VRA Cricket Club, Amstelveen — Rapidly becoming something of a tradition, 18 brave members skilfully dodging the inclement weather to join me at the VRA Cricket Club for the annual CADS cricket lunch.

This year’s speaker at the annual cricket lunch was Floris Kappelle (resplendent in his deckchair-inspired VRA jacket ensemble). He’s an honorary member of the VRA cricket club, and his father was a founder member. Part of his very amusing speech highlighted the fact that 100 years ago, on 5 September 1914, VRA was born from the merger of three clubs: Volharding, R.A.P. and Amstels.

The three-course lunch was excellent value, starting with fish (of the snapper variety), and then like a Beethoven symphony we effortlessly segued to entrecôte for main, followed by an excellent cheese platter and coffee. Ample red and white wine kept the conversations well oiled.

The weather brightened considerably after lunch, and many CADS stayed behind on the VRA pavilion to soak up the sun, the outstanding view and convivial bonhomie.

The main cricket ground was unfortunately waterlogged, so Schiphol decided to use the unusable pitch as a runway. Much, if not most, of our scintillating conversations were lost under the roar of 747 Rolls Royce engines in reverse thrust.

All was not lost, however, as we had the opportunity to wander over to the second ground to watch the Badger Wanderers touring team play against a scratch VRA team.