In the summer of 1919, a poet called J.C. Squire rounded up a group of writers, journalists, and actors and told them they were going to play cricket. He named his team the Invalids, in honour of several players wounded in the Great War. For their colours, he chose hospital blue and old gold, the shades of the pyjamas worn by officers convalescing in military hospitals, those pale wards where men lay in bed and waited to either recover or not. A.G. Macdonell watched Squire's

There were poignant scenes this week as D-Day veterans recounted stories of heroism, and loss, during the Normandy landings 80 years ago....