Month: July 2019

The Week That Ireland Came To Lord’s, 23 to 26 July 2019

The very first ball of the very first test match between England and Ireland

23 July 2019 – the day before the inaugural test match between England and Ireland. I had arranged to play real tennis at Lord’s that afternoon, but got the call to see if I could play “senior gentleman’s doubles” at noon. This was not especially convenient for me, given my chosen 16:00 slot for singles, but I acquiesced to play “if they were desperate”. I got the call at about half-ten.

As it turned out, the main senior gentleman had got his dates mixed up and wasn’t there, so I ended up playing a not-quite-so-senior gentleman’s singles. I played rather well, perhaps spurred on by the presence of two of the Ireland test cricketers; Kevin O’Brien and Andrew Balbirnie, who took a great deal of interest in the game and watched for a good 20 minutes or so.

Returning to Lord’s for my 16:00 session, I realised that playing two hours of singles on a very hot day was not ideal, but it went fine. Coincidentally, as I arrived at the ground Kevin O’Brien was leaving Lord’s. I leaned out of the car window:

“Don’t you want to watch some more tennis?”

“You’re back for more?”

“Yup, I must be mad”.

24 July 2019 – Day One of the test. Dominic and I had been talking about finding a day to go to Lord’s with Janie and Pamela for a county match, but as I had tickets for this match, it seemed a good idea to use this Ireland test for our gathering.

Janie took this picture of me, Dominic and Pamela

I brought smoked salmon bagels and Dominic brought a superb selection of cheeses from La Fromagerie. Dominic was one of two people who sent me messages, within a few minutes of each other on the preceding Sunday, wondering about brie cheese given the weather forecast for very hot weather. The other brie-enquirer was Charles “Charley The Gent Malloy” Bartlett.

It was indeed a blisteringly hot day, especially as the sun came out full pelt in the afternoon, making my excellent Mound Stand seats a little over-exposed. Fortunately, we managed to find our way to a clutch of newly-shady seats in the Warner mid-afternoon. It’s not what you know…

Janie took this picture of the cricket

By that time, England had long-since been rolled for diddly-squat and Ireland looked to be in the ascendancy.

Still, it was a most enjoyable day of cricket-watching, eating and chatting.

25 July 2019 – Day Two of the test.

Hazy – but even hotter than the previous day

The weather was set to be even hotter. I knew I’d need to get to Lord’s pretty early to secure shady seats in the Warner. So I did that.

My guests for Day Two were Charles “Charley the Gent Malloy” Bartlett and Nigel “Father Barry” Hinks. On the water front, I brought a spare refillable flask but in fact Chas brought one for each of them, along with the picnic, which Dot “Mrs Malloy” very kindly made up for us all.

We’d agreed in advance that we’d have an alcohol-free day given the extreme heat. I suspect that bar takings were much lower than the MCC had hoped for too. Despite that, the St John’s Ambulance people were kept busy that day – it really was a scorcher – a record July day apparently.

The cricket was good – England set a fairly modest but probably defensible score ending the day nine-down, which meant that there was to be cricket on Day Three. Hurrah. Mostly thanks to an unexpectedly dogged night-watchman job by Jack Leach for England.

25 July 2019 – Day Three of the test. The original plan had been for Chas and Nigel to join me on Day Three as well, but circumstances intervened and they both dropped out several weeks ahead of the match.

In the end, for reasons far too dull to explain, I ended up with three guest tickets to dispense, which ended up in the capable hands of Simon “Awesome Simo” Jacobs, Bobbie “Báirbre” Scully and Pamela (see Day One). Dominic was also going to join us once he had escaped from the Tower of London.

The weather was less than special first thing, so my early morning mission to secure good seats on Day Three comprised finding a similar level of cover as was required for the shade the day before, but also in a position that would avoid any squalls of rain. Again, success.

I took plenty of reading matter as I guessed that none of my guests would be turning up early.

Pamela, who lives nearby, texted in to say that she was going to wait until the showers passed (smart move).

Simon was slightly delayed, but not as delayed as the start of play, so he got to see the first ball…

…which was also the entirety of the remainder of the England innings.

But before that, I had already received a text from Bobbie. I have previously described Bobbie’s timekeeping, which, traditionally was based on leaving Place A for an appointment at Place B at roughly the appointed time to be at Place B. This works fine if Place A and Place B are very close to each other; less fine if they are some distance apart.

Bobbie had, in fact, confounded all my temporal expectations by being early on the previous occasion we had met…

Dinner At Spring Restaurant With Bobbie Scully, 28 February 2019

…but for the Ireland Test Match she reverted to type. At 10:57, three whole minutes before the test match was due to start, I received this text from Bobbie:

Right, I am leaving [home] now – somewhat behind planned schedule (you will not be surprised to hear)…

Actually, with the rain delay, innings break and then another rain delay very early in the Ireland innings, Bobbie and Pamela (both of whom arrived around 12:15/12:30) only missed about eight balls and no runs. Just the one wicket.

In the meantime, Simon and I were able to have a good chinwag without mentioning our hateful politics and sickeningly awful politicians too much. We spent more time talking about Simon’s impending album launch, which Simon has kindly scheduled to take place just round the corner from my flat at the Notting Hill Arts Club – click this link or picture below:

Once Bobbie and Pamela arrived, the cricketing day moved on very quickly indeed…

…read scorecard and Cricinfo resources by clicking here…

…in fact, the cricketing side of things was done and dusted just over an hour later.

That’s not enough time to get through a whole picnic.

It wasn’t even enough time for Bobbie to get through her cricketing anecdote. It turned out that this wasn’t Bobbie’s first experience of international cricket; it was her second. The tale of her first, from 1977, is such a good anecdote it deserves its own Ogblog piece. Perhaps Bobbie will write it as a guest piece or perhaps I’ll have to ghost write it.

The stewards allowed us and the assembled masses to continue our picnics and convivialities for some time, although the arrival of the marching bagpipe band to “entertain” us seemed like an excellent way for the considerate host that is the MCC to make everyone feel that they remain welcome while driving all but the sturdiest (and/or deafest) away.

Simon decided to depart quite swiftly. Dominic joined us briefly before going off to change for his game of realers. Pamela, Bobbie and I watched Dominic play real tennis in the absence of any real Irish folk playing cricket.

After that, Bobbie and I retired to The Bridge (home to the Canal Cafe Theatre) for a more comprehensive catch up.

A most agreeable end to a convivial and sporting week.

Subsequently (a mere four months later – quite rapidly in King Cricket timescales) my King Cricket-compliant piece about the same match was published – click here or below:

What does it take to make a Lord’s Test match quintessentially Irish? (a match report)

In case anything ever goes awry with the KC site, I have scraped that piece to here.

Tennis At Queen’s Followed By A Bit Of London Cricket Trust Charity Media At Lord’s, 18 July 2019

Those of us who play real tennis at Lord’s are still in exile due to the cricket world cup, despite the fact that the tournament ended on Sunday. I have spent much of my exile at The Queen’s Club (well posh exile) and had arranged another two hour session of doubles, following the five set epic a few weeks ago.

Sort of three hours of doubles for me, as Neil at Queen’s asked me at the last minute to help make up a doubles the evening before, so I was still a little sore from trying to keep up with Bomber, The Saint and The Biscuit (all well above my handicap/pay grade).

For our two hour session, Dominic and Bill (as last time), but this time we were joined by Snitch for the first hour. After Snitch left, we played a real tennis form of Canadian Doubles, with the server/receiver from the doubles pair grabbing the “honour” of doing the hard work as the single player until defeated.

I worked up quite a sweat, especially as the single towards the end. Then picked up the message from Fletch at Middlesex CCC that Kevin Hand wanted to interview me this evening about the London Cricket Trust and AB de Villiers, for BBC Radio London and BBC Essex, so we arranged that between the sweats and the showers.

Soon after I set off in Dumbo for home, I felt a touch of cramp starting in my foot and tried to wriggle my foot while braking for the lights…but instead slipped my foot onto the accelerator, requiring me to switch to emergency stop braking which made one hell of a screech.

Better than half-a-yard…or more or less the nick. Phew.

I signalled an apology to the driver in front, who seemed to be apoplectic with rage, leaping about in his seat and waving his arms. Then I realised that he was car-seat-jiving while listening to loud music. Perhaps he hadn’t even noticed my near miss.

When the lights changed, the jiver/driver in front zoomed off ahead of me, as fast as I have ever seen someone zoom out of Palliser Road. Whether he was just that sort of driver or desperate to get away from me I’ll never know.

Then some work in the sweatshop that is my little office at home on a sunny afternoon.

So I had another shower before heading to Lord’s – not for the start of the match but in good time for my “over 18 of the first innings” appointment with Fletch.

As I got out of the shower, the phone was ringing. Fletch.

Can we meet a little earlier than I said – like over 15?…

…sure, I’m just getting ready to leave…

I’m sorry, it’s because I have other media to do on the pavilion side in the interval after dropping you off…Eoin Morgan…

…should be no problem, Fletch, but I need to get off the phone so I can put on some clothes and leave. I know its radio, but I figure I’ll still need to put on some clothes to get through the street, the gates and to the media centre?…

…yes, I think that would be for the best.

In fact I was making good time and got to the Maida Vale/St John’s Wood borders, where I knew I could park easily, bang on 18:30. So I was in the ground and able to watch cricket for about half-an-hour before wending my way round to the media centre, where I enjoyed the commentator’s view of the last few overs and could hear the radio commentary of course…in the commentary box.

Below is my interview, which runs for about eight minutes if you want to hear it all.

Radio London Radio Essex Interview LCT 18 July 2019

Here is a link to the moment during my interview when Eoin Morgan waved at us in the Media Centre commentary box, tweeted by Kevin Hand.

In the commentary box was the artefact pictured below. It seems that the media centre tea-time spread was adorned by this artefact for each of the world cup matches at Lord’s, with the badges of that day’s competing nations shown on the helmets. Left over from the world cup final on Sunday:

Kevin Hand was apologetic about the shortness of the interview and the fact that he sort-of had to leave me to it while he photographed and tweeted about Eoin Morgan. But Kevin owed me no apology for that; it was great and timely publicity for the London Cricket Trust charity.

In any case, it seems Kevin might want me to do the odd additional slot with him this season. If for no other reason, I think he’s keen to disambiguate Ian Harris and Ged for any listeners who might, understandably, be bemused and/or amused.

Kevin also apologised to me when he discovered that I came in especially for the interview as I hadn’t planned to attend the match. Again no apology needed as I live so close by and in fact I am so glad I was there for the post world cup afterglow. The Middlesex v Essex match was even played on the world cup pitch.

In fact I stayed for just the first few overs of the Middlesex innings before heading home and catching the end of the match on the broadcast.

One final anecdote. When I mentioned during my interview that AB de Villiers had come out to Deptford for us just a few hours after landing from South Africa, Kevin wondered whether we might have tired him out ahead of his first appearance for Middlesex. I think the scorecard and match reports attest that Kevin needn’t have worried.

AB & Me & The LCT, Deptford Park, 16 July 2019

Why did one of the greatest cricketers of all time, AB de Villiers, pop along to Deptford Park, more or less hot off the plane from South Africa, to help the London Cricket Trust (LCT) put cricket back into London’s parks?

Because AB de Villers is a very decent chap, that’s why.

The LCT is a joint venture between the four counties with a London presence: Essex, Kent, Middlesex & Surrey. I am the Middlesex Trustee.

Pretty much everything I want to say about this wonderful day has been published on the King Cricket website, authored by my nom-de-plume, Ged Ladd.

AB de Villiers spotted in an unusual place (helping get cricket back into London’s parks and commons)

If anything ever goes awry with the King Cricket site, you can read a scrape of that article here.

The event got plenty of press and even three minutes on the early evening news on BBC1. Janie uploaded a scrape of that item which is embedded below.

You might still find articles and pieces through this meta link.

A couple of days later, I got to talk about it all on BBC Radio London and BBC Essex, described and embedded in this piece – click here.

Or if you just want to hear the eight-minute interview – I’ve also embedded it in this piece (click below):

Radio London Radio Essex Interview LCT 18 July 2019

A Visit To Kew Gardens, Mostly To See Dale Chihuly: Reflections On Nature, 15 July 2019

After the frazzled excitement of the Cricket World Cup Final yesterday…

The Day England Won The Cricket World Cup, England v New Zealand, 14 July 2019

…a day of quiet contemplation, gardens and art seemed to be in order.

So we went to Kew Gardens. It’s ages since we’ve been and Janie was especially keen to see the new Dale Chihuly exhibits.

Just the sight of one of them made Janie’s hair stand on end…

…or was Janie still frazzled from the cricket world cup?

If we both look a bit “straight off the tennis court” in the pictures, that’s because we did go to Kew straight after playing some tennis. We had a quick bite in the pavilion on arrival before wandering on to the Temperate House.

Temperate House from below…
Temperate House from the viewing gallery above

After the Temperate House, which has several stunning Chihuly pieces, we then went to the Marianne North Gallery to see her fine works.

Then on to the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, where many of the regular Dale Chihuly’s can be found and where we bought Janie books on both Chihuly and Marianne North.

Shirley you must be joking, Mr Chihuly?

Then around the gardens some more to take in the new, scattered Chihuly works and the beautiful gardens.

Not Chihuly, this work. Chihuly do you think you are, Ged?
Eye candy galore.

Then home for some stretching and meditation with Lexi.

Did all this calm us down 24 hours after that tense cricket match? A bit…not completely. But it was a super day out.

We took loads of pictures – click here or below to see all of them:

The Day England Won The Cricket World Cup, England v New Zealand, 14 July 2019

We didn’t go.

Watching from the comfort of Noddyland rather than at Lord’s was probably for the best.

I’m not sure the noise and the stress of it would have been good for us if we’d been at Lord’s.

The sheer edge-of-seatness of it all wasn’t very good for us in the comfort of Noddyland.

By the end of it, not only was the World Cup match a tie-break thriller but so was the Wimbledon Final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Here is a link to the Cricinfo scorecard and copious materials about this epic match.

Here is an ICC official highlights package of the denouement:

Janie and I were wrecks by the end of that. Very happy wrecks.

A Wonderful Wimbledon Day, Gentleman’s Quarter Finals Day, No. 1 Court, 10 July 2019

Janie seems to have a knack with the Wimbledon public ballot. Last year she got super seats on Centre Court for Ladies’ Singles Semi-Finals Day…

Wimbledon Ladies’ Semi-Finals Day On Centre Court, 12 July 2018

This year, men’s quarter-finals day on No. 1 Court. Oh boy was Janie excited again when those came through.

Picnic duties for me once again, with the centrepiece smoked salmon kindly supplied by Helga from her local West Cork smokehouse.

We had such success last year getting to Wimbledon early, getting to see Cori (now Coco) Gauff play in a Girls’ Quarter-Final on Court 18 before our main matches, I suggested that we get to Wimbledon before the start of play this year.

On the way, we were joined on the District Line by this keen tennis fan who couldn’t resist eating his fill on the train before even getting to Wimbledon:

He got on at Earl’s Court and was still on the train when we got to Southfields

In fact, we ended up at the All England Club so early they wouldn’t even let us into the main compound for a few minutes – not until 10:30 – a lesson for next time, if there is a next time for us.

Still, that early arrival at least enabled us to get front row seats (actually second row, as the front row view is a little restricted) on Court 12 to see a Ladies’ Doubles Quarter-Final: Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Danielle Collins v Gabriela Dabrowski and Yifan Xu. The latter pair went on to be runners up this year but it was really the former pair we were especially keen to see.

So ready to watch tennis
Not so ready to watch tennis
Ladies’ Doubles

We had plenty of time between that (rather short) match and the start of the No. 1 Court action, which enabled us to amble across the compound and take in the atmosphere before taking up our No. 1 Court seats.

Then to our seats on No 1. Court. Almost right at the back…

Must be one of the Backseat Boys
This must have been Janie’s fifth attempt at a double-selfie

…very similar to the seats we occupied a few years ago when we witnessed the famous third round match between Sam Querrey and Novac Djokovic

A Day at Wimbledon, No.1 Court, First Friday, 1 July 2016
Roberto Bautista Agut (our end) playing Guido Pella (hazard end)

That first match was a very good one. Bautista Agut always looked likely to win but was not so far ahead of Pella for the result to be sure until the very end – especially after Pella took a set.

During the innings break (between sets one and two) I took a long stroll to stretch my legs and stuff, running into Nick Compton (formerly Middlesex and England). We had a chat before wending our ways back to our respective courts.

It seems that we were missing some stuff on other courts and also missed out on Bautista Agut’s press conference after winning, in which he admitted that winning had messed up his stag do plans:

Sam Querrey (our end) against Rafael Nadal (other end)

The first set of the Querrey/Nadal match was excellent, but when Nadal eventually prevailed in that set, Querrey seemed to run out of juice for the remaining sets.

We didn’t stick around for the evening entertainment of old crock’s doubles – we felt we’d had a superb day and a sufficiency in having seen three good, week two matches.

Here is a link to the order of play that day – not sure if it is a permanent record for 2019 judging by the web address.

Let’s see how Janie gets on in the ballot next time – she has been extremely lucky these past few years, only missing out completely in 2017. I hope she isn’t too disappointed if the balloting system doesn’t pick us again for a while. But I also hope that her lucky streak continues!

Here and below is a link to all of the photos we took that day:

A Day Of Sport In Exile, Mostly Middlesex v Gloucestershire At Merchant Taylors’ School, 9 July 2019

Exile. Banishment. There are no polite words for it. We cannot play at Lord’s for several weeks because the ground is hosting four days of world cup matches during that time. This expatriation applies to real tennis players and cricketers alike.

And we love Lord’s. We’d like to sing the praises of the place, but…

…how can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

On the bright side, of course, we have other places to go and in truth they are not such strange lands. For realists, there is The Queen’s Club and Middlesex University. For Middlesex cricketers, there is Radlett and Merchant Taylor’s School (MTS), amongst other places.

Having enjoyed a super day at Radlett with Fran and Simon earlier in the exile period…

A Visit To Radlett To See Middlesex v Glamorgan with Fran & Simon, 17 June 2019

…Janie (aka Daisy) and I had hoped to arrange a similar day at MTS. But Fran and Simon had other commitments on the Sunday, while Janie couldn’t free up enough time on the Tuesday.

Luckily, I was able to get enough work done on the Monday to free up the Tuesday for cricket.

So I arranged a game of real tennis at Middlesex University in the morning, with a view to getting from The Burroughs to MTS soon after 11:00. Here is a very short clip depicting real tennis at Middlesex University – actually taken by Janie on the Radlett day:

I liaised with Fran and Simon, working out that I was due to arrive a few minutes ahead of them, so I wandered around and grabbed some excellent seats alongside the Middlesex diehards, such as Barmy Kev, Andy Biggs, Keith Roberts, along with several others.

By the time I arrived, Middlesex had already lost a couple more wickets and the position looked very precarious indeed. By the time Fran and Simon arrived, the position was looking even more precarious.

This picture, taken by Janie, from Radlett a few weeks earlier

In that early part of the day, we all three thought we might well be about to witness a Middlesex loss and that we might not be around for too long. Nevertheless, Fran and I had both learnt our lesson ar Radlett and resolved to stroll around at regular intervals.

We set off for our first stroll around 12:30 and took a good 30 minutes to complete the circuit.

One of the wonderful things about outground cricket at Middlesex is that the players and club officials really do wander around and mingle with the spectators, giving the matches a festival feel.

We soon encountered Dawid Malan and James Keatley, gaining some interesting insight into Dawid’s perception of how many runs Middlesex might need to have a chance to defend a total (a lead of 160 to 180 he said).

A little further on, Steve Finn similarly suggested that a lead of 170 would be enough, although Sam Robson alongside him was more nuanced with his answer…

…as long as Gloucestershire don’t manage a big partnership or two.

But at that stage, thoughts of such a lead were still hope not expectation, with Middlesex 7-down, and the lead crawling up to, then just past, 100. By the end of our stroll and lunch the lead had crept up to around 140.

Fran and Simon were surprised at how cosy and friendly the atmosphere is, perhaps attributing it to my involvement with Middlesex. While that is the case to some extent, I have found the outground atmosphere relentlessly friendly since long before I was involved with the club.

Simon, who is in truth a Yorkshire fan, might especially enjoy this tale of Michael Vaughan and Greek tragedy from Southgate in 2006, reported on King Cricket under my nom de plume, Ged:

Books to read at the cricket? Iphigenia Among The Taurians by Euripides

Putting ancient tales of Greek tragedy to one side, the mood at lunch amongst the Middlesex supporters was a real mixture of sanguine and resigned. As the afternoon went on, the clouds and the mood lifted to increasing brightness. With increased hope, of course, came some nerves.

Then when Middlesex were all out and had some 11 overs to bowl before tea, discussion of how many wickets we might “need” before tea to establish a foothold and to have a chance of completing the match that day. Two or three was the wisdom of the crowd. It looked as though we’d have to make do with two until the last ball before tea, which made three.

Tim Murtagh bowled beautifully that day and in so doing overtook Wayne Daniel’s record tally of wickets for Middlesex, which was a pretty impressive statistic to hear announced on the tannoy.

Richard Goatley and Angus Fraser held an impromptu members’ forum in the beer tent, at which they were apparently being bombarded with difficult questions about Middlesex’s tough start to the season. It was meant to be a tea interval thing but went on some time after that, during which time Middlesex continued to take wickets.

As one wag put it, there were some grumpy members in the beer tent complaining about Middlesex’s poor performance, while the team was turning around and looking like winning a tough match.

Richard Goatley is one of the world’s worst watchers of a cricket match when he has emotional skin in the game, so there was no consoling him with talk of 40/6…40/7 probably meaning that Middlesex was heading for a win.

In fact, Gloucestershire, in an echo of Middlesex’s innings, put on a bit of a rearguard at 7-down, so much so that the Middlesex regulars encouraged me and Fran to go for another long walk, as our previous walk had been so successful from a Middlesex point of view.

Don’t come back until Middlesex have taken another wicket…or two…

…was the message from the welcoming regulars.

A mini exile. But in any case, we were ready for another stroll and sure enough, we’d only got about 100 yards into our circuit when another wicket and then another fell.

When we got to the pavilion, at 9-down, I saw Angus sitting with his serious game face on.

Surely you can break a smile now, Gus?…

…I asked…

…not yet…

…snarled Gus, who then broke into that rare, full Gus smile.

Fran and I got back to our seats with the Gloucestershire final wicket pair holding on for grim death, but in truth the only remaining issue was whether they could survive the extra half hour or not.

Not. A splendid Middlesex win by the end of the day, having turned around a seemingly losing position an hour into Day Three.

Here is a link to the scorecard and other Cricinfo resources on the MTS match.

I normally write more about the conversations than the cricket, but the cricket and ground vibe was so special this day. In any case Fran asked to redact several of the conversations. The non-redacted topics of conversation included:

  • Roy Hudd
  • Rod Hull
  • Barry Wood
  • Benny Howell
  • Benny Hill
  • Merchant Taylors’ School
  • cashew nuts
  • New Zealand v India at Old Trafford
  • rain in Manchester
  • the possible death of the adverb.

It really had been a very exciting and enjoyable day amongst friends. What with the real tennis at Middlesex University and the Middlesex cricket win at MTS, I had conducted myself very Middlesexly indeed, I feel.

Rust by Kenny Emson, Bush Studio, 6 July 2019

A rare miss for us at the Bush Studio. Nothing wrong with this play or the production, but it simply didn’t float our boats. It sounded modern, witty, interesting from the description, but in truth it is simply the story of an extra-marital affair.

Here is a link to the Bush resource on this play/production.

I got a bit more out of it than Janie did, in that I felt able to enter the couple’s world. But in truth the story was very simple and the characters were so much the architects of their own misfortune it was hard to sympathise with them.

Below is the trailer for this play/production:

We ran into a gentleman I know as a nodding acquaintance from the health club, BWW, who sat virtually next to us. I wonder what he and his companion made of it. I might one day find out.

Janie was underwhelmed by the acting. I thought both were fine, I think it was the roles that were underwhelming and that the man, Jon Foster, in particular did not seem especially well cast. We’ve seen him several times before when, in my view, better cast and therefore better able to shine.

What Janie and I both agreed was that we didn’t sense the sexual chemistry the play was supposed to conjure. But we did have Nuki afterwards, by which I mean, a takeaway meal from Nuki’s Thai Kitchen. Very tasty.

A Day Of World Cup Cricket, Pakistan v Bangladesh, At Lord’s, 5 July 2019

I wanted to see a world cup match from the wonderful vantage point of the Lord’s pavilion. I figured that this particular match would be a decent opportunity so to do and I was right; I scored a pavilion ticket on application.

Of course, the only thing about international matches and the pavilion is that only members are allowed. Strictly no guests. That’s why most of us choose not to go to the pavilion on a major match day even when we can – because we normally choose to go with partners, friends etc.

By coincidence, I had a conversation about this matter on the Tuesday, with John Thirlwell, with whom I play real tennis, normally at Lord’s but on this occasion, while we are in exile for the world cup, at Queen’s.

John Thirlwell to the left of me, this picture from a battle at Queen’s in 2018

John had similarly, uncharacteristically, bagged a pavilion place for the Pakistan v Bangladesh game. We hatched a plan to watch the match together.

This proved to be a great plan from my point of view, as John:

The rump ire strikes back – Middlesex v Durham match report

John kindly sent me a message describing the location of the seats and the precise look of the bagsying materials. I got to said seats about 25 minutes before the start of play – John got back from his breakfast about 5 minutes after I arrived.

I got this stunning picture of the anthems and the ground from our splendid seats

I very much enjoyed watching cricket with John, who is knowledgeable about the game and/but wears his cricket knowledge lightly. We also chatted a bit with the gentleman next to us, who is a member who now lives in New Zealand but is, coincidentally, like us, a real tennis tragic. Not much chance of feeding his real tennis addiction in Wellington. He was a little peeved that he couldn’t feed that addiction at Lord’s on this visit – he usually does when he comes over for cricket.

Despite the cushions, I have learnt my lesson and made sure to take several walks rather than sit through the whole match. In any case, those walks were a real treat because there was such a festival atmosphere around the ground. Noisy, but in a very good-spirited way, with the Pakistan and Bangladesh fans competing to make celebratory noise.

In particular, on my walk during the innings break, the heave of people taking advantage of the many Asian food stands in the food village and picnicing on the lawns was a wonderful mixture of sights, sounds and smells. I could only try to capture some of the sights:

During the Bangladesh innings, John came for one of the ground circuits with me, which I think he also enjoyed. On our way out of the pavilion, we spied a sample of a new-style pavilion bench made of a padded material that ought to reduce or even eliminate the worst excesses of rump ire.

Change…don’t want it…

…said John. I chimed in…

what’ll we do for aggravation if we have comfortable seats? The grumpy MCC member will lose his entire raison d’être on a comfy chair.

They’ll need to do a heck of a lot of persuading to get that idea through the members at a general meeting.

More seriously, I was very critical of the extraneous marketing drivel and noise in the England v Australia match – click here or below:

England v Australia, World Cup Round Robin Match, Lord’s, 25 June 2019

I’m pleased to report that the ICC seemed to have ironed out some of the worst excesses for this match, although I still found many of the marketing messages inappropriate and unhelpful within the ground, however much it might make sense for those advertisers to have their colours shown on the TV screens around the world. But at least we could see the score on the scoreboards most of the time during this match.

I was also really impressed by the MCC’s decision to allow 250 schoolkids to witness this match from the pavilion, as it had been under-subscribed. This was a wonderful opportunity for those schools and seemed to motivate MCC staff and members – at least certainly those I spoke to about it.

Here is a link to the Cricinfo resource for this match.

It wasn’t the best or most exciting match I have ever seen, but it was a great advert for the game and for the ability of a place like Lord’s to stage a glorious day out for all manner of people who don’t normally get a chance to enjoy the Lord’s experience. I thought it was a great success and was so glad to have been there on this day.

Thanks once again, John, for your company, the choice of seats and the pain-diminishing cushions.

Dinner With Cousin Debbi & Graeme, The Scarsdale Tavern, 4 July 2019

We left the arrangements for this get together pretty open-ended in the planning. Debbi & Graeme were flying in from Australia that very day, with only a few days in London and really only the one slot, this very day, which worked for us all.

As things turned out, they landed and got to Central London so very early in the morning, that not even the “mates arrangement” at their hotel could get them in to a room THAT early.

So we made a last minute arrangement for them to visit me in Clanricarde Gardens at breakfast-time, while they waited for a room.

We’re a bit dishevelled, straight off the journey from Melbourne, not least 17 hours non-stop flight from Perth…

…said Debbi. So I made a special effort not to hevel myself, just to put my visitors at ease, you understand. Mum would have been horrified by my admitting family visitors without doing something to my hair, but that’s a barber’s daughter for you.

My grandma, Beatrice, with grandpa, Lew. Beatrice and Debbi’s grandpa were siblings

Debbi, Graeme and I had a very pleasant chat about lots of stuff, including Part One of the life story discussion and a fair deal about sport. Graeme is a psychologist with particular interests in organisational and sports psychology. We also talked a fair bit about University life, as they both work in that sector.

We agreed that we’d meet for dinner at 8:00. It was my job to choose the venue. Graeme suggested that I use a swathe of psychometric tests on the staff of possible venues in order to select the authoritatively most suitable place in the vicinity. I think that might have been what he said. Perhaps he said, “don’t…”

Anyway, we parted company, I did some Googling and then I went off to Queen’s to play The Mighty Snitch at real tennis. I told Snitch that I’d had a session with sports psychologist earlier that morning, which was true in a way. We had a good game. Snitch thought I’d played well and wondered what secrets the sports psychologist had passed on to me. I explained that, if I told Snitch those secrets, I wouldn’t have one over him any more. Snitch understood.

On the way back from Queen’s, I used my own style of selection process by looking at, going in and smelling the Scarsdale Tavern. I also talked to the staff. They seemed friendly and relaxed about my booking. I liked the look, vibe and smell of the place. I held off on deploying psychometric tests and booked a table there and then.

When I returned to The Scarsdale several hours later, on foot, arriving just before the appointed hour, I was warmly greeted by a member of staff and told that they had put aside a quiet table by the fireplace for us, which sounded very considerate.

I waited for Debbi and Graeme.

Fortunately, I decided to check my messages and things while I waited – not least to see if they had been delayed or mislaid. But what I found was a Facebook posting by Debbi, claiming that THEY were waiting for ME in The Scarsdale Tavern, adorned with the following photo:

Recognising the main restaurant part, I popped through to the other side of the Tavern to find them. We switched to the quieter side, which was indeed more suitable for a chat and a meal.

We had a very enjoyable meal and managed Part Two of the life story discussion. Janie phoned in for a while.

Graeme was convinced that Australia would win the cricket world cup, while I still rate England’s chances. Inspired by my tale of the day of the 1999 world cup semi-final at Edgbaston…

The Day Charley The Gent And I Witnessed The Tied World Cup Cricket Semi Final At Edgbaston…On A Screen In Barcelona, 17 June 1999

…we agreed a wager of £1, with the loser donating that sum to their favourite charity, which might mean (if neither Australia nor England win the title) that both of us are £1 down and charity as much as £2 up at the end of it all. Nail-biting stuff. An ironic postscript is that fate has conspired to pair England with Australia for a semi-final at Edgbaston this time around, next week on 11 July.

But I digress.

I decided to walk Debbi and Graeme back to their hotel – not because they need chaperoning, but because it was such a beautiful evening and that gave us an additional 10-15 minutes to chat.

I was most impressed to see that they were staying at Ellen Terry‘s place, so I took the above photo. Debbi and Graeme were underwhelmed by this fact, as the name of that great Victorian actress meant nothing to them. And there was me thinking that Debbi & Graeme are Victorians?

The hotel was just around the corner from the flat where American cousins Joni and Hal lived during their short sojourn to London in the late 1980’s. I walked around the corner to survey Courtfield Gardens, the next garden square along, before calling a cab home.

A very enjoyable evening.

Postscript

When I told Janie that Graeme was a sports psychologist who had imparted the secret of success upon me, she positively quaked and naturally succumbed to my superior mental strength when we played tennis (modern variety) on the Saturday.

Janie wondered what secrets Graeme had passed on to me. I explained that, if I told her those secrets, I wouldn’t have one over her any more. Janie understood. By which I mean, I guess she understood that there are no such secrets for me. Janie levelled the match on Sunday.