Most of the Venturers' disastrous defeats are caused by incompetence, but not this one. Somebody actually batted well. We have no mechanism for coping with that sort of behaviour. Not for the first time, we started well, Duncan getting an early wicket; but the new batsman, instead of trying to hit the ball out of sight, took ones and twos and only belted it when we gave him something rank. His partner did much the same, although his shot selection was not quite so good, and the score was nearly 100 by the time Rob Taylor bowled him through an over-ambitious swing.

Anura slowed the scoring right down for a bit: but the new batsman, who didn't believe in running, suddenly hit him for a vast six. Gregory, Duncan (twice) and Rob Branston were given the same treatment, and the rate rose to almost ten an over between the 20th and 30th overs of the innings. Eventually he tried to hit another six off Rob and Gregory, near the long-on boundary, made his entry for Catch of the Year (there haven't been many entries from anybody). This should have been useful, but the real threat was at the other end: he reached a century soon after, almost unnoticed until then, and then opened out to such an extent that Adam, called on to bowl at the end, conceded 54 runs from four overs. Adam did get three wickets; but when the dust settled, they had made just over 300 and the centurion had run out of time on 149.

Adam and James opened the innings and James was out first ball. Adam, however, was more durable, although almost strokeless; and Paul Martin set off as if he thought we could get the runs easily. He hit several robust shots, including a six, and it was a surprise when he got bowled. By that time Adam was out, and when Andy followed we were facing imminent defeat, not to mention bankruptcy although that proved to be a misunderstanding.

Rob T hung around for a little while Duncan got into gear, but then also got bowled. But Toby did more than just hang about and he and Duncan added seventy fairly rapid runs, aided by some unreliable wicket-keeping. The Star hadn't relaxed, either: they kept their main bowlers on and if we hadn't unfortunately already lost five wickets and had a huge score to face we'd have been doing rather well. Eventually Toby fell. This effectively halved the scoring rate, because Gregory, who came next, simply blocked; but block he did and Duncan carried on. When Duncan did make a mistake they dropped the very easy catch that resulted. Another forty had been added, and the score was looking almost respectable, when a ball looped up off Gregory's pad and hit him above the left eye. He retired hurt, and Duncan got out soon afterwards for 65: one final thump from Anura took us to 169, still with three overs to go, but Gregory was not interested in resuming.