10 SEPTEMBER 1983, Page 19

Hit for six

Sir: It would appear as if P.J. Kavanagh is in astutely flashing form off the field and on it, if the nervous Mr Welch is anything to go by (3 September). And, though he may modestly recognise that his excellent Postscript may not wag the dog, it is certainly the tail that sells the doxy at the moment,

Did the honest Mr Welch realise, as he sat in his deck chair, worrying at his political wart while another Kavanagh clout whistled towards him, that he was sitting too close to the game and squinting dangerously into the sun?

Politics is as intriguing a sport as cricket, though if either is placed at the centre of one's life it is invariably at the expense of reality, as balance is then sacrificed to purpose and the purpose seems unfortunately synonymous with the ego.

Perhaps Dr Johnson was gratefully suggesting that this awful autism was the reason why any sleep. is possible at all, though I'm sure he would include the comfortable consideration of how insignificant all this will appear a twelve- month hence in the draught.

Charles P. Lucas

Sharow Hall, Ripon, Yorkshire