CCC v BK - Greenwich

What is it about this fixture? Over the last few years, we must have played BK more than most teams and yet every time the two sides seem to end up locked in another thrilling contest.
This one, I would submit, takes the home-made cake.
Conditions couldn't have been more different from the previous week, when the sun beat down on a glorious afternoon and Greenwich park seemed to have slipped a few thousand miles south along the Prime Meridian to Africa - Ghana, or Togo, perhaps.
No, our home ground had rediscovered its true bearings on the chill eastern edge of the most famously miserable city in the world.
Wind howled through the white slats of the sight screens. Icy drizzle clung to newly budding trees. Shocked voles, emerging from hibernation, scurried away and threw themselves under lorries on Shooters Hill just to escape their frozen misery.
The Skipper, wisely, rigged the toss and chose to bat, mainly to give us the chance to thaw out after spending the morning forcing boundary markers into the permafrost.
Cincinnati's reliably egocentric opening pair of Selfish Batter and Selfish Butter (aka Lurpak) put on 48 for the first wicket. The partnership ended only when Lurp reverted to form after some unusually dashing shots and re-located that trusty outside edge.
Will and Simon drove and pulled their way to good scores but both fell short of 50 as BK's bowlers applied pressure and never let the Natti batters get away.
An immaculately executed 18 followed from Stephen, who looked for all the world as if he had wintered like a swallow in the warmer climes of Mark Ramprakash's Caribbean Batting Academy.
Important contributions from Rocky and the Vice Captain helped Cincinnati to 180 for 7 at tea as snow clouds gathered overhead.
In an inspired effort to warm us all up, the Vice Captain provided a glorious spread, including a pasta salad laced with explosive chillies. Amy (Mrs Lurpak) supplied the first tray of brownies of 2008.
Suitably immobilised by lard, we took the field to defend what always looked likely to prove an inadequate score.
Howling Mad Max had his first outing of the year and tore in from the Pavilion End (do we have one of those?) with a fine spell of fast bowling. He removed two key BK batters for just 26 runs off his allotted overs.
But the opposition were making steady progress towards their target, despite the best efforts of Adam and the Chairman to keep runs to a minimum. Rahman, Ferhan and our old wicket-keeping mate Pete pushed the score to within reach of our total with some determined batting.
That is, until what must surely count as one of the most remarkable transformations in modern cricketing history.
Selfish Batter, the mainstay of our top order for the past 350 years, dramatically, sickeningly, like some multi-headed slithering alien from Dr Who, morphed into The Incredible Selfish Bowler.
With a run-up that suggests an almost total contempt for the bowler's art, the ISB slung down a series of vicious swinging deliveries in the semi-darkness. From his near stationary position next to the umpire, he prized out three BK batsmen for no runs in a single crucial over, helped by some brilliant catching from Rocky. Normally, this is the sort of thing that other teams do to us, but suddenly Cincinnati were back in the match.
With just one over left and BK down to their last pair, the batsmen nicked another run.
The scores were level. There was one ball left and one run needed for a BK victory or a dot ball or wicket for a tie.
The ISB steamed in from no yards away, slinging down another yorker, but BK squeezed it away in the gap backward of point and took the crucial run.
Much credit to the final pair of BK batters for keeping their cool and curses to the rest of them for another amazing match.
Cincinnati 180-7 after 40 overs (Selfish Batter 42, Will 33. Josh 3-37)
BK 181-9 from 40 overs (Ferhan 40, Rahman 37. Incredible Selfish Bowler 3-18, Lurpak 3-43).