‘Royds vs Christies of London – The cricket match’ by James Millar Craig

Peter Wooton from our corporate team was an excellent umpire and Gareth’s (from our property team) wicket keeping was large and heroic.

It was good to see a former Royds member of staff (he left 10 years ago to become a wood craftsman) Sean Travers and his family there. Patrick from the family team was not too pleased about being run out by Sean but took it all in the spirit of the game - after a few drinks!

All of our team, with a few notable exceptions such as myself, performed valiantly in the face of some quite good cricketers amongst the opposition.

Elizabeth Maberley (wife of one of our property lawyers) was present throughout with her King Charles Cavalier dog Rufus to support the team and Adam. Some folk from Venners (the specialist hospitality auditors within the Christies Group) also turned up from afar and were chatting to Stewart Wilkinson, our managing partner.

Thanks also to Alison Ayres (property), Jodie Evans (property), David Konviser (corporate) and Louise Engle (corporate) for turning up to support us.

A special mention is due to Patrick's children cheering on their dad and the very stylish Welfare boys – that’s what happens when your dad is in intellectual property litigation. Both ended up playing for the Christies team. Bradley (12) made six runs (as opposed to five for his dad!) and Joel (11) got two wickets in the final over. Clearly a chip of the old block - surprisingly polite too!

Oh and Christies won by 30 runs. Back to the practice nets lads!