This one is something of a needle match. Bill Owen is run by a lawyer called, rather predictably perhaps, Bill Owen: several other members of the side either are lawyers or behave as if they were. They are, collectively, just about as bad at cricket as we are. It all makes for an entertaining fixture.

It was very hot and we were glad to win the toss and bat. It immediately became clear that the pitch -- we were on the main square -- was a good one. There was no swing or seam movement whatever, only a little bounce, and once they had adjusted to that Arvind and Roger started to cash in. After eight unpromising overs the spinners appeared, in the form of an ex-choirboy bowling chinamen. His first ball, left-arm over to Roger, pitched about four inches outside leg stump and turned sharply wider. Roger missed, the wicket-keeper removed the bails and appealed, and short extra cover exploded. He was outraged when the appeal was turned down. Exactly why he thought he was able to tell what had happened is a mystery. Not very long afterwards he caught Roger off the the same bowler, and tried to call him back, under the completely wrong impression that the ball had bounced. His team-mates attempted to argue him out of this opinion. Part-way through learned counsel's lengthy opening speech Gregory, umpiring, got bored and suggested that they try appealing. After a few more moments discussion somone did, and Roger was duly given out, as he always thought he had been.

By that time Arvind had already gone, well caught off a firm drive also at short extra. Rob and Duncan both got started but didn't go on, Duncan hitting a full toss gently to mid-off; and Mark was bowled by another full toss. Some felt that it might have been high enough to be a no-ball; but Mark is tall and the ball struck halfway up the stumps. He had ducked, but he should just have walloped it. At 110-5 we were in trouble.

Kevin and Chintan got us out of it, playing really well. They added 75, rapidly, and never really looked in trouble. The only alarm came when Chintan wandered a little after letting a ball go to the wicket-keeper, standing back, and he shied at the stumps and hit them. Chintan hadn't actually got out of his crease, but on receiving this news the bowler developed the paranoid delusion that he was John McEnroe and rushed down the pitch, shrieking "He's on the line!". Nobody took the slightest notice: perhaps it just happens when he's forgotten to take his tablets.

Gregory, carrying Magnus, walked across to the scorers and said "This is getting quite good, isn't it?". Immediately both Chintan and Kevin were leg-before. Chintan's might possibly have gone over: Kevin's wouldn't. We had a decent score by then, but not enough on such a good pitch. Richard, supported by James and latterly Toby, enhanced it considerably, and Toby added one final whack before Gregory was out, first ball, to the last ball of the thirty-seventh over. It was ten past five, and we had made 234.

Duncan and Kevin found out quickly about there being no help for seamers. One opener, however, was Bill Owen himself, who after nine overs had reached 6, three singles to fine leg and three directly behind the keeper. The other was their wicket-keeper, who scored mainly to third man and fine leg, but mixed in some firm straight drives and was not in much trouble. The first incident of the innings did not occur until James came on, after eight overs, and asked the umpire to take one more step back so that he could run between him and the stumps. He declined, claiming that he couldn't see the line (presumably meaning the popping crease at the non-striker's end). James politely refrained from asking him how well he could see the other end, and pitched his first ball a foot or so outside leg. It spun, and Toby took it three inches from the leg bail -- the nearest we got to dismissing the wicket-keeper, but, having gone round him, it was deemed to be a wide. James was not at his most effective but didn't give much away; nor did Rob. Gregory did, once: his first ball was a full toss which even Bill Owen hit for four. But in his next over he removed him, leg before.

This was a critical stage. The asking rate was by now around seven an over, which wasn't quite as stiff as it might look but needed to be lowered; and Bill Owen, with their only two free-scoring batsmen together, had their best opportunity to do so. Tight bowling from Gregory, Arvind and especially Chintan, together with uncharacteristically reliable fielding, prevented them; and eventually Chintan swung the match decisively our way with two wickets in an over. The wicket-keeper was still there and still a threat: the run rate had reached improbable but not impossible levels. The strategy was to keep him off the strike; and again good bowling, by Arvind and Kevin now, and good fielding, largely achieved this. They got three wickets between them, but we didn't seriously try to bowl them out, or even to stop singles by the end. Partly this was because we had little idea how to get the keeper out, and he finished on 128 not out, an enormous score to make in a losing cause at this level. Rob bowled the last over, with thirty needed, with all the fieldsmen on the boundary. This looked a bit silly, but where else would you put them?