30 January 1997

Characters: David, Elizabeth, Neil, Nigel, Phil, Sid, Susan

• Neil is trying to decide whether to stand for cricket captain, but isn’t convinced. Despite Sid’s encouragement, he finally decides against it. He tells Sid that if he really doesn’t want Sean standing, he must stand himself.
• Nigel is doing his best to keep things running at Lower Loxley, and isn’t impressed that Elizabeth has been spending time in London on her consultancy work. There is lighting and heating in the living quarters, but Nigel is still busy seeing the bank manager, the printer and Caroline about moving some of the bookings to Grey Gables. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is using her initiative and inadvertently causes further problems. She criticises one of Nigel’s deals with Caroline as too generous, but Nigel sees it as part of the overall strategy of coping with the crisis. Tensions start to become more obvious.
• David puts Ruth’s plans for the herd to Phil, who is interested, but concerned about the cost, including up to GBP75,000 in milk quota, which might be worthless in five years’ time.

Summarised by: Chris Harrison