Corfu Tour May 2nd – 6th 2025 6th May
As I sit in airport departure, reflecting on the cricket tour we have just undertaken I was reminded of one of the classic Greek sayings:
“Make the best use of what’s in your power and take the rest as it happens.”
- Epictetus
For the last four days we certainly have done our very best to embrace and embody this very sentiment. Throwing ourselves both emotionally and in a few cases physically headlong into the beautiful and bountiful land of Hellas. Embracing all the local customs, food, drink, culture and landscapes. A band of 11 we set off from Gatwick, meeting at 3am, much talk of the Army we were to face and the national Greek team. Three fixtures in three days blessed with glorious weather we flew into Corfu and sidled up to The Divani Palace Hotel. This welcoming and well positioned hotel understood the brief, 11 players on tour we headed for the pool to relax before the first day’s game against the Army.
The first game had us facing the winners of the army cup; 32 Regiment Royal Artillery the Wessex Gunners. Apparently, they had drunk an all-inclusive hotel dry of vodka the night before, they were still a bunch of very very very fit and athletic committed 20 something types. They kindly gave us a couple of players James and Jamie (not to confuse things) because of our antipodean travel challenges. At first we started well: put into bat in a 30 over game, glorious sun beating down in Corfus Gouvia Marina. We started strongly for our first game on tour, at 152 for 1 about two thirds of the way through, the awesome Paul Coppard peppering all parts of the ground and snagging his maiden century for the RNVR and accompanied by a sterling half century contribution from Yogesh. We had a few interesting communication issues whilst running between the wickets through out our innings but a total of 213 appeared respectable from our allotted 30 overs. Our start was equally as promising with our opening pair of AB and Vinay getting the Army down to 54 for 4 and at the first drinks break, we were in an excellent position. After the drinks break things went a little south, so to speak. Commandos, know as Reidy and big Des, both of whom gave you the uttermost confidence that the defense of the realm is safe in the huge hands of these very large solid individuals, put the RNVR to the sword. This correspondent had a number of his deliveries close to taking out Icarus had he been passing. Hence our target of 213 was chased down with a few overs to spare. None the less all is fair in love and war and after the heat of battle a few beers were imbibed. As was to become the custom of tour the golden coat was awarded to the golden performer by the opposition skipper to our player or moment of the day. On this occasion it was given to PC for his maiden RNVR century. PC, as fines master was also in charge of awarding the hat of misdemeanor, this was awarded to Ford for his lack of run out of the man who went on to score 100. Other notable mentions of the day went to an inspired spell from Yogesh. Amazingly on this day the RNVR had a player that gained an unexpected international cap. Elena was batting and fielding, throwing herself around defying gravity and these efforts did not go unnoticed by the women’s national Greek team who were playing on the same pitch after us. They then invited Elena to play for them and she duly obliged and gained her first international appearance for Greece. This was all followed by a departure to a local tavern in Corfu town for some well-deserved solids and many many well deserved bottles of local wine, all paid for by the centurion. Onward into The Old Town and a brief meet up with the oppo and several shots of various mixed varieties including melon, limoncello, Cointreau and ouzo! This, it unsurprisingly turns out is the perfect recipe for a very sore head the next day and a few cases of amnesia.
On the third day of tour amnesia was not welcomed because our second game certainly required our best versions of ourselves, playing the Greek national team. However, the result of consuming a large variety of colourful fruit-based shots was that we forgot what that best version of ourselves was, more of the amnesia later. Although several of our team had demonstrated vast amounts of energy and the array of tour exercise activities were numerous and varied including; Hot YOGA, Pool side slip practice, Weight and calisthenic gym sessions, 10k runs congratulations PC, jogging, 7am swims and woodland ramblings; unfortunately, none of these activities could quite alter the physical state of many in the team.
On arrival and facing the current T10 European champions I was of a mind to engineer the toss with the Greek National Team and so into bat they went. Another bout of amnesia meant we forgot to score for the first two overs, after a minor international incident was averted, we bowled well. Vinay and Yogesh containing them and for the first 14 overs and we had reasonable control. However, things changed a little in the back end of this 30 over game. They suddenly accelerated and the ball forgot it was a cricket ball and started to resemble a fish starved osprey flying to all parts of the marina. Rob Paterson recovered the situation and restored some calm with 3 quick wickets and we once again we believed ourselves to be in a reasonable position. We now had a not insurmountable task of chasing 235 and we had them 9 down.
The tour had several cases of forgetfulness; One player who forgot to get on his airplane, forgotten car keys and another player forgot to let the skipper know he was arriving on tour at all and the most severe case of memory loss was a strike bowler who vehemently insisted in the morning of the game that they were definitely and absolutely not bowling today because of the sore head. It would turn out they had completely forgotten this later in the day and by teatime could be heard chuntering away on the boundary about the skips lack of foresight to bowl them! Inevitably in our innings the RNVR top orders recollection of how to bat eluded most of the first seven, along with the same player from the previous day forgetting how to call for a run and this time running himself out. It was left to Tony, Brian, the inimitable Mr T. Hilman and Elena to valiantly hold on to the end and see us over 100 before succumbing to their exceptional bowling attack. The night was, suffice to say, a quieter affair with fewer fruit-based shots. Strangely enough memories were to return the next day.
Our final competitive day of tour started with PC completing his awesome 10k for charity and then a trip to the beach. Relaxing by the waves, shoreline catching practice with a rubber ball and plank of driftwood followed by the essential ice cream. We followed this up with a rather amazing lunch high up in a picturesque village overlooking the spectacular views of the coast. Suitably rested and refreshed we determinedly set off for our final game against another very strong Corfu and Greek national team. We won the toss and I chose to bat. This was a strong batting performance with our antipodean arrival, Steve hitting a solid 50 and a barley recognisable Mr Ford smashing the opener straight back past the bowler in the first over. All the top order contributed, including Yogesh, PC and we reached a more than respectable 199 from 25 overs with the loss of few.
Now it turns out that if you have played for Cape Town, it could mean you are rather a good bat! The first two overs went for 38! We bowled well, chased hard, threw bodies in the way, stuck hands out and dived all over the place and gave a fabulous account of ourselves, however we came up a little short. They won the game with a few overs to spare. Vinay won the golden jacket for a catch that went to Mount Olympus and back. We finished the evening with exceptional grilled seafood, kumquat shots and a probably a few too many Negronis. One of the tourists had previously mentioned to me that; Negronis after midnight are never a good idea, turns out this was sound but unheeded advice. Naturally the evening finished with song and laughter ringing around Corfu Old Town and all home in one piece.
This tour was four years in the making and I believe well worth the wait. Most importantly for me friends were made, ale, wine and melon moonshine was shared, delicious culinary tastes experienced, bread broken and a lifetime of fabulous memories made. As the saying goes; we absolutely made the best of what was in our power and the rest happened to be an awesome unforgettable tour. Thank you all who made the effort, thank you Corfu and thank you to the people of Hellas.
Mark Pepler