Report by Paul Jordan:
This week is always bitter sweet as the last games for Remnants always seem to herald the end of the summer. August somehow dupes us into thinking that those balmy summer evenings of yore will just continue. Experience recently has given us a reality check, with heavy cloud cover and fading light meaning games must start promptly so we can all benefit from the available light.
Tonight, Coton to their credit were warming up and had ten players by 5:20pm. Remnants on the other hand by 5:25 had just six, with a late appearance of Dave Green who, grasping the situation, said he would go and get his kit ready to play (as twelfth man) - my eternal gratitude to David for his generosity of spirit.
Remnants went in to bat with club stalwarts David Williams and John Richer opening up. The opening bowlers bowled a very good line and consistently beat the bat, resulting in very few scoring shots off the first 5 (8-ball) overs. After 3 overs we had scored 11 and by over 6 we had scored just 36. Following John's dismissal, our score progressed with Phil Hastings and David taking on the bowling and beginning to edge us towards a decent total - possibly three figures even! Sadly, Phil had to retire on 17* (off 22 balls) due to a torn hamstring [Not for the first time - ed.] and this brought Tom Serby to the crease. These days Tom has been in fine form with the bat, and his arrival gave us a much needed aggressive edge. David finished up with an impressive 44* (off 32 balls) and Tom on 8* (off 8 balls). We ended up with a total of 97, which whilst short of a total to really trouble the opposition, we certainly worked hard to achieve.
Coton's opening bats certainly made their intentions pretty clear from the start: hit anything even if it's on a good length; and let's get this over early doors. I'm sure that was not the message, but it felt like it, as of our bowlers only Ben Stone (1/26) managed to contain the opening pair - and his wicket was well deserved. After 3 overs Coton were on 33 and by over 4 they were on 51. Faruk Kara (1/24), Anand Kairamkonda (0/18) and Paul Jordan (0/15) tried to contain the batters, but by 7.3 overs Coton had breezed past our total, the game finishing in still bright evening light just after 7:20 pm.
As we sat in the changing room licking our wounds [Quite an image - ed.] we all came to the same conclusion: that salvation lay in a visit to the bar. Sadly on this occasion it was not available and we all left feeling rather deflated.