Tag: South Africa Women

Two Sundays At Lord’s For The ICC Women’s World Cup, Including Five Different Cricket Teams, Rita Ora, & Clean Bandit, 28 June & 5 July 2026

Thus, it ended

28 June 2026: Bangladesh Women v South Africa Women, & Australia Women v India Women

Unfurl the flags…

We plugged for an elevated view on the day of the Lord’s double-header. Janie’s favourite pavilion spot for relaxed viewing is the sun deck at the top. There was plenty of space for us up there, despite our late arrival, after playing our traditional Sunday game of lawn in Boston Manor Park.

Digging the relaxed dress code

We caught the end of the Bangladesh v South Africa match, much of which I saw on the TV while Janie was getting ready to go to Lord’s. South Africa looked well set when we left home, then tried hard to choke at the end of that match, then choked in the matter of choking, thus going on to win the match with very little time to spare.

The sun deck remained sparsely populated, although we were joined by Sidney Yankson and his charming belle, Claire. Sidney is a real tennis afficionado – the Number One Real Tennis Hongkonger by his own RTO description – and the person who was daft enough to select me for one of my earliest representative real tennis matches.

Big Match Weekend At Lord’s Part One: MCC v HAC Real Tennis Match, 21 July 2017

Anyway, after a suitably brief interval between the two matches, we enjoyed the flag unfurling and anthem ceremony for Australia v India.

India batted first and seemed to have posted a modest score. India needed to win this match in order to knock out South Africa, whereas Australia were guaranteed top of the group billing whatever happened in the match.

We left Lord’s about half way through Australia’s innings, which seemed to be tottering a bit, but caught the end of the match on TV when we got home, by which time the Aussies had untottered.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day of neutral matches.

5 July 2026: Rita Ora, Clean Bandit, & The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final

Not just excited…pumped!

For the world cup final, we got to Lord’s in good time and grabbed seats close to the action – i.e. some end of row seats near the front of the terrace. This seemed to be the corner of choice for several members of the real tennis community – Barry Nathan was there with his wife, Ruth. Also nearby were Robert & Carol Muir, Brian & Priscilla Sharp were also nearby, as was Graeme Marks.

The dancing girls comprised a selection panel before the Rita Ora concert. Barry seemed a bit reluctant. I suggested that they work on Sharpy…

Rita Ora caught the spirit

Did we dance? Of course we danced.

The serious business of moving and grooving

Even Graeme Marks took some illicit footage of us having a go during the Rita Ora gig:

I enjoyed the Rita Ora music, which comprised some of her best known songs:

In truth, I was more than a little disappointed that Rita didn’t perform Hot Right Now, which I believe is the paciest of her numbers. Indeed, I had been practicing for days dancing in exactly the style and rate of the artistes in the following video:

Rumour has it that the authorities thought that 176 bpm in 30°C weather might be a bit much for MCC members, given the age demographic. Health and safety gone mad.

I mean, what was the point of me having a hip replacement last year if the powers that be don’t give me the chance to dance in a Hot Right Now stylee on the forecourt of the Lord’s pavilion?

Take away the sound stage.

Hard yakka in the heat

This geezer had a method for staying cool

I hadn’t realised it, but there was also to be a cricket match, as a polite interval between the two popular music concerts; an ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final between Australia Women and England Women.

Unfurl the flags and anthems:

We were too polite to take pictures of the cricket match itself, which rather went Australia’s way, predictably.

But when Clean Bandit came on to get us all listening and dancing again…

…Janie and I were ready to dance some more. Earlier in the day, when Rita Ora performed, Sharpy told me, rather pointedly:

your good lady knows how to dance…

…which I took to mean that he thought that I don’t know how to dance.

Well, for the Clean Bandit concert, Janie and I both got busy with the video functions of our cameras, so you can all judge for yourselves, dear readers.

Suffice it to say that we thoroughly enjoyed the event, regardless of what you think of our dancing.

A Day Out At Shenley To See Test Match Cricket Between England Women & South Africa Women, 8 August 2003

Image of us at Shenley by Google Flow Nana Banana 2 Lite, instructed by me

It must have been mentioned in a Middlesex CCC newsletter that there was to be a women’s test match at Shenley. Janie and I decided to take a Friday off work to go and have a look. We had been to Shenley before, to see Middlesex v Zimbabweans…

Middlesex v Zimbabweans Day Two, Shenley, 31 May 2003

…so we thought we knew what we were doing.

However, whereas the Saturday of the Middlesex v Zimbabweans match had been a pretty busy and convivial affair at that small but beautiful ground, we arrived at the women’s test match to an almost empty car park and just a few people to be found in the pavilion.

Janie and I sensed that we were the only people there, other than friends and families of the players and officials.

I spotted a pile of programmes, and asked a random parent/friend how I might pay for one.

Oh, er, don’t know, let me ask around…

…eventually they came back, confessing that no-one knew who might collect the money or how that money might get remitted…

…just take one.

I still have it in my programme collection – I’ll fish it out and scan the cover some time – when I finally get to my 2003 programme pile.

We had a lovely day at Shenley. It is a lovely place to watch cricket. Any cricket ground with a Corn Field End has to be a lovely ground. The headline picture gives a reasonable impression, although our deck chairs were not quite so up close as to be fielding at leg slip and leg gully. Google Flow needs a fair bit of artistic licence in the matter of its depiction of cricket.

Here (and below) is a link to the Shenley club’s website which, strangely, does not boast the women’s test match amongst it’s proud first class and international cricket list of achievements.

Cricket

The cricketing highlight of our day was to see Claire Taylor settle in to what seemed likely to be (and indeed proved to be) a big innings.

Here is a link to the scorecard from that match.

At one point, after an especially sloppy bit of fielding, Janie turned to me and said, “I’m thoroughly enjoying myself, but this is a bit like watching one of your charity matches”. The bit after the “but” was not meant as a complement.

What’s wrong with our charity matches?

In truth, back then, the pace of the women’s game, together with the quality of bowling and fielding, was distinctly amateur. Possibly this was because the women’s game was, at that time, still amateur.

The women’s game has come on leaps and bounds since it became professional and real money was invested in the women’s game. Who knew such could be possible?

Still, a thoroughly enjoyable day at Shenley and our first taste of watching women’s cricket.