For the second year running the May bank holiday Monday saw Fitzwilliam College's playing fields descend into sporting anarchy in the form of a charity six-a-side cricket tournament. Last year over a thousand pounds had been raised for the Rosie Maternity Hospital's Premrose Neo-Natal Unit; this time around just under GBP 700 was raised for Addenbrooke's Hospital's stroke unit.
Hats off to Andy and Denise Owen, along with Phil Watson, who together organised the entire day, and thanks also to the long list of Cambridge businesses who donated prizes for the now legendary mega-raffle. That it was such a memorable and successful day is down to the hundred or so people who came for at least part of the day and, in particular, to the seven teams who provided such uninhibited entertainment.
The tournament began with two round-robin group compeititions. In Group A (weakened by a last-minute withdrawl) Cambridge Granta and Remnants both beat The Watsonians to progress through the semi-finals. In Group B (the ``group of death'' with a full complement of four teams) Fitzwilliam College remained undefeated, and last year's winners, The Beehive, lost only the one match, leaving Romsey Town and The St. Radegund to spend the rest of the afternoon drinking and eating delicious hamburgers.
Both semi-finals were one-sided affairs, with Granta thrashing Fitzwilliam's students and The Beehive comfortably seeing off Remnants. This set up a repeat of last year's final, and Granta got their revenge, denying The Beehive's spirited attempts to defend their title.
The real story today was not the destination, however, but the curious route taken along the way. The play was dominated by the bat in general, with one team even managing to get into triple figures in their five overs, although that didn't stop two bowlers getting hat-tricks, despite only having four fielders (plus the 'keeper) to help them out. Well, at least that was the case for most of the day; when Fitzwilliam produced their super-ringer (groundsman and ex-county player Dave Norman) he suddenly found himself trying to find the gaps in a thirty-man field. Which he did. Another highlight was when, having collapsed to the point of almost being all out, the St. Radegund innings was rescued by an the day's only partnership between two batswomen (hmmm, sounds awkward, but ``batters'' just sounds like Americanization) who lasted to the end of the innings.
One thing that was missing from this year's tournament was celebrity weight-loss victim Russell Woolf . . . well part of him was missing, anyway -- as recorded on The Russometer, he managed not only to lose a decent fraction of his body mass last year, but also to raise a good fraction of the money raised in last year's tournament.