Quotations from P G Wodehouse are copyright of, and reprinted by permission of, the Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate © 2012 The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)

Gold Bats v The Charterhouse Intellectuals

At Charterhouse on Sunday, 2 July 2006

(Peter May Memorial match)

Reported by Julian Hill

With the match due to start promptly at 2 p.m. and the rain continuing to lash against the pub window at 1.30 p.m. while the teams finished lunch, cricketing prospects did not look good. However, with players and spectators having travelled many miles, optimism was blindly held onto. In fact, when we drove up to the school shortly afterwards, we were rewarded, as miraculously the rain disappeared and we almost managed a prompt start.

The Intellectuals, still being a few men short, opted to bat first and after a slow but steady start they were undone by George Lewis, Peter May’s grandson (aged 11), who was guesting for the Gold-Bats. His five overs of crafty leg-spin yielded four wickets and conceded virtually no runs. It is worth noting that three of the wickets were stumped by Gold Bats regular young keeper Mike Savage (aged 75). As a result, the Intellectuals only managed a modest 89 all out, despite all members of the Gold Bats having a bowl and allowing for three overs of lob bowling.

After a sumptuous tea (as usual, on these occasions) and despite the loss of two early wickets, the Gold Bats overcame this total with few alarms in bright sunshine which belied the earlier conditions.

Three old cricket photos of PBH May from the school archives and kindly donated by the school were presented by the acting Gold Bats captain Julian Hill to George Lewis (as man of the match), and a few words were addressed on his Grandfather’s extraordinary achievements and modest personality.

People then disappeared in all directions; home or the pub to listen or watch the end of the epic Nadal v Federer final.