The opposition emerged out suddenly out of nowhere at 1pm on the dot, with toss settled without the requirement for currency rotation, and Skipper Gumpert elected to field first, tossing the new ball to a primed Liam Gray to thunder down the hill, with El Capitan in tandem from the other end.

After a strong LBW shout from the first ball of the game, the game rather returned to Genesis Chapter 6, as there was a Great Flood of runs. One Energy Exiles opener in particular was certainly fully charged, with the opening partnership reaching 67 off nine overs.

This was ended with a textbook caught behind for wicketkeeper Cake off the bowling of Gray, but the next batter was able to continue at a good rate as well, with the 100 brought up inside 15 overs.

However, the flow of runs began to subside, and the wickets started to fall regularly around drinks, with Cobbett removing the two set batters within a couple of overs of each other, one bowled attempting a wild sweep, the other flashing an edge to a diving Wright (M) at backward point.

Sandeep entered the attack down the hill, and spent the next hour bamboozling the Energy Exiles middle order, and telling them all they only had one shot (which, to be fair, was not an incorrect statement). He bowled three and trapped another LBW, but couldn’t quite grab a Michelle in the final over of his spell – and he did all this after grabbing his hamstring after a long boundary chase in the first few overs of the innings.

Chad Mace, who I found had a perfectly acceptable amount of chat, also bowled a neat spell around drinks, picking up the wicket of the opposition skipper. This meant the Exiles were looking a bit undercooked at 180-8 after 29, a great comeback from the Plough it seemed.

However, the tailed wagged enough to irritate everyone, with a 34-run partnership pushing the score over 210, with a couple of lusty final blows leaving the opposition at 225 all out, with the Chad and Benny tidying up the last couple of wickets.

The Wright Brothers were nominated the open the batting, and after one stroke through the cordon for four, the skipper must have felt reasonably smug. However, when only eight balls into the innings, both were back in their shorts and t-shirts, he likely thought two brothers hadn’t had a faster decline since Cain and Abel (yes, I did used to go to Bible Camp).

This brought the grand return of Fred Gumpert and Harry Edmonds to the crease, who began to work the bowlers around to the ever-less-motivated Exiles, who thought every throw into the stumps was an opportunity to win some kind of prize for fastest throw, a bit like when you go ten-pin bowling and a 23.6mph gutterball is more of a brag than a strike.

Fred got slightly underneath a short ball, and was snagged, making way for his brother. What followed was a quite frankly marvellous 22 overs of patient and powerful batting between Edmonds and Gumpert. So, when the skipper opened with Max and Harry, he had the right ideas, but the wrong personnel.

Both passed 50 in good time, with Max bringing up his 1000 for the season and 5000 for the club in his 5th full season during the innings – although this did lead to three unique rounds of applause from the boundary, leaving one Exile particularly confused that Max somehow scored 150 without a single six.

Eventually, a couple days of celebrating the Earl-Spencer partnership caught up with Max, and he was caught for 53. Cake then entered the fray, but was able to mostly allow Edmonds to accelerate, and he progressed to his fourth Ploughmans CC century in 91 balls. He did fall just after this, for 103, but this left the Plough requiring 18 runs with five wickets in the shed and eight overs to play with.

However, the opening bowlers returned for the Exiles, and when Cake was adjudged LBW, the wobble became wobblier than a school jelly. In the end, there was not much troubling the scorers, as the collapse came faster than Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Plough somehow managed to lose by 9 runs.

Both teams will have felt like they should have won at different points of the day, but I do imagine that WinViz for the Plough would have been in the high 90s with 6 wickets in the hutch. Not our day for about 5% of the day, but that was the 5% that mattered.

Match report from Max Wright