Whatever else happens in the 2000 season, The Gents will always have this classic day to look back on with pride. So will the narrowly beaten Angries, who played their usual tough but cheerful and sporting game and had the visitors on the rack until a gutsy, unbeaten stand of 41 between Snarler Snelling and Chris Beaumont saw them home at 7.20pm, with 8.4 overs of the final twenty left. After his deeds in 1999, and now this, you have to wonder what Twelve Angry Men have done to upset Snarler. This was a superb contest between two perfectly-matches sides, where fortunes ebbed and flowed all day. It was also a vindication of the concept of time matches, which is not the favourite format of some players, but when played out on a perfect, if slow wicket can offer batsman a chance to build an innings and captains to experiment, though here only eight bowlers were used, with no overs of spin in the Gents’ innings.

Winchmore Hill Cricket club is among the top venues at which The Gents have played. A late switch from Old Millhillians (apparently even swisher) brought the combatants north, The Gents giving debuts to Deepath, Evans and Sciberras, while Chris Beaumont was offered the gloves. Amazingly, everyone pitched up on time and we were away on the dot of two. Snarler fielded without hesitation. Anyone expecting a repeat of 1999’s shoot-out at Albert Road would have been disappointed. This was a true, straw-coloured wicket from which the ball hardly deviated all day, though it was damp underneath. Batsmen would have to be prised out. Although there was no bounce for the quicks, there was a little swing in the humid atmosphere and some turn for Dhruv. The lush outfield meant that the ball had to be given the full treatment to reach the boundary and boundaries were few in the first innings. Denton’s dismissal was firmly down to Neil Hadfield. "What’s happened to Snelling?" he asked as the burly paceman lumbered in off a short run. No sooner had he finished his question when the bails went flying. Ade Bullock, wife and son James in tow, was playing very well. He saw off Snelling and with Shoiab Kakkar’s more aggressive support moved the score on to 31 before being bowled Sanjay in the 16^th over, a run rate which only really accelerated when the impressive Harper was at the crease with Lord Hadfield. The new Vice-Captain, who looks as though married life agrees with him, bowled a tireless and accurate twelve over spell for only 17 runs.

The introduction of Dhruv heralded a flurry of wickets, three in as many overs, to put The Gents on top. Bullock misdrove to diving short-extra Snarler before Brand played down the wrong line to Sanjay. Horace facing Dhruv with ball or bat is one of the summer’s great confrontations. This one had a Bradman/Eric Hollies historical quality as his first ball was played up the pitch, while the second, similar to the googly that did the Don at The Oval in ’48, being a slow turning orthodox off-break, defeated the push forward. For a moment time stood still. The bails were on the ground and Dhruv perhaps thought that the ball had cannoned off Chris‘s pads onto the stumps, but Horace thought otherwise, put his bat under his arm and marched back to join his team-mates.

Hadfield and Nick Harper then dug in for thirteen overs, the latter amusingly asking for the helmet as Jim’s military medium was brought into the attack to replace the tireless Sanjay. Several fours were struck, none better than a lofted off-drive from Hadfield, before Jimmy struck with three clean bowleds in two overs, culminating with Leigh for a Golden. Harper was most impressive, and was cannily supported by the crab-like technique of Mr Shannon, but the bowling and outfielding held together well. Indeed, if there was a fielding blip in the mammoth 47.1 overs bowled, this reporter didn’t see it. The debutants and veteran Victor were outstanding throughout. At 121 for eight with fifteen minutes’ batting left, Angries were well placed but were undone by two neat pieces of cricket. First Shannon on-drove to short mid-wicket Victor, who dived and smothered the ball. Shannon charged up the pitch, changed his mind and charged back but the Gents’ Black Countryman essayed no little agility for a tall man in getting the ball in to Beaumont in a flash for a run out by ten yards. Harper then almost immediately gave Dhruv the charge but slashed a well-flighted ball in a gentle parabola to slip Tony Buck. One hundred and twenty-one all out was the damage.

Snelling and his men were pretty pleased at events thus far. They were undergoing a mild form of religious ecstasy therefore after four overs of the reply. Four byes in the first over, a controlled steer for four by Swiss Tony in the third and a third rollocking boundary from the helmeted Sanjay in the fourth and The Gents were a sixth of the way to their target. The celebrations of the frankly delirious Gents at this point were premature. While dancing the hornpipe, lighting bonfires, pealing church bells and festooning one another with streamers might have been justified at the end of the game, at this stage they perhaps were not. It only takes a second to lose a wicket, or in The Gents’ case, four overs to lose four. Buck cover-drove hard and was spilled by silly mid-off Leigh, next ball, same shot but different result. Twenty for one. Jimmy dug in for two balls before a nothing jab saw him bowled neck and crop. Like honest criminals, Sanjay and Damian Beepath offered no defence, playing typical early-season shots and it was 23 for four, just as The Commander propitiously called in on the mobile for an update. While four down was a bummer, it was explained to the exiled ex-skipper, Angries’ accurate bowling certainly deserved reward.

For the past six springs, this writer has had to suffer interminable speeches from Dhruv Patel about how he is going to "Give up rash shots" and "Play more for the team," although, he always concludes, "If the ball is there I’m jolly well going to hit it." Third ball he drove hard to bowler Hibbert, who shelled it. Thereafter, he was watchful and responsible. With him was new boy Damian Evans, who looked the biz from Ball One. The young Welshman dominated a bright stand of 33 in only 30 balls, hooking two fours, cutting one and running like a demon between the wickets. There occurred a curious incident when a lofted drive by Dhruv seemed destined for a straight four by the sightscreen. The Gents applauded but the ball had stopped short. In came a throw to break the wicket at the bowler’s end with Damian out of his crease. Technically it was out but Horace Hibbert withdrew the appeal. In such a moral climate, it would have taken a stronger man than Andy Burman to withstand a unanimous lbw appeal against Damian a few overs later, and up went the finger. Damian’s pal Mark Sciberras opened his account with an edge for four off the pacy Harper but then settled down to give Dhruv staunch support before being castled by Harper on 74. The Gents were back in it on a pitch holding up well and with an outfield perceptibly faster than four hours before. Then Keith Dimond flailed and missed, the red mist descending earlier than usual and when Dhruv fell caught and bowled Taylor, having glued the innings together for 14.4 overs, it really looked up at 81 for eight.

Stuart and Chris both did the little things that increase a player’s chance of success. They both had a batting net (the facilities at this ground were spot on) and the ball was finding the middle of Snarler’s bat from the word go. Chris is a notoriously nervous starter and he was dropped first ball, a regulation chance to cover but then got his head down and concentrated. Three other chances came and went but, underpinned by excellent running and calling, the shot selection was exemplary. There was nothing wrong with the bowling, though the byes began to evade the tiring Denton as the day wore on, it was sensible cricket allied to a strong desire to win that gained the day. If Chris (1999 batting average 1.25, as he never ceased to remind his team) sprung the surprise, Snarler vindicated his new all-rounder status. As Jim rightly said after "He’s no worse a batsman than anyone above him." The two quickly clocked that they had over seventeen overs to get the runs, in perfect conditions. And get them they did, in circumstances of unutterable tension. It would not be right to say that the stand was chanceless. Aside from Beaumont’s early reprieve, three other gettable chances went down but when Chris planted the returning Horace over mid-wicket for four the tide was turning inexorably Gentwards. Snarler and Chris batted briskly for 8.6 overs, rapid scoring in the context of what had gone before, to secure the win in a game neither side really deserved to lose.