Prior to one Limpsfield Sunday game I skippered, I popped into The Bull public house for a quick pint and came upon Chris Cowdrey, who was already playing for me, in deep conversation at the bar with the Pakistan great Imran Khan.

After shaking hands with both stars of the game and buying a round, Chris asked me if I could squeeze Imran into the team that afternoon. I had but two options. I could say I had a full team, and that unleashing Imran from the British Legion end might be tough on the opposition. Or I would umpire, Chris would skipper, and Imran could then play.

Imran very kindly anticipated and supported option one. Chris was only half joking. I wandered up to the club through the woods cursing myself. Had I deprived the club of a great claim to fame?

I was not due to skipper a return to playing Oxted after a break, in a full day game. Paul Greenwood, who was to be captain, saw a large pond in the Billy Powell corner of the square at 9am, and promptly commuted to work in London, assuming the game was off.

We arrived to see no pond, but the outfield was slow and the wicket was bowler friendly. The other players, including the two match-winning bowlers I had recruited, asked me to run the game, and we defended a score of 135 and secured a win by seven runs.

Paul, having seen the game near it’s end as the train pulled in, arrived to utter disbelief that we had got a full game in.