Nobody expected Roger to show up and we had no regular wicketkeeper. Andy Watts strapped some pads on and Kilmington lent us one spare player they happened to have and one substitute fieldsman. Two batsmen, one evidently incompetent and one evidently competent but rather small, followed, and we began with two maidens, which Kevin thought was unprecedented. The Duncans were accurate and the fielding sharp, and in frustration the very young batsman attempted a single to very short third man. Gregory and Andy between them ran him out. The substitute dropped an easy catch but Duncan Rance produced something unplayable soon afterwards. Duncan Lee, confronted with an even smaller batsman, turned to leg-breaks and bowled him. Kevin hit the off stump several times, bowling with great accuracy in the strong cross wind. Kilmington slid towards disaster, but then Duncan Rance ran out of overs and we ran out of bowlers. In theory we still had Gregory and Steve to bowl eight overs each, and all would be well. Unfortunately Gregory had not learned from two weeks in Provence how to bowl when the Mistral is blowing. Rather he appeared to be trying to obey the rules of petanque and not move his feet at all when bowling; or to be worried that he might spill his pastis. Everything went down the leg side. One batsman should probably have been given out caught at the wicket (down the leg side, naturally) off him, but Kevin hit his off stump next over. The other batsman, though number eight, was looking ominous. Gregory was replaced by Steve, who was no better. The threatening batsman had made about forty when he top-edged a pull at Steve. Gregory, suddenly turning into a cricketer again, caught the resulting skier competently; but the ball was a shoulder-high full toss, and therefore a no-ball. Thus reprieved, the batsman laid about him to such an extent that Steve was also removed and replaced by various occasional bowlers, all of whom were hit into the far distance. But for the Ians on the leg-side boundary, who let nothing go past them though much went over them, it would have been even worse. It was so bad that Gregory was brought back, and he had the number eight, by this time past his century, caught by one of the Ians; but that didn't count either, as it was beyond the boundary, and the next ball sailed, at a narrow angle, through the rugby posts, for three points as well as six runs.

Roger, though, had showed up, and been congratulated on the birth of his son. There was a delay at the start of the innings while the umpire mirrored events elsewhere by refusing to officiate, until he had finished changing a nappy for his own son. When things got under way, Roger made some celebratory runs before pulling one that didn't bounce, and Duncan, Andy (who had proved to be rather a good wicketkeeper) and Kevin also all contributed. They didn't contribute enough to get us anywhere near the 240-odd that Kilmington had made, but enough to avoid utter disaster. Indeed with eight overs to go we were 150 for 8, which was where they had been when they had had eight overs to go. The difference was that by that time Duncan Rance and Steve were batting, and they were not going to threaten the rugby posts. All they did was keep us out of the bar for a bit.