CCC v New Barbarian Weasels

Don't you love it when a plan comes together?

A fine team win this, in damp and dark conditions at Greenwich.

The 'Natti made first use of the bed of snakes which is our home pitch at Greenwich Park. We must have been on the same strip that prompted Moyners to remark here upon being skittled for zero two years: "It spat like a cobra."

Well, Lurpak was undone by a delivery that "lashed like an eel", pitching a good yard outside off and cutting back to clip the stumps, from the Weasels' star opening bowler.

CCC were in deep trouble, losing the Skip cheaply and The Shot shortly afterwards.

Then Desperate Dan came to the crease.

With a mixture of patience and brutal hitting, he tamed the venomous combination of good bowling and horrible gardening which had ruined several batters' afternoons already.

On the way to an unbeaten and ultimately matchwinning 77, Dan lofted five sixes out of the ground, three of which came in successive balls, including one majestic straight drive which nearly destroyed Greenwich Park's sole surviving sight-screen.

The parakeets were not pleased.

In the Chairman's absence, the vice-captain provided a fabulous tea, adapting his now famous "ready, steady, bat" technique to the subtle arts of the kitchen. Happily, he had more success carving pork pies than short balls outside off stump. The feast was again augmented by lucky brownies from Amy, whose clinically obsessive compulsion to bake thankfully shows no sign of getting better.

After a rousing huddle, complete with our very own second-hand theme tune, Cincinnati's soldiers of fortune took the field to defend 167.

From somewhere near the covers, Moyners was heard to mutter, "I ain't gettin on no plane, you crazy fool", before Tom offered him a milk drink to calm down. (In any case, the Skip decided not to bowl himself, thus making it safe for air traffic to resume its normal flight path over Greenwich.)

An all-round effort of tight bowling from Rocky, Max, Adam, Chris and Dan - allied to some excellent wicket keeping from Tom - restricted the Weasels when they looked set to chase down our total. In the end, Weasels finished 20 runs short. It was a soggy but tense encounter.

:: Thanks to the excellent A-Team Shrine website for the pic of the boys (http://www.ateamshrine.co.uk/index.php).