Gonville & Caius College

Playing Caius is always a bit of a lottery. The strength of their team depends on which players are doing finals, how strong the year group is, or even whether they can be bothered to get out of bed. This year, they were a likeable, cheerful bunch of guys (and two fit but clueless girls) but there was barely a cricketer among them. Some appeared to need telling which way up to hold the bat.

By contrast, we put out a pretty serious team, including Chris ‘rock star’ Warwick, Paul ‘Magic’ Daniels, Sean Reilly, Mark Opie and Paul Cook. So even though their opening four batsmen put on 70-odd between them, we never felt anything but comfortable and in control. Paul Cook had a golden spell where wickets tumbled like ninepins, Chris Langley could not be denied and James Weymes was rewarded for his wily ways.

Coming out to bat, with just 126 to make, we could afford to be quite cavalier. Chrissy Warwick cut and drove with his customary relish, David Nicholson made a quick fire 14 and then Mark Opie and Paul Cook delivered the fatal blows as the opposition ran out of bowling steam and we sat on the pitted old wooden pavilion enjoying a pint in the evening sunshine.