The Gents recorded one of their best ever victories in a desperately close finish after Angries had amassed a huge score on a batsman’s paradise of a wicket. They were helped in no short measure by some piss-poor Gents’ bowling (and, according to the skipper, fielding, though the jury was out on this). At 80 for four, it looked all over for The Gents until a Wright/Snelling fifth-wicket partnership of 128 took The Gents to within 24 runs of victory. Once Wright departed for an outstanding 103, his third ton of 2000, Snelling got through three partners at the crease and was run out for 42 with the score at 228. However, all hail The Gents’ last wicket partnership of No. 9 Rix (12 not out) and No. 11 Irvin which brought the seven runs needed for victory with five balls to spare, a straight drive for four over the bowler’s head from Rix finishing things off in the pitch black at 8pm! God bless the Angries for joining The Gents in the Black Lion afterwards as they were pig sick, determined as they were to avenge last year’s Gents’ double and the narrow victory earlier in the season. To put it into perspective, their batting was so strong that Hadfield didn’t even get his pads on, going in at No. 8. The Gents’ score was their highest ever batting second, beating the winning 186 for three against Enterprise in 1990. Only London Owls, with 239 for nought (Ashton 11-0-43-0, everyone else 26.5-0-185-0) on 7 September 1993, have posted a bigger score batting second. That Sunday, exactly seven years before this, at the same venue and in similar weather, also saw Gents post 235 for nine, but in the first innings.

Two harsh wides given against Snarler by Dave Shannon saw an excellent early teapot from The Gents’ skipper. Although not setting a competitive tone of umpiring – neither side had any problems with the men in white coats after that – it was typical of a bizarre day in which extras totalled no fewer than 77. In the circumstances, Jason Irvin’s performance in conceding only two byes was exemplary. He had to contend with wayward bowling. Sanjay, perhaps troubled by his recent leg injury, bowled a wardload of no balls, but all the seamers struggled with wides. Credit, then, the steady Angries’ openers who both posted personal best scores. As if in anticipation of this, they had brought along a megaphone, a first – "HP Denton’s fifty came off 65 balls, two grams of speed and three Mars bars." Wickets fell occasionally, but the support bowling was savaged, though Jim added some late control and Snarler was steady. Jim, Scibo and Kitan fielded very well throughout but the Aussie middle-order trio of Damon Wilson, Neale Anderson and Steve Lawrence scored at will, without every breaking completely free. One has to go back to the Lilliputian plastic pitch at Battersea Park in May 1995 to find a bigger trial for Gent bowlers. Rotherham scored 242 for five in only 35 overs that day, a young paceman called SA Snelling going wicketless on his debut. Not only Hadfield, but also the fine all-rounder Nick Harper (42 in the reverse fixture in May) failed to make it to the middle. The wicket had played beautifully with a true bounce but no movement off the seam. Snarler was a tad fed up as players tucked into the Gala Tea but got his thinking cap on. He asked Jim and Scibo, the best runners in the club, to pad up and at ten past five they strode out to the middle for the last time at this venue in 2000.

As a statement of intent the short but bright opening stand took some beating. Scibo lofted Shannon for four over cover and pulled a three off the same bowler before driving to mid-on in the sixth over. Jim pulled two fours off Shannon’s final over before the seamer hobbled off into the outfield, to bowl no more on the day. Though Simper’s leggies from the Pavilion End posed some challenges, Lawrence’s left-arm spinners were less accurate. Jim drove two fours before Toddy played on, 50 for two off nine. Dhruv twinkled briefly but this was not to be Sanjay’s day, caught off an unusually tentative pull to backward square-leg, clever placement by Hadfield.

At this point, Gents were 80 for four off 16 overs. The partnership that followed inspired the whole club. It was not a record for the wicket, though both batsmen got their personal best scores, but in the context of being performed by two players who had been on the end of a battering only an hour before, it was a superlative achievement. When Snarler marched out to join Jim they needed to score at 6.3 runs an over. So sensibly did they handle their task that the rate never rose above 6.4 and was brought below a run a ball with ten overs left. The odd big over helped – Lawrence’s last two overs went for eleven and thirteen (including seven wides in the latter mournfully, but correctly signalled by Victor).

Helped by superb running between the wickets and excellent judgement of which balls to hit and which to block, the runs accrued remorselessly. At the halfway point, there were 105 runs on the cans, at 25 overs, 136 and at thirty, 174. By this time, Ade Bullock was charging in from the Pavilion End, with Neil Hadfield’s off-spin from the Thames Ditton End, as Denton donned the pads. By now it was dark. The street lights were coming on all over Surbiton as the headlights of cars driving up Balaclava Road floodlit the proceedings. From the pavilion, it was getting hard to see what was going on. The sound of bat on ball was a good indicator, as were the fielders’ gestures, but much remained guesswork. As we have seen before, batting in these conditions is hard but fielding is a nightmare. Once or twice players shot off in totally the wrong direction before being navigated back on track by their colleagues. Thirty runs came in the next five overs and Jim went to his third hundred of 2000 to generous applause from the Angries and near hysteria from the home team. He had hit sixteen fours and gave only one tough chance towards the end. Snarler was happy to play the supporting role but still clumped the ball six times over the chalk lines. His PB of 28 was left far behind as The Gents moved on to 207 for four off 35 overs, needing exactly five an over to win.

The chaotic, emotional events of the next 4.1 overs were played out in darkness, making it as hard to score as to play, so apologies if any errors of fact have crept into this report. Harper bowled two dot balls, overstepped for the day’s final no ball and then yorked Jim with a beautiful inswinger. Swiss blocked his first ball, blasted a fantastic drive low past mid-on for four off the second and was then run out by a direct hit off his third and the over’s sixth ball – 212 for six. Victor pulled the first ball of Hadfield’s penultimate over (his first ball faced) for a massive four to the Railway Boundary but was bowled next ball. A bye, two dot balls and a Snarler four left Gents at 221 for seven, 11 runs needed off three overs.

Thus were reunited the British Gas boys Snarler and Rixy. Southpaw Simon blocked the first ball and then drove the second massively for four over long-on, to the utter rapture of The Gents. Then came a Rix single and a wide. Snarler then clipped to the on side, called for two but was run out going for the second by a direct hit on the stumps from square-leg from one the Aussie Wilson, a stunning piece of out-cricket. Poor Kitan then fell lbw first ball. With two overs left, at 228 for nine The Gents were four short of victory with one wicket to fall.

Hadfield was his usual accurate self in the 39^th over. Five dot balls and a three edged past ‘keeper Denton brought the scores level, leaving the professionally-coached Jason to block the final ball, which he duly did. At least The Gents could not lose now. Hadfield rightly brought his field in close as Harper charged in to bowl the final over of this most remarkable of days. One could dimly see Simon, a wraith-like figure eighty yards away, driving at a cricket ball. A fraction of a second later, one heard the noise, bat on ball all right and off the middle too. Though Simon himself and most of the fielders had a good idea, none of the spectators had a clue where the ball had gone. When it was spotted moments later, descending out of the inky sky, plopping on the ground ten yards in front of the pavilion to trickle gently over the chalk line for four, the place erupted. One felt especially good for Simon. He and his partner Rita have suffered much tragedy in recent months and it was wonderful to see him back on the cricket field again.