I have a wine-loving friend who can
prove that there is a correlation between
the number of runs scored in first-class
cricket and the quality of that year’s
claret. The more runs the better. Firm
batsmen’s wickets mean ripe grapes.
This year will test his rule. The figures are not quite in yet, but an Indian summer can save a vintage when it is too late to score runs. August may have been awful, but while the garden basked in September sun the grapes were making up for lost time. Now there’s a correlation: a wet
summer and a fine September mean
bowlers’ wickets, the garden at its best
and a juicy vintage in the Médoc.
