Saint Thomas Lord...

...if you think you missed the announcement of the canonisation of this new Saint of ours - patron of cricket and clean whites naturally - fear not for the Vatican has yet actually formally to pronounce Ex Cathedra as it were.

I am, I own, thus being somewhat premature - not to mention singular - in bringing this wondrous news to the attention of the Faithful.

But bring it I must, for it must be true. No sooner have I averred that prayers to the - as yet unsainted - Thomas are to be invoked against the wretched ECB and all their demonic works, than word comes from HQ that finally - a mere fifteen years having slowly passed - MCC are offering the ultimate glittering prize of Full Membership.

Well huzzah and hurrah, as Sir Percy would say. Not perhaps the cure for all the world's economic, social or spiritual ills - though close enough to trouble the scorer - but to me the veritable glimpse of heaven on earth; a Wordsworthian moment when - if one were - being young would be truly spiffing and uplifting and all. (Lapsing into a benign Blackadderish / Woosterian combo mode seems irresistibly apposite in the circs.)

Funnily enough - and this a part of the English joy of the thing - accession from Associate to Full MCC membership is barely, if at all, visible to the naked eye. True one may now harrumph at meetings or seek to vote down contrarian motions, and one may doze after luncheon at each and every match not just most of them. But one wouldn't harrumph or vote in any case, and there are only so many afternoons in any one year one can dedicate to doing nothing but napping

The great unwashed might reasonably assume that The Tie ['Rhubarb and Custard' or 'Bacon and Eggs' according to taste] and other trappings of office are but newly granted. But not so. All comes with Associate. There is no new mark one can adopt outwardly to show the distinction.

Now that is special. I challenge you to name any slightly nuanced gradation in ecclesial status that does not have its concomitant and showy sign. That which delineates a second sub-deacon from a first may not be much in the hierarchy of heaven, but in stripes on a surplice believe you me it matters. (Try calling a consultant surgeon 'Doctor' and you'll get my drift.)

So tonight then I salute our new Saint and offer him as patron not only of all things cricket - including clean whites - but also of subtle, gentle good English manners.

And by Glory don't we need a stout measure of that in these somewhat desperate times?