SCORECARD

Wast Hills is not the venue it used to be. Back in the day, players would be greeted by Brian the cheery bar manager, we'd be shown to our dressing rooms, the pitch would be a belter, and we would even be able to buy drinks at the bar. Nothing stays the same.

The wicket at Wast Hills was slow and low, which we might reasonably have expected in the mid-May immediately following the wettest April on record. The quagmire that pretended to be the bowler's run-up at the west end of the ground would have suited wallowing hippopotomi better than a steaming-in Sunny Singh, who (opening the bowling for toss-winning captain Frost) eventually switched to round-the-wicket in order to get a better grip. Sunny and Ash kept the Village to 16-1 off the first four overs, and it didn't get any easier for the Village batsmen. Nutter twirled down a few, Raj took a couple of cheap wickets, and then came the show-stoppers. At one end, Dave Healey's first over went for 7 but it looked like he was just getting a feel for things as he took 2 for 3 in the rest of his spell to finish with an impressive 4-1-10-2. At the other, Sharif (bowling off one pace not to avoid the swamp but because he always does that) took three wickets in two parsimonious overs. The Village added only 16 for 5 in their last 7 overs, leaving the Fitmen a scant 77 to win.

Now, look at the Fitmen batting scorecard. One batsman got each of the following scores: 10, 9, 7, 6, 6, 5no, 4, 2, 1no. Nah, doesn't get much in poker either. As it was, scoring at just under four-an-over never looked like being difficult; the question on this pitch was whether the 10 wickets would last long enough. The top three scores went to the top three batsmen, which sounds more reassuring than it felt at the time. Raj batted particularly well for his 4, running quickly between the wickets, turning dots into byes and wides into more wides (of which there were 22). Everyone was relieved when the Fitmen crossed the line with 17 balls to spare, not least because it was cold and gloomy.

There were only two boundaries scored in the entire game - both by the Fitmen (one each for Rich Bice and Sunny Singh). And as Howarth reflected afterwards: he'd top-scored before, he'd scored 10 before, and he'd been on the winning side before; but he'd never done all three in the same game. Fodder for the statisticians, if not for the batsmen.