During the full-back’s absence, Richmond actually increased their advantage, scoring 12 points.Apart from making their customary substitution of Damian Cronin on the hour, Wasps also saved their extraordinary hooker Trevor Leota from further punishment before the end. Although Leota is not the first-choice hooker, his all-round skills have made him a cult figure with Wasps and it will be a surprise if he does not appear at some stage in the Cup Final.The last hurrah at the Athletic Ground went to the stand-off Adrian Davies who scored the final try which took Richmond past the half-century and his own total to 21 points.But the last word went to Tony Hallett, the Richmond chief executive. Watching his brief assault against Middlesex on Wednesday was a seriously cheerful business. He regularly took calculated risks against the new ball and his reward included a blazing six over cover point, another driven straight against Angus Fraser which saved the bowler the need to clip his eyebrows and a charge down the pitch against England’s straightest seamer which resulted in an outrageously carved four through midwicket.Just as Fraser was probably thinking that he was being subjected to a more measured version of Philo Wallace and Clayton Lambert he got one to move slightly away up the hill, induced the edge and Adams was gone.

Not in these brave new days when the attitude seems to have shifted from one extreme to the other and young and promising for England cricketers, if not for Prime Ministers, will soon have to end when the cot is thrown out But of his rich and prodigious talent there is no doubt. That’s not what I want.”Adams will be 28 on Wednesday, a birthday shared with Tony Blair who will be 45, and he knows that if the call does not come soon it will not come at all. “It would be something very special and it would come completely from the heart It’s getting the opportunity I’ve learned a lot in the last three years. I was reaching the stage where I was no longer young and promising and was in danger of ending up as just another county pro. He followed these immediately with a bristling half-century in 46 balls in his side’s opening Benson and Hedges Cup match.
This impressive beginning to his new career is merely an extension of his old one.

In 1996, he did not score his first hundred until the first week in June (though even then he had made precisely 100 in an April B and H tie), followed it with five more and still there was no sign of international recognition.”I want desperately to play for England,” he said last week, ruminating none too over- optimistically on his chances. In seven of the past nine seasons Adams has had at least one first-class century to his credit by the middle of May and in four of those he had achieved it before April was out. Peaking too soon, it might be said, but he has tried leaving it later. In his new guise as the captain of Sussex and the highest-paid county cricketer of all, Adams has already scored two Championship hundreds, one in each innings against Essex. Once more this spring, he comes armed with persuasive figures almost as uplifting as the blossom on the trees. For most of this decade such grandiose talk has led precisely nowhere upon entering the confines of the selectorial meeting room but the candidate himself has rarely turned up short of the necessary credentials.