As each Hobber meandered his way through the rush hour traffic from their respective corners of Bristol, the sun was shining and confidence was high after a convincing seven wicket win the previous week. Tonight's game was to be a different story altogether.

After some well needed catching practice in the warm up, Captain Smith duly lost the toss and the HOB found themselves, as usual, starting in the field. Fillingham decided he'd walk out to the middle without bothering with keepers pads having somehow forgotten to put them on. "He must be very brave or very stupid" exclaimed the opening batsman.

I assured him it was the latter as Ash wondered back to put his pads on.

However the game started promisingly for the home side as the same opening bat launched a big hit high into the summer air looking for an early boundary. A hushed silence fell over the field of play as our very own Mr Brown found himself some sixty feet beneath the ball as the red orb swerved rapidly on its downward descent.

Brown tried to match it, swirling and dancing underneath it like someone's drunken auntie on the wedding dancefloor. It finally plopped straight into a couple of grateful outstretched paws for a well deserved catch.

Sadly the next wicket took a bit longer in coming, the MCC's second batsman giving the HOB bowlers the treatment, damaging both the neighbours' fences and the HOBs bowling figures. He was finally seen away by some quick thinking from Fillingham who flicked off his bails for a stumping, but not before the smashmeister general had made 44.

The HOB score wasn't helped by the umpires' rather strict interpretation of the wide ball, especially down leg. At one point our firey Antipodean, Anth Barrett even had to have words with the man in the middle. This perceived injustice may have had an effect on the HOB as they started to skittle through the order, the next four batsmen going for 19 thanks to some tidy bowling from Brown, and SJ Smith. The latter had been energised by his traditional athletic pre-match snack: a Somerfield Cheese and Onion pasty. It seemed to do the job as he ended up with excellent figures of 4-0-14-2

Both Fillingham and Adams took sharp catches to dispatch two of the fielders, but the consistent scoring eventually saw the MCC finish on a respectable, but reachable 112 for six.

HOBs started their innings facing some very pacy, accurate deliveries from the MCC which had the desired effect. Hobber after Hobber returned to the pavilion shaking their heads after numerous stump crunching deliveries. It would be fair to say this was one of the best bowling lineups HOBs had faced over two seasons. It wasn't a walk over though, and we ended up with 97 for 9 of 20 overs, losing by 15 runs.

Taking the positives, Ed and Anth got into double figures, the latter with some swashbuckling flashes at the end. And someone called Extras had an excellent game reaching twenty five.

The most entertaining moment of the match was probably JS Smith reprimanding his twin brother, SJ Smith loudly and publicly in the field. Rather surprisingly they weren't playing, but umpiring at the time. If their past history of arguments is anything to go by, it's fairly likely Jo probably retorted with threats of sickening violence later in the evening. Brotherly love. It's what HOBs is all about.

The pub afterwards was not the Kellaway as it has been boycotted for refusing to supply us with any post match food. So it was the Wellington beer garden that saw some close voting for man of the match. For a change Adams didn't win it, Anth came close for his neat bowling and flamboyant batting, but Joel Brown won the free pint for some excellent deliveries and his catch in the deep.