Because the calendar said I was playing just up the road at Norbridge, the dinner was late. Because the dinner was late, I was late to pick up Grenvyle. As I was picking up Grenvyle, I couldn't reverse due to a queue formed behind a learner driver and so arrived very late for ping-pong. Because we arrived late, there was no real chance for a "proper" warm-up.

Without that crucial warm-up tonight, we scored more points than the three previous games combined. Go, as they say, figure.

• first max of the season for unwarmed Rob, scraping past Big Colin in five ends
• an unlikely max for Ed, landing assorted edges at key moments to un-nerve Colin
• Coke Zero for Grenvyle, despite some promising signs; did well to stand up for three games given his barely registering BP

Rob has a theory to explain our isotonically inspired improvement, but let's see how that plays out over the next game or two.