Our first away trip of the season takes us to the Rudolf Steiner School for spoilt kids in leafy Kings Langley. The wicket looks OK, but the boundaries are very short at the side, there are a lot of grass cuttings left all over the outfield, very small changing rooms, no showers and tea is a long walk to Kings Langley cricket club. I’ve been on shorter sponsored walks.

Cap’n Jack losses the toss, but the oppo decide to have a bat. They too got a bit of a stuffing last week and on the first hot day will want to bat all afternoon.

Jay from the top, Barrie from the bottom and soon Hemel are in all sorts of trouble at 12-3, Jay knocking the stumps over twice and Barrie relying on his old mate Geordie. On a hot day our bowlers are rotated and we keep chipping away, Manuun (Sorry I’m sure this is spelt wrong), Jack, Kay, Kuldip and Tom "bring back the biff" Simons, brought in and out of the attack, only the No.5 with a quick 20 looking to threaten our superiority as they tumble to 83-8.

Drinks and up to this point our fielding has been very good, Logie and Kay looking comfortable whilst taking skiers, despite the dodgy outfield our ground fielding is OK and we give the appearance of looking like a proper cricket team.

Not for long, I’m sure we all thought we would be chasing around a 100. Two youngsters however gave us a lesson in application, the No.7 in particular defended initially very well, but then opened his shoulders later on and followed Toms’ advice and brought back the biff. In fact "biffing" Tom over the hedge. Our fielding has gone to pieces, the catches start going down and supported by No.10 (16) the No.7 ends up with 82. Tom finishes with 3-31 from 7 overs, Jay 2-20 from 10 and Barrie 2-17 from 15.

The hike to tea and back is enough get the frustration out of our system and Piggsy and I are sent to the middle to chase 174 for victory.

A bit of a dream start, although the young bowlers bowled some good balls they threw in the odd loose one which the Pig and I managed to put away. I’m first to go, but Logie (34) and Geordie (18) carry on the good work and despite a late flurry of wickets we are home by 5 wickets in only 29 overs.

Piggsy getting close to his 50 pretends his old war wound is playing up and gets himself out for 47 before it costs him money.

A much improved performance against a better bowling attack than last week and the young South African bowling down the hill, I’m sure will continue representing the county through the age groups. Difficult to believe he is playing for Herts U16s, he looked much older and the bruise on the inside of my right thigh will testify to his speed.

You can make up your own jokes about various members of the club being bruised by young boys!

Back to the club to discover all 4 teams have won their league games, a great day for us all. But it’s never quite like that, what’s the point of being successful if you can’t come back and take the piss out of the other teams, Daisy getting wickets, Gentle and Dyer getting more runs. The 3’s very smug with their performance and the youngsters in the 4’s all full of it as well.

The only blemish it would seem is the 1^st XI captains bowling, 18 runs from 1 over, determined to bowl every week this may yet prove to be an avenue of ridicule during the season.