A stand of 72 runs in as many balls between Jim Wright and Bodders extended The Gents’ unbeaten run to five games straddling 1999 and 2000 against an Owls side lacking, due to the dodgy weather prognosis, several key players. Ian Colley’s famed no-notice logistical skills got them back to ten, who had their moments, especially reducing The Gents to 29 for three. Having decided to go ahead after a filthy morning, everyone had a good day out, but the eight calls to the Gent House answering machine showed both how twitchy people were and how easier things are when people follow the club’s bad weather procedure. Well done, chaps. Three few miles down the road at Raynes Park, Urbans made a tentative stab at abandoning their home game with West XI, but they too played, a Beggar victory by 16 runs the result.

Snarler took a look at the wet wicket, won the toss and fielded, not that he had much choice with only five Owls on the ground, due to horrendous traffic at Tolworth, and the grumpy groundsman gagging to pull the game. Adolf claims to have been given the authority by the Council to cancel any game not starting by 2pm, and doubtless intends to wield his new-found power ruthlessly. There are many good things about Victoria RG, but the attitude of the half-wit supervising the games is not one of them. It was not until forty minutes after the scheduled start time that we were away, whereupon the hungry Gent seamers had immediate success. Sanjay found the edge with a lifting delivery in the second over, Ian Colley plopped up a low caught and bowled to Pongo in the next and dapper Charles Long, as ever dressed like Martin Amis c. 1976, soon followed bowled. Snarler then gave what Mr Buck misanthropically called "The Rubbish Bowlers" a go. Here Political Correctness. There Swiss Tony. Distance between them, infinity.

He had a point, as Dimo and CJ can bowl better than they did here, but a wet ball is never easy to control and The Owls’ middle-order were good batsmen. Jones went for it from Ball One, flowered briefly, then lofted a Dimo full toss to Bodds, standing well back at mid-on, who judged the ball perfectly. The resilient southpaw Barton, who batted for 26 overs, then dug in as the powerful Eddie Fitch took control. Very persuasive on the leg-side, he spoiled Dimo’s figures with some booming drives into the hinterland of the huge acreage on the Balaclava Road side and pulled several fours to the short railway boundary off CJ. Soho resident Fitch later outed himself as a guest for Groucho Club CC, poetry recitals between overs and all, and made himself available for a few Gents matches. Let us hope something comes of it.

The first sighting of the Curse of the Drinks Break came earlier than usual in 2000. Big Eddie smashed a CJ lollipop into the railway embankment for a lost ball. As the waggish Owls searched for a ball exactly 16.5 overs old, a brief shower forced the players to take shelter. The convention in such cases, handed down by our ancestors, is to go into the pavilion, but Mr Buck, perhaps feeling the after affects of his 5am lock-in at the Duchess, was nice and dry under the trees and couldn’t be arsed to move. CJ had one ball left on the swift resumption, tempted Eddie once too often and saw a massive skier fall into Snarler’s outstretched hands, another catch deep at mid-on, atonement for a similar drop a few overs before.

London Owls had fought back well but 69 for four was as good as it was going to get as Bodders came on at the pavilion end. With the wicket now drying under a late sun, he got turn and lift and ended up with the fascinating return of four for nought. Enterprise’s Mike Stefan once took a profligate four for three, hitherto the most parsimonious four-wicket haul in our games. Barber was bowled first ball before Woolfson clipped to silly mid-off, Snarler’s third catch. Goodfellow and Green followed in successive balls in his second over. Meanwhile, Barton was untroubled. Snarler allowed Mr Toft a second innings, this time batting without the helmet, as Owls only had ten. He kept his partner company in a competent 25 run stand as Jimmy and Swiss failed to produce the breakthrough. Pongo then brought back himself and Sanjay, who finished things off after a few overs. After three games, their combined analysis is 55.5-22-75-14, testimony to bowler-friendly wickets after the damp spring, but also a thing of fantasy to Gent supporters who were there in the Blunder Years. They are currently a country mile ahead of the other seamers, but there are plenty of games to go yet.

Accepting the advice of his senior pros, Snarler answered the batting order conundrum by not tampering with it, whereas he might have been tempted to give the Tail End Charlies a go up the order. Sanjay was less gung ho than normal, though he did survive his regulation early chance to deep mid-wicket. Buck too looked secure but, as ever, just as the Sensible Stand Alert bell starts ringing, the captain is having to decide on the lower batting order. Blink and you missed it as Buck, playing down the wrong line to Fitch’s Procteresque, medium-fast and pretty good whirlies, Sanjay, bowled by Goodfellow’s looping spin and Scibo, edging behind, fell within three overs. Quizzed after, Sanjay said that he did not mind personal low scores if others were getting the runs, but he owes The Gents a biggie. It will come soon.

Visions of a rerun of a typical Gents cricketing sitcom were being made flesh with the score 29 for three, but sensing their moment, Jim and Bodders went for it with some appealing batsmanship, striking eleven fours in a ratio 8:3 in favour of the younger man. Owls persevered and Mr Colley tried a few bowlers but they could not get the breakthrough. One image for the memory banks was a symmetrical four/four field, with all off-side fielders in immaculate whites with their mirror-image mates a melange of mufti. It was all done and dusted by ten past six, the match ending in a flurry of Wright boundaries. One minute, the game is on a knife-edge and the bowels are churning. An hour later, you’re showered, changed and wondering what the fuss was about. In two innings, Jim came within one run of the aggregate of his previous fifteen. Unbeaten in five games, The Gents had won for the first time on their home track since 11 July 1999. The game was in some ways a throwback to those gentle, early years of the club, but was none the worse for that.