Tag: Leshia Hawkins

Plums, Spirits, Gunns & The Bionic Quartet: Only At Lord’s, 5 & 8 August 2025

Tennis, Followed By London Spirit v Oval Invincibles Double-Header, Observed Mostly From Pelhams, 5 August 2025

Actually I’m not sure whether we are supposed to pronounce the Lord’s Warner Stand Restaurant, which is named Pelhams, “Plums” or “Pelhams”. These days, probably the latter.

Anyway, I was cordially invited to enjoy the first The Hundred day of the season, London Spirit v Oval Invincibles, from the giddy heights of that restaurant, courtesy of the committee, as a thank you for being on the tennis subcommittee.

Here’s me looking suitably giddy up there. I took this picture to alert Colin Stutt, aka Olaf The Buddhist Viking, to the fact that I was there. I reported Olaf’s baby steps into cricket thusly:

A new fan at the London Spirit v Southern Brave washout – a match report

Since then, his enthusiasm for our sport has led him as far as Perth to watch a Women’s test match and back to Lord’s a couple of years later with a party of eight, including his daughter, Laura, for her 30th birthday treat – Laura’s idea! I conspired with Olaf to arrange a surprise personal tour around the pavilion for Laura during the interval between the two matches.

But before all of that, I had a good left-handed hit on the real tennis court with John Beatty & Giles Stogdon, ably assisted by Chris Bray who mopped up after my less penetrative shots. I thought I played quite well in the circumstances.

Then to Pelhams, where the tennis subcommittee was being entertained along with several other subcommittees, including the folk that organise the MCC cricket fixtures. The women’s fixtures committee included two people I know well: Leshia Hawkins from the ECB and Marilyn Smith from Middlesex.

Having done my homework a little earlier in the day, I surprised my fellow guests with my knowledge of the chanteuse who was to entertain us during the interval: Mimi Webb.

Just as well that no-one was able to challenge the depth of my knowledge there.

Leshia and I bonded further in the matter of music by both recognising one of the songs available for The Hundred app users to choose as the walk-on music for Danielle Gibson: Ride On Time, which, I am delighted to announce, was chosen by the majority and therefore played. A rare success for me – both recognising the song and being successful in choosing it.

The women’s match was a good one, with lots of runs and a fairly tight finish.

Walking round to the Edrich Stand to collect Laura for her surprise tour reminded me why I normally choose any time other than the intervals for walking around. The ground was heaving.

Still, we navigated the crowds and I was able to provide Laura with a fairly comprehensive, albeit slightly idiosyncratic tour of the pavilion. I don’t suppose many tours focus quite so much on the portraits of Spencer Ponsonby-Fane and Rachel Heyhoe Flint, but we had our reasons.

Laura was wearing a sash announcing that it was her 30th birthday, which encouraged many people to greet Laura warmly and wish her happy birthday. Laura surmised that I must know lots of people in the pavilion, which was slightly true, but a lot of the friendly greeters were not people I know – they were just friendly people. It is a genial collection of folk, young and old, in the pavilion on The Hundred days. I welcome it wholehearedly.

After Laura’s tour, I got back just in time to chow down eagerly, while watching the men’s match fizzle disappointingly. While the women’s match had been an excellent advertisement for women’s cricket, I thought the men’s Hundred match was a good advert for test match cricket, coming just a day after the end of a magnificent test series. Still, that second match gave me an opportunity to chat with some of my fellow tennis committee folk and also some of the other people in Pelhams that evening.

Without Leisha’s guidance, I made a foolish choice of walk-on music for the men’s match, not recognising the name Insomnia as the following track, which contains an infectious riff, which is very suitable (once you get 2/3rds of the way through the track) and was indeed chosen:

An exhilarating afternoon and evening: I got plenty of sleep that night.

Playing Tennis & Watching Cricket & Tennis On MCC Women’s Day, 8 August 2025

I had arranged to play tennis at 14:00, after the two-hour MCC Women’s Day gathering on the tennis court, to which I had not been invited as a player.

I arrived at Lord’s around 12:00, determined to watch some cricket and tennis before I played. I am very glad I did that.

The first match on the cricket pitch was between an MCC XI and Gunnersbuty WCC. This was in part a celebration of “The Gunns” centenary year.

Originally from “out our way” around Ealing/Gunnersbury (who knew), the club has actually moved around a lot, now in Barnet, but at one time (1960s) based at Boston Manor Park, where Janie and I play our “lawn”.

I must have been going through a purple patch in Boston Manor Park at that time

I watched with divided loyalties, as The Gunns turned what looked like a losing cause into an excellently-timed successful run chase.

You can read about all the cricket action from that day and even see the video here.

After that, I watched the women at tennis for a while, chatting with those who were off the court.

Then it was my turn to play, with three great stalwarts: Michael Keane, Max McHardy and Barry Nathan. I worked out that, between the four of us, there were only three organic hips on the court, the other five, including  Pinky, my new right hip, being prosthetic. Max boasted that both of his hips are originals, only then to confess that both of his knees are falsies.

I decided to name us The Bionic Quartet. I asked DeepAI to try to depict “The Bionic Quartet” based on a short description:

Not bad. I suggested fewer beards and tennis rackets rather than musical instruments:

Hmmm – AI seems determined to depict vast amounts of facial hair, even when asked not to. I didn’t dare try to get the software to depict real tennis rackets.

I stuck around briefly after tennis to see a bit of the second cricket match, but the thought of avoiding the rush hour on the tube and getting home in good time became a greater draw than the cricket quite quickly. I have seen a lot of the stuff over the past few weeks and will be seeing plenty more before the season is completely done.

Formal Launch Of the London Cricket Trust, Seven Kings Park, 4 October 2018

I have been looking forward to the formal launch of our cricket charity, the London Cricket Trust, for many months. We had an informal launch a few months ago at Lord’s, reported here…

An Afternoon Of Small Scale Events At Lord’s, 2 July 2018

We chose Seven Kings Park in the Borough of Redbridge as the venue, because we have put a full suite of new facilities into that park. So we needed to wait for all that work to be completed ahead of a full media launch.

The day had finally arrived.  I needed to go into the city afterwards and also needed to get Dumbo (my car) in for service:

Dumbo – a pint-sized Chelsea tractor…more like a Chelsea tricycle really

Coincidentally, taking Dumbo in for service often seems to coincide with cricket-related days:

A Middlesex Second XI v Lancashire Second XI match report (from 2016)

But I digress.

Point is, I went to the gym, drove out west to the house, then to drop Dumbo at the garage and then commuted to Newbury Park…which I imagined might take a heck of a lot longer than it did take. So I got to Newbury Park ludicrously early.

On emerging from the station, I started fiddling with my map-app to work out what to do next; a non-trivial matter in getting from Newbury Park to Seven Kings Park. A pair of suited and booted people, one male, one female, had also emerged and were carefully studying a large (A3) colour map. I guessed that they might be visiting dignitaries on the way to the same event, so I asked them where they were going.

“Regal House” said the man, turning the map one way up and then the other in bemusement. “Can’t make out one end of this road from another.”

I glanced at his upside down map and noticed “Regal House” clearly marked on the map, about 300 yards to our right just along the main road.

“You need to go that way”, I said, pointing, “I think it’s just past that building, there”.

Some 45 years after earning my cub scout map reading badge, the skills are still coming in handy.

Buoyed by my success and the fact that I had already done one good deed for the day, I got my head around the map-app and strode towards Seven Kings Park, arriving a mere, Dicky Bird-like, 45 minutes early.

I wasn’t the first Trustee to arrive; Chris Swadkin had made an even more cautious time allowance for his journey from Kent.

The new Seven Kings Park nets

There had been a distinctly autumnal (indeed, even misty/mizzly/drizzly) feel to the early part of the day, but the sun started to show its face and then came  out full glow just in time for our joyous launch.

Soon there was a melange of cricketers, dignitaries, media folk and a small army of schoolchildren for the launch. Ed Griffiths doesn’t organise things by halves.

The speeches were brief, to the point and note perfect. In particular, Jas Athwal, the head of Redbridge Council, spoke with great passion about growing up in that neighbourhood and playing in the Park. His hope is that these facilities help inspire youngsters to play and love cricket as he does. Jas recorded a version of his message in a short video later in the morning:

Jas’s reminiscences of playing in that park as a kid reminded me a little of my own, albeit on the other side of London and albeit Jas did not go into details about the players he tried to emulate…

Back When I Didn’t Know My Asif From My Sarfraz, Cricket On Tooting Bec Common, Summer 1974

…actually, now I come to think about it, Jas did mention his heroes. In particular, Jas mentioned Bishen Bedi. I remember trying to emulate Bedi too, in the summer of 1974. I could manage the loop but not the spin and certainly not the inch-perfect accuracy. But I digress.

Leshia Hawkins, who heads up the ECB’s participation and growth team for London, spoke from the heart about the initiative and how helpful it has been for the four London-based counties (Essex, Kent, Middlesex and Surrey) to come together, with the ECB, to progress community cricket in this way.

Forhad Hussain (the Essex Trustee) spoke briefly on behalf of us Trustees, emphasising the collaborative nature of the initiative, while Dawid Malan said a few kind words on behalf of the county players who had turned out to help make the day special.

Since I started drafting this piece, there is now an official London Cricket Trust short video about the launch, which I have embedded below:

Somehow I have found my way into both videos, albeit very briefly. 15 seconds of fame; perhaps less.

When the players, most of the coaches and kids gathered at one end of the new non-turf pitch for the press shoot, we were left with a fairly large gaggle of schoolkids and one coach at the other end, so I took on the wicket-keeping duties.

I tried to crouch, catch and stump like Alan Knott…

…although I probably looked more like a clumsy git trying to do the policemen’s dance in When The Foeman Bares His Steel…

…not least because I was wearing one of my smartest lounge suits rather than cricket clobber.

Still, I was taking the ball surprisingly well and was only denied several stumpings by an over-zealous ECB official (who shall remain nameless) consistently shaking her head rather than raising the finger at square leg. Does she not realise that those schoolkids were not there to gain encouragement, nor were they to enjoy themselves at cricket; surely they were there to have their characters built in the school of hard knocks that only cricket at its cruellest can provide?

Personally, I got completely lost in the fun of actually playing cricket; when I eventually looked around I realised that the dignitaries, cricketers, media folk and my fellow trustees had all gone, leaving just me, the coaches, the kids and the teachers.

I was five minutes late for the Trustees meeting we had scheduled to take place in the pavilion after the launch. Not my style, to be late for such a transparently frivolous reason, but I think I might have been forgiven in these special circumstances.

We’ve had plenty of media coverage with still more promised (at the time of writing, less than a week after the event).

This search term – click here – should find most of the media coverage.

Ed Griffiths has produced an early stage media review – click here – it takes a while to load.

Our most prized bit of media so far comes in the form of social media – specifically a retweet by AB de Villiers to his six-million-plus followers:

It’s hard to express what a special day this was. I can hardly wait until we can do some more of these launches. We’ll be putting in dozens of facilities across London over the next couple of years, so I’ll be putting my hand up and no doubt going to quite a few.