V&A XI:Rob Taylor (skip), Christy Kulasingam, Jasper Arnold, Christiaan Jonkers, Enzo Nicoli, Zafrulla Aman, Joe Tetlow, Shifan Razick, Dhimaj Ahmed, Tom Peacock, James Taylor

This match was the second encounter with Sky CC of the year.  The had gracefully got us out of a hole earlier in the season when our prescribed opposition had cancelled late in the week.  This fixture was in the list from the beginning of the season and apparently much looked forward to by the opposition, some of whom had travelled for two hours to attend.  The weather was pleasantly warm, but remained stubbornly overcast for most of the day before redeeming itself with a couple of hours of dappled evening sunlight; the sort in which village cricket in the late summer becomes a most beguilling spectacle.

Sky won the toss and chose to bat, but made sluggish progress in the light of some tight bowling from self and the evergreen Enzo Nicoli.  Enzo was complaining of a dicky back, born of painting his ceiling, which caused Jasper to retort with the wonderful non-sequitur, “don’t you live in a bungalow?”.  The score meandered to a mere 33 for loss of three wickets after 13 overs, and replacing Enzo with Christy provided no let up.  Lunch, taken with the score at approx 60-5 from 20 overs, was a Taylor family affair.  Rob Taylor acting as head chef with help from his mother in law and father, Bill acting as commis and front of house.  The result was a magnificent spread, with a delicious honey glazed ham, coronation chicken with assorted salads.  Nicky Bird’s absence meant it was safe for the opposition to remain in their seats to hear Rob give the briefest of speeches, which offended no-one.

Whatever Sky made of lunch, it did wonders for their batting, and they set off at an impressive clip.  Kimat in particular, who augments his cricket with a steady flow of comedic one-liners, found the boundary with a regularity which eluded them in the morning session.  There was also some eccentric running and Kimat’s innings ended with a suitably comical run out, following which he lay, spreadeagled on the floor, covered in dust, berating his partner (quite unjustifiably) and conducting a brief post-mortem before departing.  Some lusty blows from the tail yielded a mixture of boundaries and wickets, which saw Sky bowled out for a respectable 147, an over to two short of their allotment.

The V&A response contrasted somewhat with the visitors.  Tom Peacock, playing his first game for the V&A, and Zaf, made light of some lively bowling, with stylish cuts and wristy flicks respectively to  get the innings off to a flying start.  The introduction of some wily slow bowling from Tyrone and Jarniel either side of tea (delicious home made scones and cream), quelled the run rate a little, but when Zaf was caught in the gully for 40, Jasper continued in the same vein, knocking off the runs with nine wickets and about ten overs to spare, with Peacock finishing with a fine unbeaten 61.

It had been a thoroughly entertaining day’s cricket, played in an excellent spirit with a cheerful and enthusiastic opposition.