2013 Season - Win/Loss Summary

Jagex Jaguars just completed our most successful season to date, with an exact 50% win loss ratio. We played 10 evening games – with two cancelled. We won 5 and lost 5.

The closest games were NCI and Eversheds, both of which we narrowly lost. My personal favourite game was probably the Eversheds game, partially because of the tight nature of the contest and the great individual contributions from McClarty and Verma and the excellent spirit of the contest. Games against S-Tech are always good fun, and the contribution from so many different players in the Jagex ranks makes this my close second favourite of the season.

Won (last 5 games)

Jagex 137-3 (Brett 28*, Jones 25*, Fardell 24, Sprague 15-1) beat Mills & Reeve 116-8 (Lanceman 25*, Sprague 15*, Cooper 11-2, S Morgan 20-2) by 21 runs.

Jagex 136-8 (Fardell 33*, Nash 26*, Lamble 21, John T 21-3, James 25-3) beat AVEVA 114-9 (Alex 35*, Arvesh 18*, Brett 17-3, Cooper 14-2) by 22 runs

Jagex 146-6 (Van Daal 46*, Colledge 24, Fardell 32-2, Thimh 15-1) beat Ensors 108-5 (Douglas 26*, Chima 25*, Lait 18-2) by 38 runs

Jagex 115 - 2 (Colledge 28*, Van Daal 25*, Nigri 25*) beat PEM 111-5 (J Lee 30*, P Davda 27*, P Morgan 8-2) by 8 wickets

Jagex 181-3 (Colledge 33*, Edwards 30*, Fardell 30*, Nigri 25) beat S-Tech 147-7 (Jack 31*, Sam 30*, Broadbridge 26-3) by 34 runs

Lost (first 5 games)

Savills 135-1 (Simkins 27*, Bailey 25*, Lait 22-1) beat Jagex 134-6 (Fardell 40*, Van Daal 28*, Verma 26*, Bailey 27-2) by 9 wickets

Bidwells 137-2 (Moore 27*, A. Scott 25*, P Morgan 13-1) beat Jagex 136-8 (Van Daal 19, P Morgan 17*, Edwards 17, W. Scott 17-2) by 8 wickets

Sharks 119-4 (MVS 25*, Michael 25*, Jim 25*, Broadbridge 14-2) beat Jagex 116-9 (P Morgan 19, S Morgan 17, Jason 14-3) by 6 wickets

NCI (Kumar 23, Johnston 22, Edwards 18-2) 97 beat Jagex (Colledge 27*, P Morgan 21, Laskisingh 9-1) 84 by 13 runs

Eversheds 138 (Humphrey 44, McGlashan 26*, Verma 18-3) beat Jagex 125 (McClarty 28, Van Daal 22, New 19-3) by 13 runs

Jagex Break the Lawmakers

Jagex 137-3 (Brett 28*, Jones 25*, Fardell 24, Van Daal 17) beat Mills & Reeve 116-8 (Lanceman 25*, Sprague 15*, Cooper 11-2, S Morgan 20-2) by 21 runs 

Jagex ended the season with a win against the law firm Mills & Reeve in our last game of the season - allowing us to end on a high. The game was reduced to 16 overs a side in the failing light of the late August summer.

Jagex won the toss and elected to bat. Colledge was unfortunately taken ill, so Jones and Fardell opened the batting. The first over was, well, pretty exciting. Fardell, facing first, could have been out at least twice. He edged the first ball from the quicker-than-expected Lanceman to the keeper, but the keeper couldn't hold on. He played and missed the next 2 before one clipped him on the bat and pad, made it to the keeper and was also dropped. He then missed a ball that begged to be hit, high and wide outside off, before the last ball allowed a stolen single. What Jones at the other end will have made of the shambolic no footwork rubbish at the other end, goodness only knows - but he definitely didn't look happy to see the strike pinched by someone with a strike rate of 0 from 6 balls.

The second over saw some normality return to proceedings, with Fardell and Jones alternating scoring. Fardell slogged and Jones played straight to plunder some runs, helping to make up for the slow start. Unfortunately, when Fardell absolutely middled a pull, it hit the square leg umpire on the arm (poor Mr McClarty) to turn a 4 into a 1. Fardell was less than gracious in his non-apology, accusing the umpire of getting in the way in a very slothful manner.

Both Jones and Fardell struggled to deal with the opening bowler, who proved tricky to score from. Jones was looking in more solid form, playing with a straight bat and generally being quite considered in his choice of shots. Despite looking terrible, Fardell somehow contrived to secure 24 runs, using more lives than a lucky cat living on lucky street brandishing a rabbit's foot. He eventually fell LBW to a slow one that he just missed - although he'd missed a lot of balls when all was said and done. I actually think I was already out LBW previous ball, but the umpire (McClarty) was gracious enough to not give me out because, well, he had his only personal hawkeye?!

Van Daal strolled out to the crease to join Jones and some keen running helped the score-book tick along, and hit a few gutsy 4's in his favoured cow shaped zone. Jones retired on 25 with some decent shots and nice footwork helping propel the scoring along, including a lovely square pull, which included a nice roll of the wrists and a late re-adjustment to help the ball miss the umpire. A re-jig in the batting order meant that Amoraal was in for a little bit to afford us an all South African partnership. Willem couldn't quite find his range, and was LBW after a few play and misses. Mr Brett then strolled out to the crease, and did what he always does, studiously blocking his first ball before clumping anything hittable, including a lovely straight drive that was caressed back past the bowler; Mills & Reeve's best bowler on the night no less. Van Daal found a bit of range, but was bowled off his pads whilst statuesque. McClarty moved from umpire to player for a bit and helped keep Brett company. He scored a four in his favourite area, behind backward square, and ticked the scoreboard over.

Brett was, once more, in scintillating form with the bat, with immaculate timing and excellent shot selection. He even finished on a 4 to find himself on 28*, and was only saddened that he didn't managed his weekly 6. Piers Morgan sauntered out to face the final few balls, not wearing his bandana. Piers hasn't had the best season with the bat, and this is the same year where he has done away with his Bruce Springsteen inspired headgear. Coincidence? I think not. The Mills & Reeve captain had miscounted the overs, and found himself with an over to go and no bowlers left, so he brought himself on. Piers helped himself, with a couple of 4's with plenty of humpty, and a brief return to the Piers of old. Jagex finished with 137-3 from 16, which in truth we'd often be happy with from 20 overs.

McClarty volunteered to take wicket keeping duties this week in the absence of the All American Hero, Jamy Nigri. Neil put in quite a turn behind the stumps as well - and introduced some genuine cricketing banter. Jagex opened the bowling with Steve Morgan. His first ball was a bit loose, and was late cut for 4. His second ball was a little short, but the batsman managed to gently pick out the short backward square fielder with ease. Brett, not to be outdone, continued his medium fast bowling, and bowled the M&R Captain off his bat with a great fast-ish ball. Steve responded to his bowling partner next over by bowling a peach at the stumps to splatter them. In an economic spell he returned 2-20 from 3 action packed overs. Brett conceded only 9 runs in his 2 over spell, and accounted for one key wicket. A great opening pair.

Mills & Reeve's best batsman on the night, Lanceman, buckled down when wickets around him fell, and proceeded to anchor the chase effectively, pulling together a partnership in the middle overs. His partner eventually fell to the re-juvenated Nick Cooper, caught and bowled. Nick followed this up with a next ball wicket, pitching it up to see an easy catch presented to Fardell. Piers and Willem tied things down for a while, with a large number of low-scoring overs played and M&R well behind the rate. Lanceman eventually retired, having tried to control the chase at a measured pace whilst providing some stability in the middle order.

Piers got the wicket his verve deserved, clean bowling a lower order chap. Neil "Club Man" McClarty was doing an ace job behind the stumps, including stopping some of the leg-side stuff diving at full stretch. Joseph Hart would have been proud, and he finished having only conceded 3 byes. Mills & Reeve were a little short on players, so we invited a couple of theirs back in and offered them Steve Morgan (who didn't get a bat). Amoraal accounted for one of theirs, caught and bowled. Steve hit a lusty 4 behind square, and Fardell quickly regretted offering him as a substitute. By this point the game was all but won, and Jagex did something special: we brought on Van Daal to bowl. Wide, wide (4), wide, dot, 2, dot. Both of the dots were probably wides as well. We've had some very special overs this season, McClarty, Tween: but this was up there.

Fardell then came on for the last over of the season, trying to bowl medium pace. He bowled a couple of dots, before Steve Morgan took him on and steepled the ball high into the air. The last batsman finished with a couple of 4's, to leave Mills & Reeve respectably short in the chase.

That’s it, season over, and only the curry to look forward to before winter sets in and it enters the cold, dark and depressing time of year - which is otherwise known as the football season.

In picking back over the annals of Jagex cricketing history, one interesting thing does stick out that has been interrupted by this game. Until this week, we had a total of 4 LBWs across 3 seasons, all picked up by Mr McClarty. He is now joined in the lonely Shane Watson club by Fardell and Amoraal.

Jagex Win Twilight Test

Jagex 136-8 (Fardell 33*, Nash 26*, Lamble 21, John T 21-3, James 25-3) beat AVEVA 114-9 (Alex 35*, Arvesh 18*, Brett 17-3, Cooper 14-2) by 22 runs

Jagex kept up the four game winning streak with a clean win against AVEVA in the failing light of an August evening. Justin "Juzzy" Edwards was slightly injured, so we had a late call up in the form of Andy Nash, who kindly agreed late in the day to keep for us. The teams agreed 15, 8 balls over this week, to help with the failing light.

Jagex won the toss and decided to bat first, with the tried and testing Fardell/Colledge partnership taking up where they had left off the previous week. The pitch was very green and moist and the opening AVEVA bowlers got appreciable movement in the air, and to a greater extent off the deck, making batting a difficult prospect.

This week it was Fardell's turn to score early. He was greeted to the crease by 3 slips, a first, a second and a fly. Not typical for amateur evening 20/20 cricket. He still contrived to score his first runs wide of the slips, guiding/slashing safely wide of fly slip in uncultured fashion. Colledge was trying to play some orthodox straight batted stuff, but was finding it difficult against the significant lateral movement of the ball from both ends. Fardell pootled along for a bit, and Richard was bowled, scoreless, by something of a moving in-ducker which he backed away from.

Van Daal, the hero strolled out to take his place. I had a quick chat with him, and told him not to swipe at it, or back away to leg. He then had a wild swipe, backed away to leg, and was bowled leg stump. He didn't look massively happy. Andy Nash then strolled out to face the hat-trick ball with the field in close. He defended a few to prevent the continuing tumble of wickets and generally looked nuggety and solid throughout. 

AVEVA were never really happy with their field settings, and spent long periods of the evening tweaking positions between balls. Whilst this is entirely their right, as they were batting second on a mid-August evening, it was probably not the best idea. I do remember waiting for a full on 3-4 minutes mid way between deliveries, mid-over, for some very subtle field adjustment.

The slips had retreated, before Fardell was beaten all ends up by a outswinger - bringing the call of "put the slips back in" from the wicketkeeper. Fardell responded by bludgeoning two fours straight back past the bowler, hammering a couple of singles, and then walloping a four past square leg to get back to the hutch in double quick time, retired on 25.

McClarty kept Andy company for a while in the middle, hitting a lovely pull shot behind square, with consumate ease and control and a nice roll of the wrists. The bowling was still proving very challenging, but Andy Nash managed to score a little to 3rd man and behind square to keep the scoreboard ticking over. McClarty perished going big, trying to hit past the bowler, he was a little early through the shot and hit high for an easy catch.

Brett joined Nash, our anchor for the innings, and he played out a few dots to get a handle on the prodigious swing. With his eye firmly in, he then clipped a Pietersen-esque four through midwicket, followed by two more down the ground. He hit a magnificent pull as well in quick order, clearly in a hurry, but it was pulled back on the boundary by some nimble-footed fielding, and he had only run 2, so certain had he been that it was going the full distance. This was part one of his battle with one of the top two AVEVA bowlers. Part two involved a well disguised slowed ball that trashed his stumps.

P Morgan strolled out for a bit, and hit a gentle two behind 3rd man. He wasn't his usual big hitting self, but kept the scoreboard ticking over. Andy Nash then retired on 26, bringing Lamble to the crease, following a cheeky warm-up fag behind the bike sheds. Piers then tried to pull out of a shot, sort of, but in doing so he offered the easiest of catches to short midwicket, departing earlier than expected. Lait then joined Lamble, and hit his first ball to the backward square boundary using a wonderful wallop/shovel action that finished over his shoulder. Tiger Woods would be proud of the follow-through and backspin.

Lamble and Lait pushed on for a while, before Lait ran himself out in spectacular fashion, calling for two and jogging through when he had no hope of making it. Steve Morgan joined Ralph for a bit, before he was bowled by a full yorker whilst deep in his crease. He's still avoided any ducks so far this season, so that's something. Cooper wandered out absent mindedly at 11 and was bowled first ball by another full one, bringing Fardell back to the crease. 

At the end of the 13th over, Jagex were sat on 109-7, which looked at least 20 runs short of par. Lamble and Fardell contrived to put a decent total on the board. Fardell hit a couple, but Bam Bam's big hitting award goes to Lamble for single handedly plundered 17 from the first 7 balls of the last over, before being bowled with the last ball of the innings. 136-8 felt about right in the failing light with the incredible swing.

Jagex had one heck of a bowling attack this evening and opened with Simon Milky Au Lait and Liam Brett in failing light. The AVEVA opener managed to get some profit from Simon, but he was still bowling tight lines. Brett's first over was, well, action packed. He started with a half track pie that the AVEVA batsman whacked behind square. Fardell was a little slow in his movement, prompting McClarty to asked if he needed some WD40. I've always thought of myself as more a Tony Stark Iron Man than a Wizard of Oz Tin Man, but clearly Neil sees it differently! Top sledging.

Brett's second ball was a juicy full toss, and was also dispatched, and his 3rd was also wayward. He then started to find some decent lines and recovered by the end of his over. Lait started his second with a lovely full yorker that moved and splayed the stumps and went on to bowl a tight second and third to add economy to his venom and wicket. Brett, not to be outdone, clean bowled two of the other batsmen, one a full toss that hit high up the stumps (who needs the pitch), and another involving a bit more of the track. He then tied a batsman down, the man who had bowled him, for a few balls. Having wasted the strike a bit, the batsman got impatient and went big, but only found S Morgan at long on, who had an age to judge the chance, and snaffled it cleanly, sending Brett off with 3 wickets.

There was also some cracking fielding in packs, when Piers and Cooper chased one down together, Piers sliding and popping it up to Coops, who threw with pinpoint accuracy to the keeper. Andy Nash was having a great game early on behind the stumps, stopping everything wayward or wide. One of the AVEVA umpires didn't really seem to get the rules of cricket

Steve Morgan came in and bowled some lovely lines, and was difficult to score from. He also clean bowled someone in the failing light, a full length delivery with a bit of spite thrown in for good measure. Cooper was the second change. He started with an absolute turd of a half track pie, except that he got a wicket, because the batsman gently tipped it to backward square, picking me out perfectly. Cooper carried on handing out pressies for his first over, before recovering in his second, and clean bowling one chap with a full pitched delivery. At this stage they were dropping like flies, and no partnerships had formed.

Lamble and P Morgan came in for a spell, and both gave Andy Nash some tough wide legside stuff to deal with, although he coped commendably, diving around like Wonderwoman™ to stop the extras. P Morgan eventually bowled one with another full delivery, and was the most economical bowler on the evening. Ralph was less so, but still wasn't too expensive in the context of the match.

Then the AVEVA number 11 strolled in. What he was doing at 11 goodness only knows, since he hit two consecutive fours from his first two balls, decent shots as well, before playing a late cut to third man 3rd ball. He wanted 2 runs, but his partner didn't and a truly catastrophic run out ensued. It was a real shame as he looked in lovely touch right from the off. At this point, AVEVA were miles behind and their last chance had probably gone - although their top scorer on the evening was back in.

Jeroen got in on the action a bit, chasing down some balls and showing off his throwing prowess and finely sculpted arms. No mis-fields this week. Colledge then decided that McClarty should have the last over. It was pretty special, similar to Neil Tween's one and only over this season. We don't normally bowl extra balls (2 runs are added with no re-bowl), but the scorebook reads 11 balls bowled, 5 wides, and 18 runs conceded. We decided to try and end the match on a legitimate delivery, it took 3 attempts, and the batsman then hit a switch hit behind backward point to finish on 35*. The light at the end was fairly abysmal, perhaps showing that winning the toss was key to the game.

9 games played, 5 lost, 4 won, our last four in fact. Last game of season next week, and a chance to get a 50/50 win loss ratio. I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it.

Sharks v Jagex - GAME CANCELLED

Sadly another one was lost to the rain...

Still, the good news is that Jagex is still technically on its winning streak. And England has retained the Ashes, mainly as a result of the British summer weather.

Pub anyone?

What's the Different Between Cricket and Basball...?

A helpful guide to the small differences between the two... 

http://www.quora.com/Sports/Whats-the-difference-between-baseball-and-cricket#ans2869605

Jagex Jam Journal Junkies

Jagex 146-6 (Van Daal 46*, Colledge 24, Fardell 32-2, Thimh 15-1) beat Ensors 108-5 (Douglas 26*, Chima 25*, Lait 18-2) by 38 runs.

A new week, a new win, once more against accountants. We should play bean counters every week. Also this week, Jamy's beau Laura brought a few friends along, and later in the day we had Mrs Zoe Morgan and Andy from IT even turned up with his wife and kids in tow. It would appear we are drawing quite a following on the Amateur Evening Cambridge Cricket Circuit.

Ensors are a new team on the fixture list this season, and I know in years gone by they have put out some magnificent teams of real strength. Sadly this week they were struggling for players, so Jagex kindly lent them Fardell and Broadbridge to make it a 9-a-side. The wicket was very green again this week, and we went for 15, 8 ball overs, given the light and pending rain.

Jagex opened the batting with Colledge and Jones. Colledge looked relatively assured and under control on an overcast evening. Jones did well for a spell, hitting a nice four, and keeping out some decent fast bowling. Unfortunately he backed away to one that came on with the arm, and nicked it through to the keeper to depart early. Colledge then had Jeroen "Boom Boom" Van Daal for company, and Jeroen did what he does best, hammering the ball to all corners. He hit his first ball for four through the off-side (I didn't know he knew were the off-side was) and even showed off his little trade mark bunny hop when one came to him near leg stump. This particular ball missed leg by a fraction. 

Van Daal quickly retired, bringing Steve Morgan to the crease at the heady height of fourth in the batting order. Fardell came in to bowl for Ensors, and gave Steve his first run. Colledge then demolished Fardell for 6 and then a 4, before being bowled trying to finish well for 24. Morgan was joined at the crease by Brett. Sadly Steve didn't hang around long, top edging a slog off Fardell's bowling to leave the keeper an easy catch.

Brett was joined by Wise for a spell, before Brett perished to the innocuous looking Fardell dibbly dobblers, taking one on, but only finding deep wide mid on. This left the two Americans, Wise and Nigri at the crease. They both scored a boundary apiece and looked in not bad touch until a calamitous run out. Both ran to the middle neither said a word, there was never a run, and Wise rather unfairly sacrificed his wicket to keep Nigri in. Lait strolled out to the crease, bringing his £20 piece of timber with him.

Ensors turned to their other Jagex import, Broadbridge, to turn his arm. Paul bowled a combination of highly lofted twirlers, and incredible no balls, but did the trick. A high slow loopy one was too tempting for Jamy, who charged down the track, missed, and was stumped. The wicketkeeper and umpire then had to very carefully explain to Jamy that this was another form of being "wicketed" and no he didn't get any more lives, and yes he was out. He strolled off in good graces once the intricacies of cricket had been explained.

Lait was very briefly joined by Cooper, who offered an easy catch one ball in. Lait was was then re-joined by Van Daal. Jeroen continued where he had left off, hitting 4's for fun in his favoured zone, cow corner. Not to be outdone, Lait also contributed a sprightly 11, including a nice square cut for 4 - clearly showing that it's not the quality of the gear that scores you the runs. Jeroen unfortunately found himself stranded on 46* at the end, which is a shame as it would have been our first 50 of the year.

Jagex opened the bowling with Steve Morgan and Liam Brett. Ensors opened with Fardell as number 2. After the other opener got off strike, Fardell found himself surrounded by a close in field and plenty of high pressure, poor quality banter. He managed to survive, more by luck than judgment, and scored a four off the top edge, through the keeper, to fine leg. I meant it to go there. Honestly. Steve was bowling some exciting lines, but got carted a little bit unfairly in his first couple of overs. Brett had reverted to pace bowling, and boy is he a handful, getting balls to do all-sorts. I even fended one away from my chin, that must have made him smile.

Jagex had been lively in the field with good stops from Derek and Colledge. The first wicket came when Fardell was caught napping at the non-striker's end when a ball had gone through the keeper. The striker hurried through for a run, Mark tried to catch up, but Steve Morgan at fine leg let rip and scored an absolute pearler of a direct hit to send Fardell on his way. Jagex continued to bowl good lines, with Cooper coming in for a spell. Ensors managed to get a partnership of sorts together with the opener and number 3 both hitting some nice shots and racing the scoring away to 60 from 6 overs, really threatening to chase the Jagex total down. Sadly for them there was another run out on the horizon, with neither batsman calling and the number 3 being well short of his ground.

Cooper's third over was a wicket maiden, no mean feat in 8 ball overs, with the batsman falling bowled to a full one. Ensor's number 5 was a more cultured bat, and managed to get the scoring going again after a slow spell, although Ensors were well behind the rate at this time. Most of the excitement at this stage arrived courtesy of the Jagex team being chock full of captains, all eager to tweak the field at a moment's notice. Steve Morgan was also really excited at his direct hit run out, and decided to have a couple of other goes at repeating the feat, with predictably hilarious results.

Nigri behind the stumps was chipping in with banter, and seemed to have developed some genuine wicketkeeper traits, including a novel technique of removing the glove to throw overarm. Van Daal did his level best to demonstrate to everyone that he is a batsman, and only a batsman, since he fielded like a veritable Monty Panesar on several occasions. 

Colledge was called into the attack and carted about a bit, although he probably deserved better. At this stage Ensor's main threat, Chima, was trying to rotate the strike carefully and keep the score moving along. Then a captaincy masterstroke (not sure which captain made the call), saw the ball tossed to left arm round the wicket Simon Au Lait. He bowled with venom, accuracy and verve, smashing the stumps cleanly on one occasion, and on another we again saw the fabled double wicket, when the batsman played onto his own stumps, and the ball was deflected to gully for an easy catch.

Broadbridge came into bat briefly at the end with Ensors well behind the game, and his only fun was to have Steve Morgan try and run him out by throwing the ball straight at him. Easy Steve. The final batsman for Ensors managed to guide a 2 into the gap between Jamy Nigri's left hand and Jamy Nigri's right hand, showing commendable touch.

Our last 3 games have seen 3 straight wins, up next week, a double header - so the chance to get the win loss ratio up before the end of season curry.

A good game played in the right spirit when one team was short, was followed by another excellent tea, resplendent with the famous chicken skewers which really are worth the price of admission on their own. Also, everyone had a good chuckle at Fardell's run out.

Jagex Pass PEM Test

Jagex 115 - 2 (Colledge 28*, Van Daal 25*, Nigri 25*) beat PEM 111-5 (J Lee 30*, P Davda 27*, P Morgan 8-2) by 8 wickets

Jagex struck to record their second win of the season against Peter, Elseworthy and Moore, a firm of accountants. The augurs weren't good, as the weather was fairly variable. A late call from the groundsman led to the game going ahead, with dark clouds and a sense of foreboding. Nigri was behind the stumps, and being an American, we had to spend some time explaining the different forms of "wicketing" that a wicketkeeper can be involved in.

PEM were struggling to get their whole team to the ground so had to bat first. Amoraal and Love opened, and both secured a wicket in their first over. Amoraal started loosely and then saw one dispatched wide before the batsman gently popped a cover drive on the up to Piers Morgan to give him an early wicket. Not to be outdone, Love opened with a vicious spell, conceding 2 runs and bowling number 3 batsman with a fast offcutter that stayed low and splayed the stumps. The other opener, Davda, looked in fine fettle for PEM and showed some genuine cricket shots to race away with a decent score.

The number 4 was handy too, a work experience import for the week, although he was circumspect and careful to see off the good bowling. Love continued in miserly fashion through a four over spell, conceding only 12 runs and remaining with one wicket. Amoraal managed a maiden in his second over and only conceded a few off his third, leaving PEM well behind an average run rate. Gibbins replaced Amoraal and bowled tempting medium pace stuff which helped get the batsmen swinging a bit and livened the game up. The dark clouds continued to descend and Nigri did his best to cheer everyone up with various bits of inane banter from behind the stumps.

Piers Morgan came in and bowled a brilliant spell to help strangle the scoring rate and race through balls. He saw one caught at midwicket and one magical double wicket, bowling the guy off his bat, with Nigri holding the catch as well for good measure. Accordingly his 3 over spell went for 8, and his 3rd over was a 2 wicket maiden, a rare sight indeed. Cooper supported him for a spell and McClarty bowled one special over which was akin to Neil Tween's from earlier in the season, conceding 13 runs and not really threatening the stumps. Cooper was also a little wayward in this game, something we're not at all used to given his consistently excellent bowling throughout the season.

Cooper also induced the funniest moment of the day, when a ball got slightly big on the batsman and he pitched a catch really high to short cover. Willem had it covered all the way, right up until he dropped it, fell over and knocked his sunglasses from his head. He hit the ground so hard that the earth moved, as one might say after an energetic night in the bedroom.

There was a cheeky little run out near the end, before Juzzy came on to close down the last two overs, and bowled impeccably, going for only 9 in 2 when PEM were looking to push on. PEM finished at 111-5. It felt a below par score, but the grass was green and the ball was appreciably swinging, especially for Love, Amoraal and P Morgan. We had precious few misfields this week - which is a victory in and of itself.

Sophie! (imagine saying this as one would in the Renault Clio - Papa - Nicole adverts) was on hand to offer her photographic skills and encouragement along with Jamy's beau, Laura. The attendance of spectators at our games has coincided with our sudden ability to actually win. Pure happenstance, of course.

McClarty declined the opportunity to open in favour of Fardell, so Jagex opened with the chalk and cheese of Colledge (David Gower) and Fardell (Tino Best), more to entertain the assembled spectators than to give Jagex a chance of chasing the low total. Each week Richard and I have taken it in turns to be the guy who, you know, actually scores runs, and this week it was Richard's turn....

The opening bowlers for PEM made excellent use of the green conditions, and both extracted some fairly appreciable away swing. Colledge coped with it well, utilising deliberate late cuts, a square cut and a lovely Pierersen-esk flick through midwicket, as well as some footwork. Fardell doesn't cope so well with good bowling in swing conditions (I prefer a dry pitch and a pie machine at the other end, to be honest), and looked scratchier than a blunt clawed cat nestled on a brand new sofa. I did manage to preserve my wicket for ages though, which has got to be worth something.

Colledge quickly retired on 28, bringing in the South African Stallion, Jeroen - can bat, can't field, Van Daal. He started as he always does, showing absolutely no respect to any of the bowling he faced, and walloping anything and everything, hitting 3 consecutive 4's in his first 4 balls, and racing away quickly to 18. Fardell continued in his quest to make the other batsman look good, playing out lots and lots of dots, mainly played and misses. Jeroen then did something wonderful, which the spectators would only have appreciated with the aid of a stump mike. A ball was bowled, it bounced on a good length and sat up a little. A full second before hitting the ball, Jeroen exclaimed "Yeah!" in his best Usher voice, and absolutely mullered it for 6 over cow corner. The ball was lost. I'm still shocked. The bowler's face was a picture.

The Van Daal retirement brought Jamy Nigri in. Having watched Jeroen and with customary Yankee style, he missed a couple before smiting one for 6 as well. Fardell scratched around still playing in his magical bubble before chipping a slower ball to mid on to depart, somehow having scored 17 despite not actually playing any scoring shots. Edwards strolled and replaced Fardell ably, taking some time to get going before rolling up his sleeves and hitting a couple of nice fours. Nigri continued to confound all known principles of cricket, with 4's and 6's. The remarkable thing about him is partially that he tends to actually hammer the better balls over midwicket, when he has absolutely no right to whatsoever.

McClarty strolled out to score the winning runs on Jamy's retirement. He played and missed a few. He then, and I was umpiring, took a guard on middle then shuffled across to outside off and missed. The ball thudded into his pads about 3 inches from the ground and it was going on to splay all three stumps. The bowler appealed almost apologetically, and I gave him out. True to form, he took it well....

Edwards got the final runs with a runner for company, and a comfortable victory was earned in the 14th over. PEM were hampered by only having 9 players, although a good bowling performance gave Jagex the platform to allow their batsmen to take their time.

In the scorebook it records Jeroen Van Daal as the man of the match. Who am I to argue with that. He can't bowl, he can't field for toffee, but boy can he bat