Spent the afternoon playing cricket at Hampton Wick, a beautiful ground set in Bushy Park. It was the Wine Trade versus Balls Brothers, a 20-20 fixture.

We batted first and scored 137-8, which seemed a little under-par. Then we bowled, and from the start it looked like an uphill struggle for the Balls boys. I opened and despite damaging my back with my first delivery, conceded just 3 from my two overs (we had decided that everyone should bowl). They were well behind the asking rate, and were bowled out for less than 100.

It was a fun game though, and we followed it with some beer, some wine and a BBQ. Interesting wines were passing around. The Pombal de Vesuvio 2008 (a table wine from Douro property Quinta do Vesuvio) impressed, as did a chunky, intense Floresta Petit Verdot 2005 from Santa Rita in Chile. Klein Constantia’s Chardonnay 2008 was also wonderful, with real complexity. Pinot Gris 2008 and Pinot Noir 2008 from Grove Mill, Marlborough, NZ were appealing. We finished off watching some world cup in the bar.