Report by Tom Serby:
Our first game of this truncated season at our home ground of Fitzwilliam College sports field saw Remnants take on a young Coton team. Chris Badger on arrival noted to Dave Norman that given how long he had had to prepare the wicket there was no excuse for it not to be a "road". Which of course it was, pandemic or no pandemic, yet batting first the home team contrived to be all out for 68 - or were we? Read on . . .
The tone was set when John Young missed the first ball of the evening to be bowled, but it was the fielding - specifically excellent catching - that did for us. Saad Shoukat quite reasonably pointed out to the opposition that they were only spoiling it for themselves by snaffling all the half chances, as they wouldn't have a total to chase, but his advice was scorned and his belligerent innings (of 7 off 11 balls) was ended by yet another spectacular catch. At this point Coton skipper Adam Bradbury decided to play "last man standing" and so number 11 Rahul Jhawar batted on with Saad running. All of which meant that our top scorer - Rahul finished on 36 off 38 balls - was our last man batting on his own. A poser for the Remnants statisticians - perhaps a new category will appear in the bulging stats portfolio on the website? [It will not - ed.]
The defence of our 100 odd started promisingly with Rahul (0/17, replacing a zesty spell of 0/24 by skipper Joe at the tennis court end) reprising his efforts with the bat, now ball in hand, and Saad (0/9) almost impossible to score off. But Coton never looked like being troubled by the target and Claude Warnick's (1/35) tidy floaters were smashed to all parts by Coton's Harvey Jacklin, who retired on 31* off just 14 balls.
All of this should have meant more post match beer drinking time enjoying the Oxford Road ambiance, but in the "new normal" the social side of cricket (Remnants' raison d'etre) is much diminished.