What a week. The sun shone almost from start to finish and we barely saw a drop of rain. A calendar mistake still meant that we missed a fixture ... but the less said about that, the better.
There were overwhelming hospitality and great cricket at Gorran on the first day. Fifties for Duncan and Matt Cook along with some late hitting from Fraser took us to a winning score, despite Lewis Bunney's hard-hitting 50. The evening game at Pencarrow had a tense finish: runs for Chris Healey and Harry Kent set the home team a target of 126, and they scraped home despite wickets for Matt Cook and Duncan. More stunning hospitality from Gorran as they allowed us to re-use Sunday's track for a Mystics-vs-Magicians game, the highlights of which were (arguably) Mercedes's bowling, Chloe's batting and the captaincy of James and Harry.
A new fixture at Ladock was keenly contested, with some powerful hitting from Rob Elkin, a visitor from Staffs who was persuaded to play, and some demon bowling from Vivek Oza. A century stand between Chrises Healey and Cook set up a victory that looks more comfortable in the scorebook than it felt at the time. It was the Cook show for a while at Saint Neot. An assured 101 from Sam along with late biffing from Matt took us well past 200. Early wickets for Mark and Anuj seemed to put us on track for an easy win; but the lower order was stacked with batting. It was only when Graham swooped in for a sharp catch that victory became a formality.
We dropped a lot of catches at Saint Stephen, which gave Olly Martin and Kyle Prophet all the chances they needed to take the hosts to 242: a score that proved to be almost 100 too many for us. At Teign Valley, we entertained Jack Russell with more drops, and Lee Grant took advantage to the tune of 109. In reply, with Ernie and Matt Cook compiling a big stand, we were coasting until Ben Yarde-Buller dismissed Matt, Chris Squire, Sam and Fraser in the space of two overs. We held on for a draw; but the Erratics retained the trophy. Fraser, who also became the first Mystic to take 15 wickets on a tour, and Sid batted nicely at Killerton; but there were yet more costly drops as two Daldorph fifties overhauled our score with overs to spare.
Molly Berry's bravery and boundless enthusiasm made her a popular choice as player of the tour. Mercedes Mayes, who did a bit of everything, oiling cogs and marshalling the youth of today, was the undeniable supporter of the tour.