Tag: Lord’s

The Saga Of A Four Day Match, Including Several MTWD Lost Masterpieces, Middlesex v Somerset At Lord’s, 2 June 2007

Janie (Daisy) and I witnessed the very end of this match, by diverting to Lord’s after playing tennis at Boston Manor on the Saturday morning and watching the denouement in our tennis clobber from the Upper Edrich.

It was the first time that either of us had seen the conclusion of a first class match live.

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

But there had been a saga to that match, not least the rather shameful first innings declaration by Justin Langer at 50/8 simply to deny Middlesex a bowling point. Such gaming of the points system is now prohibited.

I wanted to trawl back through the Middlesex Till We Die (MTWD) reports to read up on the incident, but, irritatingly, those reports were part of the “lost masterpieces” period – a few months for which Sportnetwork lost all archives. 

Even more irritatingly, when I dug out the draft submissions (I was editing MTWD back then) there was no submission for Day Two – the day of the debacle.

…but…

…the three submissions were from Auntie Janet (Day One), Pistol Pete (Day Three) and Derek “The Diamond Ruled OK” Britton (Day Four). Seeing those submissions brought back bittersweet memories.

In particular, seeing my correspondence with and the submission from Diamond. I am writing this in the summer of 2018, having learnt a few weeks ago that, tragically, Diamond died suddenly and totally unexpectedly over the winter. He was always good company at the matches and Middlesex events. I also very much enjoyed his writing, which was folksy, unpretentious and direct. His Day Four piece for this match is not his best piece, but still it is unquestionably in Diamond’s voice.

So shine on you crazy Diamond…

…with permission from Barmy Kev, who is now the curator of MTWD and therefore technically the custodian of the lost masterpieces (even though I am the only person still to have the copies)…

…here are all three of the reports in their originally submitted form – I have not tried to re-edit them:

Middlesex v Somerset at Lord’s 30 May to 2 June 2007

MTWD “Lost Masterpieces” Reports

Day One

Published as “Mad Dog of an Englishwoman Goes To Lord’s”

by Auntie Janet

Mad dog of an Englishwoman goes to Lord’s when it is raining

(What I did to pass the time when it rained)

I knew that the weather was going to be ‘dodgy’ today, but hey I needed a live cricket fix. Surely we’ll get some cricket.

My trusty alarm first meowed at 4.30am (an improvement on 2.30am) and I told her to go away. She then woke me at 6.50am. Heck she shouldn’t be hungry, what with all the tuna she ate at my friends (yes she does house calls also) yesterday. Still I needed to get up and prepare my food so I got up and fed them.

I made myself a strong cup of coffee and set about preparing my ‘picnic’. Bother the cats have smelt the tuna and are under my feet…….. I suppose I’d better give them some before they trip me up. According to Sky sports news the weather is decidedly dodgy, but I’m still going – after all it can’t be worse than watching the rain fall at the Oval.

As the weather has turned cold, I had to get winter woollies out of storage and my winter coat (no ‘reporter’s t-shirt today).

I left home at 8.35am and it was drizzling, however by the time I got to the 253 bus stop the sun was trying to come out and the drizzle was definitely lighter in Camden town. When I got off the 274 near Lord’s the pavements were dry, but it had started raining by the time I got to Lord’s.

I ensconced myself in the Middlesex room after buying a programme. I’ll go outside when play starts. Hooray it has stopped raining and the ground staff have started to remove the covers and the umpires are out (definitely a hopeful sign).

The wicket is almost central albeit slightly to the ‘Mound stand’ side.

Drat why did I buy those caramelised cashews? I can’t stop eating them (they are rather moreish) and I would like them to last longer than one day.

On flicking through the programme I notice that last time we played Somerset at Lord’s in the CC was 1998 and we won by 211 runs. But Langer was playing for us then, however I feel that this is a good omen.

Good news the hover cover has been removed but it sounds decidedly unhealthy. The umpires have decided play can begin at 11.45am. Ed Smith won the toss and decided to field. Chris Wright is playing instead of Vaas (I later found out that Vaas still does not feel well). Question: Where is Chad?

It is grey and murky overhead and cold. Ball should swing nicely in these conditions. Now where’s my camera Silvers is bowling. He sends down 3 deliveries, they ALL beat Trescothick’s bat ……………. And the light is offered and Trescothick takes it. Someone from the Mound stand yelled ‘chicken’, but then it did start raining again.

Wot no Hover?

The ground staff certainly took their time putting covers on. They used tarpaulins and not the hover. I later found out that the hover had engine failure and had to be repaired. An early lunch was called. Trouble is that with no play my thoughts turned to food. I rooted in my bag and ate the bagel filled with mushroom salad and tuna/mayo. An experiment I found that I liked so I’ll be making this ‘mixture’ again. I then ate two chocolates. Mmm I’d better eat some salad and an apple. I found that I’d packed some cherry cakes (courtesy Sharon Bakery) and ate one of these before the apple making the apple taste extremely sour.

Very pretty we now have flashing lights on the scoreboard depicting rain.

Drat I thought I’d nearly finished the Telegraph Sudoku but have gone wrong. I’ll have to rub it out and start again (I do it in pencil). I did do the Sudoku at second attempt and started the ‘tough’ one inside the telegraph. I have brought my knitting but have wasted a lot of time doing the Sudoku.

It is brightening up but still raining and the umpires do come out from time to time. 3.15 pm and there is activity in the middle – the ground staff are brushing the water off the covers. I’ve wasted enough time on Sudoku, time to get the knitting out. At least with my hands occupied I can’t eat.

At 3.30pm I got a text from a friend in Hampshire saying it had stopped raining there, so would clear later at Lord’s. At 3.40pm an early tea is taken. It is still drizzling but getting brighter all the time, in fact it’s the brightest it’s been.

4.05pm and the umpires plus David Nash are out, and it looks like it has stopped raining and the covers are coming off.

There are now blue skies above and as there are damp patches play scheduled to start at 5.30pm.

As the Somerset players come back from the nets, Trescothick is limping quite badly, and Trego is mimicking him.

Now one or two wickets tonight would be nice! Silvers finished his first over and Trescothick finally managed to get bat to ball! Richo bowled from the Nursery end. In Silvers second over, on his 3rd lbw appeal he got one. Edwards for 0 (9/1). The ball was seaming and moving all over the place. Silvers was fielding near me during Richo’s over and he said to get one of the two at the crease would be nice. I said get Cameron White as well and he said that White would get himself out.

In Silvers next over he clean bowled Langer for 0 (9/2). Murtagh is now bowling from Nursery end and in his second over bowls Trescothick (19/3).

Gosh what a good start. Pitch obviously been ‘juiced up’ by the use of tarpaulins and not the hover.

Chris Wright now bowling from the pavilion end and with his 3rd ball gets White caught behind (24/4), and he almost got Blackie with his 5th. All our boys definitely thought Blackie had nicked one also but the umpire did not give it. They closed on 36/4 so a satisfying hour for our boys.

Silvers was right about White as he probably though he could slog Wright all over the ground.

I then went to get some autographs, the high point being that someone my friends call ‘neckbrace’ (as he used to wear one, and I don’t know the guys name) actually asked Justin Langer who was he.

Day Two

…went unreported…

…which is a shame, as this was the infamous day that Justin Langer declared at 50/8 to deny Middlesex a bowling point…

e-mail from Ged to Barmy Kev the next day:

“We ended up with no-one yesterday, which is a shame. We have Pistol Pete lined up for today and potentially Saturday if needed. Ged Ladd himself might do Saturday if there is enough left in the game overnight (even Daisy has shown interest in seeing some 4 day cricket!).”

Day Three

Published As “Middlesex Home In On The Win”

by Pistol Pete

MATCH: Somerset home day 3

DATE: 1/6/07

VENUE: Lord’s

The weather forecast was ‘heavy showers’ but at the start of the day there was no sign of rain, and the pitch had a green tinge which indicated that there would still be some help for the quick bowlers. This proved to be the case as Kieswetter played a loose drive at the second ball of the day from Chris Silverwood and was comfortably taken at 3rd slip by Ed Joyce. Shortly afterwards Peter Trego got a fine edge from Silvers to a ball that moved away and was caught behind, and when Langer was lbw to Tim Murtagh to make the score 60-5, the view in the Warner stand was that it would be all over by lunch…

White and Hilditch were still being troubled by the moving ball, Hilditch playing one cover drive that went in the direction of backward square leg, but with the sun out, the pitch was easing and the ball was getting older, and batting gradually became easier. At 12.30 we were -3 on the over rate, so Jamie D came on, which improved the over rate but there was nothing in the pitch for him and lunch was taken at 148-5, still 50-odd behind.

For those of you interested in culinary matters, your correspondent’s lunch (or perhaps luncheon, since we are at Lord’s) was cheese and onion sandwiches and a couple of pints of Adnams in the Windsor Castle.

White and Hilditch continued at a run a minute after lunch (hopefully satisfying the pitch inspectors if not the Middlesex supporters) and Somerset were approaching the Middlesex score when Silvers produced a beauty which White edged and was splendidly caught by David Nash diving to his right. When Blackwell edged Silvers’ next delivery into the safe (as I thought then) hands of Ed Joyce, the score was 189-7, Somerset were still behind and the view in the Mound stand was that it would be all over by tea…

However Hilditch was still batting well and found an unlikely partner in Steffan Jones. We had lost Alan Richardson; he seemed to fall while delivering the ball and couldn’t finish the over. I don’t think he was limping as he went off but don’t know what the problem was. Also by this time Silvers and Tim were knackered and what energy they had left had to be saved for the new ball. So Hilditch and Jones put on 50 in even time, another 50 in 25 minutes and we were beginning to look a bit threadbare. The new ball was taken 2 overs before tea, and Hilditch was dropped by Ed Joyce off Tim. As gully catches go, it was pretty simple (sorry Ed) Tea was taken at 323-7 (Hilditch 125, Jones 56, 121 ahead)

It was darker after tea and the umpires spoke a couple of times but play continued. I thought that we really needed to finish them off quickly with the new ball before Silvers and Tim were completely exhausted, as Richo was still off and Chris Wright and Jamie D hadn’t looked threatening. And thankfully that’s what happened. Silvers bowled Hilditch, Ed J dropped Jones, and Murtagh had Caddick lbw, then bowled Willoughby as he attempted to heave the ball over the Mound stand. Phew.

So we need 138. Nick and Billy were obviously not interested in trying to finish today (there would have been 32 overs if we had taken the extra half-hour), and they didn’t have a great deal of trouble. There was one appeal for caught behind off Nick, then Trego got Billy lbw for 31 with a swinging yorker. Ace and Nick saw us to the close at 72-1, more than half way there. The view in the Edrich stand was that it would be all over by lunch tomorrow, and if the weather holds, I think they may be right.

Summary: A really engrossing day’s play. A heroic effort from Silvers, who must have the player of the month award for June sown up already. We lost our way a bit in the afternoon, but you can’t really expect to win every session, especially without Chaminder and Murali, and it looks like we are going to beat a pretty decent team, and with 11 England qualified players in our side.

Day Four

Submitted as “The whipping of the Wyverns”

Published as “Tears In My Cider”

by the late, lamented Derek Britton, aka The Diamond Ruled OK

Journey story .

No real tale to tell here today except for a successful trip up to Lord’s with no delays. Those services that had delays, closures or cancellations on them were being well announced on both stations and trains. It would seem that the London Underground PR department have learnt a thing or two in recent times, like if you are going to inconvenience your customers at least let them know what’s happening. The skies that had been clear and cloudless since dawn in West London were the same when I emerged from St John’s Wood tube at about 10.30am. Dry overnight and a virtually windless day it was going to be hard work for our visitors from the West to get anything out of this game bar the early train out of Paddington. Stopping us scoring 66 off the available overs with 9 wickets in hand would also cause them problems.

The play.

I picked up a scorecard and on turning it over was amazed to find a runs per over section to cover the 50 over games. This is something we have lacked for years and well done to whoever has decided to innovate this.

Ace and Compo resumed the innings with Somerset -1 on the over rate. Any ideas of this pair seeing us through to the win were terminated by Trego’s second ball which Compo fenced to Trescothick in the slips, gone for his overnight score of 21. The first ball Joyce received was well wide and acknowledged as such by the umpire, this was greeted with cheering and applause by the sparse crowd. The target is soon below 50 with some good shots being played by both batsmen who were getting 4’s to all parts off both Trego and Caddick There was a point were I felt certain that Ed was under orders from Woody to get the game over with so he could get to Epsom to watch the Derby this afternoon! The 100 came up really quickly and Langer had the ball looked at by the umpires, it was not changed, stop bowling dross that hits the fence and it won’t go out of shape will it !!

The target ever closer and the over rate still behind Langer took off Trego and Caddick and replaced them with White and Mackay (sorry, Jones).This got the over rate back to par but the steady flow of singles and a very well taken two by Ace to some sloppy fielding saw us to within 22 of the win. The 50 partnership came up in 42 minutes.

Time for a pint me thinks. In the time it took me to fight my way through the hordes at the bar, I mean walk up to it and have the young lady pull me a Marstons Ed had knocked of 5 more of the total required. Give us a chance to get my pint Ed let alone drink it won’t you!! The end of the 36th over of the innings saw us 2 runs from the win and Ace heading back to the pavilion early having played Jones straight into the hands of Trego while going for the winning boundary (136-3). Enter Skipper, EJ gets a single to tie the game and ES hits one off his second ball to gain us 18 lovely points.

Smith: not out 1, Joyce: not out 45. Well played lads now take the rest of the day off.

Ed Joyce was the star of the day with his 45 not out (to go with his 42 from the first innings) but the guy who won us the match has to be Woody, enjoy your racing this afternoon sir. 9-62 in the match (should have been 10 but there we go). The figures that really matter are those 18 secured in the points column.

 

England v West Indies at Lord’s Day 2, 18 May 2007

Went to this day at the test with Jeremy Smith, who headed up the Z/Yen business that was sold to Aon earlier that year.  Jeremy and his team were still working out of our offices at that time.

The weather was none too good for the start of that match.  They only got about half a day’s play the previous day, but we almost got a full quota.  England had been batting well and carried on doing so.  We saw Collingwood, Bell and Prior score tons.  This was back in the day, when people still said that Bell only scored tons when they didn’t really matter.

It was a batting pitch though – Lord’s was mostly those for a few years, I think it was because the new turf and drainage settled down and the pitches sort of died – some of the other grounds have suffered similarly a few years after putting in the modern drainage.

We had a very enjoyable day.  I recall Jeremy saying how, despite the pleasantness of actually attending, he feels that you can follow a cricket match more readily on the TV than at the ground. Possibly so; certainly back then before the ubiquitous big screens.

Match scorecard – click here.

Strangely, King Cricket just the other day (as I write in December 2015) reported on a streaker incident at Old Trafford, later in that series – click here. I attended the first two days of that Old Trafford test – report linked here. But the streak business reminds me that Lord’s is like a different world somehow – it’s a long time since we’ve seen a streaker at HQ. And on the rare occasions we get them, they look more genteel somehow than the “gentleman” who did the deed in Manchester – with thanks to Sam for digging out a better picture – here.

Middlesex v Northants Day Two With Geoff Young, Day Three With Michael Mainelli, Lord’s, 26 & 27 April 2007

Day Two – 26 April 2007

I have little to add to the extensive report I wrote about Day 2 on MTWD: Click here for a link to my MTWD match report for the day.

Just in case anything ever happens to MTWD, I have scraped that report to here.

Geoff Young is a Northamptonshire-supporting stalwart of the Tufty Stackpole team we used to play matches against as and for The Children’s Society. Several such matches will be Ogblogged in the fullness of time – here is one example, if you like a long read, which was the most recent match when Geoff and I went to Lord’s that day in April 2007:

Tufty Stackpole v The Children’s Society, North Crawley CC, “Match Report”, 30 July 2006

For those who don’t want to read the MTWD Day 2 match report, it basically says that Geoff and I had a very enjoyable day at Lord’s – a bit more enjoyable for me based on the cricket – with a picnic lunch of the “Ian/Ged” standard variety – i.e. splendid.

Day Three – 27 April 2007

In those days Michael Mainelli (Timothy Tiberelli) and I had a traditional visit to Lord’s at least once a season – usually early season, which we called a Stumpfmerde session. We had a long standing tradition of occasional “Stiermerde” (bullshit) sessions to talk about strategic matters for the business. The Stumpfmerde was a “with cricket” variant.

I could tell you about the strategic matters we discussed that day…but I’d probably then have to kill you and believe me it wouldn’t be worth it.

Michael’s follow up note started with:

Great Stumpfmerde.  Glad to see our boys crushed ’em on Saturday.

I like the way he thinks of Middlesex as “our boys”.

To see the Cricinfo scorecard for the whole match, click here.

On the Saturday, after following Middlesex’s win on the Internet Radio, Janie and I watched the conclusion of the World Cup Final on the TV – a very cricket heavy few days for me.

Middlesex & MTWD Stuff, 28 March 2007, 11 April 2007 & 13 April 2007

I can see from my diary and correspondence that we had an MTWD get together just before the start of the season – 28 March.

No sign of me going to the Seaxe Club AGM that year – I don’t think I’d really started going to those yet, but I did go to the Middlesex AGM on 11 April.

True to the committee’s requests, we did not report the AGM nor can I find any private correspondence about it. It cannot have been a corker.

On 13 April I published a template for away match reports using Janie’s and my visit to Trelawny in Jamaica a few week’s earlier as the example – click here.

I’ll write up that visit in a more Ogblog stylee when I write up the holiday as a whole.

Just in case anything ever happens to MTWD, I have scraped the report to here.

A Day At Lord’s With Big “Papa Zambezi” Jeff, 7 September 2006

The photo is from a year earlier in September 2005; the day England won the Ashes at the Oval, with thanks to Charley “The Gent” Malloy (also pictured, as are Uncail Marcas, Me and Daisy) – Jeff is the big fella in red.

I am reminded of this day from September 2006 almost exactly 13 years later (on 5 September 2019), as King Cricket described the wind as being the most important element of a day’s Ashes cricket at Old Trafford.

I took Jeff to a day of county cricket at Lord’s, between Middlesex and Nottinghamshire. I wrote the day up comprehensively for MTWD back then – click here.

The most noteworthy thing that happened that day (other than Nottinghamshire batting Middlesex out of the game), was a stray plastic bag that blew from the Upper Compton onto the pitch to temporarily hold up proceedings.

Unfortunately, that rogue plastic bag was ours. I report the matter in considerable detail about half way through the afternoon session section – here’s another chance to click here.

Other coincidences with this week in 2019 include:

Here is the scorecard from September 2006.

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

Today (11 August 2019) I wrote a tribute piece about my dad, on the 100th anniversary of his birth – click here or below:

My Dad, Peter Harris At 100: Born 11 August 1919, Died 6 August 2007, Remembered 11 August 2019

I was reminiscing about his last birthday, 2006. I took mum and dad to Lord’s for a birthday treat. Dad had no interest whatsoever in sport, but he did enjoy a nice meal and my parents had never before seen Lord’s.

It was good fortune that the Middlesex v Hampshire match went to a fourth day – indeed it eventually went the distance on that fourth day. I did have a Plan B, in case you are wondering, but Plan B was not needed.

As I reminisced just now, the piece seemed to be writing itself in my brain, almost as if I had already written it.

Then I realised that I HAD already written it; I wrote a pretty comprehensive account of that lovely day for the Middlesex Till We Die (MTWD) website at the time – click here for that piece.

If by chance anything ever goes awry with that site, click here for a scrape of said piece.

Just in case there’s anyone left on the planet who is bemused by the pseudonyms, I am Ged Ladd so my parents are “Mr & Mrs Ladd Senior”.

On re-reading that piece, I have little else to add about the day.

Here is a link to the scorecard for the match – interesting to see so many people who are now involved with England cricket and cricket at Lord’s (not only but including Middlesex) participating in that match. What a good match it was too.

One final reflection. I remember asking dad afterwards if he had enjoyed the day. His reply:

It was absolutely lovely. Thank you so much.

As much as anything else, it was nice to be with so many people of my own age somewhere other than the old age home.

I’m not sure that the Middlesex/MCC marketing people will be wanting to reuse that quote, but if they want it they can have it.

Middlesex v Lancashire Day 3 at Lord’s 23 June 2006, Arabian Nights Party at Sandall Close 24 June 2006

Arabian Nights or Moroccan Den?

At the time of writing (January 2017) I was sent scurrying for my 2006 diary when King Cricket reported that Lancastrian cricketer Tom Smith had retired.

Like King Cricket, I first saw Tom Smith play in the summer of 2006, but in my case it was June and the weather was lovely.

My diary simply has a line through the Friday daytime and the word “Lord’s”. That means I went to Lord’s with me, myself and a heap of reading.

By the start of Day 3 (the Friday), the result of the match was barely in doubt; it was really only a question of whether Middlesex could salvage some pride and bat for a day on the road we call the Lord’s pitch.

Click here for the match scorecard.

I remember that day at Lord’s primarily for one silly thing, which, as it happens, did involve Tom Smith.

I chose to follow the sun (top up the tan for tomorrow’s party), so by the afternoon I had plonked myself in the front row of the Mound Stand, closer to the Edrich than the Tavern.

Scott Styris in particular was batting well; with some aggression as well as for survival. On one occasion Styris lofted the ball into vacant space, in my direction; a couple of bounces, then the ball bounced up and pretty much landed on my lap. To this day it is the only time I can recall the ball absolutely coming to me, personally, while watching a professional match.

I had on my lap at that juncture not only the book I was reading but also an apple I was about to munch by way of light lunch.

Tom Smith arrived to gather the ball. I considered throwing him the apple rather than the ball but momentarily thought better of it and simply threw him the ball. I then spent the rest of the afternoon regretting that I hadn’t played that practical joke on Tom Smith.

Smith looked very sharp as a pace bowler back then. I remember being very impressed with him, even though his figures for the day don’t look special. He looked “the lad most likely” that afternoon on a very flat track and I remember carrying high hopes for him as an England bowling prospect for a few years.

Saturday 24 June 2006

There is a line through Saturday which reads “party”, as it was the day of the famous “Arabian Nights/Moroccan Den” party at Daisy’s old maisonette in Sandall Close.

Tony (downstairs) let us use his garden as well as ours (in return for an invitation). Kim and DJ’s company, Theme Traders, themed the gardens up for the party (see picture above).

The weather was glorious for that one and the party really was a huge success. I struggled to take photographs on the night (enjoying myself too much and then couldn’t get the flash to flash) but perhaps some better pictures will emerge from friends.

I can just about make out Bobbie and John-Boy in the background. Tony in the foreground and a few members of the family.

There were quite a lot of people at the party; a few dozen anyway. I’m pretty sure I recall Bobbie, her Dave, Andrea and one or two others hanging around with us until very late indeed; it was one of those parties that people didn’t want to end.

I had just acquired my first iPod and I made up a good playlist for this party. I’ll dump the playlist in a file and attach it as an aside later.

Daisy (Janie) might well want to chip in with some memories of this party too.

The Day Michael Mainelli & I Witnessed Nick Compton Make His Maiden County Championship Hundred From The Compton Stand, 28 April 2006

A little over 10 years later…

Michael Mainelli and I had formed a tradition – I think 2006 was the third instance of it – that I would take Michael as my guest to a day of county cricket early season, before the crowds get larger and (most importantly) before the days get hotter.

Some like it hot, but Michael REALLY doesn’t like it hot.

So, Day 3, Friday, first county championship match of the season seemed just the ticket. In many ways it was. Middlesex v Kent. Good fixture. April.

The match was well advanced by the start of Day 3 but not too well advanced.

The cricinfo scorecard and resources for this match can be found here.

As tradition would have it…this sort of thing IS a tradition by the third time, possibly even by the second time…we watched the first session from the pavilion. Then, at lunch, as tradition would also have it, we perambulated on the outfield (smaller crowd than Middlesex’s glorious September 2016 match depicted above), then retired to Harry Morgan to grab some takeaway New York deli-style food – probably a chopped liver sandwich to share plus a salt beef sandwich each plus some pickled cucumbers.

We took our feast back to Lord’s in time to munch, drink some fine red wine and watch the second session of cricket from the Compton Stand.

The Compton Stand offered a rather binary choice; absolutely exposed to the elements in the upper tier, or caged in away from the elements in the lower tier. As I write in September 2019, that stand is being demolished, together with its smaller twin, the Edrich, to be replaced by more modern facilities.

Anyway, in April we opted for the upper and the sunshine while we ate our hot food, rather than the wind-tunnel cooling effect of the shady, cagey lower tier.

We finished our grub around about the time that Nick Compton’s fine innings for Middlesex entered the nervous nineties. I explained to Michael that the lad had been on Middlesex’s books for some years but this was, hopefully, to be his breakthrough season. He had just scored a big hundred in a University warm-up match but this might be his first County Championship hundred.

Shouldn’t we move now to a shady spot? Perhaps the pavilion again or the Warner?

I asked Michael, noticing a few beads of sweat and a slight reddening of the face. It was proper sunshine that day and by mid afternoon it was really quite warm.

Let’s wait and see Compton get his hundred. We should see Compton get his first hundred from the Compton Stand,

Michael replied; a cricket aficionado in the making.

Michael’s early effort in 1998; a Z/Yen & Barnardo’s & The Children’s Society match

We could go down to the lower tier and get some shade…that’s still the Compton Stand…

I suggested.

No, said Michael, we shouldn’t move. He’s in the nineties.

Now anyone who knows Michael surely knows that he is one of the least superstitious people you are ever likely to meet. He’s logical. He’s rational.

But cricket seems to get all of us…yes, even Michael, with quirky superstitions. Perhaps all sport does this to some extent, but cricket has superstition in spades.

And of course Michael had enough exposure to cricket through our charity matches and stuff to really understand that a century is a big achievement and a maiden century a really big thing…

…Nick Compton also knew the importance of making a ton, of course…

…so Nick’s nervous 90s went on for rather a long time…it seemed like a very, very long time…

…while Michael got hotter and hotter; ruddier and ruddier. I asked him a couple more times if he wanted to move, but Michael was glued to the cricket and absolutely intent on not jinxing Nick Compton’s century quest.

Within moments of Nick achieving his hundred, Michael was up and we were away in the direction of the shade. I think we went back to the pavilion for the rest of that very pleasant spring day.

Here’s that cricinfo scorecard and resources link again.

The 2008 Z/Yen & Children’s Society Match. Michael looks more assured by then.

A Tied Final To An International One-Day Cricket Tournament, At Lord’s, Janie And I Were There, 2 July 2005

Writing on 21 July 2019, I have been thinking about close and tied matches a lot lately. The cricket world cup was decided on the finest of margins last week, as was the Wimbledon Gentleman’s Final – the first ever to go to tie break:

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

Today, Janie and I were battling out the tightest of sets of tennis, as oft we do. We ended the match at 5-5 as a tie. We tend to do that if the scores are level at 5-5 or 6-6. Janie and I believe in ties.

Of course there is a huge difference between amateur sport and professional sport. But Janie also felt strongly that the 2019 world cup should similarly have been determined as a tie and shared between England and New Zealand. I’m not 100% sure; it certainly isn’t the modern way for tournaments.

But on the way home from our epic tennis tied match today, my mind wandered to a match that Janie and I witnessed in that glorious and exciting summer of cricket that was 2005. We went to Lord’s to see the final of the one day international (ODI) tri-series between Australia, Bangladesh and England; a final between England and Australia that ended as a tie.

How was that tie resolved, I wondered. I couldn’t remember. So I looked it up.

Here is a link to the scorecard and Cricinfo resources on that 2005 tied match.

In fact, back in 2005, the playing conditions for that tri-series – presumably agreed between the three nations but ultimately under the auspices of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) rather than the International Cricket Council (ICC) – determined that final as a tie if the scores were level after 50 overs.

England and Australia shared the trophy.

No super over (I don’t recall ever seeing those back then), no boundaries count back (I don’t recall seeing that until this most recent ICC World Cup), no priority to the team with the most wickets remaining at the end of their innings (that method had been discredited quite early in the Duckworth- Lewis era as anathema to the mathematical logic of wickets and overs as being algorithmic-equivalent resources that can become exhausted).

It had been a great match, that 2005 ODI final. At first we thought England were way ahead…

…even when Australia crawled back to post 196 runs…

…until England ended up 33/5 and we thought England had blown it…

…until England somehow managed to crawl back to 196/9, securing a couple of leg byes off the last ball to tie the match.

Perhaps others in the crowd thought differently, but Janie and I left the ground feeling thoroughly satisfied with our day’s entertainment, the thrills and spills of the ebb and flow…

…and a feeling that justice had been done to a hard-fought match when the trophy was shared for a tie.

Who would have won on a super over? We’ll never know.

Who would have won on boundary count-backs? Australia.

Who would have won on the basis of fewer wickets lost? England.

Who gives a fig how the match would have been determined if the playing conditions had been different? Only a pedant, really, as either or both teams might have played the final few balls differently if other playing conditions were being applied.

It was a summer of fine margins, really. England prevailed in the tournament that really mattered, the Ashes…

Later that summer… (thanks to Charles Bartlett for the picture)

…we were there that day too – the final day of the 2005 Ashes series – to be Ogblogged in the fullness of time. But that Ashes win came as a result of a drawn match at the end and a couple of really tight finishes, especially the Edgbaston test (also to be Ogblogged in the fullness).

But in early July, the excitement was that tied ODI. In fact, that tied ODI match at Lord’s was not the only tie I witnessed that season…indeed not even the only tie I witnessed that month, July 2005 – I even participated in one:

Far And Away The Most Exciting Game Of Cricket I Have Ever Played, Tufty Stackpole v The Children’s Society, North Crawley, 31 July 2005

What a season that 2005 season was. Not least because of the tied matches.

Middlesex v Leicestershire, List A Match, Lord’s, 9 August 2004

Janie and I formed part of a very sparse crowd for this National League match, which was meant to be 45 overs-a-side, in 2004.

The crowd was especially sparse because the game, which had been scheduled for the Sunday, was moved to a reserve day on the Monday because Leicestershire found themselves in the final (and indeed winners) of the almost new Twenty20 tournament that year.

But Janie and I had booked a day off that Monday anyway and the weather was deceptively good earlier in the day.

I remember only a few details about this match; Janie remembers less. I do recall sitting at the front of the Tavern Stand, with Darren Stevens fielding right in front of us.

Slightly later image, here with Glenn Hoddle of all people, from: https://www.londoncounty.co.uk/blog/2010/06/19/in-praise-of-darren-stevens/

Daisy (Janie) wanted to know about Leicestershire’s celebrations and party after their cup-winning success a couple of days earlier.

For a while, Darren Stevens played Daisy’s questions with a characteristically straight bat. But Daisy’s line of questioning and her persuasive manner can bamboozle even the most seasoned batsman. Eventually he failed to pick her metaphorical doosra, which was expressed roughly in the form…

Oh go on, you can tell me, I won’t tell anyone…

…at which point he spilled a few beans about the celebrations and party – now long-since forgotten by us, even if that victorious night remains memorable to him.  The details he passed on will have been mere crumbs.

Still, when the rain came to interrupt Middlesex’s rather poor innings before it might well have in any case been brought to a premature end, Janie and I took refuge in the Middlesex Room.

There we and a few other refugees from the rain joined “the Middlesex gossips”, as I used to describe the regulars who tended to reside in that room.

I vaguely remember Auntie Janet expressing an interest in Mark Cleary, although Ottis Gibson and Claude Henderson had been the pick of the Leicestershire bowlers that day. I think this day might have been the only time I saw Charlie Dagnall bowl.

As it became clear that the weather was clearing up and that the Leicestershire innings would go ahead, reduced to 20 overs due to rain, the mood among the Middlesex fans became quite pessimistic.

“It’ll be a Twenty20 innings for them and they are the Twenty20 champions; we don’t stand a chance”, was the prevailing view. We (Middlesex) were offering a pretty depleted bowling attack that day too, due to injuries, wear and tear restings etc.

But Daisy’s view was laden with inside information:

I’m not so sure – they had one heck of a party to celebrate their cup win  on Saturday, which by the sound of it went deep into yesterday…

This is what happened in that match, in the end.

Four points to Middlesex.

In the end, Middlesex topped that division that season and gained promotion – but without that win we’d have only come third and not been promoted.

We were there, folks, we were there…