I’m currently reading a book about post-war cricket history. If you’re younger than me you might not be aware that for many years matches between the Gentlemen (amateurs) and Players (professionals) were among the highlights of the cricket season.

Perhaps Wood Green’s London League matches serve a similar function today.

Our second match of the season came hot on the heels of last week’s match against Athenaeum, and we were able to field a much stronger team this week. We were gifted a point when the Wood Green top board failed to arrive, so their non-playing captain was obliged to push a few pawns. I assume this was a genuine no-show rather than what used to be known in Thames Valley League circles as the Bayswater Gambit. Apart from that, though, unlike last season, we came away empty-handed.

	Richmond		Wood Green
1	Iain Gourlay 228	1:0	Brian Smith –
2	Callum Kilpatrick 222	0:1	Stephen Gordon 251
3	Gavin Wall 224	0:1	Jon Speelman 244
4	Mike Healey 217	0:1	Richard Pert 242
5	Chris Russell 212	0:1	John Emms 241
6	Liam Varnam 200	0:1	David Haydon 233
7	Caspar Bates 200	0:1	Neil McDonald 232
8	Martin Benjamin 181	0:1	Bogdan Lalic 230
9	John Burke 175	0:1	Chris Ward 229
10	Chris White 180	0:1	Graeme Buckley 222
		1:9

Thanks to all who played. Let’s hope we can field teams of similar strength in the more important matches later in the season.

It was good to see one of my brother’s former pupils as well as four former RJCC members playing for Richmond.