In the absence of any words received from the chosen scribe your Fuhrer is obliged to take on wordsmith responsibility but sadly without knowledge of the gay amusements which may have taken place in the middle. So as viewed from the distant boundary on a sunny summer’s eve having won the toss the Remnants opening bats took the field. Your Leader was watching this with some trepidation bearing in mind the debacle of last season’s first Remnants’ fixture when the club’s all time low score was lowered to a new low.
Following his opening overs being sufficiently wayward to force your Leader to offer him advice of a non cricketing nature Hugo suddenly hot wired his brain to the rest of his body and struck to take the first wicket. Sadly thereafter many overs came and went before success returned. In fact 92 runs passed by prior to the second wicket falling caught Stomper bowled Dodson. Other than a run out the Remnants innings continued undisturbed until at the end of the 20th over their total came to rest at 172 for 3 wickets. The club’s bowlers and fielders to be fair stuck gamely to their tasks. However, as is customary with the first seasonal encounter with Remants they having already played many a match and were more battle hardened than the club’s players most of whom were donning their whites for the first time.
Although having to pursue a sizeable total the team felt there was sufficient talent in the side to chase it down. Whether your Leader’s constant reminder to them of last season’s debacle helped or not he is unsure! However, what is not in doubt is that The Philanderers’ reply started most promisingly with Rob Gill plundering a quick fire 25. Despite Mr Goodman’s equally quickfire exit the score continued to rise at the required rate with Paul Leary & Richard Hesketh at the wicket together. That is until they both fell almost immediately after each had reached his half century. Richard at 51 and Paul at 52 which, allied to Mr Dodoson’s quick fire exit and Charlie Pearson’s run out, suddenly reduced the side to 158 / 6. With little more than an over to go the run chase ground to a halt leaving The Philanderers at 161 for 6 wickets as the 20th over concluded. An 11 run defeat was a vast improvement on last season’s result but it was in reality so close to being a victory.
Phil Harvey
