Cannon's match. At Jesus on June 1, Matt smashed the individual Gnome batting record with a breathtaking display of controlled hitting and
stroke-making. His score of 167 came off 111 balls and he batted from the start of the innings to the 4th ball of the 40th and last over. Although Jesus were weakened by exam calls, they were a competent side who simply wilted under the onslaught.

Jesus won the toss and asked Gnome to bat. Matt opened with skipper John Dunthorne and the hitting commenced, John taking his cue from Matt with some relaxed pulling and driving. The first statistical point of interest was whether Matt would score Gnome's fastest 50. After 28 balls, 2 less than Anton's record, he was poised on 48, but then played 7 dot balls in
succession before hitting a four, bringing him his 50 in 36. He and John made an opening stand of 117 in 18 overs whereupon John was bowled for a stylish 38.

Tom Godfrey at number 3 helped to keep the score moving and after 20 overs Gnome were 152-1. Matt reached his ton in 67 balls and Tom was caught for
26 when Gnome were on 220, bringing Jezza to the wicket. Matt was now approaching the 141* milestone set by Matt Patten at Wickham Park in 1993. There was a moment of high drama when Matt was on 139 and he hit a high full toss back to the bowler who dropped a straightforward chance. Afterwards Matt could be seen asking the Gnome umpire* why he had not called a no ball, to be told - according to Matt - that the umpire did not know what the new no-ball rule was. Moments later Matt hit another four and the record was his. It scarcely bears imagining what the consequences would have been if the bowler had taken the catch.

Matt scored 150 off 111 balls and went on to hit 167 until finally caught with 2 balls of the innings remaining. He and Jezza - 45* - put on 104 for the third wicket, the third successive ton partnership. Andrew Ramroop scored an elegant 1* and the Gnome innings closed on 325 (see note below.)

Facing an ask of 8.1, Jesus were never in the match. The usual tight Gnome opening, by Anton and Fenton, restricted Jesus to around 2 an over and wickets fell quickly, reducing Jesus to 33-6. The question then was whether Gnome could achieve its largest margin of victory, 221 set against Banstead in 2002. But Jesus staged a rally, with skipper James Loxam hitting a 50
until he fell to a sharp c&b by Pete. A second 50 by the Jesus number 8 took Jesus into the realms of the respectable and they were dismissed for 167 in 31 overs, bringing Gnome victory by 158 runs. Best of the Gnome bowlers were Fenton, 3-15 off 18, and Anton, 3-17 off 6. Andrew had two wickets and Pete one. A memorable day.

It remains, however, to record the disfiguring events of the succeeding week, when an anonymous fraudster attempted to erase Matt's feat from the record books, claiming that Jesus had been barred from regular cricket by the Lords Policing and Liaison department. Suffice it to say that investigations by Gnome officials managed to identify the fraudster and restore the record, although not without alarms over Matt's possible demise and a potential libel suit from Jesus College. The fraudster's name cannot be publicly revealed because of the possible legal action, but crossword addicts may like to study the signature at the foot of the letter, namely:

(Gen) T Nampet (retd)

FOOTNOTES:

The Gnome umpire who failed to call the no ball when Matt was on 139 is believed to be John Bracken - confirmation or otherwise welcome

The Gnome total was scored during the match as 325. Initial scrutiny of the scorebook suggested that the true total was 322. Further computations
by the Gnome statistician and webmaster have restored the total to 325, although this may be subject to further appeal.