Jazz on a Summer's Night

It was a good night for a cold beer last night at Spring Lane, especially for those three of us who had already spent the afternoon playing in a hot marquee somewhere in deep Shakespeare country. It was good also to welcome for the first time Matt Palmer, who had made the long trip from Nottingham to be with us. Matt showed from the start why he's such a popular entertainer, and Tony Pipkin and Martin Veasey completed an impressive front line, whose versaitilty enabled us to give you a fair selection from Louis Armstrong to Benny Goodman.

Thanks too to you all for turning up in strength (or were you just getting away from the World Cup!?). For those among us for whom the football is almost as exquisite a torture as the vuvuzelas, there's the added thought that this week we get both Wimbledon and an Austerity Budget. Which simply proves that disasters actually do come in threes!