and Cambridgeshire (11½-4½) in the Semis, they faced Nottinghamshire in the Final in Birmingham. With three games to finish, the match could have gone either way, as Matthew Leigh, Paul Carpenter and Mark Abbott all had very close endgames. They asked Tim if they could agree a draw, but he refused and made them play on, wisely as it turned out, as all three went on to win, making the final score look more comfortable that it actually was.

However, in 1998, all this joy came to a sudden end in a most unexpected way. While he was making a routine delivery of pasties to a shop in Exeter, he was stung by a bee in the cab of his van. As Tim knew he was allergic to beestings, he prepared to drive back home immediately, taking the precaution of asking the shop manager to follow his van to make sure he got home safely. This was duly achieved and from home he was taken by ambulance to hospital, where they discovered that not only had he been stung, but he must, at some point, have fallen against his van in Exeter and hit the back of his head. The next day he had a cerebral haemorrhage and spent a month in hospital.

After this he attempted to carry on as before, but had two fits whilst driving his van. After a third fit resulted in his crashing into a ditch, it was discovered these were as a result of epilepsy, and he was banned from driving