It seemed a somewhat strange decision to give the captain’s job to an Englishman the day after England’s shambles on the last day of the Ashes Test in Adelaide. Was I supposed to lose or had I been chosen for turning up first?

It started well, I won the toss, the wicket looked good so batting seemed to be the thing to do. Not knowing all my team I then searched for a couple of openers only to find that I had plenty of number sevens but was somewhat short on openers.

We started slowly and runs just kept ahead of overs for the first ten, from thence wickets fell. Batsmen got a start but with tight bowling and amazing catching, progress was painful. A gutsy 22 from Geoff Miller and a fighting 30 from Bert Walker were the only scores worth a mention. Eight catches were taken and the standard of fielding for a Masters Fixture should probably have resulted in some dope testing as these not so young fielders swooped on anything in the air. I did share in a partnership of over 20 with Bert (he got just about all the runs) and we just got to three figures before Bert departed and that was pretty well that.

Our bowling resources were not plentiful but our opening attack worked hard to contain some spirited hitting. A one handed slip catch by Wal Scott was the highlight of our fielding effort. Hamish Wright did some amazing Ashley Giles’ impressions in the field before finally taking a very difficult swirling catch that everyone else was happy not to be under. Peter Devlin was our most successful bowler at first change with 2 for 14.

Halfway through the innings there was brief hope as hundreds of sheep arrived in the next field and a gate was open to the cricket field. An abandoned game looked a possibility had the sheep spotted the open gate. As it turned out, unfortunately the Umpire noticed the gate before the sheep and our last hope was gone.

With glorious bright sunshine, great surroundings and entertaining cricketers, an excellent day was enjoyed by all.