A look back at the auction that happened at James and Sons earlier this week and a look ahead to the July auction. Also a bumper photo ga;llery.
Although James and Sons, for whom I work, have just had one auction, there is another ready to go, almost a month before it actually happens. This post looks back at the auction that happened this week and forward to the next one.
THIS WEEKS AUCTION
There were 427 lots under the hammer at the auction that happened this Wednesday. It was overall successful. The headline lot, a lifetime collection of real photographic postcards of Swaffham (Swaffham is a market town, more or less forming the right angle of a right angle triangle of which the three corners are King’s Lynn, Fakenham and Swaffham – the hypoteneuse of this triangle is the King’s Lynn-Fakenham side, which measures 22 miles or about 35 kilometres, so it was an item of local interest) housed in an album and all in splendid condition. This sold for £850. I got lucky with lot 611, a set of postcards made from black and white photographs of birds, missing one card, but still in its British Museum (Natural History) wallet and with the accompanying mini-guide to the cards. The designation of the museum in this lot indicates its age – it is a long time since the Natural History Museum was affiliated to the British Museum. Below are my pictures of the lot since acquiring it…
The lot laid out in full display.The wallet/ envelopeIndividual images of the cards in ascending number order.Details of the missing card from the guide (two images)The item in its assigned place in the cabinet of curiosities.
THE NEXT AUCTION
We have two auctions in late July. On Tuesday the 23rd a collection of sporting memorabilia will be going under the hammer, but I have hardly had anything to do with that sale. On Wednesday the 24th over 500 lots of collectors models, mostly trains, but some buses and lorries as well, will be going under the hammer. Imaging for this auction has been my focus for a while (the job is by no means complete, but many more have been imaged than not. The printed catalogue for this auction arrived at our premises this week, and it is already viewable on both our online platforms – links below.
This is from lot 600. My preferred platform for bidding and following the progress of auctions is easyliveauction. The train lots start at lot 501.….the other online platform we use is the-saleroom.com. This image is part of the gallery for lot 603 (almost all of these items are still in their original boxes).As before, the train lots start in the 50os.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have a bumper gallery of my regular photos to end with…
A look back at the T20 World Cup semi-finals and a photo gallery.
Yesterday was semi-finals day at the T20 World Cup. This post looks back at the two matches.
AFGHANISTAN v SOUTH AFRICA
This match was played in Trinidad, starting at 1:30AM Thursday UK time (8:30PM Wednesday Trinidad time). Unfortunately it was ruined by the fact that the ground staff had failed miserably to produce a surface that was fit for cricket. Some of the pitches in New York in the early part of the tournament were difficult to bat on, but the difficulties while some moaned about them were fundamentally fair. The pitch at Trinidad for this important match was blatantly unfair, with extremely variable bounce (swing, seam movement or spin can be countered, and they do not put batters personal safety at risk, variable bounce does, and it is impossible to get in the right position to play your shots because there is no means of knowing what the right position will be). Afghanistan in the face of South Africa’s powerful pace attack subsided to 56 all out, which South Africa chased down for the loss of only one wicket. Obviously Afghanistan were well short of a defensible total, but on that track I reckon another 40 runs for them would have had South Africa sweating. For Afghanistan it was a sad end to what has been a great tournament for them. They have a good bowling unit and two batters who are indisputably of the highest class in Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran. There is a suspicion of a soft underbelly to the batting – almost all their significant scores have featured major contributions from one or other of the top two. For South Africa this was the end of a miserable run of losses in semi-finals of global competitions – they had reached seven previous semi-finals across formats and never won one.
ENGLAND V INDIA
This match was scheduled to start at 3:30PM at Providence, Guyana. This would have meant that I missed a lot of it with Thursday being a work day. However the start wads delayed by rain, and there was a second rain delay part way through the Indian innings. This match did not have a reserve day, but with a 10:30AM local time start they had a lot of leeway on the one available day – 250 minutes of spare time was allotted for weather interruptions (these morning starts were chosen with little regard for local fans because they fit with peak TV viewing times in India). India put up a decent total that soon looked very impressive as England mad an absolute hash of attempting to chase it. An overly zealous devotion to the concept of ‘match ups’ led to left handers Moeen Ali and Sam Curran being promoted up the order, the problem with this being that neither is actually a good enough batter to belong high in the order. Liam Livingstone who had bowled well with his mixed spin (he can bowl both off breaks and leg breaks and varies them according to who is facing) was England’s last serious hope with the bat, but Jofra Archer failed to respond to his call, resulting in a run out that left England miles adrift and with only bowlers left. India thus won very comfortably and will face of against South Africa in Barbados tomorrow.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
A damselfly on the edge of a lily pad. These are smaller and have more diaphanous wings than the dragonflies.The first of many dragonflies
A look at the semi-final line up at the T20 World Cup and at a couple of extraordinary moments in the county championship. Also a photo gallery.
This post looks back at the concluding stages of the Super Eights at the T20 World Cup.
INDIA V AUSTRALIA
India were almost certainly already qualified, while Australia having suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Afghanistan were in need of a win. In the event a spectacular 92 off 41 balls from Rohit Sharma gave India a position of control they never wholly lost, and with Arshdeep singh, Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah all having fine evenings with the ball they duly made it three wins out of three, placing Australia in considerable jeopardy as attention switched to…
AFGHANISTAN V BANGLADESH
Any victory would be enough for Afghanistan to qualify, but Bangladesh needed to inflict an absolute hammering on Afghanistan to qualify – if they won, but not by enough, they Afghanistan and Australia would all be on one win out of three and Australia’s net run rate would see them through. Thus although this match was on at a horribly inconvenient time for me there was no way I was missing it. Afghanistan batted first and managed a moderate 115. The calculations revealed that to qualify for the semi-finals Bangladesh had to knock this target off in 12.1 overs. There were moments when it looked like they might do this, but playing with such naked aggression increases the chances of wickets falling, and that also happened. The rain also made itself felt several times, though Bangladesh only lost one over of the chase and the victory target only changed to 114. The closing stages cricket wise were a battle between Afghanistan’s bowlers and Litton Das, who fought his was to a half century for Bangladesh. While Das was highly impressive the wickets of team mates fell regularly, though it was only when the eighth went down that Afghanistan would have felt at all comfortable. There was one comedy moment when Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott shouted to his players to slow things down (there was rain about and Afghanistan were ahead on DLS), and Gulbadin Naib thinking that the instruction was to ‘go down’, rather than ‘slow down’ feigned cramp, going down as though he had been shot (it was so badly done that not even a premiership football referee would have bought it!). Eventually, with the Bangladesh score at 105, Gulbadin Naib got through Mustafizur Rahman’s defences to pin the Bangladesh number 11 LBW. He reviewed it for form’s sake, but Afghanistan were already celebrating their progression to the semi-finals, and it did not take long for the third umpire to confirm that those celebrations were justified. This means that Afghanistan and South Africa will play the first semi-final in the small hours of tomorrow morning UK time, and England and India will contest the second, starting at 3:30PM UK time tomorrow. Not very long after there was speculation that Australia might help Scotland to progress at England’s expense it is the folks from Down Under who are heading home early, while England are still involved in the tournament.
A COUPLE OF HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CHAMPIONSHIP
While the T20 World Cup has been going on there has been a temporary break in the T20 Blast for some County Championship action. Surrey beat Worcestershire by an innings just before 1PM today. Dan Lawrence had a superb match, leading Surrey’s progress to 490, including a 38 run over against Shoaib Malik, and taking wickets in both Worcestershire innings. That 38, assisted by a n0-ball was a joint record for English domestic cricket, shared with Andrew Flintoff who had a similar over at the expense of Alex Tudor of Surrey. However Lewis Kimber of Leicestershire in the course of almost enabling his side to chase a target of 464 rewrote the record books at the expense of Oliver Edward Robinson. The tall medium pacer who has some England experience bowled an over that yielded 43. There were three no-balls along the way. The overall record was set in New Zealand, but the bowler was complicit, being under orders to leak runs and bowling a 22 delivery over that yielded 77 in all! Incidentally that 22 deliveries is not the longest ever first class over – John Human once had a 30 delivery over, which was moreover a maiden according to the laws at that time since none of the six legal deliveries were scored off, and in those days wides and no-balls were not debited to the bowler!
A look back at yesterday’s finale to the Charlotte Edwards Cup, in which a pair of Scottish sisters played starring roles. Also a photo gallery.
Yesterday was Charlotte Edwards Cup Finals Day – both semi-finals and then the final all in a day. My focus for this post will be the final itself, which I will lead up to with brief mentions of the semi-finals.
THE SEMI-FINALS
In the first semi-final Blaze held Central Sparks to 140-9 in 20 overs and chased this target down with five wickets and two overs in hand, a comfortable victory. The second match, between South East Stars and Southern Vipers was a tighter affair – Stars scored 162-5 from their 20 overs, and Vipers fought hard but ended up five runs short, in a match that went to the last ball – a six off that delivery and Vipers would have been in the final.
THE FINAL
Blaze won the toss and decided to bowl. Going into this match Blaze had won all six of the matches in which they had chased this season, so Stars knew they had to put up a big total to have a chance. When the first over yielded 18 things were looking good for them. However although there were promising moments from most of the Stars batter they could not build on this excellent start – the tale of the innings was of batters getting going and then getting out before making a serious contribution. In the end they finished with 141-9, with Georgia Redmayne’s 25 the biggest single contribution. Heather Graham and Josie Groves took the principal bowling honours with three wickets each. Kathryn Bryce had 1-11 from three overs and took a catch, while Sarah Bryce had two stumpings, both off Groves.
Stars benefitted from a huge slice of luck early in the reply – a drive from Marie Kelly deflected off the bowler Farrant into the non-strikers end stumps with Tammy Beaumont out of her ground for a freak run out. Kelly herself was second out at 37, with Kathryn Bryce already going very well. Sarah Bryce joined her sister at the crease and the pair took the game right away from Stars. Kathryn Bryce, the leading run scorer of this season’s tournament, completed her fifth 50 of the competition off 35 balls, with Sarah Bryce playing a fine support role. The partnership was worth 79 when a fine delivery from Danielle Gregory beat Kathryn Bryce’s attempted reverse sweep and bowled her for 62 (45). Heather Graham joined Sarah Bryce, who now assumed control of proceedings. By the time the 19th over started the ask was down to 10. That proved not even enough to take it to the final over, as Stars skipper Bryony Smith decided to trust this over to Ryana McDonald-Gay who had gone for 19 in her only previous over. Sarah Bryce emulated her sister’s feat of reaching 50, but ironically the winning hit was made by Graham, with a four. Sarah Bryce ended with 52 not out off 46 balls. Kathryn Bryce’s all round performance saw her named Player of the Match. The Bryce sisters incidentally are Scottish, and are separated by two years, Kathryn being 26 and Sarah 24. Tilly Corteen-Coleman, a 16 year old left arm orthodox spinner, had the excellent figures of 4-0-24-0. Full scorecard here.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
A new butterfly sighting – I spotted this red and black beauty while out and about an hour ago.
A look at the situation in England’s Super Eights group at the T20 World Cup and a photo gallery.
This post looks at the situation in England’s Super Eights group at the T20 World Cup. The other group is in action today, with the current match being between Bangladesh and India.
THE SITUATION SO FAR
This group kicked off with South Africa beating the United States of America. England then won a hugely impressive victory over West Indies, a match dominated by Phil Salt who made a respectable West Indian score look very ordinary by scoring 87 off 47 balls to lead England’s victory charge. Yesterday afternoon and early evening UK time saw England face South Africa, and although England had opportunities at various stages South Africa held their nerve at the death to record a narrow win. In the small hours of this morning UK time the two co-hosts did battle, and the West Indies romped to a colossal victory, needing barely more than half their 20 overs to chase down the USA’s total.
THE REMAINING MATCHES
England have the USA left to play and South Africa have to play the West Indies. If England beat the USA then the South Africa-West Indies match effectively becomes a KO – if West Indies win that will push SA’s net RR below England’s, and if SA win they will top the group, and England with two wins out of three will be second as of right. If England somehow lose to the USA then they will need South Africa to beat the West Indies, which would give SA three wins out of three, and the other three teams each one win and two defeats, and it would come down to net run rate. Wins for both USA and the West Indies in this round of matches would mean that SA and West Indies each have two wins out of three and England and the USA are eliminated.
A look back at last night’s Middlesex v Surrey T20 Vitality Blast match, with special mention of a potentially important bowling performance from 23 year old Middlesex leg spinner Luke Hollman. Also a large photo gallery.
This post looks at the Vitality Blast T20 fixture between Middlesex and Surrey last night.
THE SURREY INNINGS
Surrey found themselves batting first. They batted very well overall, with Tom Curran hitting 48 off 28, Laurie Evans 41 off 20 and Dan Lawrence 32 off 29. The only reason their total ended up short of 200 (185-9 to be exact) was because of an outstanding performance from leg spinning all rounder Luke Hollman who ended with 4-0-16-5.
THE MIDDLESEX REPLY
Stevie Eskinazi and Martin Andersson scored 32 for the first Middlesex wicket, but once the opening stand was broken wickets began to tumble. At one stage Middlesex were 41-4. Jack Davies, initially supported by Ryan Higgins showed some fight, as did Tom Helm further down the order, but Middlesex were close to being on terms, and in the end Surrey won by 56 runs. Veteran Aussie seamer Sean Abbott matched Hollman’s five-for with one of his own, conceding only two runs more than the Middlesex leg spinner. Scorecard here.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HOLLMAN’S EFFORT
England’s current white ball leg spinner, and a crucial component of the squad currently contesting the T20 World Cup (they are in action as I type, against South Africa) is Adil Rashid, but he is in the veteran stage of his career and unlikely to be around for many more tournaments. Thus in producing such a fine performance on a big occasion (yes, whatever the context, in English men’s cricket terms Middlesex v Surrey is a big occasion) Hollman (23 years old) may also have presented England with an answer to the question of where they go for a leg spin option when Rashid’s playing days are done.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have an excellent photo gallery (periodic reminder – if you want see pictures at a larger size just click on one), boosted by this morning being ideal for a long walk, to share with you…
Possibly a ruddy darter, certainly a dragonfly of some description (two pics).Todays pictures start here.New artwork outside the train station (three images)
A little look back at Northern Diamonds v Thunder and a huge photo gallery.
The last group games in this year’s Charlotte Edwards Cup, the domestic T20 competition for women in England were played today. There was live commentary on the radio of the game between Northern Diamonds and Thunder, which had no bearing on the competition as a whole as both teams were already eliminated.
THE THUNDER INNINGS
Rachel Slater and Lizzie Scott opened the bowling for Diamonds, and they were outstanding. Slater bowled her four overs straight through, taking 3-12, while Scott at the other end bowled three overs before a change was deemed necessary, claiming 2-12. With Ellie Threlkeld being run out along the way Thunder found themselves 24-6 after 6.3 overs. Thunder’s numbers 7,8 and 9, Liberty Heap, Kate Cross and Tara Norris all reached double figures, but Norris’ 13 was the top score of the innings, Thunder being all out for 61.
THE DIAMONDS CHASE
The Thunder bowlers did their best but they simply did not have enough to defend. Hollie Armitage, surely destined to be an England cricketer sooner rather than later, made 15 opening the batting (not quite like her previous innings in this competition, a thunderous 97 off 64), bringing her aggregate for this year’s edition to 323 in 10 innings. Sterre Kalis reached double figures, and Rebecca Duckworth saw her side to a five wicket victory with 6.2 overs to spare, finishing on 21 not out. Kate Cross, England’s current seam/ swing bowling spearhead, produced an impeccable spell, taking 2-14 from here four overs. Full scorecard here.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have a substantial photo gallery to share…
A cranefly looking resplendent.I am not sure of the species that this giant belongs to, but it was an impressive sight.A damselfy on a nettle leaf (see also next image, a close up).
A brief look ahead to the Super Eights stage of the world T20 Cup and a large photo gallery.
This post looks at the next stage of the T20 World Cup. Although some group games remain to be played the eight qualifiers for the next stage are already known and they have been put into two groups of four.
GROUP ONE
This group contains Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh and India – all three remaining Asian sides (Pakistan and Sri Lanka having failed to qualify) plus the only side from Oceania to have reached this stage of the competition. The expectation would be that the two titans, Australia and India, would progress to the semi-finals, at which stage the tournament becomes pure knock out. However Afghanistan have a 100% record to date, and will play their final group game against West Indies in the small hours of tomorrow, and I reckon they are certainly capable of springing a surprise. Afghanistan have batted as well as anyone on pitches that have generally been tricky, and they have a varied array of a fine bowlers. Bangladesh I suspect will be bringing up the rear in this group – they were less than convincing in their last group game against Nepal.
GROUP TWO
This group comprises England, South Africa, The USA and West Indies. The USA have been the surprise package of this tournament. I would not be surprised were they to add to their scalp bag, and maybe even making the semis – as will be seen there is reason to doubt two of the four sides in this group. The West Indies have been impressive this tournament, and as hosts they know the conditions better than anyone else. South Africa dominated their group, but they have never yet reached a semi-final of a men’s world cup in either ODIs or T20Is. I will believe in their ability to lay this particular ghost when I see it and not before. That leaves England who were definitely somewhat fortunate to make it through – they destroyed Oman and were impressive against Namibia, but Australia beat them with ease, and in the rain ruined match against Scotland the latter were 90-0 after 10 overs when it was abandoned, and this has been a low scoring tournament. Further, Scotland were a lot more impressive against Australia than their southern neighbours – Australia’s winning hit against them came from the penultimate ball of the match.
A look at the action so far from Lauderhill, Florida, where after two abandonments in as many days we finally have a game running according to schedule. Also a huge photo gallery.
Both on Friday and yesterday there were supposed to matches at Lauderhill, Florida. Both were abandoned without a ball bowled, rain on Friday and poor drainage yesterday leaving the ground unplayable. Today we finally have a game and it looks like it will be played without interruption.
AN UNEXPECTED FINALE
When the schedulers arranged Ireland v Pakistan they would have been envisaging it being to decide which of this teams qualified for the Super Eights alongside India. India have indeed won the group, but remarkably the other two full member nations in this group are battling not for qualification but to avoid last place in the group, each having suffered losses to lower ranked opposition – Pakistan losing to the USA (see here) and Ireland being beaten by Canada. There are three possible outcomes: an Ireland win sees them fourth and Pakistan fifth (net run rate is not a factor here, since third place Canada had definite results against both teams, and they beat Ireland so would finish above Ireland if they had equal points). A washout or a win for Pakistan would see them third, the washout on a split-tie with Canada who they beat, a win for Pakistan would mean undisputed third place.
THE MATCH SO FAR
Pakistan won the toss and decided to bowl first. The match started explosively with Shaheen Shah Afridi taking two wickets in the opening over (and being sufficiently close to a third that Pakistan burned a review attempting to get the not out decision overturned). Mohammad Amir made thar three wickets in the first two overs, and the fourth was not long delayed either. Pakistan kept these two bowlers going for the whole Power Play, and Ireland were 28-5 when it ended. That soon became 32-6. Finally Ireland had a partnership, Delany and Adair taking the score into the 70s. Imad Wasim got both them quickly , and when McCarthy’s wild shot against the same bowler resulted in his stumps being rattled it was 80-9. Ireland’s last pair, Josh Little and Ben White showed a degree of fight sadly missing from most of their supposed betters with the bat, and the 20 overs ended with the score 109-9, Little 22 not out. The Pakistan innings is just underway, with the score 6-0 after two overs, a straight driven four by Mohammad Rizwan the only highlight to date.
A look back at the non-events in Florida yesterday and a thankfully eventful Vitality Blast game between Surrey and Gloucestershire. Also a large photo gallery.
In this post I look back at events of yesterday (as well the Florida situation I will be mentioning a domestic T20 that most definitely did see some action).
INSPECTION AFTER INSPECTION
Lauderhill, Florida was hit by rain in the run up to the USA v Ireland match that was due to take place yesterday. By the time the match should have started the rain had stopped, but the outfield was thoroughly soaked, and the question was whether a match would take place at all. The players had to be on the field by 2:16PM local time (7:16PM UK time) for there to be time for a five overs per side match to take place. The situation around this match was that USA needed either a win or a wash out to secure qualification for the next stage of the competition and in the process eliminate both Ireland and Pakistan. A series of inspections, first at half hourly intervals and then with a gap of an hour took place with the outfield simply not dry enough for play to happed. Finally an inspection was called for 6:15PM UK time, which was going to be ‘do or die’. The umpires were in prolonged discussion as to whether they could get the match on after all when more rain came, and that ended any possibility of proceedings starting. Thus the USA are in the Super Eights, Ireland and Pakistan are out, and in qualifying for the Super Eights the USA have also ensured that they will be at the next T20 world cup as of right, which also means their region will have an extra slot, which is big news for Bermuda. Do either Ireland or Pakistan have any cause for grievance? Not for my money – USA beat Pakistan, having already beaten Canada, and acquitted themselves honourably against India, and there was to put mildly no certainty that Ireland would have won the match had it taken place – they had already lost to Canada, and had contributed very little to the tournament. Today India and Canada are supposed to be playing at the same venue, and although things are looking more hopeful than yesterday there has as yet been no sign of play. At 6PM UK time an important match gets underway – England v Namibia at North Sound, where the sun is shining, with England needing to win and then needing Australia to beat Scotland (that one starts at 1:30AM tomorrow UK time). Official confirmation that today’s game at Lauderhill has gone down the plughole without a ball bowled.
HONOURS EVEN IN LONDON
At 6:30PM yesterday Vitality Blast match between Surrey and Gloucestershire got underway. This match did go over the full course. Gloucestershire started superbly, then lost wickets, then got away again in the closing stages. They scored 170-6 from their 20 overs, a respectable but by no means invincible total.
Surrey also started well with the bat. At various stages each side looked favourites. The final over started with Surrey needing seven to win, which made them favourites. David Payne, Gloucestershire’s best bowler, had the ball for that crucial over. He bowled a very fine over, and although Surrey levelled the scores off the penultimate ball, the final delivery was excellent, and Jordan Clark could only hit straight back at Payne, resulting in a run out. Surrey ended on 170-9, and since unlike some T20 competitions the Vitality Blast allows ties in group matches the points were shared.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
I received an item of post with some old stamps used, and decided that a couple were worth keeping including this one.A well chosen birthday card, which I have decided to preserve.An egret in Bawsey drain – photographed today.Larvae (three images)Another larva of something else, which I managed to get closer to than the others.
aspiblog 