Any Pilgrim reporter would struggle when the best he can say about our performance concerned the contributions of Xero, Hansie and Whisper – with the bat!

So let’s begin with the sole positive. These three were heroic and often cheerful as they steered us through 14 tense overs to earn a biblical draw.

As for the rest...

To look at the match figures you’d think we’d played against a southern hemisphere test side, not one of the softest XIs on our fixture list. We won the toss, put them in and Xero and Whisper soon had them struggling at 13 for 2. From there we gradually lost control. The Librarians patiently batted their way to safety, adding 99 for the third wicket and reaching 147 for 3 before, with wickets in hand, enjoying a final fling that enabled them to declare at 194 for 5. Put simply, we didn’t ask enough of the right pressure questions at the right time.

In reply we were dire until nine ten jack came to the rescue. Andy Roberts top scored with 9. There were four ducks (one golden) and Xero was sole qualifier for the man of the match award.

Cricket is a sublimely tough game. It’s even harder with the Pilgrims because, while still trying to win, we don’t bully opponents and we share the work. But it’s completely possible to display apparent kindness while being utterly ruthless. In this chapter, your half-blind correspondent had alarm bells going off in his head from the eighth over. But since they only got louder and louder – and this being the start of the season – let’s sign-off with two simple constructive points.

Please fielders, if you’re placed to save the single make sure you’re near enough to do just that. This alone would have saved us some 30 runs and made us look and feel sharper. Second, our great wicket keeper and many others are incredibly supportive towards our bowlers. They ‘oooh’ and ‘ahhh’ and proclaim anything that passes the bat a delivery of such dextrous penetration you’d think Jim Laker had risen from the dead. Long may they continue. However, captains should turn a deaf ear. The notion that another near-miss is the passport to giving a bowler another over is flawed.

As an addenda, this report was made easier to write because Curly scored and filled-in all those other columns that show the full picture.

Finally, a warm welcome to Aussie Chris and whippet Gary who will both play regularly for us.