The bible tells of one story from the perspective of several witnesses. A similar compendium was composed for the Devon Tour

Old codger at Hatherleigh; Thirty years ago this side might have been worth playing. They are more deluded than fantasists

The bar maid; Stop talking bollocks and go to bed, none of you stand a chance even if you did know your malt from your rum

The bowler; One of the finest line ups assembled for the Fantasians on pitch which offered nothing, yet was more helpful than the fielders.

The batsmen; Must book in next year and lose some more of their balls. How come our bowlers couldn’t pinch one wicket while their bowlers stole six wickets of ours?

The opposition; Bring ’em on

A Fantasian; Last time I had a Dumpling was at school when I would also have eaten this lot

Request to the opposition; please can we play this teams parents, preferably their mothers

The waitress; You can always tell a man by his friends. I am not working for Andrew Younger any more

The weather expert; the sun was that hot that the following morning not only were there faces red, but also their eyes

Bovey Castle caddie on Sunday; They must be good cricketers; the balls went flying over extra cover and midwicket

Special thanks to Captain Morgan for his 55, his stalwart opening partner Robin Leach, Ollie Lintott and Tom Hussey in the middle order who were also our bait in the bar. Andrew H for his all round performance, Tony, the Australian batsmen and keeper (not sure it’s still cool to be an Aussie after the last few games/tournaments/series). Banger as an all-rounder on and off the field. Our specialist bowling attack; Peter Catarinella who must be adopted by the Fantasians, Mike Chattey a straight eight overs in overseas conditions and Brookie, so confident in our batting that he left at 6.30

For the record their two opening bats retired after scoring over 100 apiece. Both chanceless and we never became ragged or slowed below a good over rate. Peter Catarinella always gave us hope with his movement and bowled 8 overs for 35 (don’t work out the scoring rate of the others in comparison because it did not reflect their performance). The first chance came in the 37th over when two catches were put down and they cantered to 313 for none in 40 overs. Not, I believe, significantly over par. Despite the score it was a good bowling performance on a true track which only offered a little swing in the first ten. Our reply started with a 50 partnership and saw off the swing. The middle order saw some very profitable overs interspersed with some very dull ones (mostly bowled by their only player over 23) and there was too much left to do. Curiously we closed with a 50 partnership of Harrow drives and Rambler correctness and fell short by 71 runs

A very big thank you to everyone, especially Andrew Younger, it was a tour that made a few reputations and broke a couple

Charles O’Reilly