Unlike the V&A CC, whose members nowadays have little to do with the V&A (although some have visited the museum by accident), The Authors XI are actually authors (alumni include P.G. Wodehouse and Conan Doyle). Currently they include Tom Holland, the popular classicist, and Andy Zaltzman, the comedian and podcaster (also a fine batsman). Tom Bird chatted to him, not entirely aware of his pedigree. ‘What do you do?’ ‘I have a podcast, The Bugle.’ ‘Been doing it long?’ ‘Ten years.’ My daughters, who went to the circus in Stonor Park that was noisily in evidence all day Saturday, squeaked with excitement on hearing Andy was in spitting distance. If only they’d known. I have a family connection with The Authors. William Fiennes is a regular. He was raised at beautiful Broughton Castle near Banbury, about which he wrote so movingly in The Music Room (2009). His Dad is Nat […]

ACME are Bowden’s old team and had some good young players who could catch; a few could bat too. I was impressed by their cars (including an Aston Martin) and wives.

Our second oldest fixture after the mighty Hermits, and always fun. This year, when they turned up, eventually, I counted the number of their yoof element, young people who run and bend and throw. None. In contrast we had 7 – 8 if you count Christiaan (I don’t).

THE HEMMINGFORD HERMITS were founded a year after us by a ragged lot who had mostly been to Exeter University or Radley

The INVALIDS were founded by two officers in WWI, recovering from wounds in hospital. They resolved, if they survived the war, to start a cricket team. They did, and it too survives, thanks in part to Richard Durdon-Smith, the eminent actor and all-rounder.  He has just remarried. She is both younger and lovely (which is good) and his agent (which is not). You shouldn’t marry your agent or publisher or venereologist, it is too close to home. He was away ‘working’ as actors say. It is a rotten shame that the V&A’s actor, Lachlan Nieboer, who has starred on stage and screen and Downton Abbey, is wasted at the moment. Last week he was tutoring an aristocratic boy at a schloss in Denmark. They must have been overjoyed when they saw Lachlan step off the sleigh, expecting (obviously) a conventional tutor, a retired paedo prep school master with leather elbow […]

It was nice to be back. The pavilion boasted new floorboards on the porch but otherwise all was the same; same rabbit holes in the outfield, same kites in the sky, same track with its variable bounce. Not as good as Turville said Christiaan, our skip, but he is a curmudgeon so take no notice. He got walloped for three successive boundaries which always puts him in a bad mood. He suggested that the offending batsman ‘might try playing a cricket stroke’ implying that the fellow was a bit agricultural.  Christiaan may be John Inman in his second-hand bookshop but is John Wayne on the pitch. We batted first, opening with Ashcroft and Nick P-G. Ross whacked a four off his first ball and looked set for 50 when he was plumb LBW (for 10), knew it and walked as the finger went up. Enter Chris Mounsey-Thear who immediately set about the bowling […]

The V&A CC is in rude health. We were oversubscribed for nearly every game, and sometimes had 12 or even 14 to rotate on the day. This was partly due to bungling or weakness on my part: players clambered eagerly aboard and I thought, what the fuck, someone is bound to die or get banged up before Saturday but it didn’t happen. Some, like Adam, feel that playing 12 or more is wallyish. Personally I like the luxury of sitting out a few overs and chatting to the old biddies on the boundary. Speaking of which they created the most exotic and delectable lunches, better than ever. Teas too, with memorable cakes and scones. My own efforts are industrial by comparison. I regret bringing the wrong sort of tea bags, Lapsang Suchong or Orange Pekoe, forget which, but the oiks that I am forced to spend my days with at […]