An abject batting display consigned us to a heavy defeat to end our run of wins so far this season. Whilst not wishing to take any credit away from Old Rutlishians for a tenacious performance, only a couple of OA dismissals were due to movement off the grass wicket: most were the result of poor shot selection or execution. It could be argued that this was not our strongest batting side, and that we were unfamiliar with conditions on the front pitch, but undoubtedly we should have made a better attempt than this.

It was a shame that our dismal showing with the bat eclipsed some earlier good work in the field, and particularly with the ball by Porter, Smith and Stoney. Porter's first delivery of the innings was a corker: it cut back viciously from a good length to bowl one of the Old Rutlishians' openers, who left the field looking bemused. Porter continued to produce excellent figures from two superb spells, the second of which, with bizarre symmetry, ended the Old Rutlishians' innings with a repeat of his earlier cracking off-cutter. Smith bowled accurately and with guile, inducing the batsmen to play and miss frequently. Stoney was a revelation with an accurate and probing spell of leg-spin bowling, the highlight of which was a googly that was edged to leg-slip, where the debutant Leeming threw himself forward to take a magnificant catch. A few other catches were spilled, but they did not seem expensive at the time.

Perhaps we lost the initiative when we allowed a last wicket partnership of 30 runs by Old Rutlishians to rescue them from the potential ignominy of failing to reach three figures. Even so, the final target looked attainable with even a moderate batting performance. So, at 23 for no loss chasing just 123 runs to win, we looked to be in the driving seat. But it was not to be.

Ian Chapman