A play of two halves

Saturday saw the first match in the new rugby season, and Cambridge were up against Stourbridge, who we've not beaten in the past. During the closed season, we purchased 16 new players - I'm afraid rugby is going the way of football - and when the first 15 ran out onto the pitch, 11 of the players were being introduced to the crowd for the first time - and it showed. Some of them were quite outstanding individually, but as a team they just didn't gel and we were very lucky to end the match with an 8-6 win. Perhaps an Arab will take us over during the next year, and I won't know any of the players at all. Not the happiest afternoon I've spent at my beloved rugby club.

In the evening, Mary and I went to see The Deadly Game at Cambridge Arts Theatre, a thriller about a forty-something woman who has a one-night stand with a barman, and after they leave the bedroom and join the audience in the drawing room, the twists come thick and fast. An enjoyable evening, enhanced by the fact that the two men were the leads last week in Private Lives - one week, aristocratic Englishmen, and the next a New York barman and security guard. Quite a challenge, which they achieved brilliantly. But it's not always easy to tie up every loose end, and when the curtain rose for the second half, it didn't quite live up to the promise it had made, and Mary and I returned home feeling slightly let down.