Style gurus lose their way Stateside

The fourth trip to Florida was our least successful on the pitch but probably the most enjoyable off it.

After the human cost of last year's eight-day tour, this year's strategy was to arrive late - so late that our first match took place 13 hours after our arrival in Florida (and about eight hours after we finally extracted ourselves from the Alamo Car Rental office in Tampa). It was little surprise that we lost to a Sarasota side we should have comfortably beaten. We had woken (sobered) up by the time of our second match in the afternoon and comfortably beat. The salubrious Denny's Restaurant hosted a 'Schooldays' dinner at which we enhanced our reputation as a side who cared more about enjoyment that winning.

The squad against the picturesque backdrop of the Holiday Inn
On Friday we faced the eventual winners Ashurst Crusaders, a side which contained Mike Gatting and Ashley Cowan among others. Gatt found the OC attack of Johnson and Trevett to his liking (in a throwback to his days as captain, Chetwode hid until Gatt was well out of sight) and chasing 69 we were well beaten.

Our final match was a formality in that we were already eliminated, but it still had spice as it was against our old rivals Houston Memorial, previous winners and a side who had never beaten us. Houston batted first and set a target of 69, a tough score in the five-over format. Although we lost pinch-hitter Chetwode for 0, Nathan Ross, Rick Johnson and Pete Hobbs, aided by a plethora of wides, saw us home with eight balls to spare.

So we ended with a 2-2 record. In fairness we were probably one of the best four sides in the tournament but suffered from late nights and being in a tough group.

Nathan 'Random' Ross was the pick of the batsmen, and one of the best in the whole competition - at last a ringer who can ring - and he retired in each of his four innings.

Off the field Random also displayed an un-OC habit of talking to girls and not have them walk away within seconds. Hobbs arrived with a massive reputation as a stud, was blown away by some silly drinking on the first night and only recovered as the tour ended. Tom Trevett, king puller in Kenya, enhanced his reputation further with some smooth action in Sarasota.

But the undoubted success of the tour was not one of these, but the striped blazer. Ridiculed at Gatwick, it was idolised by Americans and attracted comment (and women) wherever it went. It proved the best ice-breaker known to man, and was only undermined by the inability of most of the wearers to follow-up these openings. Safe to say it looked far better on the ladies at Cheetah's and various waitresses than it did on any of the OCs.

Tour party Steve Bailey (capt), Michael Chetwode, Rick Johnson, Tom Trevett, Pete Hobbs, Martin Williamson, Nathan Ross, Will Bond, John McDermott, Sylvia McDermott, Andy Wright, Liz Wright.