After organisation which can only be described as non-existent, a number of Oxford-based Manny Road cricketers arrived in London with the kit. Fortunately, they also managed to locate the rest of the team in Regent Gardens.
Having lost the toss, Skip decided to placate Tony Mc by letting him open the batting. Quick, kit-packing-avoidance-style thinking from Carlos saw Tony facing the first ball on a deck which bore a remarkable resemblance to the rest of Regent Gardens - so much so that throughout the day, numerous wandering touristy-types failed to notice the crowd of men wearing white clustered around two sets of wooden sticks hurling hard, red leather balls. Tony's batting was, well, effective. Which is better than can be said for the rest of the side's efforts. One of Barclays' opening bowlers was young and quick, the other was Brian Hunton. Skip put in a serious bid for kit-packer, having noticed that there was less kit than usual. Paul Miyagawa briefly stemmed the flow of wickets, but was disappointed the hear he only made 8, saying "I thought I hit the ball more than that." "Yes, but you only made eight runs" was the response. Casper hit the ball in the air a few times before realising they probably weren't going to catch it so let himself get bowled, while Dave Frame was somehow bowled by a ball that he thought was aimed at his head. Raj showed that years of sprint training were wasted by getting run out going for a not-so-quick single. Overall, 88 was not a particularly good effort, although some credit must go to Barclays' bowlers for being reasonably accurate.
Having gorged ourselves in a feast of crisps, we took to the field not entirely confident of much, apart from being in a pub early. Casper bowled Casper-like, and was finally rewarded with a bag of wickets - one of which was a quite sublime effort by the wicketkeeper. Having them 2/25, we started to feel that we might have a chance. When they were 4/26 shortly after, we were feeling cocky. After Casper dismissed their captain (for the second time), the call of "Bowl one on the stumps here Casper and we'll have this guy" was heard - followed by the sound of wickets being broken. 6/36 and Hunton facing the hattrick ball. Unfortunately, Casper was unable to produce the required delivery and had to settle for 5/15 from his ten overs. He was replaced by Tony `Mincer' McNally, whose bowling action seemed to confuse the opposition. He was probably happier with the four byes than the figures which have been reported to be 1/12 from eight overs. Following the fall of wickets 7 and 8, Skip brought himself on to clean up the tail or to bowl wides (we're still not sure!). Rob came back to break the Hunton-dominated partnership, then Skip decided we should try to win and replaced himself with Dave Frame, who enticed Brian to spoon one to Casper to end the game. 10 run victory for Manny Road.
It was felt that beers were appropriate, and once we managed to point Rob in the right direction, `The Volunteer' put up its hand and said "Drink here". Mincer and Carlos provided the initial 7 jugs, Uncle Sam provided the scenery, and we were happy. Raj's chances with a girl named (?)Abby were probably ruined by his - and her - proximity to a discussion of (?) vaginal juices. She declined Mincer's invitation to join us for curry. We approached the first curry-house in the incorrect manner, i.e. kit-first, so sent Raj in at the second establishment. Conversation was highlighted by an impromptu game of `Top This' - which was probably won by Skip, despite having been at Corpus and some stiff (oooh errr) opposition from Stuart Greive, the details of which escape me now as I was (to coin a phrase) `wastificatified' at the time. We then dispersed, and I can only comment on falling down in a tube station but still getting home in one piece.
AO
If you have any comments about these pages, please email Anthony O'Dea (odea@physchem.ox.ac.uk) or Paul Miyagawa (paul.miyagawa@somerville.oxford.ac.uk).