V&A XI:Adam Jacot (skip), Rob Taylor, Andy Taylor, Tom Walsh, Vincent Walsh, Simon Marsh, Oliver Marsh, Christiaan Jonkers, Christy Kulasingham, Jasper Arnold, Dominic Scott

‘Wow my gosh!’ What an innings! And even “You must retire him!” I heard them say. For here was a match where one player made all the difference – more later!

Our favourite arena: the bowl that is Stonor cricket ground or “Lord Camoys’ meadow” as Henry Blofeld famously dubbed it, was competing with the gleaming cars of the craft fair on the twin hillocks opposite and the new sunflower trail behind us. The harvest had been reaped. The stage was set. The cast assembled. The coin cast. The play to be performed across the ‘inside of the day’. A 35 over match preferred to a time game. Just as well as wickets here have proved hard to come by in August and with only seven wickets falling all match a draw would otherwise have been the likely result.

We played the village: a key fixture in our calendar: it being a joint celebration of this glorious ground. They were hosts and we knew our place (the ‘visitors’ dressing room’). No mobiles, just Radio Bird into which to tune. The pitch was parched and though the weather wasn’t a hazy heatwave, it was ‘wasp-warm’ and the heat penetrative.

And so to village cricket: authentic and in earnest. In true V&A tradition we offered a brace of Taylor brothers, two fathers (Walsh and Marsh) with their teenage sons and a septuagenarian Scott with all the intervening decades represented.

We were put in and, after losing Tom Walsh, whose shots are renown for staying hit, early to a shot he didn’t want in his locker, a restorative partnership ensued between Jasper (48) and Cristy (26) adding 83 runs with gradual acceleration to take us to the half-innings drinks. The former flicked off his legs elegantly with his “why walk when you can run” philosophy and the latter serenely and judiciously found the gaps. It was fascinating to see how our opposition, equally knowledgeable of the bumps and boundary, set its field: no slips but with a seemingly ‘touch-tight’ circle of close fielders.

But it was to prove to little avail for in walked Andy Taylor. There was no acceleration. It was fifth gear from the outset. He butchered the bowling with a masterful display of clean hitting. Sixes galore with ten and over becoming the norm. Aided by his brother Rob and then newcomer Simon Marsh, we reached 230 with Andy on 90 not out off less than half that number of balls. An innings on a par with Joe Tetlow’s recent century.

And so to take the field. Christiaan, the ‘captain’s ‘go-to’ bowler’, opened up alongside Vincent who took the ‘de Caires’ end. There was precious little swing or seam though one end popped prodigiously to keep keeper Jasper at his lively best. We kept them relatively sedated. The Marsh pair then took over, further to apply the squeeze. Rob Taylor, to your writer’s mind, is V&A’s greatest-ever fielder (though Jago Poynter’s javelin throws of old from the boundary must put him close). With Rob’s long-stops, sliding dives and ‘dead-eyed-dick’ judgment, he put pay to any possible retaliation. Dominic contained wonderfully, as always, with his apparent minimal effort. All who wanted had had a bowl. The village, despite losing only two wickets, never really went through the gears. The result was beyond doubt. The fat lady had sung. As creaking captain I had achieved the joint mission of giving action to all while attaining victory.

So many of our best players are beyond reach. We’ve lost Jago and TPG to Somerset. We’ve lost Robbie Lawson, Nick Derelawny and Henry Turpie to Australia. We will likewise lose Andy again as he returns to Canada. We wish him all the best out there with his humour, his skiwear business, his wife and his children. We will miss him. Oh … and for his batting!