Match report by Tom Serby:
Our opposition this evening, Redgate Software, were a bunch of cricket enthusiasts keen to have a go but, with one or two exceptions, were non-cricketers. This didn't prevent them hitting the ball hard, but with the exception of Hodgson, who held their innings together in the middle order, there wasn't much MCC coaching manual technique on display. It was interesting to note the stance of one player who had never held a bat before (think of those Victorian prints of village cricketers), but timed his shots to great effect.
The trick for Remnants bowlers tonight was to bowl full and straight, or take the pace off the ball and wait for a catch. Naveeen Chouksey (1/12 off 4 overs) excelled at the former; Faruk Kara (5/15 off 4 overs) the latter, claiming his first five-fer in any form of cricket. This came courtesy of a great catch by Naveen off the last ball of Faruk's spell (which was by his own admission the worst ball of it) which drew a leading edge, and hopefully demonstrated to Naveen that with great hands he should maybe ditch his technique of fielding with his feet. Olly Rex (2/26 off 3.5 overs) surely won himself a place in this year's Remnants annual quiz by claiming the last wicket with his variation ball (bowled right arm rather than left arm over). Felix Serby (0/23 off 4 overs) was distinctly unlucky to go wicketless, most of the runs off him coming off edges to (the vacant) third man area. Alec Armstrong (1/17 off 4 overs) was his usual tidy self.
Set 99 to win, after a positive start from Samuel Serby (7 off 7) ended by a top-edged pull, Remnants kept the game interesting, as Eli Elwood (8 off 13 balls), John Young (24 off 44 balls) and Josh Nall (9 off 11 balls) struggled to get the bowling away. After two thirds of the innings the D/L score was only par. John's innings, however, contained plenty of aggressive shots, including one Vaughn-esque cover drive for four. Then Tom Serby (35* off 23 balls) enjoyed some leg-side swiping, and in company with skipper Andy Owen (1 off 8 balls) for the fifth wicket they leveled the scores before Andy was caught trying to hit the winning run. Not inappropriately the game was then won off a wide.
It being one of the first warm evenings of the summer, most of the Remnants team enjoyed Faruk's celebratory jug outside the bar, whereas Redgate, having obtained their receipt for the match fees, went off to spend more company money in a local eatery.