Category: Cricket

Three Cricket Watching Visits To Lord’s In A Week, 14 to 21 July 2022

These days I’m far more likely to visit Lord’s to play real tennis than I am to watch cricket; or at least to play real tennis AND watch cricket. But this rare week had me at Lord’s three times to watch cricket without playing tennis.

England v India ODI 14 July 2022

The first of the visits was for the one day international (ODI) between England and India. I don’t much go to ODIs these days (World Cup in England year excepted of course) but I had planned to take Ian Theodoreson to the test match in 2020 (until Covid scuppered such plans) and the most suitable date for a rescheduling was this particular ODI.

Ian has had a tendency to choose what turns out to be one of the hottest days of the year for his visits to Lord’s with me. He did so four years ago...

Two Sweltering Days At Lord’s, The First With Ian Theodoreson, The Second With Rohan Candappa – Part One: With Ian T, 23 July 2018

…and also four years before that…

Straight Outta the Upper Compton – a match report

…which might be connected with the choice of dates in mid to late July.

Anyway, this 2022 visit was Ian’s first in one of the wheelchair enclosures, a factor that at least allowed the opportunity for me to meet and host Sally Theodoreson for the first time, which was an absolute pleasure, plus an opportunity for the MCC to demonstrate one of the things it seems able to do very well indeed , which is to look after wheelchair visitors.

Actually, as it turned out, this day was far from the hottest day of the year – Janie and I had that “pleasure” to come at Lord’s a few days later, but still we were grateful to the stewards finding us some shade from which to view the match.

I made the substantive picnic – being smoked trout bagels, ham and cheese sandwiches, dry salads in cups plus plentiful fruits, not least some giant strawberries that were as big on flavour as they were in size. Sally and Ian brought the other items that make a picnic sing – savoury & sweet nibbles plus a very glug-able Shiraz wine.

England did rather well that day, against their run of surprisingly poor form in white ball cricket so far this season.

A very enjoyable day, albeit a very long one for Ian and Sally, motoring up from Somerset and back on the day.

The Hottest Day Ever, Middlesex v Sussex Day One, 19 July 2022

Daisy awaiting the start of play, on the sundeck, having bagsed a parasol – yey!

We had planned to meet up with Fran and Simon at Lord’s that day, after first visiting (ironically, give Fran’s now former profession) the dental hygienist first thing. In the end, Fran and Simon gracefully withdrew from the plans and we resolved to give the match a try, but we were very much aware that the forecast was for the hottest day since records began. We suspected that we’d only stay until lunch.

Actually it was pretty pleasant up on that deck during the first session, although everyone was wondering why Tim Murtagh had chosen to bowl on the hottest day ever, so some of the Middlesex regulars were getting a bit hot under the collar.

Don’t I look cool considering it was the hottest day EVER?

I wanted to show Janie the view from the top of the new Upper Compton, so we wandered around that way, bumping into one of my tennis pals, Russ, with whom we chatted for a while as the temperature rose.

We didn’t stay up top for long – the view was great and the shade welcome but the breeze was almost non-existent by 2:00 and it was getting seriously hot.

We went home to swelter in the discomfort of our own home for the rest of the day, still wondering what Middlesex had been playing at choosing to bowl.

Young Men At Lord’s, Middlesex v Sussex Day Three, 21 July 2022

There are just two places remaining on the planet where people address me as “young man”: Lord’s and Wigmore Hall – naturally I spend a fair amount of time at both places.

But in some company the phrase seems even more sarcastic than usual. For example, my third visit to Lord’s in a week, when I met up with young Jez Horne, who came to work as a summer intern at Z/Yen in the summer of 2005 and stayed for nearly 10 years…and Jez’s six-year-old son Nathaniel.

As it happens, I originally met Jez through Middlesex cricket. In fact, now I come to think of it, I conducted his internship recruitment interview while playing catch on the outfield at Southgate in the interval between innings of a Middlesex v Gloucestershire Sunday League match, 17 years ago.

Jez did a lot of serious numbers work with Z/Yen – scoring the charity cricket matches was the least of it

Returning to 2022, Jez and I agreed to meet up on this day while Jez was introducing six-year-old Nathaniel to the joys of Lord’s. It was a very enjoyable experience for me to witness a young child’s wide-eyed wonder at all the different viewing points and places we could show him there. Nathaniel had previously visited Radlett and Hove, which are both lovely grounds, but not, until that day, had he seen Lord’s.

Our circuit started in the Warner Stand, took in a photo-opportunity or two in the Grandstand, then we watched from the very top of the Compton Stand (from whence Nathaniel was sure the land below was flat and not a hill, as I kept asserting), then the lower Compton Stand (at which point Nathaniel changed sides and agreed wholeheartedly that the cricket field is indeed a slope) and then, before tea, the Upper Allen Stand.

We met plenty of people on our trek, including Barmy Kev, Russ (who was again wending his way home after tennis) and Fletch, who shared some thoughts on the “bowl first” decision with us.

Just before leaving home, I had found a small Virgin Active gimcrack beanie ball on a shelf, which I thought might come in handy…and it did.

Just before tea, as I started to wonder whether the little fella was ever going to run out of energy, we tried playing catch with him using that beanie ball. He struggled at first but within just a few short minutes he was getting the hang of it and catching far more than he was missing.

Come tea, Nathaniel wanted to see “Grandpa’s Garden”, as I tend to call the Harris Garden. (Well, Grandpa Harris WAS a gentleman of Marylebone, albeit not THE Lord Harris of Marylebone Cricket Club fame). In the garden, Nathaniel devised a game of catching and tag that might, to the untrained eye, seem to have the rule complexity of real tennis combined with the rule-adjustability of Mornington Crescent. The use of a hat to catch the ball would have met with particular disapproval had an MCC stickler for the laws of cricket witnessed the game.

Soon after tea, that energy lull finally occurred, so I said goodbye to the actual young men and reverted to being a “relatively young man” in the pavilion watching the remainder of the day’s play.

In there, somewhere

I had been due to play tennis early evening, but after messing up my right arm the day before on the modern tennis court, I had to gracefully withdraw, so spent a few minutes after stumps watching my would be fellow combatants play, before ambling home feeling very content.

Same Procedure As Last Year? Same Procedure As Every Year: England v New Zealand Test Match, Lord’s, 3 June & 5 June 2022

Chilly Ginger Beer On Day Four

Day Two: Friday 3 June 2022

Pretty much everything I want to say about Day Two of the Platty Joobs Test has latterly been published on the King Cricket website – click here or below.

A right royal stand off – a 2022 England v New Zealand match report

If anything ever goes awry with the King Cricket site, you can read that piece here.

We had a very enjoyable day. It was bright and not all that cold.

Day Four: Sunday 5 June 2022

I had also bought Janie a guest ticket for Day Four – she likes to see the end of a test match and Day Four is often that. We could always pop back on the Monday if need be.

On this occasion, we knew there would be a result that day – the only question was precisely when would that be.

We got to the ground early to secure good seats although not many people turned up on a dank day to see a much shortened day of cricket.

Simon Doule looking a little glum

Jimmy looking surprisingly chirpy at the thought of batting. Always an outside chance

As it turned out, England batted with such purpose the match was completed within 25 overs.

Game Over

Janie thought the action was tremendous value for money…which it was…not least because the ECB deemed it to be a full refund day.

Here’s a link to the scorecard and all the CricInfo resources.

May Days At Lord’s, Not Least With Chas & Madz, May 2022

Middlesex v Nottinghamshire 12 & 13 May

Still high on the unexpected glory of my real tennis tournament win at Queen’s the night before…

Finally…Unprecedented Success At Tennis, The Queen’s Club, 11 May & 27 May 2022

…I met Mary O’Callaghan for lunch on Thursday 12th and then went on to Lord’s for a while in the afternoon…

…just to make sure all the arrangements were in place for my visit with Charles “Charley The Gent Malloy” Bartlett the next day.

I have written up the Charley the Gent day for King Cricket, who has published the piece – see here and below:

Straight Outta the New Upper Compton – a match report

If by any chance anything ever happens to that King Cricket piece, it is also scraped to here.

Everything that needs to be said about that day, and more, is covered in that piece.

Middlesex CCC AGM 17 May

I was there. I played real tennis at Lord’s beforehand and then hung around for a bit ahead of the AGM. It was a meeting with drinks afterwards.

Middlesex v Durham 19 & 20 May

I barely saw any cricket before and after playing tennis on 19th, but I did see a bit.

The plan had been to take Fran & Simon as guests on 20th, but the weather was decidedly iffy, so we delayed that visit until July. Instead, I got stuff done at the flat in the morning and sauntered over to Lord’s to watch a few hours play as the weather cleared in the afternoon.

Before setting off I got a message from Madz, who is now part-timing as a photographer for Durham CCC, wondering whether I planned to be at the game that afternoon.

We agreed to meet beneath Old Father Time, her favourite vantage point for the photos. Also the favourite vantage point for travelling Durham supporters, who were, by the time I got there, making serious headway with their preferred brews. I’m not certain that they were all drinking Newkie Brown, but it felt and sounded like that sort of crowd.

It was good to catch up with Madz.

At one point, the soon-to-be-new-England-wunderkind Matty Potts came on as 12th man for Durham (being rested ahead of the test match) and fielded for a few balls in front of our stand.

I caught this picture on my smart phone as he came our way:

Matty Potts A Few Days Before Stardom

I was pleased with that photo. Madz wondered whether she could have done better with her Nikon and infeasibly long lens.

Did you get one of those, pet?

…asked one of the Durham stalwarts, as a few of them took a passing interest in my snap.

I missed it, unfortunately,

said Madz.

You’re only here for one thing, pet,

said the stalwart, inducing much laughter from the Durham crowd and also from Madz, who clearly knows those fellas well enough and was able to enjoy the joke.

I sent the snap to King Cricket, who agreed that it was the best picture of Matty Potts he’d seen so far and wondered if he might use it, which of course I said he could and he did on 1 June (naturally crediting me…i.e. Ged Ladd) and also 2 June:

Matty Potts: first look in Test cricket

Must be in my blood, this photography lark.

A New Cricket Season At Lord’s, Middlesex v Derbyshire Day Two, 8 April 2022

As I get older, I realise that certain statements that older people make, such as, “the policemen look younger and younger” express how those older people feel, rather than an objective reality about the average age of policemen.

But when I say, “the county championship seems to start earlier and earlier” I believe that is pretty much true…although not by all that much.

The last time I froze this much, Daisy and I went to see the second day of the 2013 season in Nottingham, 11 April that year, reported on King Cricket at that time…

Nottinghamshire v Middlesex at Trent Bridge match report

…and Ogblogged to describe the round trip in the Midlands and North here:

Nottingham, Wormleighton and Yorkshire – a Short Break with Multi-media Relics 10 to 19 April 2013

But I digress.

I had arranged to play tennis at 14:00. I got to Lord’s in time to see most of the first session of play. I decided to sit in the relatively sheltered central part of the pavilion forecourt, where I watched, read and chatted a little with one or two other hardy folk. The stewards reckoned I wouldn’t last long out there but actually it wasn’t too bad in the morning and the new soft padding on the pavilion benches…

…standards are falling…

…made the whole experience less painful than expected.

Young Josh de Caires bowling

After a very close game of tennis, which my adversary won by dint of the odd point here and there, I took my time over my ablutions and then grabbed a soft drink followed by a light bite and coffee – initially in the pavilion bar but subsequently, as the sun was shining, I took my coffee in the new Compton Stand – a vantage point from which I took the headline picture (also replicated above).

But even in the sunshine, it was bitterly cold by that afternoon period, so I decided to return to the pavilion.

By the time I got to the pavilion, Josh de Caires had taken a wicket. This was to be my burden all afternoon; I didn’t actually get to see a single wicket – I was either changing or on the move every time Middlesex took a wicket. One of the friendly pavilion stewards even asked me to keep moving around, as my moves seemed to coincide with Middlesex’s success so comprensively.

Anyway…

…I decided to focus on 19-year-old Josh de Caires’s bowling.

I watched for a while from one of my favourite vantage points, the writing room. If you ever wondered what it looks like from behind the sight screen, wonder no more – the above picture gives you a pretty good impression of it…indeed much like an impressionistic art work.

I had brought plenty of warm clobber with me and I decided to don the lot of it. After all, as Alfred Wainwright famously said:

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.”

Thus I braved the middle tier balcony, as evidenced by the following pictures…

…for about three overs, before I decided that jumper, thick jacket, scarf, hat and gloves were insufficient for me as the sun was going down on a seriously chilly April day.

I congratulated the handful of hardy folk who remained on the balcony, admitting to them that I was a wimp. One agreed. One consoled me by letting me know that I was far from the first to have tried and failed to brave the afternoon chill. One pointed out that I hadn’t lowered the ear-flaps on my hat, which might have made all the difference.

I watched the remainder of the day from the impressionistic comfort of the writing room. Naturally Middlesex took a wicket while I was ambling down one flight of stairs from balcony to room.

I had a very good day. I read, I chatted, I played tennis and best of all I watched some live cricket again.

The Day The Cricket Greats Died, Rod Marsh & Shane Warne, 4 March 2022

Shane Warne from Wikimedia – Tourism Victoria from Australia, CC BY 2.0

To lose one cricket great in a day may be regarded as misfortune…

…but this piece is not the place for that kind of joke.

Rod Marsh and Shane Warne were both great Australian cricketers – larger-than-life personalities. I was lucky enough to see both play live – in Shane Warne’s case many times.

Rod Marsh (1947-2022)

Rod Marsh was one of my “love-to-hate” heroes from my school days. Heroes from school days leave their mark in a different, perhaps more indelible way.

Peter Mason’s Guardian obituary is well writ with a super picture.

I only saw Rod Marsh play live once, although, on TV, as a kid, I saw lots of him. Latterly, as I got to see lots of cricket live, Rod Marsh’s was a face I’d quite often see around the grounds (in my case Lord’s and Edgbaston), especially during the Ashes.

Here is my report of the one time I saw Rod Marsh play live. Marsh was one of the Aussie players who walked around the ground to entertain and chat with the crowd on that relentlessly gloomy weather day.

My First Ever Day At A Test Match, With Graham Majin, England v Australia Day 3, Oval, 27 August 1977

I learnt that Rod Marsh had died early morning, before going to the gym and progressing with the rest of my day.

A Day Going Through Old Photos With Jilly, Oblivious To The Extent Of Cricketing Greats Loss

I spent a very pleasant day with Jilly Black, going through her photo archives, doing a bit of scanning and working out how we might scan a plethora of differently sized films etc.

Naturally a hearty lunch and general catch up chat formed the centrepiece of such a day, but below is one of the few dozen pictures we did actually scan.

Roberta & Jilly while at the notorious Kibbutz Afek, 1980

I had spent several days at the start of my summer job in 1980, stressed out of my tiny brain trying to sort out the sh*t-shower I inherited that was the (almost aptronymic) Afek Group.

Sorting Out A Problem Kibbutz, BBYO Hillel House, 21 to 24 July 1980

Jilly and I had such a laugh when we spotted that Jilly had written “Afek 1981” on the photo packet. After stating with certainty that the omnishambles had been in 1980, I suggested two possibilities for the 1981 mention:

  • that Jilly had labelled the pictures many years later and had misremembered the Afek year by one year;
  • despite everything that had gone wrong and all the pains I (and others) had gone through to try to relieve the suffering of the youngsters, that crazy bunch of teenagers had returned to Afek the following year for a further dose of draconian discipline and disease.

I concluded that the most likely answer was the second of the two, not least because Jilly is so good with numbers.

After Jilly left, I looked at the news headlines on my smart phone and learnt that Shane Warne had also died that day.

Shane Warne (1969-2022)

Shane_Warne_2011.jpg: Eva Rinaldiderivative work: Harrias, CC BY-SA 2.0

Matthew Engel’s obituary in The Guardian is especially good and thorough.

I saw Shane Warne play live many times between the late 1990s and the end of his playing career.

Although I saw him representing Australia far more often than I saw him play county cricket, my favourite memory of watching him play is from a county match.

I wrote it up at the time on the Middlesex Till We Die website. I’m sure the current editorial team will forgive me for extracting the most relevant three paragraphs here, but if you want to read the whole piece you can find it on the MTWD site here.

Watching Warne
-----------------------

Thursday night I had time to come and see the end of play and sat behind Shane Warne's arm for over an hour. Friday morning, knowing the folks weren't due to arrive for another 30-40 minutes, I sat in the Pav and watched him from in front of his arm. It really is a wonderful thing to be able to sit in exactly the spot of your choice watching a player of that quality bowling live. I should add, by the way, that I think Ed Smith and Ed Joyce played Warne extremely well on Thursday and Friday. The man is a legend and was bowling really well. Forget the joke runs that Ed Smith made at the end of the innings - he deserved them really; his first 100 was worth 150 when you consider the quality of bowling he neeeded to see off to get there.


A Couple of Wickets and Joke Bowling
-----------------------------------------------------

As soon as I got paged by my mother and went towards the gate to meet the folks, a couple of wickets fell. Joyce and Styris. It was to be that sort of day. I took the parents into the Long Room and sat them down for the famous "Long Room view" of the cricket. The match was moving along pretty slowly. 3 or 4 minutes later, I see Warney coming our way. I explain hurriedly to my folks that this man is a living legend, but neither of them have heard of him! The grumpy gent sitting in the high chair behind us makes an audible disapproving snort noise. Mum asks if it would be appropriate to congratulate Warny, on his return, for the achievements I have just described to her. I suggest that he has probably had enough adulation and will be able to get by without hers.

I then explain to them why I thought he'd come off (agreement) and what was going to happen next (joke bowling), which seemed ridiculously complicated and silly to the parents (understandably). Soon Nic Pothas is bowling. I explain that he is the wicket keeper and doesn't normally bowl. I also explain that he is an eccentric who wears different coloured underpants depending on whether he is batting, keeping or training. I wonder whether he even has a bowling colour of underpants and whether he had the opportunity to change into them. Even Mr Snortnoise seems to approve of this joke.

I wrote up that 2006 day at Lord’s for Ogblog more recently – links to the MTWD piece are included in this link:

Dad’s Last Birthday, A Day At Lord’s, 11 August 2006

It was truly a bittersweet. nostalgia-laden day. A really agreeable catch up with Jilly, sadly tinged and sandwiched by the sad news from the cricketing world. Such is life.

The Last Of Summer, A Smidgen Of Warwickshire v Lancashire At Lord’s, 28 & 30 September 2021

I had hoped to keep a fair bit of time free to enjoy some cricket at Lord’s in this very last week of the English season. A new idea for a new County Championship format, to have a trophy final at Lord’s between the top two teams. Up to five days if necessary. Love the idea. Not so sure about scheduling into October, but heck, sometimes the weather is still sufficiently good for hardy cricket lovers to dare watch.

I discussed the prospective fixture with Frank Dillon when he visited on the preceding Saturday…

Conviviality & Charity, Mostly In Real Life, 20 to 25 September 2021

…Frank had been at Liverpool for the last match of Lancashire’s main campaign. He suggested that I look out for a promising youngster named George Balderson, who opens the batting and bowls.

On Tuesday 28th, the first day, I was hopeful to see a bit of George bat either before or after my 11:00 tennis match, as Lancashire had been inserted and I arrived at Lord’s at 10:40…

…by which time Lancashire was already 9/2 and George was gone.

I peeked briefly through the Allen Stand gap and then played a tough and losing game of tennis against a newbie…except that, as a former rackets champion, he could already hit the ball much, much better than me.

By the time I emerged from the tennis, play had just resumed after a rain-affected lunch break and Lancashire were 57/8. As I stood at the top of the steps to the Warner, watching politely while awaiting the end of the over, it became 57/9.

Brutality

The sole other arriviste at that entrance said, “it’s just brutal” in a distinct Merseyside accent. I thought he might be about to burst into tears.

“I’m sorry”, I said.

“It’s not your fault”, he said.

I mentally juggled headlines along the lines of “Only Wood Could Wield Much Wood” before deciding that I’m not much cut out for sports headline writing.

I watched the first two or three overs of the Warwickshire innings before heading home to get some work done ahead of a very enjoyable Zoom with Simon Jacobs & Jon Gorvett.

Wednesday being Janie’s and my FoodCycle day, I needed to get work done and couldn’t find time to show up at Lord’s at all, despite the fact that Rossmore Road FoodCycle is a short walk from Lord’s.

Thursday afternoon I was due back at Lord’s for tennis and managed to get there a good few minutes early. It felt like a bit of a race against time, as I spotted at lunchtime that Frank’s man, George Balderson, was still batting.

Would I get to Lord’s in time to see George bat and if so would I get there in time to see him reach 50?

Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeazy

I briefly took up a seat at the front of the new Lower Compton…

Not much more than a defensive push for four

And got a shot of George Balderson’s shot to get to 50. I sent the above image to Frank from my position in the Lower Compton: “Just snapped yer dude Balderson getting to 50”.

Then, aware of the time and feeling a bit chilly too, I went round to the tennis court, where Dominic inflicted the sort of drubbing on me that Warwickshire were inflicting on Lancashire.

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

After my match, I picked up Frank’s reply:

That really is the last of summer.

It sure was.

Blondin On Blondin: Multiple Launches In Blondin Park, 7 September 2021

Ian: Is that Morris dancing, Vicky?

Vicky: Yes, we’ve been worrying about Morris for some time

Ever since Linda Massey (of Boston Manor Friends/Tennis Club fame) mentioned fundraising for a pavilion at Blondin Park (across the way), Janie and I became, tangentially and in a small way, involved in the project.

Firstly we both pledged a small offering towards the pavilion. Secondly, once I realised that Blondin Park was flat-ish and suitable for field sports, I looked into the possibility of putting one of our London Cricket Trust non-turf pitches in there – click here or see link below for another example.

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

In fact, we managed to get the Blondin Park NTP installed during the winter of 2019/2020, but then the pandemic put the kybosh on our plans for a launch there.

Meanwhile, Linda and the Blondin Consortium’s plans for a pavilion came to fruition towards the end of summer 2021, so it seemed to make sense to have a joint launch of the facilities.

The Mayor of Ealing, Munir Ahmed, came along to cut the pavilion ribbon.

Linda Massey briefs The Mayor on arrival

Prior to the ribbon cutting…a display of Morris dancing. Why Morris dancing, I hear you cry? Because, apparently, the Northfield Morris troupe was the first community group to book the new pavilion as its new home for its practice sessions and the like.

Had you asked me on the morning of this event whether I knew any Morris dancers. I’d have said “unequivocally no”. But unfortunately it seems that Morris dancers have infiltrated polite society in West London, so we recognised at least two members of the troupe as Boston Manor Tennis Club regulars.

The pavilion launch and even the Morris dancing is explained in this community link piece – click here. Or, if that link ever fails, click this scrape instead.

Meanwhile Carol, a Boston Manor regular but not of the Morris persuasion, helped the assembled throng to reach a state of Morris tolerance…or perhaps even wondrous oblivion, by dint of jugs brimming with Pimms.

Soft drinks were also available for youngsters and those with a good reason to avoid Pimms. In my case, I had driven to Blondin, following my own Byzantine instructions for navigating the parking restrictions and the experimental road closure at one end of the ideal access road for the park. I wrote chapter and verse – some would say an entire apocrypha – on the topic.

There was also a splendid spread of sandwiches and nibbles for the guests, which was quite a treat, although it was a very hot afternoon, so “plenty of liquids” seemed more important than “plenty of sandwiches”.

Meanwhile the youngsters from Ealing Fields High School were limbering up for some cricket.

Several youngsters enjoying the use of our non-turf pitch

The site of their school recently erected the following plaque to the most famous alum of the predecessor school on that site:

The Ealing Civic Society Green Plaque unveiled on 13 October 2020 at the entrance to Ealing Fields School, Little Ealing Lane, Ealing, London W5 4EJ to commemorate singer Dusty Springfield (1939-99). .As Mary O’Brien, she attended what formerly was St Anne’s Convent School on the site between 1951 and 1955. The future Dusty Springfield spent her teenage years growing up in Ealing before embarking upon a career which resulted in her being the only British female singer to have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Once I learnt that our youthful cricket neophytes were from that school, I considered adding some Dusty patter into my London Cricket Trust speech:

Dusty Springfield is actually my role model in the matter of batting. Whenever I take to the crease, I just don’t know what to do with myself, so I close my eyes and count to ten”…

…but then I thought better of it.

Not sure anyone was listening when I spoke anyway

So apparently I said words along the following lines:

I am thrilled to be part of the celebrations opening the Blondin Park Community Pavilion and non-turf cricket pitch.  Every one of the dozens of non-turf pitches the LCT establishes in parks around London is special, enabling thousands of youngsters to experience the joys of playing cricket.  But this Blondin facility, in my own community, has an extra special place in my heart. Many thanks to the Blondin Consortium, Ealing Council & The England & Wales Cricket Board for the collaboration that has made this wonderful facility happen.

The pavilion itself is indeed a rather wonderful prefabricated building, spacious and full of useful facilities.

There’s me having a chat with our friend Joan from the tennis courts

The wash room facilities, for example, reminded me a bit of Japan…

Japan Reflections: I Need To Write About Toilets In Japan, 7 November 2018

Below is a picture of Jean washing her hands – the sink works out that you are there, so squirts the requisite amount of soap, runs warm water on your hands for a while and then blow dries your hands.

The event was all over too soon. The participation cricket team from my beloved Middlesex County Cricket Club facilitated a rapid game of cricket for the youngsters.

The event was all over the media – Ealing Today.co.uk no less. (If anything ever happens to the Ealing Today.co.uk website, I have scraped the text of that piece to this link.

As always, seeing young folk having fun playing cricket using our facilities always makes me happy. But seeing the new facility being used in Blondin park, in my own community, gave me an an extra special surge of excitement and joy.

Then it was time for everyone except the London Cricket Trust folk to go home.

We held our Trustees meeting at the site, making ourselves the very first EVER meeting to be held in the new Blondin Pavilion.

An historic moment. What a first.

Thanks to Linda Massey and Janelle for the above photograph.

After the meeting, I showed Ed Griffiths Boston Manor Park and gave him a lift back to a suitable station, despite the relentless teasing he had given me about my parking/driving instructions for the event. Still, I have been brought up to respond with kindness whenever possible, so Dumbo and I took Ed as close to the platform as possible for his journey home.

Image borrowed from BBC here.

Meanwhile, the launch day in Blondin Park had been a great success, both for the Blondin Consortium and for the London Cricket Trust.

The Hundred Finals Day At Lord’s & “A Hundred Weeks Later” With John & Mandy In Noddyland, 21 & 22 August 2021

The Hundred Finals, Saturday 21 August 2021

Janie and I played tennis at 8:00, enabling us to get ready and set off in a leisurely style for the inaugural finals day of The Hundred tournament.

No difficulty finding suitable parking spaces ahead of the women’s final, both for Dumbo on a street nearby and for our backsides in the Warner Stand.

Ahead of taking our seats, we ran into Alfred & Sunita, tennis friends of ours from Boston Manor. They were invitees in the President’s Box, which made our Members and Friends privileges feel positively like slumming it.

Slumming it in The Warner Stand, with no Champagne Charlies behind us today
My double-selfie skills are coming on…

Janie in particular got snap-happy during the warm ups.

Are the cricketers below practicing for cricket or Morris dancing, I wonder, on reviewing the pictures:

Morris Dancing…Or Possibly They Can Boogie.

Throughout the tournament (this was my fourth visit to Lord’s to see The Hundred) I had relished the opportunity to help choose the walk-on music for various players, despite the fact that most of the choices were between three songs I had not heard before by three artistes I’d not heard of before. In truth, I think the “join in the fun…you choose” appy stuff might be aimed at a demographic other than mine.

But I was delighted that the first “choice of three” I was offered on finals day, as Fran Wilson’s walk-on music, included two songs and three artistes I recognised:

  • Yes Sir, I Can Boogie – GBX Feat. Baccara
  • By Your Side – Calvin Harris Feat. Tom Grennan
  • One Kiss – Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa

I voted for the third of those choices, but the consensus narrowly went for the first choice – a song from 1977 which I recall finding old-fashioned even at that time. I recall my mum liking the Baccara record. Mum would be in her hundredth year this year, were she still alive. Perhaps she would have embraced this aspect of The Hundred.

Once the game got underway, Janie and I competed to get pictures of the pyrotechnics that went off whenever a boundary was scored…

…or “the occasional central heating” as I called it. It was a slightly chilly Saturday afternoon, such that we quite enjoyed the bursts of warmth. On hot days such bursts can be unbearable.

I got my timing right for this one

The Women’s Final rather petered out, as a match, unfortunately. The women’s matches I had seen prior to the final had been close and exciting to watch.

Never mind. There was loads more entertainment lined up.

The men’s teams warmed up while the musical entertainment kept the crowd happy

Jax Jones was the live musical entertainment on finals day. Another artiste I had heard of – I saw him interviewed on one of the TV music channels a few years ago and was impressed by his diverse, global musical influences. Not to mention his dapper choices in headgear.

But until the day, I didn’t realise that Jax Jones was the artiste behind The Hundred’s theme tune, Feels, until he performed it:

The number that really got the crowd (including me and Janie) going was You Don’t Know Me, with its utterly infectious beat:

By this stage of proceedings I was feeling far too cool for school, so it came as no surprise to me that I recognised one of the choices for Chris Benjamin’s walk-on music; Incredible by M.Beat Feat. General Levy. Janie was suitably impressed. I was delighted that my choice was the chosen one.

Even more impressive was my timing to snap the pre match fireworks at the men’s match – we’d both managed to get to the cameras a little late for the women’s fireworks:

With all the music and pyrotechnics, you might be wondering whether there was any cricket involved. Yes there was. I should confirm that we did watch cricket that day.

Unfortunately, matters took a bit of a turn for the worse towards the end of the match. The absence of Champagne Charlies behind us meant that, instead, we had a Beer-swilling Bernard instead, who managed to kick over one of his beers, soaking Janie’s bag. Yes, she had taken a washable jobbie with her (based on previous experience) but “Bernard’s Beer-stream” succeeded in soaking the bag and seeping through to some of the contents in a mood-affecting manner.

Then my mood took a turn for the worse too, as the DJ, perhaps transfixed by the entertaining cricket match, or possibly on a toilet break, simply forgot to play Incredible when Chris Benjamin came out to bat. I should write to the Chief Executive of the MCC about this one. Relaxing the dress code – fair enough. But the DJ forgetting to play the chosen walk-on music is a breach of Lord’s etiquette and should be suitably sanctioned.

Here, to make up for the disappointment, is that Incredible track:

In truth, by the time Chris Benjamin was walking to the crease (without his walk-on music) it was becoming extremely unlikely that Birmingham might rise Phoenix-like from the hole they were in by that stage to pull off an incredible win. Here is a link to the scorecard.

Janie and I therefore took our leave of Lord’s a few minutes before the end of the match, to avoid the crowds.

We’d had a great afternoon and evening. The razzamatazz does feel like an update or reset to the short format; that should make it more appealing to the young and young at heart.

John & Mandy In Noddyland, Sunday 22 August 2021

In this crazy pandemic era, time flies by. Could it really be more than a hundred weeks since we last saw John & Mandy?

Dinner At Kitty Fisher’s With John And Mandy, 28 August 2019

No dinner out this time – just a blissfully long afternoon/early evening in Noddyland to celebrate the joint birthdays – a week early this time as it happens.

Janie did her humus and pita bread starter thing as garden nibbles ahead of the meal.

The weather had been teasing us (pretty much all summer in truth) but even on the day there was the occasional threat of showers, including one shower just before John & Mandy arrived. But the weather smiled on us for a couple of hours enabling us to sit in the garden, chat, drink and nibble.

The showers returned just as we were preparing to come inside anyway.

Janie’s signature baked Alaskan salmon dish was the main, followed by a boozy summer pudding.

It was really lovely to see John and Mandy again post-lockdown. We had lots to chat about and somehow Zooms and phone calls can’t quite do the same job, however much of a decent substitute for the real thing they might be.

It shouldn’t be another hundred weeks until the next time.

Several Testing Days At Lord’s & White City, 12 to 16 August 2021

England v India Test At Lord’s Day One: Thursday 12 August 2021

This day did not start well. Even before we set off towards Lord’s, I got a message from Chas “Charley The Gent Malloy” Bartlett that he was poorly and would be unable to attend with me on Day Two. Janie also picked up a message from one of her Samaritans friends cancelling their planned get together on Saturday.

Then we arrived at the Church Street car park, which I had booked more than a week ahead of time. A shifty young man was turning everyone away from the car park, even people (like us) with advanced bookings.

“The car park is completely full”, he said. We deployed the stand-off method, refusing to move the car and asking him to get the police when he said we were causing an obstruction. He phoned his boss, then simply let us in. The car park was far from completely full. Read into this incident what you will.

Dumbo’s space

When we returned in the evening to rescue Dumbo, we complained to a different young man who reluctantly provided me with the above sign to mark my spot for the next day. “Someone could remove the sign in the mean time”, he told me, ruefully, but he did promise to e-mail his colleague who would be on duty the next morning.

Meanwhile, we still got to Lord’s in good time to grab decent seats in a shadier/drier part of the Lower Warner. However, Janie soon became irritated by the “Champagne Charlies” behind us, who apparently started off by braying at each other about how much money they were making in the City just now and then went on to make disparaging remarks about women’s cricket.

Janie wondered why we were sitting in such a crowded place, while the Lower Tavern was sparsely populated. I explained my theories about the pecking order of Lord’s stands, with the Lower Tavern being the most despised of the Members & Friends stands.

“Let’s go over there, in that case”, said Janie. And that’s where we ended up spending the rest of Day One. I also returned there on Day Two solo and spent Day Four there with Janie.

Just before we decamped to the Lower Tavern, I received an e-mail from FoodCycle wondering whether Janie and I could possibly step in and host the White City project on the Saturday. Having had our Saturday plans messed up, we said yes to that request; we felt that the only decent thing that had happened to us so far that day was getting press-ganged into volunteering for a superbly good cause.

The other thing I did while on the wander was to see if Chris Swallow needed someone to make up the numbers for tennis on Day Two. As I was to be guestless I might as well and could use the exercise during the test match. As it happened, there was a vacancy and the suggestion helped out.

Janie’s opinion of Lord’s pitches was not improved by the Day One tally of just three wickets, although I thought England bowled without luck at first and without penetration after that.

Day Two: Friday 13 August 2021

An austere look for a day without Charley The Gent

I’m delighted to report that Dumbo’s parking space awaited him, without fuss, when I arrived at the car park on the Friday. It does have to be said that the “reserved” marker had, however, been removed.

I was hoping to place the seats I had obtained for me and Chas, so I decamped to the Lower Tavern while awaiting word from various folk, none of whom could muster a cricket lover or two at such short notice. The number of people who have said, subsequently, “oh, but if you had called me…”

Anyway, I snacked very modestly, drank water and read a bit, while following the increasingly interesting cricket match.

I chatted for a while with a nice chap named Richard who was similarly guestless that day.

Despite the absence of Charley, I enjoyed the day’s cricket. Chas would have loved it.

I also enjoyed a good hour of tennis doubles late in the day, with Dominic, Paul and Nick. My first game of doubles for a while – a good warm up for the “Doctors Of Leamington” fixture on Sunday.

Day Three: Saturday 14 August 2021 – FoodCycle White City

I didn’t take any photos of this particular gig, but the photo below shows the venue last year, when we were doing food delivery services from there.

Janie with Father “Friar Tuck” Richard & other White City volunteers

The gig on Day three of the test match was a cook and collect service along similar lines to the services we provide out of Marylebone. Fortunately hosting that service was not too onerous for us, as they really did have a shortage of volunteers that week, with only one other hosting volunteer. Talk about vacancies…

Still, we successfully gave away all the food and then went on to play tennis at Boston Manor Park, which we enjoyed, before watching the end of Day Three of the test match on the telly.

Day Four: Sunday 15 August 2021 – England v India at cricket plus Ged Ladd & The Doctors Of Leamington Feat. Mr Johnny Friendly at tennis

The commentatorat in front of the Allen Stand

Keen to get a prime parking place near Lord’s – probably more in demand on test match Sunday than prime seats in the despised Lower Tavern stand, we got to Lord’s early and had some fun snapping the pre match atmosphere.

Haseeb Hameed looking keen as mustard

Dinesh Kartik dressed low key for once, with Ian Ward

Photo-bombing my own selfie

I was due on court at 12:00 for a long-arranged game of tennis with “The Doctors Of Leamington” and Mr Johnny Friendly. The latter spotted me & Janie (Daisy) in the despised Lower Tavern and told me that the court was free from 11:30 and that the Doctors were keen to start early, so I actually only caught the first 20 minutes or so of cricket before retiring to the tennis court.

As it turned out, the Doctors were waylaid, so Johnny Friendly and I played at singles for a while until the Doctors arrived, which seemed to warm me up rather well.

Daisy joined us for the last few minutes of our hour, observing/filming a little from the dedans. The following clip shows me scoring a couple of strokes before making a bit of a mess of the third return, delivering a bestial roar for my pains:

Worth the price of admission alone, this 34 second clip.

After tennis, we joined the good doctors for some traditional picnic in the vicinity of the Coronation Garden, which seemed a little crowded for our taste but fortunately the Doctors had taken a well-located bench on the outer perimeter of the garden.

Eventually we returned to our seats and watched the afternoon’s cricket, which was actually quite absorbing and left the match well poised, such that I resolved to return on the Monday.

Day Five: Monday 16 August 2021

I decided to drive to the North-Eastern edge of Kensington, which is slightly closer to Lord’s than my flat. In any case, the parking space outside the flat was suspended to allow Bill to put in my new boiler, so there was doubly no good reason to go there.

The more or less due East walk from that parking place to Lord’s, mostly along the canal footpath, was a delight. Although I have spent much of my life very close to that path – e.g. at the Canal Cafe Theatre, I’d never previously walked that line, as it were.

Refreshed from the walk, I tried to take up position in the Upper Tavern Stand, only to be rudely ejected.

You can’t come in here, Sir, it’s been sold to the public!

Apparently demand had been so great for Day Five tickets from Joe Public, but not so much from members, that we were to be “penned in” to the Allen/Pavilion/Warner Stands.

I chose the Warner – mercifully Champagne Charlies don’t do day fives.

Towards the end of the day I relocated to the Lower Allen, as I could see there was plenty of space and I fancied a quick getaway.

I read, I watched cricket, England came second in the end but that aspect seemed…secondary.

Here is a link to Cricinfo’s scorecard and resources on the match.

I also concluded a highly scientific experiment for King Cricket, which I had started at The Hundred matches between London Spirit & Northern Superchargers a couple of weeks earlier and concluded at this test match. It is written up in the following piece:

The Hundred v Test cricket reading experiment

If anything ever goes awry with King Cricket’s site, you can find that vital piece of science here.

As “So-Called Freedom Day” Came & Went, We Indulged In Some Cricket & A Bit Of Low Key Socialising, 7 July To 6 August 2021

It was a strange period; the height of summer in regular times but the autumn of the pandemic, as it were.

The government had signalled a possible “relaxing of pandemic restrictions” for towards the end of June, but the highly infectious delta variant of Covid 19 led to the deferral of that “freedom day” until 19 July.

There was much re-jigging of diaries and arrangements in the weeks leading up to and following the revised date.

For the most part, Janie and I carried on doing what we had been doing during partial lockdown: working, volunteering and playing tennis.

Middlesex v Leicestershire, Merchant Taylors’ School, 12 & 13 July 2021

The plan was for me and Janie to go with Fran & Simon on Monday 12 July, but plans have a habit of going awry. The weather forecast for the Monday was awful and indeed it was heaving down with rain in Ealing.

Janie and I abandoned all hope of going to the game by mid afternoon, despite the fact that the rain was mysteriously dodging Northwood and play was taking place beneath leaden skies.

I’m rather glad we did decide to bale out of going, as I learnt the next day that it took people from Ealing/Acton way a couple of hours to get home due to the flash floods.

Simon ended up watching some rather good cricket solo on the Monday, while I ended up doing similar on the Tuesday.

I had arranged to play real tennis at Middlesex University early on the Tuesday morning and went on from there to MTS for my first sight of live county cricket since September 2019.

The Fag End Of The Cricket Season, Lord’s, 23 to 25 September 2019

Social distancing was still the order of the day, so I sat in a reserved area and was suitably reserved.

We were allowed to stroll a bit, which enabled me to encounter some of “the usual suspects”, such as Barmy Kev and Jeff Coleman, who for some obscure reason were bemoaning Middlesex’s poor play and poor luck this season.

I tried to cheer myself up by reading The Economist, which for some obscure reason was bemoaning the economic devastation caused by the global pandemic.

Middlesex were in a bit of a hole second dig, so I do understand why people were pessimistic, especially as Middlesex had been snatching defeat from the very jaws of victory all season. Still, I was strangely optimistic about Middlesex’s position given my previous experiences of seeing teams bat last at MTS.

For once, I called it right – click here for the match scorecard .

Ealing Samaritans Gunnersbury Park Party, Tuesday 20 July 2021

Janie had hardly met any of her new Samaritans colleagues before, other than in an “on shift” context, as she had done all of her training by Zoom and they had not been able to meet socially during lockdown.

So the “party in the park” idea seemed to be the ideal opportunity to meet some more people…

…which indeed it was. It was just a shame that, apart from Janie and Ilkay, whom Janie had already befriended and met, no-one from their traning group attended that night.

Still, Alison Shindler (coincidentally an old friend of mine from BBYO, as reported here) was there with her husband Joe, which was fun. We met some other very nice Samaritans volunteer folk including some of the Ealing grandees.

Janie was so late back from work, however, that we missed the entertainment for the evening, Marie Naffah, who was doing 50 gigs in 50 days, apparently. We arrived just in time to say goodbye to her, so for now the video below will have to do.

The Hundred: London Spirit v Oval Invincibles Double Header, Lord’s, Sunday 25 July 2021

In the end we only got to see half a double-header, as the weather closed in after the women’s match. What was predicted to be the possibility of some light showers turned out to be torrential rain and flash floods which caused havoc around London.

Mercifully, my weather app tipped me off before the weather got too bad.

I have reported the event for King Cricket, click here or below:

A report from the first day of the Hundred at Lord’s

Just in case anything ever happens to King Cricket, a scrape of that article can be found here.

Despite shortened event due to the weather, we rather enjoyed ourselves. I had arranged to return for the midweek games myself and Janie was scheduled to join me on Finals Day, so we anticipated that we’d still get our fill of The Hundred.

Middlesex v Durham at Radlett, Tuesday 27 July 2021

Parking spaces at cricket grounds don’t get much more rural-idyllic than this

Janie and I had an early game of tennis, then met Simon at lunchtime/early afternoon at Radlett. I chatted briefly with Mike O’Farrell and others, holding up the process of finding some decent seats and settling in for some old-fashioned List A 50-overs-a-side cricket.

The weather sort-of smiled on us until mid to late afternoon, when a shower threatened to end proceedings but in any case was enough to scare us away from an exposed ground such as Radlett.

After the rain, a tense Duckworth-Lewis finish, which Janie and I watched on the stream at home. As has been the way this season, Middlesex were “close but no cigar”.

London Spirit v Trent Rockets, Double-Header, Lord’s 29 July 2021

In my desire to really check out The Hundred tournament, I had reserved a member’s place for myself at both of the midweek events at Lord’s. This was the first of them.

I enjoyed the women’s game from the pavilion terrace, where I was sitting right in front of the assembled rockets (as it were) while they waited to do their thing.

I was delighted to be invited to help choose the walk-on music for some of the players, although I didn’t recognise many of the bangin’ hits on offer.

I had planned to take in the men’s game from the sanctuary of the Upper Tavern Stand, but just before the end of the women’s game I was joined by Alvin, who then popped out to make a call before I had the chance to tell him my plans. So I watched the first innings of the men’s game from the pavilion, with Alvin, then relocated to the Tavern Stand for the final innings.

London Spirit did not do very well in these matches…

…women…

…and men.

Oh well.

Caroline, Alan & Jilly Visit Noddyland, 1 August 2021

A bouquet of yummy chocolate strawberries from Caroline

Long in the planning, it was super to see Caroline, Alan and Jilly after such a long time.

In fact, last time we saw Caroline & Alan for a meal, Janie and I were still full of Japan, as it were.

It’s summer, so Janie went for wild Alaskan salmon as the main, after some nibbles in the garden.

The afternoon and evening flew by, surprising us all when we realised that it was getting dark. That’s what tends to happen these days.

London Spirit v Northern Superchargers, Double-Header, Lord’s, 3 August 2021

An opportunity to watch some more cricket and get some reading done, I took in the second of the midweek The Hundred double-headers.

I decided to watch the women’s match from the Upper Allen stand and the men’s match from the Upper Tavern.

The women’s match was probably the best game (i.e. the most exciting game of cricket) I saw all tournament – see the scorecard here.

The men’s game probably the least exciting.

Oh well.

Pete Reynolds Memorial At Mosimann’s, 6 August 2021

Our first venture in a cab and our first indoor event since lockdown. Shirley was very keen that we join the event, as we (along with so many of their friends) had been unable to attend the funeral during lockdown.

Grace had organised the event wonderfully well. Mosimann’s is a stunning venue and was well suited to the occasion.

The speeches were heartfelt and moving, but it was mostly a party, which was, apparently, what Pete wanted. Pete usually got what he wanted in life, I believe, so he was certainly going to have what he wanted in this regard.

Philafrenzy, CC BY-SA 4.0