Report by Tom Serby:
For Cambridge people rarely smile,
Being urban, squat, and packed with guile;
Barton men make Cockney rhymes,
[...]
But Grantchester! ah, Grantchester!
There's peace and holy quiet there,
Great clouds along pacific skies.
and sunset still a golden sea
From Haslingfield to Madingley?
[...]
A bosky wood, a slumbrous stream,
And little kindly winds that creep
Round twilight corners, half asleep.
I only know that you may lie
Day long and watch the Cambridge sky,
And, flower-lulled in sleepy grass,
Hear the cool lapse of hours pass,
Until the centuries blend and blur
In Grantchester, in Grantchester. . . .
(Rupert Brooke 1887-1915)
And so to Grantchester and "the blend and blur [of centuries]" (well half centuries in this instance) on a perfect lateish summer evening, the sun beating down, the greensward made springy by the forty days and nights of St Swithin's rain, and an evening of cricketers beating down the woods, thistles, long grass and thorns searching for lost cricket balls. No "guile" though from the visiting team involved with the decisive late introduction into the playing XII of Hari Kukreja , who for imponderable reasons was expecting to play and present at the start and thus hastily included by gracious permission of the hosts, it being folly to look this gift horse in the mouth, and one or two Remnants positively keen to be excused fielding in favour of photography . . .
Just as with the equivalent fixture 12 months ago the home team batted first (and those bored already with this report may skip the rest as the remarkable match result was precisely the same, Hari reprising Will Phelps's 2022 "Badgeball" heroics).
Remnants went into the field first and Joe White from the Newnham End bowled a tight brisk line yielding 1/15 off his 4 overs. The flightier bowlers took the Old Vicarage End with the considerably larger leg side "slumbrous stream" boundary, and, were the slow bowlers to be risked from the Newnham End, the obvious health and safety issues around the wine drinking spectators gathered on the Church side boundary. ("Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?") John Moore (0/38 off 2 overs) nearly had Jamie Menzies early on with a top edge that landed safely, but wisely withdrew himself after two overs to enjoy the "bosky" charms of fielding, in due course taking a steepler at point off Ben Stone's excellent spell (1/11 off 4), including a lustily impressive elongated LBW appeal "stone dead" according to Ben somewhat implausibly denied by the umpire on the grounds it was going over, John's excellent catch exacting revenge on Jamie who by this point had led the Grantchester charge being dismissed for 67. Faruk Kara (0/36 off 4 overs) took over from John and mixed it up, with one spectacular (no-ball) moon ball landing on top of the stumps. Dian Weerakonsa (2/34 off 4 overs) and Hari (0/18 off 2 overs) finished things off well bowling wise.
Set an improbable 158 to win Remnants ambled along until the middle order pair of Stone (33 off 20 balls) and Kukreja (60* off 27 balls) took control, assisted somewhat extraordinarily by two bad fielding lapses on the boundary in the final over of the match which had started requiring us to hit 20 to win. And so to the traditional last ball Grantchester thriller which Hari hit for yet another boundary and the match, and cause for a "rare smile" for the "Cambridge people".
Beer was enjoyed later at the Blue Ball looking out on the harvested fields and the spire of "Our Lady and the English Martyrs" on Hills Road and the "sunset still a golden sea From Haslingfield to Madingley", speculating on the twists and turns of the match which ironically included a Grantchester umpire wrongly calling a five ball over off the first over of the match (I don't think it was because he'd been watching the Hundred). What would Rupert Brooke have made of it all?