Our second defeat of the season against St Stephens, but this game, despite the scoreline, was much closer than the previous one and played in a much better spirit. A pleasant ground, proper pavilion, very acceptable tea and a good team performance made for an enjoyable afternoon.

The fact is that St Stephens have some good young players; they bat and bowl well and are quick in the field, so this was always going to be tough. Duncan and Roger opened the batting for the Venturers, and were faced with Bath's tallest teenager bowling brisk left arm (attempted) yorkers from one end, and a much slighter teenager bowling away-swingers from the other. Bad balls were relatively rare, and the boundaries huge, so runs weren't easy to come by, but Duncan in particular kept the scoreboard ticking over, and neither batsman looked unduly troubled. The left armer was replaced by Ingles, who proceeded to bowl significantly quicker than anyone else faced this season, such that it took the batters a while to work out how to get bat on ball. But they began to score runs more freely from the other end, reaching a respectable 78 when Ingles finally got a straight ball to hit the pads, and Duncan was out LBW. When one goes, invariably another follows, and in this case, three. Johan, after a year away from cricket, went first ball, missing a straight fast one. Chintan survived the hat-trick ball, and was probably readying himself for a big innings when Roger called him for a somewhat risky single; Chintan wasn't ready for such exertion so early on, but still looked unlucky to be given run-out. A few balls later Roger followed in the same manner after some ‘shall we shan't we’ dithering with Kevin. Thus at 82-4 things looked much less comfortable; Kevin, however, rarely fails in the middle order, and he and Richard, Duncan's friend, rebuilt the innings. The spinners were finally on, and Richard made several very clean hits, some of which reached the distant boundaries. It was a surprise when he succumbed to a looping leg break. Kev continued to push the score up above 150, falling just short of a fifty when bowled by the quickie; the lower order chipped in with a few from some tight bowling at the end, and a score of 184 was reached.

This was a reasonable total given the decent bowling and enormous outfield, but St Stephens started their innings as if intent on getting the runs in 20 overs, chipping the ball around the field and running for everything. After a few overs Chintan and Duncan R both found their rhythm and the run rate fell to a more manageable rate. Duncan (Lee) and Liam followed this steady bowling with more of the same; with the wicket offering some help to the spinners, and in the absence of our regular slow bowlers, Liam was asked to bowl some spin, a task he took to admirably. But it was Duncan who finally made a breakthrough, bowling their more attacking opener for 50-odd. Then followed a few overs when we were able to put some real pressure on the batsmen and Liam took a deserved wicket, just before we had to leave the field for a rain break. After the rain the pitch cut up quite badly but despite a couple of missed chances and more tight bowling we were unable to make another breakthrough. The slower but more diligent of the two openers wasn't going to give his wicket away easily and he inched St Stephens toward victory. Chintan was frustrated in numerous LBW shouts against the opener, prompting the umpire to explain at length why he would not honour one of these shouts in a month of Sundays (the batsman apparently being too far down the wicket). A late wicket for Roger, the ball somehow turning on the decaying track, hinted at what a decent spin bowler might have been able to achieve on this post-rain wicket. As it was, the opener completed his tenacious knock on 90-something not out and St Stephens won amid the deepening gloom with a few overs to spare.