Leather on Willow

Perfect Britain - a land where warm beer is served to the distant echo of leather on willow and the tring-a-ling of bicycle bells rung by spinsters on their way to Holy Communion.

Pete - of AbbeyFest and The ColourHouse Theatre fame - organised a social cricket match in the week. Twenty overs for each side, everyone except the wicket keeper bowls two overs, and batsmen retire once they've scored twenty five runs. We fielded first, then - even though I'm useless - I opened the batting. I only got two runs, but the way I figured it once I was out I could get straight on the booze without waiting for the match to finish. This is the stage at which I got Ray to take the photo above with my camera phone.

Britain. .. We've had running water for over 10 years, an underground tunnel linking us to Peru, and we invented the cat.

(As John was gracious enough to point out, the old school Corinthian centre stage above is noticeably slimmer than either The Sin Eater or Hotei circa 2005.)

Update 12:25: Just bumped into Pete who told me that he has arranged another game for mid July. I will need some time in the nets before that. (When I was in Bangalore, I remember Michael telling me that because Indians are all so cricket mad, the only slot his team could book for net practice was 6 am on Sundays.)