Report by Daniel Mortlock:
This evening's Remnants vs. Remnants game didn't feel like the usual mid-summer celebration of friendly evening cricket: for the first time in weeks conditions were overcast (so much so that we opted to switch to a pink ball towards the end of the game); it wasn't until the afternoon that we made it up to a full 22 players (and that then went down to 21 at around match time); and there was a general sense of a gathering of a bunch of people who hadn't actually seen that much of each other (a legitimate feeling, given several players turning out for their first Remnants game of the season - or in one case ever).
An inevitable knock-on effect of all this was an anarchaic team-selection process in which Daniel's Half Centuries (named for his recent allegedy "significant" birthday) and Joe's Youths (as apparently 44 qualifies one for) tried to sort out balanced teams which also facillitated the desired intra-family and intra-club battles. The late start was broadly justified by the on-field action, the game coming to life when the fourth delivery of the first over was deposited onto the pavilion roof by Half Centuries opener Ben Jose (who last played for us in 2015). Joe White (0/24) quickly made the logical change by bringing on Ben's Cherry Hinton teammate Shoaib Shahid (who last played for us in 2016), whose first ball to Ben bowled him through the gate (for a superb 32 off 18 balls).
From 41/1 in the fifth (six-ball) over the Youths managed a steady comeback thanks to good spells from Naveen Chouksey (2/16) and Pete Ames (2/11) as the Half Centuries middle order struggled to get going, with only Remnants first-timer Gaurav Patil (8 off 8 balls) managing even to strike at a run a ball. While the cricket itself was a bit more staid - only five boundaries came after Ben's first flourish - there were plenty of head-to-head battles to enjoy. John Young (14 off 31 balls) managed to avoid being dismissed by son Lewis (0/15) but did concede a "points decision" after the game; Suhaib Shahid (10 off 15 balls on Remnants debut) appeared likely to succumb to older brother Shoaib's leggies, but had the last laugh in their family duel; and Andy Owen (14* off 17 balls, thus becoming the fourth player to 5000 Remnants runs) dealt well with an excellent spell by Paul Jordan (2/13), in his first game back after fracturing his little toe. The innings ended with a battle of the veterans, headlined by Paul (431 Remnants games, easily the club record): while he wasn't able to dismiss Andy (315 games), he had John (255 games) well caught by Matthew Doel and then Daniel (376 games) caught by Shoaib first ball; Faruk Kara (371 games) then survived the hat-trick ball, before playing out the final over from Julius Rix (175 games).
After a club photograph the Youths set about chasing what Steve Gull (208 games) drily noted was a "sub-par total". It certainly looked that way as Seb Hammersley (27* off 33 balls) and Matthew Doel (37* off 25 balls, taking his family batting average for the season to 173.00) scored pretty freely. Just after Matthew reached the retirement score of 35 the total was 100/1 in the 14th over and a real thrashing seemed likely, but the game then strang into some semblence of life as Daniel Mortlock (3/5, hence being the founder member of the Remnants 400-wicket club) and Faruk Kara (1/18) sparked a mini-collapse of 3/8. This gave us one last chance for some personal score-settling as Ben Jose (0/7) and Suhaib (0/22) got to bowl at Shoaib. There were some edges and misses, and even the final shot of the game was a spliced drive that went just over mid-off's head . . . but, ugly as this was, it gave Shoaib (5* off 4 balls) the ultimate bragging rights.
That the game finished early was no bad thing, as it gave us more time to enjoy the beers, burgers and bangers put on by Owens Catherine, Denise, Andy and Michael. Aside from feeding the hungry troops, this also served as a charity fundraiser, and in the end we collected £200 for Romsey Mill.