Have you heard the one about two Irishman on a church altar singing a bunch of songs about cricket directly beneath Christ on the cross?

The two Irishman were Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Thomas Walsh (Pugwash) who, with their band, played songs from their wonderful cricket-inspired albums – The Duckworth Lewis Method (2009) and Sticky Wickets (2013).

The show was sold out and the faithful came to pay homage, with every lyric on the tips of their tongues – which was a blessing as hardly a word was intelligible, so poor was the sound as it bounced around the church.

Yes, the band was tight, the banter particularly witty – when you could pick it out – and the impromptu version of Petula Clark’s Downtown was fun, but at £25 per ticket this just wasn’t cricket. A more acoustically sensitive venue would have made for a much better evening.

Safari hatted, top hatted, the band played the old favourites – Meeting Mr Miandad, Jiggery Pockery – pulling stumps with the catchy Nudging And Nurdling.

At the close, the faithful remained true and the players received a standing ovation on their way back to the pavilion. A sticky wicket indeed.