It was ironic that the venue for this match was changed mid-week from Battersea Spinners' home ground in Barnes to one maintained by Wandsworth Council on account of the former being under-prepared. On arrival at the latter ground just off Trinity Road in Wandsworth, we were horrified to find a strip which resembled crazy paving, with "tiles" of dry earth raised in places half-an-inch above grassy depressions, and long cracks across the surface. It was easily the worst pitch for a proper game of cricket that any of us had seen.

After some debate over whether to proceed or not, we decided to hold a limited-overs contest, and the two captains sensibly agreed to limit the hostility of the bowlers. Even so, we were to discover that good- and even full-length deliveries would be frequently unplayable, with some rearing viciously to head-height and others shooting through at ankle-height. With several batsmen receiving blows to the head and upper body, it was fortunate indeed that no-one was seriously injured.

In spite of all this, Battersea Spinners managed to locate the ball often enough to muster a very creditable 186-9 from their 35 overs against committed bowling from Ripman, Munro, De Guingand and Kripps. The inconsistent bounce and lateral movement gave problems to the fielding side as well as the batsmen, as more than 40 runs were notched up by "Extras" - a feat which was later to be repeated in the OAs innings.

In these conditions, a target of 187 was always going to be difficult to reach, especially against an opposition whose name we discovered to be ironic rather than literal: their line-up did not in fact contain any full-time spin bowlers and was formed around a pace attack of international origin. As volunteers for top-order batting slots had become unusually scarce, Zoob had to turn to one of his old hands to accompany Lailey in the walk into the firing line.

The OAs needed a good start but received an early blow instead as Lailey top-edged a lifting delivery to the wicket-keeper, who somehow held onto the ball in the very end of the webbing of his gloves. Burcher took Lailey's place but was unfortunately beaten by his third ball which kept low, leaving us 18-2 off 7 overs.

Marmion joined Chapman and the pair restored our chances by adding 36 runs in the next 7 overs, with Marmion in particular playing some thumping shots before he was undone by a jagging delivery. Leeming sought to pick up where Marmion had left off, but was frustrated by a shortage of loose deliveries to hit, as the opposition found that they could count on the inconsistency of the pitch to create extreme variations from a fixed line and length. However, our slim hopes of victory were maintained by a steady stream of extras, some positive running between the wickets, and effective despatch of the few bad balls on offer.

After several attempts to break the shackles, Chapman's dogged innings finally ended when he top-edged to fine leg. With 106 runs needed off 10 overs, Malik, Ripman and Kripps successively joined Leeming and managed to force this pace in a series of short stands until they fell in turn to the same bowler. At this point, all hopes of victory had evaporated, and all that was left was for Zoob and De Guingand to achieve a minor moral victory by denying the bowlers for the four remaining overs.

Although we were beaten again, at least this week we could look back in pride at a gutsy and determined performance under difficult circumstances. Perhaps it was reward enough that we all survived intact "to fight another day".

Ian Chapman