With a gloomy weather forecast, Gnome travelled to Blewbury more in hope than expectation. There was a deluge at 1.30 but in the end we were able to start a 30-over match at 3.45pm.

Sadly, despite sterling efforts by John and Anton, Gnome managed to recruit only 8 players for the match. Blewbury lent us fielders and a batsman but this was still an embarrassment.

The match itself was charged with drama as Gnomes battled to end their three-match losing streak. The game went down to the wire, with the outcome decided on the last ball of Gnome's allotted 30. There was a controversial innings from Chris Gill and a catching incident involving skipper-for-the-day Anton Finneran which has reopened the key question: when is a miss not a miss?

Anton won the toss and decided to field. The usual tight bowling from the Gnome openers had Blewbury pinned back and wickets fell quickly. After 7 overs, Blewbury were 16-3, with two wickets to Fenton, including a smart catch by stand-in wicket-keeper Matt Cannon. Matt followed with an even smarter stumping off Pete's first over, leaving Blewbury at 34-4 off 11.

From that point, just as they did last year, Blewbury began to claw their way back into the game, with their number 4, Osgood, playing the key innings. Even so, Blewbury were only 80-7 off 23 but Osgood (64) and the
number 9, Taylor (22*) saw Blewbury through to a respectable 137-9. Pete had 3-34 off his six, Anton 2-18, Fenton 2-15, and Chris, Mark and Issey 1 each.

The cameo moment came when Osgood sent a big hit in the direction of Anton, fielding at deep mid-wicket. Anton - who had positioned himself there at the start of the over - moved in smartly, only for the ball to fly over his head and go for 4. Afterwards Anton said that as he had not touched the ball, this did not count as a miss. It was put to him that since he had not managed to touch the ball - and if he had stayed where he was the catch would have come straight to him - this made things even worse. The debate will be renewed below.

When Gnome openers Nick Harris and Blewbury's loan player Christian went out to bat, the ask was a reasonable 4.6 runs per over. Christian was out on 2 in the fifth over at which point the ask had risen to 5.25. Enter Chris Gill - mysteriously pushed up the order to number 3 - who proceeded to play an innings that might have been appropriate in an all-day match, but which was scarcely suited to the circumstances at Blewbury. He painstakingly accumulated his way to a total of 15, scored in 14 overs, which included playing 14 dot balls in succession, whereupon he was bowled by the 15th. Nick Harris meanwhile was hitting an accomplished 36 until, all too predictably, he was run out trying to keep the score moving.

For much of this time, Chris's team-mates had been watching with impatience that became ever harder to suppress. Among the more general imprecations, there were calls of "Bring back Lew Chester"* and "Where is Bill Packer when we need him?" When Chris was finally out in the 19th over the run-rate had climbed to a daunting 7.7.

From that moment, the lower-order batsmen did their best to haul Gnome back into the game. Matt hit a quick-fire 11, Mark 14, but even so with 6 overs left Gnome required 51, an ask of 8.6. Anton and Fenton, hitting
judiciously, took the score to 117 with 2 overs remaining, the ask now at 10.5. Blewbury were clearly confident of victory but Anton drove the second and third balls of the 39th over for six each, followed by a 2,3 and 1, leaving 3 to win off the final over.

The drama was not over. Here is how the scoring went:

1 Fenton facing, dot ball
2 Fenton hits single
3 Anton caught and bowled
4 Fenton hits single to long-on - 1 required
5 Pete, now facing, discovers he can't see a thing due to setting sun. Blocks ball, sets off for run, sent back by Fenton 6 Pete charges down wicket, ball hits his thumb and goes to oldest Blewbury fielder. Fenton scrambles home, giving Gnome (batting 9 players) a two-wicket victory.

Fenton and Anton put on 51 for the 6th wicket in 5.5 overs. Anton scored 39, Fenton was not out 18 (and in Pete's totally crucial innings was 1 not out).

Ironically, the only Gnome person not present to witness this last-ball triumph was Chris Gill who had departed with five overs left, claiming a dinner date elsewhere. He did seem to be in a slightly defensive mood,
but the next day seemed more chastened. Naturally no one in the Gnome camp put him out of his misery to tell him we had won until the start of the Swinbrook match.

*A reference to the unreconstructed Lew Chester - not the man currently playing with such gay abandon, but the Lew Chester who would occasionally get stuck in an over-defensive rut, to the point where he risked being given out by the Gnome umpires to ludicrous oppo appeals.

Tour quiz, part one:

Which of these excuses did Chris offer for his badly-judged innings?

Before knowing the result:

1 I was given the number 3 slot and played accordingly
2 There was lots more batting to come
3 All right, Pete, you show us how to do it

After knowing the result

4 I only did it to make a game of it
5 At least it produced a tight result

Give yourself one point for each answer you selected. (Maximum: 5 points).

Now to the "miss" by skipper Anton , who is alleging that since he didn't get a hand to the ball, this does not count as a miss at all. Here is the official multiplier calculator for fielders who judge the catch so badly they don't even get near it.

1 You are the captain - x 5
2 You position yourself perfectly on the boundary - x 10
3 When the catch goes up you move in just far enough for the ball to clear your hands by one foot or less - x 5
4 The ball lands where you were standing and does not even go for 6 - x 20

5 In the previous over you have insisted on changing places with another fielder who was on the mid-wicket boundary - x 5.

6 That fielder was top of the Gnome catching list the previous season - x 5

7 The same fielder takes a match-winning catch when fielding at deep mid-wicket the following day - x 20

8 The batsman was the oppo's top scorer - x 5

This produces a multiplier factor of 12,500,000. Fortunately, the batsman added just 4 runs to his score before getting out, which restricts the total
to a relatively modest 50,000,000. And since Anton caught the same man in the next over, he is allowed a dividing factor of 2, reducing the total to 25,000,000.

If anyone has any problems with this, please add your comments to the Lord Gnome website.

NEXT UP:

Report from Swinbrook: From villain to hero in 24 hours - Chris Gill silences his critics with the performance of a life time.

Plus the full drama from the Windrush tie - proud captain Sven pens his thoughts.