Report by Daniel Mortlock:

We were promised a new opposition this year, in the form a team from Exeter University led by our own Will Siebert; but half the team found themselves self-isolating in the week leading up to tour, so they had to cancel. At first this seemed likely to be very frustrating, as we had 27 players available this afternoon; but it turned out to be a blessing, as when the call went out for some last-minute replacements to take on the Marines the response on the WhatsApp group was a chorus of "shotgun not me".

Report by Daniel Mortlock:

Our games against the RMCC have been a bit of a lottery: sometimes they arrive with full sides bristling with semi-professional cricketers; sometimes "they" consists of just a few players to be augmented by Stoney and some of the younger Dares. Today, pleasingly, was a happy medium: they had a full side with a few extras, but there was no sense of being out-gunned with bat or ball (even if their average fitness levels were, predictably, a smidge higher than ours). So we were all set for a grand afternoon tussle to finish our tour . . . until we for some reaason agreed to the Marines' strange request to play two separate short format games. It was never clear what motivated this - the rumour that some of their guys wanted to play against each other didn't pan out, and we could have happily played a rotating side to give their extras a game - but the result was clearly a victory for our opposition. And it was certainly a loss for us, given our dismal twenty/20 failures last night. (It could, indeed, be argued that it was the worst call in FAS history, as it is presumably the only single decision that has ever been complicit in the loss of two games.)

Still, the early signs were good, as our bowling attack effectively restricted - or dismissed - most of their batters. Even more impressive, given the aforementioned grumbling about broken bodies after three whole days of cricket, we backed up the bowlers brilliantly in the outfield. The star was Dave Harrop who, aside from taking a nice running catch on the boundary, almost pulled of what would have been a contender for the all-time FAS title, flinging himself horizontally to intercept a hard-hit pull, only for the ball to bounce out of his hand before it could close. Tom Hall and Daniel Mortlock also managed good grabs in the outer while Toby Reynolds got a catch and a stumping. The Marines' total of 102/9 looked pretty poor . . .

. . . at least until we started batting. Of the top order only Nigel Reynolds (28 off 45 balls) made more than 13, although our target was so low that we were still probably ahead of the game on 53/1 after 12 overs. There were several options for maininting that exhalted status, but none of them was losing 3 wickets and scoring just 10 runs in the next four overs (which, coincidentally, was the number of times Tom Hall was dropped in his eventful innings of 13 off 23 balls). Tom Cooper (23* off 18 balls) and Mike Harrop (9* off 10 balls) went close to scoring the required 39 from the last 4 overs, but in the end it was too much (a fact recorded in a ball-by-ball countdown on the WhatsApp group for those early leavers).

Report by Daniel Mortlock:

Starting a second match against the same opposition just a few minutes after the previous one was finished was a slightly surreal experience, especially as we just picked up where we left off, Tom and Mike heading back out to "continue" their partnership. Mike was soon heading back in, but Chris Barras then joined Tom in what was effectively a bat-off given that they were the two top-scorers on tour. Chris (22 off 34 balls) was shaded by Tom (57* off 45 balls) today, although the end his century against Bibury on Sunday held sway in the awards. Perhaps more importantly, we actually scored at a decent rate - first time any team had done that on the Blockley this tour - and we ended up scoring the same number of runs in 15 overs as we had in 20 just an hour earlier.

Unfortunately, the Marines were able to similarly up their game: none made big scores, but they all dealt with the bad balls more decisively than we had, and they were always up with the rate. And it was no surprise that a big boundary off the final ball of the penultimate over ended the game.