February got a two-page mention in the April issue of The Cricketer magazine.

"Where in the world would they cancel an entire weekend's football programme to play a cricket match out of season?'' began the article, which is accompanied by a colour photo of the Somerset grounds and another of England `A' captain Martyn Moxon after breaking his thumb in the first match.

The writer, Bill Day, who lived in Bermuda and worked for the Bermuda Sun for a year as a sports reporter in the sixties, mentioned policeman Dennis Archer's first-ball six off Devon Malcolm "into the fragrant oleander surrounding the Somerset ground'' though he made the usual English press mistake of referring to locals as "Bermudans'' instead of Bermudians.

Day described the island as having no skyscrapers, no parking meters, no neon advertising hoardings and fewer than five road deaths a year, and a chance for everyone to receive the World Cup action in their homes without a satellite dish.

He wrote that the disparity between the two sides was painfully clear "from the moment Malcolm recovered from his brief humiliation in the tour's first over,'' adding that "the Bermuda teams were unprepared for cricket in the middle of their football season, dramatically overweight on an island that these days gorges itself on American junk food and too many Heinekens.'' Bermuda cricket, wrote Day, "is desperately short of coaching know-how to put right the decline in standards that has developed since Alma Hunt and, more latterly, Cal Symonds, Sheridan Raynor, Rupert Scotland and Clarence Parfitt were performing wonders with bat and ball on the island,'' the article continued.

"Doug Ferguson, an NCA coach from the North of England, has been drafted to Bermuda to help out and even Bobby Simpson has been considered in an effort to stem the decline. But with little government help, hardly any cricket in the schools, what hope (is there for) an island coming under the increasing influence of the Big Apple?''.

FLASHBACK -- Terry Burgess and wicket-keeper Jeff Richardson of the President's XI celebrate one of the few happy moments for Bermuda cricketers during the England `A' tour in February.