What chance would you have given us when Bar Hill, chasing our mediocre total of 161, had raced to 111/2 after 13 overs? With our opposition needing just 51 runs from 162 balls with 8 wickets left, and opener P. Pelling motoring on 69, even 500-1 mightn't have been long enough odds to induce a bet. But after Andy Owen (2/29) made the vital breakthrough by bowling him, Eli Ellwood (5/22 on loan from Harlton) and Romsey first-timer Maruf Ahmed (2/26) ran through their weak middle order as they lost 6/9, the sort of collapse that even Romsey seldom manages. After that all that was needed was for captain du jour Marcelino Gopal (1/12) to bring himself on take the final wicket and complete an implausibly comfortable 23-run victory.
Indeed, such a result had seemed most unlikely from the start of the game when, Jon Steele (34) aside, the top order failed to leave us at 59/6. That we posted any sort of target at all was down to a superb rebuilding partnership between Rog Shelley (9) and Maruf Ahmed, who made a stunning 72 in his first innings for the club. Between them they scored more than half our eventual total of 161/8 and at least gave the bowlers something to defend. And the rest, as they say . . .