Over 30 category:  My favourite cricket club story  

I like cricket, dear Reader!  When the sun is shining.  When the children are happily playing in a corner of the cricket field.  When there is a deckchair to sit on and a Sunday newspaper and Diet Coke by my side.  I particularly like cricket when the object of my affection scores a boundary or a four.  I like it even more when he only scores a single or two runs which forces him to take proper exercise at last!  But my spectator-only participation did not go unnoticed for long.  I was eventually approached by dear Pat who was in charge of “teas” at the cricket club.  Would I join the tea rota and make the teas -   it’s very straightforward, you know, just some sandwiches and tea – maybe once a month?

I swear I had no ulterior motive on my first Sunday on duty.  I simply wanted to do my best, catering to the teatime needs of two teams of cricketers.  I knew I could easily prepare the tea even though I had never learned to drink tea or coffee.  And the sandwiches would be the tastiest they had ever eaten – after all, I had high standards! Now at that time upmarket sandwich bars in the City, where I worked, had raised their game and were producing what we fancifully called “designer sandwiches”.  They looked good, they tasted good, even if we were never sure they did us good.  I digress.  The point was that I could not possibly provide sandwiches with anything less than a luxuriant filling.  So that is what I did. 

Yes, it meant using rather more tins of tuna and rather more hard-boiled eggs and quite a few more slices of cheese and maybe a couple more tomatoes, but I didn’t want to let the lads down and I did want my beloved to be proud of my contribution to his weekly cricket joy.  The sandwiches were lovingly prepared, then cut and placed daintily on large plates on the tables, where they simply asked to be eaten.

Tea was a very great success.  The compliments were flowing.  I was basking in my achievement.  The weeks went by.  I was never asked to make teas again.  Apparently I had blown the budget.  Result!