Don't I know you from somewhere...?

Its a 24-hour job this, team management. You can't get away from it - even on a visit to Morrison's you find players lurking in the fizzy drinks aisle.

So where do you go to escape and get away from it all? Why not the theatre - a pre-Christmas entertainment. This looks good - James and the Giant Peach at the Queen Mother Theatre in Hitchin.

Hmmm - whose that sat right at the back... seem to recognise them. Ah but the lights are going down...

The play begins. After a while there is a crowd scene - a scrummage of villagers attempting to see the aforementioned peach. And who is that driving through the centre... Samantha Theobold Roe from the U14s. I try to look inconspicuous, which is a shade difficult is you are sitting two feet away in the front row.

Samantha - who later shrugged off the inconvience of possibly being squashed to death by the peach (whether she was on not depends on your interpretation) to come back later and eat the thing before finishing off in a dance routine as the end - didn't have any lines (excited squeals aside) but looked a shoe-in for the role of Alice Liddell if they ever did a proper Alice in Wonderland.

The short run at the QMT has now finished and seems to have been a virtual sell-out. News on a transfer to the West End is awaited.