A wondrous stand of 137 between skipper Sanjay Patel, who made his highest Gents’ score of 69, and Ian Dallas, 59, enabled The Gents to post a good score in troublesome conditions. It was the third-highest partnership in the club’s history, though curiously not a record for the third wicket. Enterprise started their reply brightly and were up with the required rate for ten overs, but once Sanjay (who, Dallas aside, played Enterprise pretty much in his own) came on, The Gents coasted to victory. For Enterprise, Dimo bowled well and got four good wickets and Parker again showed what a good all-rounder he is. Five of their batsmen got into double figures, two more than The Gents, but they needed a big fifty and none came.

Enterprise sucker punched The Gents in the previous two matches but were clear second-favourites here, being two men short. Twelve Gents and Beggars pitched up, so Andy Robinson kindly made them up to ten. Morning rain had freshened the wicket up a treat. It was an odd strip, sloping laterally down to the golf driving range side. There was disconcerting lift mixed in with the odd shooter but with no help for the spinners. The first ten overs of The Gents’ innings saw some sensational cricket. Four wides came off the first ball of the match. Bodders was then bowled off Dimo’s first ball which, as ever, was debriefed as "Totally unplayable, pitching outside leg and coming back to hit off." From the boundary, it looked like a medium-pace delivery bowled in time-honoured fashion at the stumps and going through the gate. You decide. Poor Dhruv attracted a genuine Ball from Hell from the lively Parker first ball of the third over. Lifting off a length, it spat, hit the glove and fell into the grateful hands of Mr Beaumont, tumbling to his right in front of first slip.

That’ll be eleven for two then with only three specialist batsmen left. The next few overs were torrid, with both batsmen beaten outside off stump, but crucially they survived. This was really good cricket and had another wicket fallen then who knows what would have happened? Crucially, it didn’t and Sanjay and Ian began to compile one of the great club stands. Bill Dimond had tormented The Gents three weeks before but struggled here with his length, overpitching as the ball tailed off down the slope. Sanjay pulled him for the innings’ only six in his first over. Running well with the superfit McJock, the two moved the score on to 82 for two at the 20 over drinks break. Sixty-five runs then came in the next eight overs as the batsmen took control. They left behind all but two stands in the 193 game history of the club and were within sight of Ashton’s two 150 run plus projects when Dimo brought himself back. Second ball, Sanjay (one six, eight fours) holed out to long-off Parker. Fourth ball, after McJock’s fifth four, Keith took a sharp caught and bowled before trying to throw down the stumps at the bowler’s end, doubtless aiming for two dismissals off one ball!

Enter Mr Hill at five, probably the most irrational promotion since Napoleon Bonaparte made up his horse to general. Andy Robinson had in his first two overs born the brunt of two established players giving it the long handle but Phil was a different proposition. He played responsibly for two balls but then, according to a pencilled comment in the scorebook was bowled "Head up having a big heave." The perpetrator of this gloss was later outed by the boffins in Hut Six at Bletchley as a Mr Boddington, who had of course batted very properly for his own Golden some 29 overs before.

Biggers, outed by Scibo leg-before and indulging in a glove hurl and Andy Burman, lobbing out to cover off a girly shot off Fitzgerald’s part-time experimentals soon fell, giving the card its usual lop-sided look. But Toddy and Rixy, who was massively up for this one all day, batted well to bring up a hefty 181 at the end of the 35 overs. The fielders had kept at it well, but of the two main batsmen Ian did not give a single chance and Sanjay only did so when he was well past fifty.

When Smith started playing football in Simon’s first over and trapped the ball lbw, one sensed that it was not going to be Enterprise’s day. One had to admire, therefore, their aggressive strokeplay, though they needed something more than cameos. Parker, dropped second over by Burman, pulled Toddy for a six. Dimo did the same a few overs later. Chris Beaumont, surviving a chance to Hillbilly, batted with great accomplishment and no little style. But nobody got their head down and played the long innings they so badly needed. Toddy got revenge for the early assault on his figures by bowling Parker, whose not particularly unusual surname (and one shared with an eminent Windsor headmaster) nevertheless gave Mr Hill an opportunity to revive his "Thunderbirds" impressions for an hour or so.

The twin seam attack of Sanjay and Hill ensured that the 2000 series would be drawn 1-1. The Gents’ captain outed Dimo to an excellent catch, a typically lusty drive spiralling vertically before falling into the slips with snow on it. Scibo called and never looked in doubt. Beaumont and Fitzgerald soon followed and when Phil got revenge on Andy Robinson it was all up. Eight bowlers were used, only Dhruv going wicketless. Bodders bowled the promising all-rounder Cashin, Andy Burman had Withers well caught second go by tumbling deep mid-wicket Ian Dallas and dear Carlos the Cyberjackal Stevie B wrapped things up at ten past six in his first Gents bowl since 1996. Indeed, only Beepo and Scibo neither batted nor bowled, which was rectified in the beer match. They will be given other chances soon.

Victory by 76 runs was a fair result on the day. There then followed a ten over a side beer match in which everyone got a bat or bowl, followed by extended socialising with the West XI lads. On his captaincy debut, Sanjay won the main event, which is always handy, but also did his best to involve everyone. He barked at the odd piece of sloppy fielding and was rightly less than pleased at the McDonalds Incident, insisting that his players take the field two men short. As Stevie B put it: "Ever the innovators and groundbreakers, the Gentlemen of West London CC raised the virtuosity of cricket teas to a new level." It was a genial day from start to finish and it was great to see Simon Rix again.