The Thursday wake-up call, if you're Annie at least, was a call from BBC Radio 5Live requesting an interview with Nicky Campbell. Nicky: "Annie, why do you love cricket?"
Annie: "How can you not love cricket? ...It's all about stats and beer..."
Nicky: "What was the process of your being found out as a girl?"
Annie: "I was very young...They found out by someone in my school class telling the leader and he just said I had to go. But that's another story."
Bob Dylan: "The times they are a changin'."
(Annie moves on to the Mystics and Magicians tour.)
Annie: "There's a little bit of drinking that goes on."
It is customary in Cornwall to start August with a fashion show. And they're more sophisticated in Cornwall too. No glitz and high heels: just a wooden bench and Mystics shirts. Lots of Mystics shirts too. 15 different ones, to be precise, out of a possible 28; see above. The opposite end of the spectrum of shirt variety was then reached. 35 Mystics clad in this year's Donna-designed bright orange shirt, 28 Tours Later, an homage to the 2002 British post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Days Later. I've not watched the film, but apparently Jim dies at the end. That's not a spoiler, though, because apparently the film has three alternative endings and Jim dies in them all. Here's a long line of people wearing this year's shirt:
The photoshoot was followed by lunch at the London Inn in St Neot. It might have been wise to send advance notice of a large party arriving, the majority of which would be ordering food, and to leave a bit more time. Instead, we created a mad rush. Nonetheless, the fish finger sandwich was delicious. Slightly more digestion time would have been nice before taking to the field, though.
At tea (St Neot's innings hasn't been missed) it emerged that two people had been allocated the match report. One, Chris Squire, had put together a through set of notes, in a (long) text message.
Leaving the St Neot Institute Club, the door to neighbouring village hall was open, from which sounds of a local choir practice bellowed. I believe this to have been the Loveny Male Voice Choir, although St Neot has quite a choral abundance, also hosting Canoryon Lowen and the Levow Kesson Choir. Walking to the car with this backing music, Deke promptly stopped on the bridge over the River Loveny to take a photograph of the river due to its resemblance of the death of Ophelia in Hamlet; see below for John Everett Millais's portrayal from 1852.
Back at Tor View, Duncan and Chris Squire cooked up a vegetarian pasta dish, while Alfie made carbonara. Both were delicious, although Alfie's cooking speed won't get him the naming rights for the next Myton slow cooker.