Given that the mag is free in Waitrose (PR Dept. feel free to get in touch and offer me those nice free coffees which seem to have vanished into thin air btw), have a read.

It takes a Pandemic to start nitpicking apart the Pensioners’ favourite Daytime TV programme, Pointless. But here goes. Amongst other things, Jonathan Agnew writes of his broken heart at hearing Alistair Cook being a Pointless answer. I’m not going to go into the rules of the game, if you don’t already know them, congratulations at taking WFH so seriously you never flick on the Telly. The Question : Name any cricketer who had captained England on six occasions or more. As our Jonathan points out, Sir Alistair captained England a record 59 times. How can this be? How can everyone not love cricket as much as me?

The point here is demographics. I have often thought back to my Geography and Maths classes at school when I hear of people conducting surveys. If you do your fieldwork on High Street Kensington you will get a very different set of 100 people than you would if you took a sample from a more financially deprived part of the UK. I have long thought Pointless should bear this in mind. Mr Armstrong should let his contestants know where the 100 people were captured. Where, Richard Agatha Christie Osman was the survey conducted? Anyway, it is after all Pointless, and it is pointless in me taking any of this too seriously. Pensioners and Cricket are unlikely to save the world from bloody Coronavirus. Or maybe not? Stranger things have happened in the Dover Straits that is for sure.

Aggers mentions that during a ‘Summer’ spent in the bio bubble, pretty envious to be honest – can think few better places to be than being in that bubble, (Vaughan looks quite handy at table tennis, but I still reckon I’d have him), he’s come to realise, money talks more than ever right now.

One does wonder if the Chinese pulling out of the Football Premiership sponsorship was a direct consequence of the Hauwei 5G ‘U’ turn. I can tell you, China can be pretty joined up in its thinking, and if you piss off Uncle Xi, you might only find out from nephew Deng.

Yes, visibility is key. These sportsmen need to be on TV or the connectivity we feel through live events just dies as a result of events not being attended. Looking forward to Mr Agnew’s next column. On the IPL?

After a needed Saturday siesta, a Sichuan nap of sorts, I cycled down to the local village Cricket green to see if there was a game on. To my delight, there was. I propped my bicycle against the picket fencing sectioning off the Croquet court and watched the two in-batsmen stroking it around the field for an over or two, before strolling around a quarter of the boundary.

I struck up conversation with the lad fielding as sweeper, and after gleaning the scores, generously commented that it was close, at the same time thinking if that Bat continues to cream sixes the home side have no chance. Chasing around 210, the opposition stood strong at 160- 5.

Cracks started to show and after a lucky wicket from a full toss, the home side got the bit between their teeth. I was witnessing a come back. Only twenty four hours ago on TV I’d seen the English bowlers outwit the Aussies in the first of the 3 match 20/20 series, surely it couldn’t happen two days running?

There was the usual beautiful village cricket stuff : batsmen colliding with bowlers; a thwack on the kneecap from an effective but ungainly piece of fielding by a portly gentleman at mid off; banter.

Wickets continued to fall. Another dislodging of bails from a full toss. A well held catch at mid off. The home team were in the running. The score was not nudging beyond the 180s and the visiting XI seemed to be throwing away their chances.

I think there was above all a feeling of relief to be out there playing, and I for one was feeling joy at just watching some live cricket. In the end, the home team did it. A glance and a nick down the leg side, with a catch held by the keeper saw an unforeseen (from my book) victory.

Cycling away down the lane I thought how scenic it was, the late Summer / early Autumn evening sun streaming through the leaves giving a dappled lighting, highlighting the flying insects.