2013 Remnants annual dinner

This year's Remnants annual dinner was held on Friday, November 22, at the Burleigh Arms pub on Newmarket Road. We managed to up last year's superb turn-out of 25 people by breaking the 30 barrier this year, and the general sense was that we might have found a home for this event for some time to come.

After Sadie (not named after the Beatles song, as both her parents worked on Rolling Stones tours) and her team provided us with our body-weight in terrines and lamb shanks, it was time for Geoff Hales to put us out of our misery by revealing the answers to his particularly cryptic 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.)

Strolling a single (1 run each)

1. Who started his season with 36* from his "£10 E-Bay special" bat?

   Andy Bell

2. Which legend appeared and then disappeared again?

   Tony Malik

3. Who put his own thumb back?

   Eli Ellwood, who'd dislocated it going for a catch.

4. Who hit three fours and a six to win a match in the last over?

   Kiran Sakhamuri

5. Who appeared as a ringer for the County Council?

   Nick Clarke

6. Who got the highest score of the season (85)?

   Julius Rix

   
   Julius Rix grasping for the 15 runs he needed for a century.

7. Who got 4 wickets for 3 runs and (not in the same match) a hat-trick in the dark?

   Daniel Mortlock

   Looking for two (2 runs each)

8. Which two batsmen got 34 (off 19 balls) and 76 (with 9 fours and 3 sixes) but still finished on the losing side?

   John Richer and Olly Rex

9. Which two opening bowlers had a combined age of 27?

   Felix Serby and Harvey Hughes

10. Who conceded 14 runs off his first three balls and who caught the batsman off his fourth?

    Faruk Kara and Richard Rex

11. Which two veterans have 105 Remnants wickets between them?

    Phil Watson (101) and Geoff Hales (4). (Although there was some suggestion that this question was unfair as almost all Remnants players could be considered veterans.)

12. Who bowled the first ball of the season and who caught it?

    Andy Owen and Kiran Sakhamuri

13. Who got his reward five years late and what had he done?

    Tom Serby, who'd taken 6/15 against The Pretty Boys back in 2008

    Big penultimate over

14. Who forgot his kit but remembered his loo roll?

    Dave Williams

15. Who was "focussed and purposeful" for his 6 runs off 12 balls?

    Rob Harvey

16. Which college pitch was described as "Bactrian" and why?

    Gonville and Caius, because it had a hump at each end (like a camel)

17. Whose innings began with 12 dot balls but finished 33* off 35 balls?

    Joe White

18. Name the seven sons of Remnants who played this season.

    Ferdi Rex, Olly Rex, Maximus Rex, Felix Serby, Samuel Serby, Mihir Chandraker, Harvey Huges and Olly Hastings (which, yes, is actually eight, and that's not even counting John Gull)

    
    Rakesh and Mihir Chandraker react with mirth at the other's menu choices.

19. Who asked whom if she'd "hung up her bits"?

    Dave Green and Sarah Pelham

    Ten to make and the match to win

20. Which five batsmen scored over 200 runs?

    Julius Rix, Dave Williams, Andy Bell, Andy Owen and Tom Serby

21. Which five women featured in the ORB match?

    Collete Bell, Lauren Bell, Catherine Owen, Jess Norman and Sarah Pelham

    
    Andy, Catherine and Denise Owen.

    Tie-break

    Complete the following verse:

    Here lies our old opener Nick
    Who was hit by a lorry (3-ton)
    The dash to the pavement he didn't quite make
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    "To the last a poor judge of a run" was the intended answer . . . which, it transpires, was eerily similar to the tie-breaker from the 2006 quiz.

The winner was the team of Dave Green and Ferdi Rex, who scored 35/49, and so won a lovely box of chocolates . . . which they chivalrously presented to Bettina Rex as a thank you for her efforts in supporting Remnants CC (primarily through creating a goodly fraction of the team list).

Geoff then moved on present the Champagne Moment Award. Candidates included Eli Ellwood for some stunning catches and Ferdi Rex for his outstanding batting, but it proved impossible to go past Julius Rix for his unstoppable innings of 85* off just 49 balls.

Les Collings's pickled eggs also proved to be unstoppable, this time going to Dave Norman for both his on-field contribution to Remnants and his contribution off the field for Remnants.

The final award was the Phil Watson Memorial Trophy, which Rob Harvey managed to rid himself of by invoking the family nature of Remnants, in the end handing it off to the entire Serby family.

Phil himself, while now living in the West Country, keeps a careful eye on the destination of his eponymous trophy, and so is always present at our dinners in spirit, if not in person. That was particularly the case this year as we'd just heard the very sad new from him that his wife, Kate, had died a few weeks ago after a long illness. She'd been very much a member of the "extended Remnants family" before they both moved away and so it was very poignant to listen to a short message from Phil about love and cricket:

And so with the rather disturbing image of a naked Phil Watson in our heads we raised our glasses - preferentially filled with real ale - to Kate Waller, 1960-2013.

By the time the formalities had finished and the (giant) deserts had been scoffed it was pushing 11pm, but the evening showed no signs of slowing down . . .