It has been a sport-filled day. This afternoon I played for the wine trade against Hampton Wick. They were a strong side; we were a little weak on the bowling front. On a gorgeous but windy afternoon I bowled a spell of nine overs. That’s quite long for me. I was getting it in the right places, and against two good batsmen who both went on to score centuries, on a dead pitch, my figures were 9-1-35-0. I was pleased.

They scored a lot of runs. We didn’t. We were also a player short. They declared setting us a target of 246 of about 40 overs. In response, our batting line-up crumbled. Charles Tavener’s 50 was the only highlight, but even he wasn’t his normal fluent self. I was last in and we had to bat for 11 overs to save the game. I saw off five balls, getting confident bat to each. Then my partner got out and the game was over.

Still, it was great fun, and Royal Hampton Wick is a lovely place to play cricket. We followed up with a couple of pints of London Pride, and a slug of Puligny Montrachet that Phil Tuck had brought along from a Decanter tasting.

Then it was down the road to Teddington for Wednesday night football. Short numbers (4 v 5) on a big pitch made for lots of running. It was a good work out. We headed back to Twickenham for ale at the Prince Blucher, where another couple of pints of Pride went down very nicely. Now I am home with a glass of rather good fizz in hand (Philipponnat ‘1522’ 2000, continuing my exploration of Philipponnat, which is so far going very well).