From the home of cricket to the seat of valour

On Tuesday, I caught the train to Sheffield to speak at the Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society 50th Anniversary charity lunch, in support of five local charities - Help for Heroes, Wellbeing of Women, Neurocare, Cavendish Cancer Care and Sincere Support. Great fun, and they told me to watch Adam Lyth very carefully - he's just won the Professional Cricketers' Association Young Player of the Year Award, and they predict he's a genuine star with a long Test future. The last time a Yorkshireman told me that, his name was Geoffrey Boycott. So I live in hope.

I then travelled on to Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, to address pupils, parents, and staff, which was quite a contrast from the lunch date. I began the evening by being shown their impressive book collection, with works owned by Queen Anne and Thomas Cranmer, and relics - including a gouged eye and a case containing some of Prince Edward's skin - that would just as happily grace a horror museum as the British Museum. Yuk. But I bet those schoolboys revel in it.

One of the most frightening aspects of giving my speech in the Great Hall was that I was watched over by four oil portraits of Stonyhurst old boys - each of whom had won the Victoria Cross. Stonyhurst is rightly proud of the service given by those students who have passed through its gates. A dinner, hosted by Lord Alton, ended a very happy day.