Despite losing we got most things right this time. One thing we got right was the catching, which is most unusual. Toby and James both caught very droppable catches very competently early on. Canal Taverners have one definitely good batsman and one who isn't really good but has a good eye and hits the ball very hard. There are some others who are fairly capable, but the main thing to do is to get those two out. The hard hitter likes to hit straight down the ground in the air, and when he did this to Andy W he picked out Anura, by the sightscreen at the far end. Instead of yelping and running round in little circles, as is customary, Anura simply waited quietly until the ball arrived, caught it and rolled it back to the bowler. Most extraordinary. Anura also bowled well, as did Kevin: in fact we all bowled reasonably well. The actual good batsman did make a decent score, but he wasn't there to lead a final acceleration: about five overs from the end he skied Gregory and by this time nobody was surprised when Toby caught it. That they got a few more than we were hoping was partly due to some edges going for four at the very end, but also due to too many wides (and the unpires were not over strict, either).

Needing just over a run a ball, Arvind & Andy V made a good start. Perhaps they didn't quite realise how good, because they both seemed to lose patience when there was no need to, and both holed out. Mark never got started and was bowled by a full toss again: in four overs we made three runs and lost three wickets. Still the situation was not hopeless, and we were almost rescued by a long partnership between Kevin and Andy W, the latter batting particularly well. In fact only one more wicket fell, Kevin getting out in the seventeenth over, trying to hurry things along. But there was just too much to do in the end: we needed a couple of really big shots somewhere along the line (Luke would have been the ideal person to have coming in) and we never got them.