May 2024 – aspiblog

49

Setting the scene for a series about my recent holiday in Scotland.

I usually have a short holiday around the time of my birthday. This year, due to the place my mother was able to organize for us to stay at only being available for a few days I had the main celebration yesterday and have spent most of today travelling. This post sets the scene for what will be a series of blog posts about my brief sojourn in Scotland.

GETTING THERE

We were staying at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building in Comrie, which was one of that worthy’s earliest design projects. I arranged to travel by public transport between King’s Lynn and Perth, the nearest major town to Comrie. The public transport element of my outbound journey consisted of four stages: King’s Lynn to Peterborough by bus, Peterborough to Edinburgh Waverley by rail (an Azuma train, the new stock being used by LNER, with a very streamlined front), a Scotrail stopping train from Edinburgh Waverley to Stirling (ultimate destination Dunblane) and then a Scotrail intercity train from Stirling to Perth. By the time I reached Perth, where my parents were meeting me by car for the rest of the journey to Comrie I had been underway for just over eight hours, and another hour would pass before we reached our destination. I will be covering the public transport element of the journey in fuller detail in a later blog post but for the moment here is sampler gallery…

This frontage is in Wisbech, near the start of my journey.

THE HOUSE

I will be covering the house and its immediate surrounds in more detail later, but here are a few pictures to whet the appetite…

Everything in these three pictures is Mackintosh designed.

ACTIVITIES

As you might imagine the Tuesday evening was pretty much a dead loss as far as activities were concerned, but Wednesday and Thursday were well filled. I explored along the river Earn on the Wednesday morning, and we all walked up to the Deil’s Caldron just before lunch that day, before doing some of the Earthquake Walk in the afternoon (Comrie used to be known as the ‘shaky toon’ because of its proximity to a fault line, and was possibly the first place in the world to have earthquake recording equipment, with the house in which that equipment lived, and where there is a still a functioning seismoscope, being the centrepiece of the walk). On Thursday we visited a WWII POW camp at Cultybraggan, also had a look at an old Roman fort, and near the latter we also saw a much younger but still impressively old stone packhorse bridge across the Earn and also paid a visit to Crieff, once an important staging post on an epic cattle droving route that began in the extreme west of Scotland and ended in Stirling. The birthday meal was Thursday evening. Here is a sample gallery from some of these activities…

Three shots of the Caldron (the colour of the water is down to dissolved peat from the uplands – water in Scotland is not in the hands of greedy privateers).

A couple of items at Cultybraggan and the packhorse bridge.

THE RETURN JOURNEY

The public transport element of my return journey started with a journey from Perth to Edinburgh Waverley, not by way of Stirling, then the fast journey from Edinburgh Waverley to Peterborough and finally a bus from Peterborough to King’s Lynn. The train from Perth ran late, and there were moments of worry about making the interchange at Edinburgh (the train from Perth arrived only eight minutes before my second train, to Peterborough, was due to depart, but I hustled myself between platforms and in the end reached my seat with six of those eight minutes to spare. I haven’t yet edited the photos from I took en route. I end with a mini-gallery from earlier in the stay…

A stone bridge over the Earn, which we crossed on our way to the Earthquake House.

Reaching Back to WG Grace Twice Over

A look back at two matches that in different ways link back to WG Grace and a very large photo gallery.

Today is the fourth and final day of a round of county championship matches. I am following Essex’s attempt to beat Kent, which at the moment seems to be going their way. Yesterday two matches saw events that in different ways harked back to WG Grace. This post looks at both matches, one of which I listened to and one of which I heard about.

HAMPSHIRE V SURREY

Surrey won the county championship in 2022 and 2023, and are well placed to make it three in a row this year. However, even the strongest sides occasionally get things badly wrong, and at Southampton over the three days that the match lasted Surrey most certainly did. Surrey won the toss and chose to bat. A poor morning with the bat for Surrey was immediately followed by a devastating post-lunch burst from Kyle Abbott which yielded him a five-for in next to no time, and Surrey had mustered a measly 127. By the close of day one Hampshire were 102-1, Fletcha Middleton gone for 35, and Toby Albert and Nick Gubbins looking solid though not scoring with any great pace. Both completed centuries on the second day, Albert’s being his maiden first class ton. With this solid base to build on the later batting was more aggressive, and by the end of day two Hampshire were 495-4, with Ben Brown 99* and Liam Dawson 74*. The only question by then was whether Surrey could save the match. Brown completed his hundred and went rapidly on to a career best 165*. Dawson was out for 81, while James Fuller helped Hampshire towards their declaration with 34* off 27 balls. Hampshire’s declaration came at 608-6, leaving Surrey just over five sessions to bat to save the game. Burns was out early, and a good catch by Albert off Organ removed Sibley for 28 (86). Thereafter only Foakes showed the necessary application to bat for a long time. Lawrence scored 42 off 50 balls, a most inappropriate innings for the circumstances, while Steel, Clark, Sean Abbott and Atkinson managed 21 between them. With the result settled Surrey number 11 Dan Worrall emerged as top scorer for them, hitting his way to 48, with his dismissal leaving Foakes undefeated on 19 having survived 107 balls. The margin was an innings and 278 runs, the worst defeat Surrey had ever suffered in a county championship match, though the 1948 Australians beat Surrey by an innings and 296, as did an England XI in 1866, the match in which WG Grace scored his maiden first class century, a then ground record 224*. Full scorecard here.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE V DERBYSHIRE

This match is a ridiculous run fest and will end in a draw. However when Gloucestershire were 131-4 in reply to Derbyshire’s 526 it might have got interesting. At that point James Bracey and Graeme van Buuren came together for Gloucestershire, and their fifth wicket stand ended up producing 277, an all time Gloucestershire record for that wicket, breaking one of the oldest county records, set by WG Grace and William Moberly in 1876 (Moberly was also an excellent rugby player, captaining Oxford University to victory in the first ever varsity rugby match and appearing for England against Scotland in 1872). In the run up to lunch today Gloucestershire had a clatter of wickets fall, but Aussie import Beau Webster smashed a rapid 76 to take them into a first innings lead – 530 against 526.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a large photo gallery to share. My next gallery will be a bit different as early tomorrow morning I head north for a brief holiday in Scotland, near Perth to be precise (a journey accomplished by means of fast bus to Peterborough and trains from Peterborough to Perth). Here is today’s offering…

Rain Alters Schedules

An explanation of the effect that the weather has had on today’s cricket schedules and a quick look back at yesterdays T20I between the England and Pakistan men’s teams.

The second ODI between the England and Pakistan women’s teams should be in full swing at the moment, but the weather has intervened in no uncertain terms and the radio people have delivered their verdict on the likelihood of their being any resumption of play by switching over to the IPL final between Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Kolkata Knight Riders. Yesterday the England and Pakistan men’s sides contested a T20I and I will look back at that. While I have been typing this post and then preparing it for publication news has come through that the match in Taunton has been abandoned.

A COMFORTABLE WIN

For much of their innings England looked set to score over 200 from their 20 overs, but a poor last five overs prevented that. They ended with 183 to defend, an innings built around a blistering 84 from Jos Buttler. Moeen Ali bowled four of the first nine overs of the Pakistan reply, and collected 2-26, a splendid effort, especially given that the second of those wickets was that of Babar Azam, Pakistan’s best batter. Pakistan never got on terms with the target, and the final margin was 23 runs. Jofra Archer returned to action, and was very impressive and indubitably fully fit for action. If there is a problem with this England line up it is that the only front line batter who bats left handed is Moeen Ali, which means that England either have to send six successive right handers to the crease, or promote him up the order to break the sequence.

PHOTOGRAPHS

It has not been the best weather for photography recently, but I do have a gallery to share…

England Women Continue Winning Start to Home Season But…

A brief look back at the closing stages of the first ODI between England Women and Pakistan Women, which took place yesterday.

Yesterday saw the first ODI between the England and Pakistan women’s sides (the day before should have seen a T20I between the men’s sides but unremitting rain all day long led to the authorities at Headingley concluding an hour before the scheduled start time that it would not be possible to get the match on and abandoning it). I was at work for the majority of yesterday’s game, but did get the closing stages.

A SCRAPPY SUCCESS

Pakistan look in with a chance for over half their batting innings, but having got the target below 100 at what should have been a manageable rate with six wickets standing they lost both incumbent batters in quick succession. The over that killed any prospect of a Pakistan revival was a wicket maiden by Sophie Ecclestone which meant that after nine of her ten overs she had figures of 3-24. Although the Pakistan tail reduced the deficit they never looked like challenging in the closing overs. They survived until the final over, but by the time the last ball was bowled they needed 38 from it to win the match, and only scored one of them, so England won by 37 runs. However, it was undeniably slipshod from England’s bowlers, with Extras contributing 40 to Pakistan’s total, including 31 in wides, and a better side than Pakistan would certainly have punished them for this. I missed the batting efforts, but that no one got to 50 (Capsey’s 44 was the highest score of the match) tells a story. So far in three T20Is and one ODI between these sides there has been one individual half century – Wyatt’s 87 in the third T20I, and she was dropped on 12 in that innings. Ecclestone’s 3-26 from 10 overs secured her the Player of the Match award. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a fine photo gallery to share today…

This is some variety of Frog Leg Beetle.

Photographs of King’s Lynn Buildings – 1950 and Present Day

I use a recent acquisition to showcase some of the more iconic buildings in King’s Lynn.

This is the first post I am creating that is inspired by lot 526 at James and Sons’ May auction. This item, a 1950 Temporary Guide to King’s Lynn was knocked down to me for £5. In the post that follows I will be showing each of the images I produced when photographing the item for auction and then producing pictures of the buildings concerned taken by me in 2024.

FRONT COVER AND MAP

The first two images are of the front cover and the map. These have no present day equivalents.

The Map…

COMPARISON PICTURES

The first image that offers modern comparisons from my own stock of pictures is this one…

There are four landmarks in this image – The Red Mount Chapel and The Archway in Broad Walk, or as it is correctly known Guanock Gate, on the left side as you look, the South Gate Approach (no direct equivalent, but I have got the gate itself) and Leziate Golf Course (no equivalent).

My pictures for comparison are presented as a gallery – to see a larger version of an image just click on it.

Here is the next image from the booklet…

On the left is Greyfriars Tower and on the right what was then St Margarets Church and is now King’s Lynn Minster.

2024 versions…

This was the next image I produced for auction…

This is the iconic Guildhall of the Holy Trinity, also known as King’s Lynn Town Hall.

2024 images of the building (six pics – click to view at a full size).

The next image I produced for auction was this:

The Custom House, the most iconic building in the town.

The Custom House is the official dividing point between the two medieval towns that together form King’s Lynn. Here are some 2024 pictures…

The next and final image in the gallery for auction was this one…

The South Porch of St Nicholas Chapel.

This is what this looks like in 2024…

There has recently been restoration work done on this chapel (witness the scaffolding in the top left corner of this picture.

Two Contrasting Routes to Victory

A look back at the first two matches I followed in this round of County Championship matches – Surrey outclassing Worcestershire and Essex beating Warwickshire after Alex Davies ushered them back into the game by refusing to enforce the follow-on.

The current round of county championship fixtures is nearing its conclusion (I am now tuned into Somerset v Kent, which will shortly resume after an innings break, with Somerset needing 189 to win in 54 overs) and in this post I look back at the first two matches to command my attention since play started on Friday morning.

SURREY V WORCESTERSHIRE

Worcestershire won the toss and put Surrey in. Initially it looked like working very nicely for them, when Surrey tumbled to 15-4, but Jamie Smith and Dan Lawrence righted the ship well enough (Lawrence’s 84 was especially impressive) that with the addition of a late flourish by Jordan Clark (42*) they managed to top 200. By the end of an action packed opening day Worcestershire were already seven down in their own first innings, and they managed a mere 128 all out by the end of it, Dan Worrall claiming six cheap wickets. Burns, Sibley, Smith, Lawrence and Clark all demonstrated that batting was not impossible on this surface. Lawrence made 87, and Clark got within sight a century, Surrey eventually being all out for 427, a lead of 512. Surrey themselves chased down a target of over 500 against Kent last season, but such targets are rarely successfully chased, especially against a seam attack of Roach, Worrall, Atkinson and Clark on a pitch offering them a bit of assistance. Although there was some late hitting from Nathan Smith (60 from number 8) and Ben Gibbon (75 from number 10) Worcestershire’s fate was sealed by then – even with this late flourish they reached only 231, which meant Surrey won by 281 runs. Dan Worrall followed his first innings 6-22 with 4-35 at the second time of asking. About the only genuine bright spot for Worcestershire was provided by first class debutant Yadvinder Singh (a product of the South Asian Cricket Academy), who claimed four wickets in Surrey’s second innings to give a hint of his potential. For those wondering about the pitch, it was never a death trap, but Surrey undoubtedly prepared a ‘result’ pitch, believing that they were more likely to benefit from such than the visitors, and they were right – they had the bowling to make full use of whatever was there for them and Worcestershire didn’t. Scorecard here.

ESSEX V WARWICKSHIRE

The match above concluded on the third evening, and I followed various other games for the remainder of that day, but had noticed an interesting scenario unfolding at Chelmsford and resolved to follow that game to its conclusion today. Essex started today 224-4 chasing 330 for victory. However it was the story of how that situation arose that made the scenario particularly interesting. Warwickshire had scored 397 batting first and Essex were rolled for 162. At this point, with whoever batted next facing an awkward mini-session before the close, and the Essex batters probably not in the best of spirits after failing once already that day Warwickshire skipper Alex Davies made a bizarre decision not enforce the follow-on with that lead of 235, thereby exposing his own side to that awkward mini-session of batting. Warwickshire were five down by the close of day, and the Essex bowlers finished the job on day three with Warwickshire mustering a beggarly 94 all out. Warwickshire needed early wickets on the fourth morning and did not get them – the target was down to 42 before they finally struck, Jordan Cox holing out for splendid 112, his second first class hundred for his new county. Pepper, the new batter, fell early to make it 293-6, but Simon Harmer, fear of whose off spin in the final innings may have influenced Davies’ fateful decision not to put Essex back in when he had the chance, batted nicely, while Matt Critchley was playing a splendid innings and richly deserved to join Cox with a three figure score. Unfortunately he was denied this, being on 99* when a boundary to Harmer gave Essex a four wicket win. When it comes to enforcing the follow-on there should be no ‘always’ and no ‘never’ – each case should be assessed on its merits, and my strong view here is that Davies messed up – with an advantage of 235 and whoever batted next facing an awkward mini-session before the close (which also meant his bowler’s would have a nights rest to break up their labours) it was clear cut to enforce it, and his decision to inflict that awkward mini-session of batting on his own side ultimately cost him and them the match. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

England Women Complete Series Sweep Over Pakistan Women

An account of England Women’s victory over Pakistan Women earlier today, a victory which gave them a 3-0 series sweep. Also a photo gallery.

While Surrey were pushing for victory over Worcestershire – duly completed a few minutes ago – my attention was elsewhere for a period in the middle of the day – the third and final T20I between the England and Pakistan women’s teams got underway at 1:00PM. This post looks back at that match.

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

England again found themselves batting first. They started slowly but accelerated well, initially through Danni Wyatt, who was lucky on 12, when Muneeba Ali failed to hold on to a catch behind the stumps, and punished Pakistan heavily for the lapse, ultimately scoring 87 off 49 balls. Amy Jones scored some quick runs late on, and the innings had a farcical ending when there was almost a run out when the batters came back two on the final ball, and then an actual run out when they took on a third to celebrate the reprieve. England were 176 all out to the last scheduled ball of their innings.

THE PAKISTAN REPLY

Pakistan started solidly, though a bit slowly, the openers passing 50 together. However, they both fell in the space of a few balls and two more wickets fell quickly as 60-0 became 73-4. The fifth wicket pair batted well up to a point, but were always falling further and further behind the required rate. Eventually 39 were needed off the last over, and with Sophie Ecclestone to bowl it there could only be one outcome. The final margin was 34 runs, and England had won the series 3-0. Wyatt was Player of the Match for her scintillating innings, and Amy Jones was Player of the Series.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Swan parents with cygnets (eught images).

England Women Maintain Winning Start To Home Season

A look at the second T20I of the three match series between England Women and Pakistan Women, and a large photo gallery.

Yesterday night saw the second match of the three match T20I series between the England and Pakistan women’s sides. England had won the opener comfortably.

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

Natalie Sciver-Brunt returned to the England XI after missing the series opener. Diana Baig (the first name came about because her mother was a fan of Princess Diana) returned to the Pakistan XI. In spite of England’s dreadful start with the bat in the first game Heather Knight had no hesitation in opting to bat when she won the toss at Wantage Road. England were not entirely convincing, and for most of the innings it didn’t look like they would get much beyond 130. However 17 runs off the last five balls of the innings (Ecclestone scoring 7* off three balls and Danielle Gibson then hitting the last two balls of the innings for four and six to finish with 18* off 10 balls) pushed the total to 144.

THE PAKISTAN REPLY

Pakistan were soon 9-2, but then Sidra Ameen and Muneeba Ali had a respectable partnership. Ali gave Ecclestone a return catch which made the left armer, at a mere 25 years of age, England’s all time leading wicket taker in the format, surpassing Katherine Sciver-Brunt. All rounder Nida Dar (the overall all time leading wicket taker in the format) then fell LBW to Sarah Glenn for 1 and it was 41-4 and Pakistan were in deep trouble. Sidra Ameen and Aliya Riaz then put on 19 together before Sidra Ameen was run out after a mix-up and it was 60-5. From that point on it was all England. Heather Knight having noted that the spinners were proving more testing than the seamers gave Alice Capsey a bowl (though the skipper’s own off spin was not deployed). Capsey picked up the wickets of Aliya Riaz for 19 and Diana Baig for a duck in her first over, and Pakistan were 71-7, with Capsey looking at figures of 2-1. Sarah Glenn then accounted for Fatima Sana for 8 to make it 72-8. The ninth scraped at seven runs, three of them off Capsey, before Ecclestone got both the last two wickets in the space of three balls as Pakistan ended up 79 all out, beaten by 65 runs, a record margin for a T20I at the ground. Ecclestone finished with 3-11, while Capsey’s all round contribution of 31 and 2-4 won her the Player of the Match award. A full scorecard can be viewed here and amore detailed look at the numbers thrown up by this match can be seen here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This pic and the next two come from a library book I read and enjoyed.

Auction Week at James and Sons

A look back at the James and Sons auction that took place on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, with lots of photos. Also a gallery of my usual hobby photos.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week James and Sons of Fakenham had their May auction. Tuesday was devoted to stamps and postal history, while Wednesday was a general auction, with lots of different types of stuff under the hammer. This post looks at some of the highlights of the two days.

TUESDAY – STAMPS ETC

I was working above the shop where the auction was taking place, so cannot comment on the sale as a whole. However lot 256 went to me, and was clearly uncontested given how low the hammer price was. These are the images that were available to the general public:

Time constraints limited the size of the image gallery I could produce for this lot, but my own interest in securing meant the gallery had to be as complete as I could reasonably make it.

Here are my own photos of the lot post acquisition, taken at home yesterday morning:

In the folder – for reaons that the final image will make clear I paired the Saint Kitts & Nevis item with something else with a Caribbean connection.

DAY TWO

This sale started very quietly (I was watching from home), with lot 526 going to me uncontested. This item will be at the heart of at least one major blog post and possibly more, so I present only the image gallery I produced for it to go under the hammer:

The auction picked up a bit of momentum when some old Guinness advertising posters, all in excellent condition, went under the hammer. Five of the posters fared especially well, lots 622, 641, 658, 661 and 669, which all went for above the top estimates. Here are the images of those lots:

The star lot of the auction was number 795, which massively exceeded the top estimate. Here is the gallery.

I did not have the luxury of time to make a really detailed assessment of this lot, but I did do a detailed gallery, and my choice of what to feature clearly did its job!

Some of the toy lots in the low 800s also fared exceptionally well with 805 and 806 almost doubling the top estimate, and lots 807, 814 and 815 also going above the top estimate.

The images for lots 805 and 806 were taken by a colleague and edited for me, with the secondary images (one for 805, two for 806) extracted by me from single individual images.

PHOTOGRAPHS

There have been a lot of photographs in the body of this post, but I also include a gallery of my usual hobby photographs…

Surrey Topping The Table

A look back at the last round of County Championship fixtures and a massive photo gallery.

There was another round of county championship fixtures from Friday to Monday. This post looks back at the action, starting with…

SURREY V WARWICKSHIRE

Surrey won the toss and put Warwickshire in to bat. The first day ebbed and flowed, with Ed Barnard batting well for Warwickshire, reaching the close on 96* in a score of 318-8, which looked eminently respectable for a side that had been put in to bat. Barnard completed his century early on the second morning, and Warwickshire ended on 343. The Surrey innings seemed to be going on similar lines, with Jamie Smith the main scorer, until Craig Miles injured himself while celebrating his fifth wicket of the innings. A big ninth wicket stand between Smith and Sean Abbott (batting a place lower than scheduled due to the unsuccessful use of Kemar Roach as nightwatch, and in any case better with the bat than most county number nines) took the game right away from Warwickshire. Abbott completed a fine hlaf century, and Smith, in a magnificent display, scoring at close to a run a ball even in the first innings of a championship match, went on to 155. Surrey finished with 464 all out, a lead of 121. Miles’ injury prevented him from batting, though he probably wouldn’t have done much in the face of a magnificent performance by Kemar Roach, who took 6-44 as Warwickshire just barely scraped past 200, leacing Surrey only 89 to get in the final innings. By the end of day three Surrey were 31-0, a mere 58 short of the target. Warwickshire’s choice of bowlers to start day four – Rob yates and Jacob Bethell – was tantamount to running up the white flag, and although Rory Burns got himself out along the way, Warwickshire were in the end flattered by the final margin of nine wickets. Ed Barnard had a magnificent match for Warwickshire, with three first innings wickets to set alongside his century, and had the match been remotely close, even if Warwickshire had lost it I would have had him as Player of the Match. However, in the end it was very one sided, so my own reckoning makes it a joint award to Jamie Smith and Kemar Roach. Surrey now sit 21 points clear at the top of division one, having played the same number of matches as second placed Essex. Essex may have the stronger best possible XI, but Surrey have by far the greater depth – injuries would trouble Essex to a much greater extent if and when they happen, as would an England call up for Sam Cook, which is on the cards.

ELSEWHERE

The county of my birth, Gloucestershire, recorded their first win in the competition since 2022. Lancashire suffered an embarrassing defeat which left them looking more than ever like relegation fodder (incidentally I suspect their new coach Dale Benkenstein will not be getting another coaching engagement any time soon – it was he who oversaw Gloucestershire’s winless 2023 campaign, which raises the question of just why Lancashire hired him). Kent v Worcestershire was the last match to end, when Worcestershire decided that 16 overs weren’t enough for them to take the last six wickets (Kent were still in arrears, so not able to shorten proceedings further by declaring).

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

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