Report by Daniel Mortlock:
It is often said that cricket, more than any other sport, is a game of numbers, usually assumed to be runs, wickets, overs, etc.; but in the case of Remnants CC this week it was, sadly, only numbers of players that mattered. On Tuesday we had to take on ARM with just eight players when three of the seleceted eleven failed to show up; and today we had just eight players as well, albeit for the somehow not quite so annoying reason that there were only eight people available. (It's hard to know whether the problem is that it's holiday season, or that this week's matches were both away from the protective womb of Fitz, but either way it's an absurd situation for a club with about 50 active players.) Fortunately, the eight present at Barrington this evening comprised a solid top of order of at least five proper batsmen, along with a similar number of bowlers, so the only difficulty was likely to be getting the field settings right.
Conveniently, that problem was deferred for an hour or so as we got to bat first. Both the TTP bowlers and the pitch were unpredictable, a combination that resulted in a few unplayable balls, but many more scoring opportunities. These were gleefully taken by Ben Stone (a brutal 27* retired off 15 balls), Chris Badger (17 off 17 balls), Adam Long (a very stylish 30* retired off 20 balls) and Daniel Mortlock (26* retired off 18 balls). We were already doing well enough, but at this point our lack of players suddenly became advantageous, as Daniel's retirement and then the fall of our 5th wicket meant first Ben and then Adam were able to come back in. Adam only faced 3 more legitimate deliveries, to finish on a tidy 30* off 23 balls, but Ben managed to reach the retirement threshold for a second time, ending up scoring 53* off 27 balls, presumably an all-time club record in a game with retirements at 25.
Our total of 170/5 felt likely to be sufficient even with just the 8 players, not least because TTP seemed to have a few non-cricketers in their ranks - and their kind donation of a sub fielder for the duration of their innings didn't hurt either. Daniel Mortlock (0/2) and Adam Long (0/8) continued their successful partnership from the first innings, after which Temoor Khan (0/5) proved to be similarly difficult to score off. Our inability to get any wickets didn't seem to matter too much, and while the fact that both TTP openers made it to retirement was maybe annoying from a personal point of view, it was actually beneficial to us, as the new batsmen found it very difficult to score. We did eventually take some wickets, Claude Warnick (2/26) being on a hat-trick at one point, Peter Ames (1/25) benefitting from some sharp work by stand-in 'keeper Ben Stone, and Quentin Harmer (2/11) returning the best figures of the day in part thanks to the best catch of the day, a low pull well taken by Nav, TTP's substitute fielder.
By this stage the game had died as a contest - the only viable strategy for TTP would have been to throw away their wickets to get the openers back in - and our fielding rather wilted in the second half of the innings. At one point Adam and Temoor were so determined to have a natter at mid-wicket that they actually delayed the following over, as it took several requests to get them to move off to their assigned positions - after which Adam let a ball bobble through his legs to the boundary (no sign of the Long Barrier TM of last Wednesday) and then Temoor dropped a chance of about the same difficulty as when the ball's being thrown back to the bowler. Quite what one-time Remnants regular Ev Fox, who happened to be driving by the ground, made of this was unclear - but in the end we managed what, in the circumstances, was a ridiculously comfortable victory.