Our now traditional Z/Yen outing to see the Middlesex v Surrey T20 fixture at Lord’s.
We had a few late dropouts this year which allowed us the opportunity to treat some other people; Mark Duff, Sebastian Yeandle, Clive Hyman and Niclas Ljungberg to name a few.
We did the usual “everyone chip in to a picnic” thing; I was in the office that afternoon, so went round the supermarket with Linda to ensure we had good food coverage.
I recall that Sebastian was keen to see round the pavilion, so came suited and booted for that purpose – I took him round during the break between innings and showed him some cricket from the Long Room at the start of Surrey’s reply. We saw several wickets fall but, because of our Long Room location, we didn’t see Nick Gubbins ignominious tumble, failing to celebrate a catch – click here.
Niclas Ljungberg is but one of a long line of people from non-cricket playing countries whom we have tried and mostly failed to get into cricket.
Niclas, with typical Swedish politeness yet directness, wrote the following in his thank you note:
Many thanks for hosting the picnic at Lord’s yesterday, and for the enjoyable combination of plenty good food and introductory sports education.
Mark for some reason still seems to think this is a superior form of athletic activity to cross country skiing, I guess he just hasn’t quite seen the Northern light yet.
For those, like me, of the Middlesex persuasion, the important bit was that the ground was heaving with people and they saw Middlesex play really well on this occasion – click here for the scorecard.
My conversation with the police and Dumbo’s paranoia combined makes Kafka read like a level-headed guy’s straightforward narrative.
An irony of all this, as I write this up for Ogblog some nine months after the event, is that Dumbo is now a surprisingly regular feature at Lord’s, what with the Middlesex strategy (work) and real tennis (rest and play).
Was It Because I’m Black?
For collectors of the Dumbo pieces (there must be loads of you out there – don’t be shy about it), this is Dumbo’s third report; the previous two in reverse order are:
Dumbo fans can also rest assured that this piece is not the last word from Dumbo; there are two more 2015 pieces by Dumbo which will be Ogblogged once King Cricket has done his worst with them.
England v Sri Lanka Day 3 (14 June 2014) – linked here describes a similar encounter with Mr Johnny Friendly the previous year. I misspelt Jane Austen as Jane Austin in this piece and King Cricket missed the error when he subbed; both of us metaphorically ate our own livers for the error in private, but I decided to milk the pun. Thus this piece inadvertently became the first part of a trilogy.
The irony that I myself have now enthusiastically taken up real tennis in the months between writing this piece and it being published is not wasted on me.
To understand my King Cricket match reports you need to know that:
Ged and Daisy are nicknames/noms de plume for me and Janie. Friends are all referred to pseudonymously;
King Cricket match reports have strict rules: “If it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. If it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.”
A day out in Chelmsford, reported upon at length on the King Cricket website.
This season my possessions are taking an increasing role in proceedings, writing many of my King Cricket match reports for me. Dumbo, the Suzuki Jimny started this trend while we were in Ireland – click here. Dumbo continued this trend on a half-day out to Uxbridge, linked through this posting here. There will be more to come from Dumbo, once King Cricket gets around to publishing it.
To understand my King Cricket match reports you need to know that:
Ged and Daisy are nicknames/noms de plume for me and Janie. Friends are all referred to pseudonymously;
King Cricket match reports have strict rules: “If it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. If it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.”
For those readers unaware of the King Cricket rules: “If it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself.”
Readers should perhaps also be aware that my nom de plume for King Cricket purposes is Ged and that occasionally my possessions start writing match reports for me. This one is authored by Dumbo, my Suzuki Jimny.
Indeed by the end of the 2015 season, inanimate objects had pretty much taken over my contributions to King Cricket, as you will no doubt find out come spring 2016 or whenever King Cricket gets around to publishing some of the later ones from the season. This one was published 13 December 2015.
In case you don’t delve that far into the King Cricket report, the links to the Visa commercials showing old cine footage of my dad slapping on the tanning oil and/or, perhaps even worse, the vine of me and mum on a pedalo, are worth the price of admission to this blog alone.
Mind you, this blog is free. As is King Cricket, which I also commend to you.
I was toying with the idea of going to Lord’s that evening, as there was a T20 match, but I hadn’t arranged to meet anyone and those matches don’t tend to make the cut for me these days unless I have made arrangements.
Stentor said he’d been meaning to try the recently refurbished Crocker’s Folly, which I was also keen to try. It is suitably close to Lord’s, so we booked a table from the comfort of the Upper Allen and toddled across at the innings break.
We had a very tasty one course meal at Crocker’s, served with due speed, once we informed Crocker’s that we were at crickers. I kept an eye on the score, within reason, once the game resumed. Stentor very generously insisted on treating me to the meal.
We missed the first 9 or 10 overs of Middlesex’s reply to Hampshire’s quite hefty score, but felt that Middlesex were making a very good fist of it when we returned to our seats at HQ.
But then some wickets fell and the result seemed in little doubt. In any case, Stentor is very much an MCC man, caring for England and good cricket, but not particularly caring for Middlesex, despite being a North-West London man. So Stentor gave up and headed for home after watching for less than 30 minutes after the resumption. I bowed to the inevitable a couple of overs later, to avoid the heave of the exiting crowd. Here’s a link to the scorecard.
Still, an unexpected and very enjoyable evening in NW8, in good company.
I made an early start out of London on the Monday morning, taking the train to Leeds.
This was the first of my sojourns to see County Championship matches away from home this season and possibly catch up with old friends in the process.
I has planned to meet up with Jonathan Rose while in Leeds, but sadly he needed to back out with events having intervened in the days and weeks leading up to my visit.
I dropped my bags (Benjy cunningly ensconced in the larger one) with the friendly staff at The Chambers, then took a cab to Headingley, arriving less than an hour after the start of play.
The match had been very well poised at the end of day one and was looking very good for Middlesex when I arrived at the ground. But Jonny Bairstow got to work with the tail, putting on a final wicket stand to poise the match once again – possibly even tilt it in Yorkshire’s favour.
Thus the cricket went on for the two days I was there – a very exciting match unquestionably between two of the best teams at the time – here’s a link to the scorecard. The match concluded within three days, so I got to see the denouement.
I walked back to my digs from Headingley on both evenings and to the ground on the second morning; an interesting walk which includes some city centre, some student districts, some inner city residential areas and some leafy suburbs.
On arrival at The Chambers on the first evening, I encountered a well-heeled woman at the reception, the proprietrix it turned out, who gave me some advice about the gym and the locality. Then she said, “you must excuse me, David Guest is staying with me at the moment and we are due to go out soon.” The name vaguely rang a bell and I could tell that I was supposed to recognise the name and be impressed.
“How nice,” I said, “I hope you both enjoy your evening.”
I went up to my apartment, discovering (as so often happens with apartment hotels) that I had paid for a studio but been given a one bedroom flat. I got the wifi working quick as you like and Googled “David Guest”.
Soon enough, I was ready to pop out to get a few provisions to enable me and Benjy to hunker down in my flat for the two evenings, now that my original evening plans had come to nowt. In the corridor I ran into the proprietrix again, with the unmistakable David Gest in tow.
“Hello again”, she said, beaming.
“Once again, I hope you have a lovely evening”, I said, adding “both of you” to include her guest, Gest.
I only needed minimal evening provisions, as the Yorkshire CCC committee hospitality left me with little need for food and refreshment in the evenings, so the recommended local supermarket less than 5 minutes walk away indeed did the job for me.
That first evening Benjy and I focused on some melancholy material; not least Northern Sky by Nick Drake and Vincent by Don McLean, I remember clearly working on both of those. Both songs seemed so apposite for that trip.
Very few Middlesex committee folk made the trip to Leeds that year, so the handful of us who were enjoying the hospitality got a great deal of personal attention. (Although I am not on the committee, I gratefully receive committee privileges for the work I do for the Middlesex committee).
Robin Smith, John Hampshire and Dickie Bird were all very active and welcoming hosts for that match.
On one of the days, I don’t remember which, Ray Illingworth and his wife Shirley were at the game. I sat with them on the balcony watching the action and I chatted with Ray for a while. In my childhood he had been an absolute hero of mine. Ray Illingworth was the England captain when I first took an interest in cricket. He seemed genuinely interested in anyone who shared his love for the game and in talking about anything to do with cricket. Ray told me that he was still involved in running his local club, Farsley, but regretted that he could no longer play a full role as groundsman. He was well into his eighties by then.
On my second day there, the Tuesday afternoon, I particularly remember Dickie Bird getting very agitated about a DRS review on the TV, as the ODI series between England and New Zealand started that day. Sam Billings was given not out by the standing umpire and the Kiwis reviewed it.
‘Ees given ‘im not out. ‘Ees not out. Get on with the game. Get on with the game…
It was a stone dead LBW and the decision was reversed.
I’m not ‘appy about this. I’m not ‘appy about this at all. Umpire sees it as not out, it’s not out…
Meanwhile in the real world, Yorkshire were accumulating the runs towards their win at this point, but losing occasional wickets along the way.
Middlesex tried everything and I tried to dampen the enthusiasm of my hosts with tales of derring do. Thus, when James Harris came on for a late attempt at some wickets, I told them about his devastating spell against Durham a few week’s previously.
Towards the end, when it really was obvious that Yorkshire were heading for a win, Tim Murtagh came on for one last ditch attempt. In jest, I tried to talk up Tim Murtagh’s match-winning skills as well, at which point Tony, one of the Yorkshire Committee Room regulars, snapped, “if I listened to you, I’d think every Middlesex bowler is about to take a fivefer and win you every game”.
Lots of people laughed – I hadn’t realised that anyone on the balcony was still in doubt about the result. But a tense finish is a tense finish I suppose. Naturally, even Tony was in good spirits within a few minutes of that exchange. Click here for the scorecard again.
I took a reasonably early (mid-morning) train back to London the next day, as I had clients to see in London. I think this was the match at which I ran into Vivica at the railway station and we travelled back to London on the train together, which made the journey pass quickly.
The party was scheduled for the end of Day 3 of the Middlesex v Warwickshire County Championship match, but I recall absolutely nothing about the match.
Looking it up, I can see that the match was rain-affected and that my work “sent items” tray has sent items throughout Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – proof positive that I didn’t get to HQ in time for cricket at all that match.
But I did go to the party. I remember it being convivial (they always are). I’m pretty sure it was this occasion that I won a Middlesex pendant thing, much to the chagrin of Posh Margaret who had her eye on that prize.
When I showed the prize to Daisy (who didn’t want it)| and told her what Margaret had said, we agreed that I would present the item to Margaret from both of us next time I saw her at Lord’s.
I’m also pretty sure I took Jez along as my guest that year, making it a good opportunity to catch up with him too, now he no longer works for us.
I do recall having quite a long chat with Eoin Morgan at that party. I told him that I was pleased he was being given a proper run at the one day captaincy. He thanked me and told me he’d been getting some flack that evening. I told him that I felt that England had tremendous potential as a one day side but had been delivering less than the sum of its parts for some while. It was very interesting to hear Eoin’s insights into Trevor Bayliss’s approach and how hopeful he (Eoin) was that they could work together well to fulfil that potential.
I’m sure I nibbled at some food and drank a little more wine than I had originally intended to drink. That isn’t specific memory, that’s just what tends to happen at these dos.
I’m sure I didn’t drink too much and that I resisted the temptation to continue chatting and drinking in the Tavern afterwards; I had a relatively early meeting with the auditors scheduled for the next morning. There’s bad planning for you.
This piece is, in a way, the second part of a trilogy. It is linked to a couple of other pieces about Ged and Daisy encountering Mr Johnny Friendly, an MCC member, friend of the family and real tennis enthusiast. In reverse order:
England v Sri Lanka Day 3 (14 June 2014) – linked here describes a similar encounter with Mr Johnny Friendly the previous year. I misspelt Jane Austen as Jane Austin in this piece and King Cricket missed the error when he subbed; both of us metaphorically ate our own livers for the error in private, but I decided to milk the pun. Thus this piece inadvertently became the first part of a trilogy.
The irony that I myself have subsequently taken up real tennis with gusto is not wasted on me.
To understand my King Cricket match reports you need to know that:
Ged and Daisy are nicknames/noms de plume for me and Janie. Friends are all referred to pseudonymously;
King Cricket match reports have strict rules: “If it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. If it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.”
King Cricket match reports have strict rules: “If it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. If it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.”
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