It might have been the sight of Scouts that put us off; an abundance of them, in the next field. Contango opened the batting, and it was clear from the start that we had a fight on our hands. They put on 80 before the first wicket was taken, which pretty much set the standard for the innings. Two of their players (John Morgan and Tim Western) made over 50. There were some Mystic sucesses. Morgan was run out, and Millington suffered, if memory serves, a case of severe overdetermination in that Sid took a clean catch behind the wicket thus availing himself of plenty of time for a stumping. The latter is recorded on the card. Wendon, Sharland, G. and Miller picked up a couple of wickets each, the other falling to Thomson, J..
The target set, a difficult one in any conditions, was 205 for 8. The Mystics started with aplomb. Sharland, G. gave us a good start, finishing with 45. However, the fall of wickets was fairly relentless until a fine stand for the seventh, in which Miller and Sharland, M. put on 48. Sportingly, Contango spread their bowling, all available players taking a turn. This did not, however, help us past a rather dismal score of 139. I myself was one of two players not to trouble the scorer. I employed my time usefully on the boundary by typing my real-time match report into my pocket computer. Modelling it on TMS, it became so weighed down with metaphor and cake it self-destructed. A lesson to us all.
Derek Matravers
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