Report by Tom Serby:
Remnants' annual rural ramble down the banks of the Cam to the pastoral idyll that is Grantchester provided another tight match, though not in the same league as the famous "Badgeball" game back in 2022 when a boundary off the last ball had brought up both a Remnants win and Will Phelps's century.
This time round Grantchester started matters off with opener Harvey Jacklin beasting the ball back over not just over the hard done by Lewis Young's head but also hedges. The first incident however was a wonderfully taken low tumbling catch by James Robinson to dismiss Harvey's opening partner for no score. Once Harvey had departed well stumped by "wicket keeper Marcus Baker" (Baker 2022) off Saurav's flighted liquorice all sorts (1/10 off 2 overs), the Grantchester innings lost momentum, the brakes applied by those infamous cloud threatening launchers of a cricket ball Harmer (2/10 off 3 overs) and Moore (3/23 off 4 overs). The other memorable bowling display was the inaugural Remnants Ayliffe "pere et fils" partnership - one quick, one slow, one with shoes, the other shoeless, but both ending with a brace of wickets each.
We now turn to the section of the report wherein we note various mix-ups. Quentin Harmer's sartorial mix-up, entirely inconsequential resulting in nothing more serious than blue trousers; Faruk Kara's serendipitous mix-up in forgetting to show up which allowed David Ayliffe's memorable debut; and the running mix-ups over which a veil must be drawn given the identity of the match reporter, save to say that James Robinson, John Young and Saurav Dutta were all run out batting with opener Tom Serby. Neil Grover and Marcus Baker possibly only avoided the same fate by dint of giving their wickets away by hitting out and being caught. The game looked like it was drifting to an inevitable anti-climax until Saurav's late burst of 17 (off 9 balls) sparked life into both the team and Tom's innings (47* off 61 balls); in the end though, and after the last of the run-outs, the target of 14 off the last over was unrealisable.
Win or lose, mix-up or not, the beer and the view from the Blue Ball was as good as ever.