The NTs were short, in every sense. No Mike Morris, all six foot seven of him and only eight players, and a weakish eight at that. So Martin [our skip] lent them Adam Jacot. That made us 8 and them 9. Two of our lowest scoring batsmen were to bat twice, and one of theirs. Handing them Adam might seem like insinuating a Trojan Horse, given his recent form, but Adam confounded his critics, all ten of them. Because they were perceived as weak we batted first in a game in which we were limited to 35 overs, but they had 20 overs after 4.20 pm in which to knock off the runs or play for the draw. A straight overs game might have been a bummer if we were too strong. At first things seemed to be going predictably. Rupert swished the bat and hit boundaries. Adam dropped an […]

Bruno returned. He can only field in the slips nowadays, having long since ceased to run or throw overarm. But he elevates the conversation behind the wicket, with talk of Vorticism and Dada, rather than the usual filth. But memories of the old Bruno came flooding back when a gentle lofted catch was misjudged and plopped harmlessly at his feet. Lovely day. The HERMITS first played against us in 1976. They were young and virile and not yet decimated by substance abuse. I am afraid that the team that Terry Blake, their skipper, put together lacked the old élan. xBut he did magnificently to get a team at all, after being 7 on Wednesday. Many oppositions would have pulled the plug but in the end he got 12! I was skip and won the toss and elected to bat. Peter Kirkham and Nick Pritchard-Gordon opened against a decent attack. Peter […]