A triumph or a disappointment? The Laws of Cricket provide for three results (well, four, but you can hardly play for a tie). By playing over-limit games we usually eliminate one of them and therefore reduce the complexity and, it could be said, the interest of the game. This time we played twenty overs from 6:45, and the result was in doubt until the last ball.

We were supposed to start at 2:15, and promptly at 2:30 the first ball was bowled, in the absence of Steve (lost in the lanes) and Gregory (expecting a 2:30 start). Duncan and Duncan opened the bowling, setting some sort of record. Duncan Lee, downhill from the Apple Orchard End, reeled off ten admirable overs, another thing we usually don't allow. Duncan Rance, uphill from the Cornfield End, was a bit wayward to start with, and a rather expensive car at long leg did more fielding than anybody really wanted it to, but he soon settled, and Bill Owen made slow progress. Especially slow progress was made by the eponymous Bill Owen himself, but his partner was only a little quicker. Duncan Lee trapped the latter LBW, and the new batsman made a wobbly start. The bounce was uneven and the pitch was slow and it took him some time to adjust. James, who replaced Duncan Rance, found bowling with a strong cross wind difficult at first, but was mostly tidy: then he was suddenly hit once into the cornfield and once into the sightscreen. Overexcited by this, the batsman tried to do it a third time and missed. That was the end of any chance of a really big score, but there was enough batting to make for a useful one. We tried four more bowlers. Rhodri was intermittently threatening but never got the ball in quite the right place. Gregory spun the ball extravagantly, but also dropped short and endangered the cars. He did, however, get rid of Bill Owen, manifestly LBW to a ball from round the wicket, which pitched four inches outside the off stump and would have hit middle and leg. Adam span [surely "delved"? - Ed] less than Gregory but bowled fewer bad balls, and collected two wickets thanks to careful field placing and smart catching by Barrie and Duncan Rance. John bowled as well as anyone and halted any last-over run chase when he induced a hoist to Steve at mid-on. For the second time in two matches were were chasing 168 to win, but with an expected 37 or so overs to get them in.

Patiently Barrie and Steve set out to build a platform. Impatiently the rest of the team waited for the platform to rise above one run per over - except Gregory, who was having a vital net, facing Alban from three yards with a bright blue plastic bat. Then there was a clatter, Barrie, Paul and Rhodri all getting bowled in quick succession. Duncan Lee started to push the score along, and gradually Steve also started to play some shots. Duncan was beginning to look comfortable (Steve never does, no matter how many he makes) and had been dropped once, but then he hit a second catch, high enough for them to have time to send for the wicket-keeper. Mark made a good start but lost concentration, but James really changed the shape of the match. Leaving the celebrated Kahuna behind, he hit something we all thought was a six and several fours, so that the opposition had to spend time searching for the ball in the cornfield and under cars, and gradually realised that if they didn't get him out fairly soon they would lose. Unfortunately for us they did get him out, just in time, and when Steve, who had held the innings together, got out as well it was we who were in trouble. John played a few shots, but Adam got out quickly and we still needed forty from eight and a half overs when Gregory joined John. There were three balls left in the over, so John might have doubted he would face again; but Gregory survived, and John collected five off the next over, and a few more the over after. The last ball, however, bowled him.

So Duncan Rance came out to join Gregory. Gregory is not used to being joined. Nor is either Duncan or Gregory used to scoring runs, or really to batting at all. This was rather clear when they tried running between the wickets, although the nearest thing to a run-out came when Gregory calculated that there was just time for a quick single, called for it at once, and was proved correct. But there were some hair-raising moments. The question was whether they should try to win. Gregory raised hopes, and worried the opposition, with a flat-batted whack which at least removed the silly mid-off, followed by a sweep; but his third attempt at a shot resulted in a catch to deep mid-off, who dropped it, and his fourth attempt resulted in a small crater immediately below the end of his bat. Duncan appeared, remarkably, to have even fewer shots than Gregory, but there were some wides and leg-byes to keep the score moving. Even so, with four overs to go and the opening bowler back on, Gregory decided that any attempt to play for a win was likely to end in defeat. Many at the boundary disagreed; but they had all got out earlier. Duncan and Gregory concentrated on survival, ignoring anything wide and using bats, pads and hips to keep the rest out. Duncan survived one close call for LBW (Barrie said he got outside the line, and was probably right), and Gregory a couple of less close ones. Near the end of the penultimate over spectators could see the extraordinary sight of the field being adjusted to keep Gregory away from the bowling. This was a gross insult to Duncan, who played the final over quietly and competently, and ensured the draw.