, and offered several half chances as he chose the aerial route for many of his scoring shots, but luck was with him. At the other end, as Rex's confidence grew, he called for his heavy bat, and proceeded to push up his run rate in the second half of the innings, before finishing off the proceedings in style with a boundary to win the game by 9 wickets, with 9 balls remaining. Rex finished on 41* (off 53 balls), and Richer 72* (off 60 balls), and they combined for a match-winning partnership of 117.
Convivial beers were taken outside with The Philanderers, as the blare of the World Cup drifted out of the bar (Spain 1 - Portugal 0). Our opposition had been perhaps a bit below par with the bat this evening, and had their stylish opener stuck around, the story could have had a different ending, rather than the highly satisfying ending of being able to say that we'd finally beaten The Philanderers twice in a season.
