Remarkably for a Grasshoppers tour everyone arrived in Delhi airport exhausted but largely unscathed. Excesses or overindulgences in Heathrow have accounted for a number of casualties in the past but everyone was fit for duty. The flight was uneventful apart from Michael Turkington's singing a medley of Cat Stevens numbers in the real dead of night when the only other noise was the rumble of the jet engine. With the headphones on and his eyes closed he was oblivious to the dark stares from the locals and the giggling of his team-mates.

After collecting our bags and getting on the bus we got our first experience of Delhi traffic. It was as mad as a mouldy slice of cheese. If you ever watched one of those old Edwardian cinema reels where the movement is all speeded up and the cars look like they are all going to crash it gives a feel for the traffic. But you have to add in hundreds of motor bikes, buses, bicycles, lorries, rickshaws and ‘tuk-tuk' taxis and then imagine everyone one of them tooting their horn to give you an idea of what its like. Traffic laws are for guidance purposes only and it wasn't unusual to encounter someone driving towards you.

Our hotel was situated in Old Delhi a city over three hundred years old and it was a welcome sight. The staff were extremely pleasant and it was only later that we noticed that there were security men at the door and on every floor. Forty five minutes later after finding our rooms and grabbing a quick shower we made our way to Gargi College for a net practice. Chairman Alan Waite was extremely perky. He had fallen asleep whilst the plane was on the runway and only woke twice when the food arrived. The rest of us brightened up when we got to the nets. We were in our blue and green Kukri gear and arrived at the ground to find six other teams of different age groups all practising bowling and fielding drills and dressed immaculately in their whites.

Neil Watson joined us from Cape Town and we made our way across town again to St Georges School for our first game under floodlights. The school was right in the heart of the city and reminded me a little of Trinity College Dublin. Well, only a little. Floodlights, a flat hard batting strip, small ground, fast outfield and lack of a pavilion were the main differences. Carlo Rendell's girlfriend Isobel sat wearing her sari. She looked for all the world, a Bollywood actress who owned an Irish IPL team.

Neil Russell lost the toss and the British High commission decided to bat.

The hard wicket and fast out field meant that boundaries accounted for a high percentage of the runs scored. Rohit Roy who is our contact for the Delhi leg of the trip played a fine innings of 64 not out & Jack Blakiston – Houston an extremely well spoken young man who hails from Strabane, and is travelling through India, made 34 not out. A final total of 159 in 20 overs was a good effort but with a strong batting line up we were confident of chasing down the total.

Grasshoppers Bowling Figures

Carlo Rendell 4-1-16-2
Andrew Nixon 4-0-38-1
Cameron Grieve 3-0-26-2
Peter Maxwell 4-0-17-1
Andrew Cowden 3-0-30-0
Lee Nelson 2-0-24-0

Neil Russell & Lee Nelson got us off to a good start putting on 45 for the 1st wicket when Neil was out for 21. Andrew Nixon was out cheaply for 4, bringing Robert Kennedy to the wicket. At this point Lee Nelson completely took over proceedings. With Robert pushing singles & giving Lee the strike he moved past fifty and started to deal exclusively in boundaries. With 18 needed to win his score was 78. Kennedy playing the anchor role to perfection nudged a single of the first ball of the over. Four boundaries later the scores were tied with Nelson on 94. He proceeded to hit the next ball into the tennis courts to win the game and bring up a thrilling hundred. Somewhere over the city fireworks started to light up the night sky and it seemed an appropriate end to an enjoyable match. Robert Kennedy finished undefeated on 29 doing a fine job in the 106 stand for the 3rd wicket. But it was to be Nelson's night.

The opposition captain was generous in defeat and after a quick curry at the ground (you had the choice of curried beans or curried peas mixed with vegetables I had
never seen before) we were then invited back to the British commission where we had a few games of pool and enjoyed a few very welcome beers with our hosts. It was the end of an exhausting but highly satisfying first day in India.