Report by Grant Kennedy:
"It was the best of times (yet another lovely summer 2017 evening, plus Fitz's newly acquired outside couch), it was the worst of times (bowled for 1), it was the age of wisdom (first wicket after cleverly bringing on John Moore), it was the age of foolishness (but after 12 off his first two balls, for which we literally needed two balls).
Thus did our match against worthy opponents Grantchester progress, stretches of dismay as leg side full toss after leg side full toss was dispatched, followed by bursts of high fives and hand shakes following catches, run outs, one of those unfortunate stumped-when-it-bounced-off-the-keepers-pads-incidents, and fantastic and solid run chase.
Having been put in the field, Adam Long got us started, bowling three neat overs for only 17, including a possibly catchable snick that sailed chest high between Ferdi Rex and I. Newcomer Debaki started at the other end, taking a few deliveries to control what looked like at least 6 inches of in-swing. With no clear chances aside from Adam's snick, John Moore was brought in to slow things down, Grantchester having reached 40 off 5 overs with ease. One of Dave Norman's neighbours was immediately treated to a tile tickling, followed by a knock on the door. The next ball only just cleared the boundary, but two full-tosses was clearly a bit sub-optimal. The (other) batsman attempted a similar shot fourth delivery, which was duly caught by Chris Badger to bring us our first wicket. 53 for 1 in the 6th over.
Andy Owen replaced Adam with his characteristic "slider" deliveries, slowing the run rate considerably and picking up three wickets for his efforts (3/13 off 4). I'll take partial credit for one of these, managing to get far enough across to one leg side delivery, but not actually catching the ball, such that the ricochet off my pads stumped the batsman. Ferdi Rex didn't exactly stem the flow of runs (2/37 off 4), but removed their star player with a somewhat far-fetched LBW appeal (a sweep shot), that nevertheless merited a prolonged appeal and the response from the umpire that he couldn't think of a good reason that it wasn't out.
Despite progress through their order, their opening bat nevertheless accrued a well-deserved century, upon which he immediately missed a straight ball from Adam, bringing their run scoring to an end. Julius Rix's final over was a maiden, including two direct hit run outs from Ferdi and Debaki.
Chasing 150 is not so onerous, and Tom Serby and Chris Badger got started, with Ferdi joining Badger after Tom was well caught having a go at the boundary. A 50 run partnership followed, Ferdi having already scored a half-ton earlier in the day looked set to grab another, with a series of stunning off and cover drives. Having been tempted and caught, I joined briefly to watch a handful of great Badger shots, before the aforementioned worst of times happened; bowled by the dribbliest possible bowling. I can only assume Pete Ames suffered a similar fate, out while I was still removing my pads on the loneliness of the dressing room. Nevertheless, we were 82 off 12 overs, so doing just fine.
Debaki had been given a chance to prove his batting ability at 6, and looked a bit shaky to start, but turned over strike to Badger and scored some critical boundaries towards the end. Badger pushed well past 50 to reach an eventual 78, only removed by a direct hit run out when we were 137 in the 18th. This brought in Julius Rix, who in the 19th simply clobbered the necessary two boundaries to bring us home for the win.