HOWZAT!

Sunday morning we were up and out early, running around our ‘green garden area’, stretching our pectoral muscles, the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder, and the forearm muscles giving significant focus to our hamstrings, quadriceps and calf muscles – all essential to have warmed up when about to face the Ekta Vihar cricket enthusiasts!! Well, actually, in all honesty, we leapt out of bed, grabbed the picnic, and hailed an auto rickshaw which took us to the metro and from there to India Gate where we were met by the Ekta Vihar cricket enthusiasts and Eric. We thought it would be very crowded and difficult to find a pitch to play on, but in fact, once we had chased off 50 monkeys, we had plenty of space to set up our pitch.

Ken and Eric (a friend staying with us from London and a keen cricketer) captained the teams and action commenced.  Star batsmen and bowlers showed off their expertise, others of us tried hard and were soon caught or run out. It’s playing the game that counts!! 

I had read that a ‘regular cricket stretching routine makes it possible for fielders to provide the 'explosive bursts' required to reach for a catch’ – well, ‘explosive burst’ was exactly what I had to apply as I secured the ‘catch of the match’(to much applause and a great deal of hugging)!!!  I will have to start my ‘regular stretching routine’ as I am obviously a natural! 

You are all waiting to hear who won, I suppose?  Ken’s team won with 41 runs, and my team ??? We all had a great time – the monkeys did try to help field by scooping up the ball and running off with it but fortunately, they are not good at holding on, so we were able to retrieve it from them. 

Cricket over, and every good cricketer knows it’s the ‘tea’ that’s most looked forward to.  We shared a delicious picnic together – the Choco Puffs proved to be most popular. 

Ken, Eric and I were ready then for a bit of a rest, but others had spied the rugby ball and we were hailed into new teams and the most energetic rugby match followed!  It was suggested that ‘touch rugby’ rules would be applied, but I think ‘touch’ must mean full tackling, massive bundling all on top of one another and grabbing at the ball if you happen to spy it!  No casualities, surprisingly, and plenty of laughs!

We all then headed home, some limping a little, some planning the next match, and all having had a great day together. Thanks guys for coming.

Ken’s teaching is expanding – a young auto rickshaw driver (named Lucky) was bringing us home one evening and expressed a wish to have some English lessons, so they agreed to meet this morning, Ken to teach him English and in return Lucky will teach Ken Hindi (a good trade off!!).

Eric went off on Tuesday to spend a few days in Goa – he is due back tonight and will stay with us till Thursday. 

This Sunday, we are heading off early to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal and other interesting sites – no doubt some pictures and news of that next week.

Best wishes,

Heather and Ken xx