A game we contrived to lose.

It was dry while we played, but downpours earlier had flooded the Blackwall tunnel, jammed the North Circular and persuaded teams in the other two matches to cancel.

Not the Fallopians - with a full team we were determined to play, even if that meant allowing an under-strength Norfolk & Chance to borrow a couple of players from the nets.

That proved an overly generous and costly decision.

The opposition rattled up a sizeable score of 140 considering we had agreed to reduce the overs to 12 with dark clouds and a late start reducing the light.

Despite our efforts no Norfolk & Chance wicket fell.

Not so when the Fallopians came to bat. Slow and high came the balls, and fast and rash fell the wickets - four to Fred, borrowed from Chats and the nets.

In fact, all seven Fallopian wickets were clean bowled - for the first time in recorded history (the last six years, anyhow).