Friday was the eighth, and final, night away of this season's campaign.

The well-rehearsed pattern of the sojourn south is suspended for another season, leaving us to hope that we will be in a position to endure this inconvenience again in September.

On the one hand it is a hardship that tests commitment and requires constant rearrangement of work and domestic schedules, and yet, ironically, is a feature of the league status we are all working so hard to cling on to.

We don't especially welcome more nights away than many people have on holiday, but we would rather not be herded back into the relative claustrophobia of more local leagues.

Arrangements are now well established. Through the late afternoon, the coach collects odd players in one and twos from the outlying recesses of Cumbria, all mindful of the need to avoid driving home late on Saturday, thus allowing them to anaesthetise themselves against the long trip home.

Five pm brings the main collection point at Kendal Cricket Club: players, officials and a dustbinful of Di Hayton's pasta extravaganza board here.

A feeding frenzy, accompanied by vigorous disputes on the perceived fairness of portion control and the difficulty of managing an overloaded paper plate see the party onto the M6 accompanied by a video if the techno-wizard gets it to work!

The Madjeski Hotel in Reading has become the team's home before Thames Valley games, often shared by other northern teams such as Wharfedale and Harrogate.

A sweepstake on the price of a pint in the hotel bar revealed some rural naivety on the first visit, but now £3.20 does not seem so shocking.

An 11pm arrival allows for a couple of relaxing beers for the players, before they drift to bed, allowing the committee members to bring their long experience to the fore.

The recent transfer of Jonathan Nicholson into the non-playing fraternity has done much to compress Friday's bedtime towards Saturday's breakfast.

The breakfast buffet allows a spectacular display of eating capacity, and is accompanied by a scurrying on the part of horrified restaurant staff desperately summoning reinforcements.

Billy Coxon's recent illness has caused an unexpected sausage surplus in the town.

The morning team-meeting, the game, a couple of beers and then back on the bus and the time-honoured ritual of the off-licence stop as a prelude to the long journey homeward. And the game? Henley were a very accomplished side, indisputably destined for higher things. Our defence was quite outstanding, and it had plenty of opportunity to demonstrate this.

February 6, 2003 15:30