Report by Daniel Mortlock:

We were all looking forward to ending our season with a third cagey and closely-fought fixture against Gills Green, but it seems them not so much: word came through mid-week that they were struggling for players; by Friday that struggle had been quantified as "three"; and by the end of our Saturday game that had become "two". That was the end of this game . . . but hopefully not the end of this fixture, which we'll certainly try to renew next year.

Report by Daniel Mortlock and the FAS WhatsApp group:

We went in the day with no opposition but a surplus of FAS players - what to do with a baker's dozen of testosterone-rich athletes in peak physical condition? The candidate options were: i) go to the superb local pub; ii) hang out at Slip Mill to watch the Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix followed by the England vs. Australia T20; or iii) head up to the Gills Green ground for an extremely complicated single-wicket competition to establish FAS on-field primacy for the 2025 tour. Despite considerable attention from the finest FAS minds, the surprising decision was that we would indeed go for the third option - although this was rather in denial of the finest FAS bodies, many of which ruled themselves out well before the start-time of 12:30pm (something we actually held ourselves to, unlike the Grannies yesterday).

We thus found ourselves both watching and competing in the first-ever FAS single-wicket competition between the surviving entrants: Chris Barras, Jamie Dare, Steve Frosten, Tom Hall, Al Herbert (the one surviving Gills Green player), Harry Houlder, Dave Kittow, Daniel Mortlock, and Joe White. The format was a knock-out tournament in which each "match" saw the two competitors bowl an eight-ball super-over at each other, with dismissals incurring a five-run penalty. Thanks to some late withdrawals Jamie, Harry and Al secured byes to the second round, leaving these three first-round encounters:

• Daniel Mortlock (9 runs) lost to Chris Barras (10 runs), who cannily left Daniel's last two deliveries, safe in the knowledge he could now only lose by getting out.
• Dave Kittow (11 runs) lost to Joe White (14 runs), Joe prevailing in part because as a couple of tough catches went to ground, whereas Dave was caught from the one chance he gave.
• Steve Frost (1 runs) lost to Tom Hall (17 runs), highlighted by Tom opting for a completely unnecessary all-run four which knackered him for the rest of the competition.

The second round was:

• Harry Houlder (11 runs) lost to Jamie Dare (12 runs).
• Tom Hall (-13 runs) lost to Al Herbert (13 runs), as Al bowled the over of the day, bowling Tom twice as well as securing a run out; by the mid-point of Tom's over his only route to victory was a double hat-trick.
• Joe White (4 runs) lost to Chris Barras (5 runs), Chris again carefully dotting out the last few deliveries.

That left us with what is believed to be the second ever FAS three-way, as Al, Jamie and CB each faced overs from the other two, with the lowest scorer being eliminated.

• Chris Barras (18 runs) batted first as he was already padded up, posting what seemed likely to be a healthy total.
• Jamie Dare (23 runs) then cantered past CB's total to guarantee his progression to the final.
• Al Herbet (21 runs) survived an over of spin from Jamie and then went to town on some half-trackers from Chris, who was thus relegated to the bronze medal position.

We then returned to the single-over format for the final:

• Jamie Dare (?? runs) defeated Al Herbert (-3 runs), Jamie going back to his full run to bounce Al into submission, thus securing both FAS respecability - it would have effectively been a loss to a one-man Gills Green side if Al had won the entire tournament - and justifying Jamie's own receipt of the best all-rounder award the previous evening.

Thus, after two hours of something which was (to paraphrase Douglas Adams) almost, but not quite, entirely unlike cricket, we headed back to Slip Mill to watch the Grand Prix in preparation for the drive home.