THE MONKEY OFF MY BACK.....

About 60 years ago I played in a cricket match that has haunted me every since.   Now they were the days of good old fashioned village cricket - every game was a `friendly` - no sledging, applauding the incoming batsman, no histrionics in the field, and never, ever questioning an umpire`s decision.

We played for the love of the game, for the friendship, the friendly village rivalry and we had the odd triumph and quite a few disasters. One of those was a game between our village team and a team from south London which comprised a team of gentlemen originating from the Caribbean island of Dominica.  They were all real gentlemen and my goodness they could play.  

Most of our annual fixtures against them were hard, close fought games but on one occasion they contrived to dismiss us all out for eight!  I managed one run which might well have been the second highest score but that kind of experience lives with you over the years.   Until now, when today I read an account of a team in Hampshire who were all out for seven!

The New Forest team Ellingham were `playing` United Services in a Hampshire League Division One game at Portsmouth when only three of their batsmen troubled the scorers with one run apiece, the remaining four runs coming from four wides.   I know how they felt but at least the knowledge of a team being dismissed for less than my own team`s eight all those years ago has finally shifted at least one monkey from my back.  And not before time.