Before Skipper Grant Neven had even won the toss he was presented with the dilemma of choosing which eleven players to select from an assembled squad of 13. Deciding first to forego the services of Tony Morris in favour of Daniel Jones, for the latter had arrived earlier with his kit, Neven had a team of twelve willing men.

But then in a further reshuffle, reminiscent of the great Major cabinet clearout in the early '90s, Morris was reinstated at the expense of Jones and the weekend's demi-centurion, Joe Trevett, opted to sit out the game. The next hurdle the captain had to clear was the tricky positioning of his batsmen in an order best suited to the opposition and conditions. A number of computations later and several pages of the scorebook after it was decided by he-on-high that Ken Dodson would partner regular opening batsman Dave 'ever-so-steady' Males. The pair made a resolute if uninspiring start against Chadwick and Steve Bull, who had claimed eight wickets in the previous week's fixture, though boundaries were at a premium. The introduction of change bowlers Gary Randell and John Ryan brought mixed fortunes with the former extracting pace and bounce from the wicket while the latter found bounce but the only pace was generated by the batsmen's willow.

With Jon Dixon impatiently waiting on the sidelines, Grant Neven decided to send in Bill Gates after Dodson had surrendered his wicket in the quest for quick runs. With only a couple of overs left Gates tried but failed to advance the score and Dixon, ever-muttering under his breath about the inadequacies of Triangle's tactics (quite rightfully), struck the ball sweetly in his short stay at the crease though he was cruelly run out by weekend colleague John Ryan from the inning's last delivery. Triangle had not been particularly troubled throughout the innings and Dave Males compiled yet another half century though perhaps they were 30 or so runs short of what would have been a truly competitive total.

Set the modest target of 82 to win, RNSTS sent out the opening pair of Browne and Styles. Browne, older brother of Weymouth FC superstar Alex, looked to consolidate early on and with his partner adopting the same approach the game entered something of a stale-mate. Triangle's Skinner and Trevett both bowled a tight line without causing the batsmen any great difficulty with the only moment of drama the rejection of an appeal for Browne caught behind off the bowling of Trevett. With the two bowlers completing their full allotment of five overs, Neven, knowing that RNSTS still required near a run a ball, turned to Dave Clifford and exciting new prospect Tom Bond.

Clifford continued from where the opening bowlers had left off, though Bond found the uphill run into a strong wind difficult with his line and length suffering as a result. Finally the RNSTS batsmen began to open their shoulders and apart from Browne being dropped on the deep square-leg boundary by Gates, their progress to the winning total was steady if unspectacular. Triangle lost a game they were clearly favourites to come second in but perhaps with a few minor alterations and fine tuning of the automobile that is Portland Red Triangle, RNSTS could have been pushed all the way to an exciting and rather more ambiguous outcome.