Eleven players were eventually mustered: one of them Mark, not really fit. The start was delayed by a heavy but brief shower, otherwise the match would have finished even earlier than it did. James won the toss and chose to bat. Dave Brown (who, long ago, played for us, and since Adrian's retirement is probably the last person to wear a Venturers' cap) grunted like Sharapova and bowled four consecutive maidens. Progress was only a little faster at the other end, and Steve would have been run out without scoring if their wicket-keeper had collected the throw. It didn't make a huge difference. The fourth ball of Dave Brown's fifth over yielded a single to Adam, and Steve jammed the bat down on the fifth and saw it roll back onto his stumps. After twelve overs the score was 12 for 1, and The Star tried a bowling change. Kevin drove the new bowler's first ball to mid-off, and Paul Martin cut his fourth ball to slip. Time for Luke. He worried them, for sure: one ball went through cover and the next over mid-on, who said he thought he had put his hand in the right place to catch it. He had, but the ball was fifteen yards behind him by then. But nobody can predict what direction Luke's shots will go in, and the next one went to the wicket-keeper.

The collapse stopped there but the lack of runs went on. Adam at least hung around but only Mark made any sort of a score. The rest came and went, some culpably, others (notably James, helplessly run out, and Duncan Rance, who probably didn't hit it) less so. When Gregory holed out at cover, the score was exactly 100: reaching this was supposed to give us a psychological boost, but it was rather disappointing when it did happen.

We need not have folded in the field, though. The tone was set in Duncan Lee's first over: a low catch went to point, who was Cat, deputising for the incapacitated Mark. She got a foot on it, which was more than she had been asked to do but of course didn't really help. Kevin chased the ball. Paul proudly held up a one of the club's new keeping gloves (from Sainsbury's, to judge by the colour scheme), and Kevin's throw sailed over it to where James was chatting to the umpire. Only one overthrow resulted, but it was bad for morale. Duncan, though bowling reasonably well, conceded too many runs so James took him off, apparently feeling that his bowlers, like Napoleon's marshals, had above all to be lucky. James also thought that Napoleon would have had a bowl himself, so he did: he also bowled reasonably well, but was no luckier than Duncan. Paul Snow was accurate at the other end but the score kept moving. Luke, given a bowl on the Fourth of July, was not accurate. Duncan Rance was better but even less lucky, and the final comedy moment was supplied, untypically, by Duncan Lee. He and Gregory chased a ball down to the boundary and Duncan tried to flick it back for Gregory to throw; but he was going downhill, and his flick landed in front of him. Kevin had time to bowl only nine balls before they got the runs; Gregory and Adam never got on at all. It didn't really feel like a serious attempt to defend what was, admittedly, an inadequate score.