A good few years ago, (18 to be precise) I gave up playing cricket to spend more time on other sports. But for the past couple of years Anna has been trying to get me to take up the bat again.

Her reason is mainly that she likes the idea of coming along - sitting on the veranda of a pavilion, eating sandwiches, sipping wine, and reading.  In other words: coming along, but not to watch the cricket - more to get some peace and quiet and keep an occasional eye out for me.

This got me thinking… I suspect that in the same way most parks have benches on which parents sit to keep an eye on their children at play - so cricket pitches have pavilions. The polite applause, when a cricketer deftly sweeps the ball for four - equates to the "well done dear" when a young child swings from the climbing frame and shouts "Mummy look at me!"

I struggled to keep this "play-pen" view of cricket out of my head last night when I participated in my first game for 18 years. It wasn't easy - I was rubbish and the other boys threw the ball harder, hit it further and made nasty jokes about my shoes and bowling action. I wished Anna was there to give me some support - especially as I scraped my knee which could have done with a magic kiss to make the nastiness go away!