Tag: Middlesex

Lunch With Peter Cox/Middlesex v Glamorgan Day 3 at Lord’s, 2 August 2007

This was a slightly strange day. Peter Cox and I had agreed to meet for an informal catch-up at Lord’s this afternoon, during this Middlesex v Glamorgan match. The match was unfolding quickly, with Glamorgan following on and ending the second day six down, second time around. With the prospect of very little play, Peter and I re-jigged our plans to meet up at Lord’s in the morning and have a spot of lunch together for our catch up.

Meanwhile, I had visited mum and dad the evening before and realised that dad must be dying – he just looked so frail and spaced out. I said as much to Janie as I was driving home, indeed wondering how dad even had the strength to get upstairs to bed. (Answer – the following night; the early hours of Friday morning, he didn’t have the strength).

My diary says I had a training session at the gym with Becca at 6:30 that Thursday morning, so I guess I had time to go home and clear my morning e-mails before ambling over to Lord’s for 11:00.

The cricket didn’t take long to unfold – Wharf and Croft showed some resistance for a few minutes but then Croft fell and soon after the inevitable happened. I’m not sure that Peter and I even left the cosseted splendour of the Long Room that August morning. It was nice to witness a match win and the end of match formalities from the Long Room.

Peter and I then went to the Long Room Bar (a place where I rarely dine) for lunch and to continue our conversation, which naturally drifted into ageing parents territory as well as the cricket and bit of business we’d planned to discuss.

Middlesex v Essex T20, Ravaged By Ravi, A 2007 MTWD “Lost Masterpiece”, 6 July 2007

By 2007 I was one of the small band of Middlesex Till We Die (MTWD) website editors and moderators. I especially liked the editorial side of things and enjoyed writing slightly left-field match reports.

In theory, every editorial piece ever written on MTWD remains live on the site, if you can be bothered to trawl the archive and/or know which key words to Google.  Except that, tragically, a swathe of 2007 match reports was lost in a Sportnetwork incident that was never properly explained.   I refer to those pieces as “the lost masterpieces”.  In truth, at least one of those 2007 reports is a fine piece of juvenilia by a then student, now award-winning journalist.

Except, of course, that my own scribblings never die, they simply get backed up in infeasibly strange places – such as the archive pit of my main computer.  (Indeed several other pieces, including the above mentioned juvenilia, have been preserved in their final but unpublished format).

So I am able to revive my report of the wonderful evening Janie and I (naturally in the guise of Daisy and Ged) spent with some close friends, also appearing under assumed names.

In scorecard terms, this is the match we saw that evening – click here.

As I cannot link to MTWD for this lost masterpiece, here it is restored/reproduced verbatim below.  Some connoisseurs of the “Vaughanian third person” will appreciate several references to myself as “Ged”.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Ravaged by Ravi, Bopped By Bopara

  

Ged Ladd reports on the Twenty20 betwixt Middlesex and Essex at Lord’s.  Daisy was there, so it had to be a final over nail-biter finish.  Meet Ged and Daisy’s friends from Essex, John-Boy and Maddja, plus their delightful daughters.  The match twisted, the match turned, the result was not what Ged and Daisy wanted, but it was a good match, it didn’t rain and a fun evening out was had by all.

 

In early

Daisy and I both quit work a little early to be sure of getting good seats for our whole entourage, which includes two small girls tonight.  Quitting work a little early was not as easy as it looked.  I was seeing a client in Whitehall, unaware of tube problems, the impending Tour de France (some navigational problems there, or have the Normans invaded us again?) and finally a “gas leak” leading to Notting Hill Gate being cordoned off.  Suffice it to say that I got home much later than expected and that I shall be doing an hour or more of work as well as writing this report at sparrowfart on Saturday!

 

Meet the family.  We’ll start with my very good friend from Essex, John-Boy, whom I have known since we started University at 18.  Then there’s his lovely wife, Maddja.  John-Boy and Maddja were childhood sweethearts on those Essex/Hertfordshire borders – a rare thing indeed for a relationship to survive while John-Boy was away at University for 5 years.  Especially hanging around with ne’er-do-wells like Ged.  Maddja’s mother’s family are of Eastern-European origin shrouded in history, mystery and stories that would make a fascinating mini-series for the BBC.  John-Boy and Maddja have two delightful daughters, Bela and Lugosi, now 11 and 8, who loved the Twenty20 at Southgate two years ago so much that they were still talking about it when we went to their house for dinner.  We simply had to set this evening up and so we did.

 

So, Daisy and Ged somehow manage to get to the ground by about 16:45 and have no difficulty securing seats right at the front of the Tavern Stand, where we think the little ones will have a good view.  John-Boy phones to explain that they are all stuck in various parts of East London and town, trying to get some form of public transport to get to the ground.  Ged estimates that they’ll arrive 45 minutes to an hour late.

 

A pathetic start

Middlesex then did their best to ensure that my good friends got to see no cricket at all.  Wickets fell at horribly regular intervals.  5/2.  31/5.  50/7.  If you want details, go see the scorecard.  It was clear that this was not an easy wicket on which to time your shots.  Daisy asked me at the start “what’s a decent Twenty20 score at Lord’s?” and I replied 160.  Soon after the start I suggested that 140 might be a decent enough score on that particular pitch.

 

With the score on 50/7 and Ged genuinely thinking that his friends might not even get to see any cricket, our mood was not great, despite the fact that we had started tucking in to the picnic (well, neither of us had had any lunch) and also some rather jolly pink wine to go with the Middlesex pink theme.

 

At 55/7 John-Boy phoned.  “We’re here.  The girls are in the loo but we’ll be with you in a jiffy.  What’s the score?”  “Middlesex are having a shocker,” I said, “55/7”.  “I don’t think I heard that right”, said John, “that sounded like seven”.  “Seven”.  “Blimey!”

 

Middlesex revive

So, our dear friends from Essex, John-Boy, Maddja, Bela and Lugosi arrive and at the same time Middlesex revive.  They are in very good spirits for people who have spent hours fighting their way across London and we all hunker down to our picnic and watch the show.

 

Murtagh and Keegan in particular show what can be done on this wicket once the batsman is in.  Both found it hard to time the ball at first, but once set the runs come quite easily and their bowlers find it hard.   Both of the Essex overseas bowlers, Bichel and Kaneria, go for plenty of runs.  A late flurry unperturbed by the risk of being all out gets Middlesex to 126.

 

We have a game on our hands.

 

John-Boy and Ged are reminded of the Southgate fixture 3 or 4 years ago, when Essex were rolled for not many.  Middlesex cruised to the total.  Would this one be a cruise or was 126 competitive?  Ged suspected “low end of competitive” and mused “Middlesex have bowled better than they have batted so far this season”.

 

Essex start slowly

Middlesex bowled well and Essex were no more able to use the first 6 overs than Middlesex.  They even took almost as many balls to reach 50 as Middlesex (over 60 balls in each case), but they kept wickets in hand and that proved to be vital.

 

Whilst Flower was blooming I kept saying to JohnBoy “if we get Flower now I think you’re in trouble”.  Then, once he had gone, the Ged mantra changed to “if we get Bopara now I think you’re in trouble” but that vital wicket never came.

 

Meanwhile Bela and Lugosi were on their best behaviour despite not being allowed to run all over the park during the interval and having been told in no uncertain terms that running around that particular park after the game was also prohibited at Lord’s.  However, Ged had a cunning plan for after the match, based on his trusty “run around the park tennis ball” and the Coronation Gardens.

 

Shrink that target

Maddja, who is an eminent psycho-therapist, was meanwhile busy telling Daisy about her latest therapeutic technique, a conversation so bizarre it is simply beyond parody.

 

And talking of shrinking, the target was getting lower and the score converging on that oh so helpful Duckworth-Lewis par score which gives you a very good idea who is on top and who isn’t, even when the skies are blue.

 

Rymps is not bowling well, and Ged muses that we have to find a couple of overs from somewhere (if not Rymps, who) and those overs will be targeted.

 

Murali Kartik meanwhile has bowled absolutely beautifully – Scotty is right back in the swing of things with “quick as a flash” stumpings.  Also off Kartik’s bowling Chad Keegan takes one of the best outfield catches you will ever see – he’s back in leaping salmon mode is Chad and let’s all hope he stays there.  And then, when Kartik comes back fro his final over, he also cleans up Ryan ten Doeschate and Ged realises that we might be back in the hunt if we can somehow hide those goat overs and/or somehow get rid of Ravi Bopara.

 

But it wasn’t to be.  With 11 needed off the last over, we had to prevent the boundaries and the one really poor ball Murtagh bowled at the death went for a heartbreaking six.  It was all over bar the shouting then.  JohnBoy and Ged had been trading clichés all evening.  (JohnBoy is a Leyton Orient man normally).  Ged described Chad’s catch as “worth the entry money alone” (as indeed was Murali Kartik’s spell).  With the six, it was “all over bar the shouting” and once it was really all over Ged was “gutted”.

 

Coronation Time

We get to the Coronation Garden to find a huge queue of kids.  Do you have to queue to throw a ball around the garden I mused, but soon realised that the queue was for autographs and a whole row of tables and chairs have been set up for the players to sign stuff for the kids.  I’d never seen this ritual before and was actually very impressed that the players spend so much time after the game doing that.  The queue looked almost endless.

 

JohnBoy, Lugosi and I start off with some catching practice while the others go off to the loo.  Then we all play a “piggy-in-the-middle”/”tag team” game which was great fun.  We rarely collide with the backs of the players who are too busy signing to care or even notice.

 

This is cricket for all the family as it is meant to be.  Of course I’m disappointed that we didn’t qualify – especially as we came so close in this match – and especially as the other results did go our way sufficiently that we would have qualified had we won.  But you can’t quibble with played 5 lost 3 didn’t qualify.  And you can’t quibble with the fact that we almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat tonight and that some of our players were just excellent.  And you can’t quibble with that row of players from both sides, making the kids happy – they were still signing away once we had exhausted ourselves with our silly game and were trudging home into the night.

 

Lizzie and the Oiks – Middlesex Break Surrey Jinx, An MTWD Lost Masterpiece By Lizzie J, 3 July 2007

I have dug out this ancient MTWD piece on the back of an e-conversation with Jez regarding Middlesex’s record against Surrey at T20.

Jez thought Middlesex didn’t break the jinx until the glory year of 2008…

Another Works Outing To Lord’s Within A Few Days, Middlesex v Surrey, 16 June 2008

…but actually the jinx was broken a year earlier.

Here is a link to the scorecard.

I can find no e-mail trail to ascertain whether we attended that night or indeed why we didn’t – perhaps my diary will yield a reason…or perhaps we intended to go and the rain simply put us off.

Postscript

Jez writes:

Ah, yes, I do remember that one now – in fact, very well. It is one of the two occasions I have got Sarah to Lords (she left when it started raining because she was bored). Not sure if that was a works outing either – I suspect it may have been, as was tradition around those years anyway.

That in itself was almost as good as the day in 2008 – Surrey really struggled after a good start, Ramprakash particularly, who really couldn’t get it out the park that day. After an early wicket, our chase never looked in doubt (apart from to the Middlesex faithful that had never seen us beat Surrey until then).

Ah, yes, I vaguely remember too. It is in my diary to attend and I think I did go. I don’t think many (if any) other people from the Z/Yen office joined us – I think there was a relatively large group of Jez’s old mates from Uni plus Jez’s brother Ben plus Sarah.

I certainly remember going on one occasion when Sarah was there looking mighty bored and then she left early, politely saying that she “had a bit of a migraine”.

I also remember one occasion when brother Ben seemed incredulous that Middlesex could possibly have won that micro London derby.

Lizzie J’s Charming MTWD “Lost Masterpiece” Report

The MTWD report from that night is from the “lost masterpieces period”, i.e. the period for which Sportnetwork lost all of its features.

But Ged Ladd’s archive has been safely in the cloud throughout, so I managed to dig out the unedited version of Lizzie J’s charming report, which was published under the above headline.

She was/is such a good writer, I probably hardly edited the piece at all:

Middlesex v Surrey

Twenty20 Cup

Lord’s

Pre-match

To my relief, I was relieved of my duties as being a “responsible adult” as two other members of the PE staff decided to come on this school trip, so I could go back to my original plan of having nothing to do with the small children. Especially as I’d been portrayed as some kind of “Miss Middlesex” some of them seemed to think I was going to get them free stuff. Er. No!

Anyway. About thirty paces away from Lord’s it absolutely bucketed it, complete with thunder and lightning. As I was in shorts [it was sunny when I left Slough!], wasn’t too impressed. And while I was getting searched, they elected to take out my Spanish notes and read them, so they got soaked. Good. Quick change into trousers, I resembled a drowned rat. Headed off into Lower Compton, we’d won the toss and elected to field, 19 overs aside.

Surrey Innings

Chadders and Dial M opened up the bowling, while Benning seemed to have fun spanking fours all over the place before being bowled by the excellent Henderson. Brown went first, caught Joycey bowled Murts, and was delighted to see Ramps go for six to the bowling of Henderson! Umbrellas went up at 49-1, but the shower passed fairly quickly. JD got the last two wickets, having Butcher stumped for 5 and Batty caught by Murts for 6, before at 13 and a bit overs it decided to rain. Again. This time heavily.

Rain Break

Couldn’t be bothered to move, I was too cold, so I spent the interval huddled in my England fleece which I’d bought earlier, and then realised still had a electric tag in it. Was quite uncomfortable. Had no idea how I made it out of the shop. Still. We’d already opted for the extra half hour, and play reconvened at five past eight, with us needing 73 off 10 overs. Excellent, I reckoned. We’d do it.

Middlesex Innings

Out came Smiffy and Morgs to Lily The Pink, which I was happily humming, I’d barely made it past the chorus when the Skipper skied it to Benning for a duck. Oh. Hmm. Wasn’t happy. But Joycey and Morgs put on a brilliant stand, especially when Joycey hit three successive boundaries. Joycey unfortunately fell to Schofield, but JD and Morgs saw us home, JD with an impressive 26 not out off 15 balls. Had some champagne to celebrate, finally the Surrey jinx was over!

To sum up:

Wet. Cold. But extremely happy!

MTWD scraped/republished the above piece in the winter of 2018/2019 – click here.

Middlebrook Mauls Middlesex, “MTWD Lost Masterpiece”, Middlesex v Essex at Lord’s, Day One, 15 June 2007

The background to the phenomenon of MTWD “lost masterpieces” is explained in this link – click here. In short, Sportnetwork permanently lost a swathe of published features from 2007.

But fear not; I tend to keep everything. So the following report, a visit to Lord’s with Charles “Charley The Gent Malloy” Bartlett, is available here for all to see.

I can think of at least two people who should still find this report interesting and amusing.

Middlebrook Mauls Middlesex

 

Ged Ladd reports on day one of the CC game against Essex at Lord’s.  Ged’s guest, Charley “The Gent” Malloy, returns for more cricket this year.  Charley, who last year was Durham to the core by the end of that day, turns out to be the quintessential Essex boy by the end of this day.   But the worst performance was the weather forecaster – the only real shower was some of the afternoon bowling.

 

Fashionably Late, Again

At 10:10 Ged receives a text from his guest, Charley “The Gent” Malloy, stating that he as at Newbury Park tube but still hopes to get to Lord’s for the start of play.  Some hope, thinks Ged, who sets off 5 minutes later, as planned, picnic in hand.

Ged arrives in time for the start of play and decides to go to the Upper Allen for a short time to watch while waiting for Charley.  Ged bumps in to Gerry the Bookseller up there, who gets very excited at the thought that Charley is coming, as there’s always a chance of book business when Charley is around.

Charley arrives surprisingly quickly, before 11:15, so he and Ged decamp to the Pavilion to enjoy some “behind the bowler’s arm” stuff.   From there, Silverwood’s LBWs looked pretty good to us – indeed Pettini could easily have gone LBW a couple of balls before he actually did go.

There was just a smidgeon of swing and the constant fall of wickets seemed odd given the flatness of the pitch.  Silvers and Vaas bowled well, as did Murtagh before he pulled up.

I saw that Murtagh injury as a really ominous sign, even while the wickets were falling, but daren’t mention it to Charley who was weakening his pint of Pedigree by crying into it.  Charley tried to remind me that he was a Durham man really, but I don’t fall for that stuff any more.  He consoles himself with some sausages and sausage rolls as nibbles – very nice with the Pedi.

Everything went right for Middlesex in the morning.  Ed Smith must have juggled Foster three or four times before holding on to the slip chance, for example.

Five down at lunch – what a great start for Middlesex.  We’re told that Chester-Le-Street is rained off for the day.

 

Luncheon

We take luncheon in the Coronation Gardens.  Pastrami and Swiss rolls washed down with a nice South African red.  We watch some youngsters playing cricket on the lawn – as usual Charley can hardly hold himself back from joining in.   Eventually the ball comes my way, so I indicate that I’d like to bowl it back.  I bowl a piercing Yorker at the lad who digs it out very well.  “Oh”, says the school master (straight from central casting in look and voice), “would you mind bowling him another?”  Naturally I oblige; another Yorker, another good safe defensive shot.  Charley looks well left out.  “May my friend have a go?” I ask.  “Of course,” says the school master.  So Charley takes the heavy-rubber practice ball and bowls a bouncer, which the young batsman leaves to sail a couple of inches past his nose.  “That’s what I was telling you about Andy Roberts” says the schoolmaster, “fiendish bouncers he bowled”.  How can you bowl a bouncer at a kid like that?  Charley’s problem is that he gets overexcited very easily, where cricket is concerned at least.

 

Lovely afternoon weatherwise

Given the weather forecast, and the fact it was clouding over, we thought we’d be lucky to see much cricket after lunch.  But the tiny shower soon cleared and Middlesex took a quick wicket after lunch.  Bichel joined Middlebrook and there they stayed for what seemed like ever.

We went to the bowlers bar and got chatting with some friends of mine – some more recent Lord’s acquaintances, some old friends from years gone by.  We drank, we watched a bit, we wandered round to the Upper Edrich, we wandered round to the Mound Stand.  We watched.  We ate some more (smoked salmon rolls, ginger biscuits).

Charley, of course, became increasingly Essex as the day went on and as the game turned Essex’s way.  Indeed, by the end he was telling me tales of bravery walking through Romford Estates at 3.00 a.m. or some such.  I wasn’t really listening.

Bichel holed out as soon as he reached his well-deserved 100.

The new ball did nothing – indeed Kartik and Joyce were bowling with it by the close of play.  Joyce had a big caught behind shout turned down.

 

So What Went Wrong for Middlesex?

Losing Murtagh right at the start was a huge blow.  If only we could have finished Essex off when we had them on the ropes, but now this match looks like a tough one, unless we can post a monster first innings score.  Frankly, there seems to be nothing in the wicket so perhaps that monster score is possible.

Rymps’ bowling looked well below par to me.  Silvers, Vaas and Kartik all bowled well but three main bowlers ain’t enough.  Kartik in particular I thought deserved more luck.  Ben Scott looked woefully out of sorts behind the stumps.  Most of the fielding was energetic and fine – the odd lapse but there usually is when in the field all day.

And you have to hand it to Middlebook, Bichel and latterly Tudor who batted well and made the most of the circumstances.

And of course the inspired captaincy of Pettini, not declaring on 97/6.

As always, of course, I still enjoyed my day at Lord’s.  As I always say on these occasions, I cannot spend a day watching 1st class cricket and not enjoy it.  And of course, as always, Charley “The Gent” and I have developed a cunning master plan for winning our “UnPro 40” match this year.  Our plot last year was so successful (we won at a canter) we actually need an even more cunning plan this year to ensure that we win, but only just.  Similarly, I don’t mind if Middlesex merely scrape a win out of this match now!  Indeed, a 12 point draw would be fine from here.

If by any chance anyone is still reading and wishes to see the scorecard from this match, here is a link to that very card.

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.

 

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.