Tag: Yorkshire Simon

A Day At Radlett Watching One Day Cricket With “Pinner Pear Fran” & “Yorkshire Simon”, 22 August 2023

Betwixt some noisy and frenetic visits to Lord’s for “The Hundred”, a quiet day of relaxed, county cricket at Radlett, as Middlesex were playing Yorkshire in the one day cup (50 overs tournament).

Long in the planning, this one. Yorkshire Simon had been waiting a long time for any Yorkshire cricket to visit Middlesex, so as soon as this fixture was announced Simon wondered if we might be able to keep this date free.

Attempts to watch out-ground cricket with Fran and Simon have often ended up soggy affairs. The lowest (or at least wettest) ebb being at Uxbridge six years ago – click here or below:

Two Forms Of Soaking And Two Friendly Gatherings In One Day, Uxbridge and Southwark, 13 September 2017

Ironically, given how very wet late July and August turned out to be in 2023, this particular day at Radlett was glorious sunshine made pleasant by kind smatterings of high cloud.

To some extent it felt like “a gathering of the clan”, as well as a gathering with Fran, as Janie and I ran into so many of the Middlesex supporting stalwarts, some of whom we hadn’t seen for ages.

In truth the cricket match was somewhat of a donkey derby – the last match for the qualifying group with both Middlesex and Yorkshire long since out of contention. But as it happens Middlesex dominated the match and for once chased down a decent-looking total without fuss.

Yorkshire Simon feigns uninterest while Ged observes rare Middlesex dominance

After chatting for a while after stumps, we wended our way home while the squad and stalwarts decompressed at the end of an unsuccessful campaign but a successful day.

A Day At Lord’s With Fran & Simon, Middlesex v Somerset Day One, 18 May 2023

Sam Robson bowling his own brand of filth

It didn’t rain – indeed the weather was ideally pleasant. No new variant of Covid suddenly broke out to prohibit gatherings at the cricket matches. Neither sling nor arrow of outrageous fortune befell us to frustrate our simple purpose: Janie and I wanted to host Fran and Simon at Lord’s and show them the pavilion.

The idea of the four of us spending a day together at Lord’s had been under discussion for about five years, frustrated by various unfortunate circumstances along the lines of the above paragraph. Given the iffy weather so far this season, we did indeed feel blessed to wake up to a weather forecast that suggested dry and mild, which indeed it turned out to be.

Fran (she of Pinner pears) and Yorkshire Simon (he of crude courgettes) had both been to Lord’s many times, but not recently and not previously in the pavilion. We had previously spent time with them on several occasions at outgrounds, but not at Lord’s.

Simon, Fran & Me at Radlett in 2019
Me, Simon and Simon’s courgette, Radlett 2021

Anyway…

…on their arrival, we showed Fran and Simon the upper sun deck of the pavilion – Janie’s favourite place – which both of them took to immediately, so the four of us basically took root up there.

At lunch we showed them around the pavilion and also showed them the real tennis court, where a couple of my friends were doing battle but didn’t seem all that delighted to be observed; occupational hazard of choosing the 13:00 tennis slot on a match day.

Fran and Simon had brought lunch with them, whereas Janie and I had a crazy craving for the Long Room baps and salad, which we indulged in early in the afternoon session. Janie also indulged in a slice of cake in the member’s lounge.

Sam Robson bowling filth just before tea

Janie took this picture during tea, before going to the lounge for cake

It was really nice to see Fran and Simon again after quite some while. We did a fair bit of catching up, general chatting and even cricket-watching.

In short – we four had a lovely day. Middlesex didn’t.

Here’s a link to the scorecard – die-hard Middlesex fans might choose not to click here.

A Visit To Radlett To See Middlesex v Durham, 27 July 2021

Dumbo took us out to Radlett

There weren’t too many opportunities to watch live county cricket earlier that summer, with the Covid “spatial distancing” (as Janie called it – probably a better description than social distancing) and all that.

We had hoped to meet up with Fran and Simon, but the former was unable to join us on that occasion. The inclement weather that tries to frustrate our purpose when we meet up with one or both of those two did its best to rear its ugly head, but stayed away for long enough to enable us to enjoy some outground cricket in the lovely setting that is Radlett.

Simon wondered if I might like to see a crude vegetable

I suppose this courgette pic will be good for King Cricket

Daisy thought the courgette picture would be ideal for a King Cricket vignette. She was right:

A vegetable being conspicuously indifferent to cricket?

If anything ever goes awry with King Cricket, click here for that piece.

The rain came soon after the innings break. Daisy and I decided to go home and catch the end of the match (assuming the shower really was just a shower) on the stream.

The shower really was just a shower.

Exciting ending, that match, but we enjoyed observing it from the relative warmth and dry of the streaming service at home.

Here’s the scorecard. Middlesex came a close second.