We put out another ten-man team, which is asking for trouble, although ten was all Hinton Charterhouse had. Kevin was not quite as accurate as usual but the real success with the ball was Tom, who found bounce and turn and made life very difficult for the batsmen. He got only one wicket, and that was a bit lucky in that the ball hit many other things before it hit the stumps; but he could easily have had three or four. A competently executed run-out and a smart catch by Kevin off a bad ball from Gregory put us in something close to control; but three balls later Kevin dropped a much easier catch off a much better ball, and the reprieved batsman went on to fifty. Nothing too terrible happened under the circumstances, but Andy W, Rob T, Gregory and James all gave away rather more runs than they need have done, and Hinton ended up with 152, which felt like rather too many.

Last year Andy V was supposed to get the runs. and hit his first ball to mid-wicket. This year Arvind was in charge, and he did exactly the same thing, with two differences. It was his second ball, and mid-wicket dropped it. He and Roger set about their task and when Roger was out after a bright innings, Kevin took over. The first bowling change was a disaster for Hinton, Arvind taking fifteen off the new bowler's first over; but Kevin, for some reason, found him harder to hit although he was doing perfectly all right at the other end. Even so, they were winning the match quite comfortably. Obviously it couldn't go on: something absurd had to happen. Kevin called Arvind for an imaginary run, and Arvind responded, getting just beyond half-way. The run rate needed was not unreasonable and we did not need to despair; but we lost all momentum and three overs later Kevin, trying to regain it, was stumped. Now it was getting difficult, and the only approach available was to hit out. Andy W, John McW and Tom all did this, and all got out. James didn't, but fell over trying to reach a wide and was stumped anyway. Toby, going in behind Gregory because he had forgotten to put his pads on, hit out a bit more successfully, but by then it was much too late.