The Oval, Kennington

Enjoyment - 10%

Success - 15%

Will try again - Yes, in 20 years

First timer’s recommendation – – if you didn’t play at school you may find it difficult to find your level, but I’m sure it’s worth it when playing regularly, if only for the drinking.

I missed out on a couple of opportunities to play cricket this summer, which in hindsight I wish I had taken. As it got towards the end of the year I was desperate to play some form of the sport, and stumbled across Friday night lessons at the Kia Oval in Kennington. The structure of the lessons was fielding, batting and bowling drills in the nets, and the coaches were knowledgeable and it was well-attended. The problem I’ve got with the sport is that if you didn’t play at school, as I didn’t, you may find lessons and clubs hard to crack. Unlike a lot of the other sports I’ve done this year, cricket is one you need to take seriously and I would need a lot of practice to get up to a decent club standard. Also, I prefer my sports with a bit of hard-earned perspiration and not much standing around, and cricket doesn’t feature too much of either, and there were too many paunches on display at the training session for it to be a sport I would want to take up any time soon.