Author: Thomas

I am a founder member and currently secretary of the West Norfolk Autism Group and am autistic myself. I am a very keen photographer and almost every blog post I produce will feature some of my own photographs. I am an avidly keen cricket fan and often post about that sport.

Young Talent Comes to the Fore

A look at two outstanding performances by youngsters today in The Hundred (women’s) and a photo gallery.

Today, like yesterday has been a ‘double double header’ day in The Hundred – one morning/ afternoon double header and one afternoon/ evening double header – the evening match between the Trent Rockets and Northern Superchargers men’s teams gets underway at 6PM. I have followed my usual policy on such days where there is an overlap of listening to the morning match, then listening to both matches of the second double header, which means I listen to two women’s and one men’s match. This post looks at the two women’s games that happened today.

CORTEEN-COLEMAN PUTS SKIDS UNDER PHOENIX

Southern Brave had tallied a respectable but not outstanding 139-8 from their 100 balls. Danni Wyatt-Hodge led the way with 59, while there were also useful contributions from Kiwi veteran Sophie Devine and silky South African Laura Wolvaardt. Young left arm wrist spinner Millie Taylor continued what is becoming a very memorable season for her by taking 1-25 from her 20 balls.

Birmingham Phoenix had got to 19 without loss from the first ten balls of the reply when Southern Brave turned to 17 year old left arm orthodox spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman. In the space of three balls she changed the complexion of the match, bowling Emma Lamb for 9 with her first ball, and then two balls later dismissing Marie Kelly the same way, for a duck. When Lauren Bell got rid of the surviving opener, Georgia Voll, with the 18th ball of the innings the Phoenix was well and truly in the ashes, and unlike in the legend this one was not going to revive. Ellyse Perry, Amy Jones and especially Sterre Kalis kept things alive for them, but they were never other than behind the rate, and when Kalis finally fell, to the third last ball of the match, caught by Corteen-Coleman off Bell for 44 (34) it was 124-9, 16 needed off three balls. None of those runs were scored, Hannah Baker surviving one ball before being castled by the next, the penultimate scheduled ball of the match. Sophie Devine was named player of the match for her 27 and 2-28, though personally I would have given it to Corteen-Coleman whose two early wickets put the skids under the Phoenix chase, and whose catch to dismiss Kalis effectively sealed things for Southern Brave. Scorecard here.

PERRIN PULVERISES THE ROCKETS

The focus for me now switched to Nottingham, where Trent Rockets were playing host to Northern Superchargers. Rockets began appallingly, losing three wickets almost before they were started. Their skipper, Ashleigh Gardner, led a fightback, scoring 61 off 32 balls, but they could do no better than 128-8.

Davina Perrin, an 18 year old opening batter, proceeded to make an inadequate total look positively risible, as she climbed into the Rockets bowlers. Alice Davidson-Richards provided early support, and then when she was out Phoebe Litchfield, the 22 year old Australian, produced a splendid cameo, scoring 22 off just 10 balls. Annabel Sutherland, generally regarded as the best current all rounder in the women’s game, and player of the tournament in2024, now came to the crease, and it fell to her in the end to make the winning hit, a four that took her to 18 not out off 11. Perrin had scored 72 not out from 40 balls, with 12 fours. This supercharged performance gave Superchargers the win by eight wickets, with 21 balls to spare. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A beetle on my left forearm this morning (three pics)
Some butterflies in my back garden – three red admirals and one European Peacock.
A comma butterfly on an ivy flowerhead from my post-lunch walk
from the same walk, a small pale green insect with wings so diaphanous as to virtually transparent temporarily on my left arm.
Another visitor to the garden, a hummingbird hawkmoth I think (three pics).

Birmingham Phoenix v Trent Rockets (Women)

An account of yesterday’s clash between Birmingham Phoenix and Trent Rockets in The Hundred (women’s) and a photo gallery.

This year’s edition of The Hundred got underway on Tuesday with the derbies between London Spirit and Oval Invincibles. Yesterday saw the fourth set of fixtures meaning that all eight sides have been in action once. As I type this the Oval Invincibles women are in action against Manchester Originals women, the first fixture of an action packed day. Yesterday Birmingham Phoenix played host to Trent Rockets, and the women’s fixture to which the rest of this post is devoted happened first as is standard in The Hundred.

THE SIDES

Birmingham Phoenix lined up as follows: Georgia Voll, Emma Lamb, *Ellyse Perry, +Amy Jones, Sterre Kalis, Ailsa Lister, Em Arlott, Millie Taylor, Megan Schutt and Hannah Baker.

Trent Rockets opted for an XI of Bryony Smith, Grace Scrivens, Natalie Sciver-Brunt, *Ash Gardner, Heather Graham, Emma Jones, +Natasha Wraith, Alana King, Alexa Stonehouse, Kirstie Gordon and Cassidy McCarthy.

THE MATCH

Birmingham Phoenix won the toss and opted to bat first. Voll and Lamb began impressively and at the end of the opening 25 ball Power Play (only two fielders allowed out deep) Phoenix were 36-0, Voll 19, Lamb 14. Alana King, the great Aussie leg spinner, came on immediately the Power Play was done and her second ball bowled her compatriot Voll for 19. Perry now joined Lamb, and played a fine support role while Lamb hit top form with a vengeance. A time out was taken at 48 balls into the innings, with score 77-1, of which Lamb’s share was 48. At the halfway point it was 78-1. Early in the second half of the innings Lamb reached 50, off her 28th ball, having struck eight fours along the way. While boundaries are always important the real key to Phoenix’s strong progress was that there were few dot balls. From this high water mark wickets began to fall, but after 75 balls, just about to enter the so-called ‘death balls’ Phoenix were 106-4, having scored 70-4 from the middle part of their innings. When they reached the 90 ball mark with 132 on the board a 150+ total would still have been the goal, but Rockets bowled well from balls 91 to 97 inclusive, though a big finish from Phoenix still got them to 148-5. Lister had scored 21 not out of 17, and Marie Kelly, largely responsible for the final flourish referred to, has 23 not out from just 10 balls. King, as befits her status, was the only multiple wicket taker, but she would have been disappointed to have conceded as many as 30 from her allocation of 20 balls.

Bryony Smith started impressively for Rockets, but the 21 year old Scrivens struggled badly, and her dismissal for 2 (8), which made it 35-1 from 24 balls was probably a relief even to her. At the end of their Power Play Rockets were 36-1, the same run tally but one wicket worse than Phoenix. In spite of the clear fact that they had done less well in this phase than had Phoenix Michael Carberry, supposedly ‘expert summariser’ on the radio (in his playing days he was a rather stodgy opener, not perhaps an appropriate choice to be making expert comments on the game’s most frenetic format) said that he thought Rockets were ahead of the game. Whatever may have been the case going into the middle phase, by the end of it no one could have been in any doubt who was ahead of the game. By then Rockets were 91-4, needing 58 from the last 25 balls at 2.32 per ball (11.60 per set of five, which equates to 13.92 per over in other formats), and had scored 55-3 in the middle phase, compared to Phoenix’s 70-4 in the same period. The one hope for Rockets lay in the fact that Nat Sciver-Brunt was still at the crease and was batting superbly. By the time 10 balls remained the Rockets needed 27 to win. Over the next six deliveries Millie Taylor effectively settled the match. First of all she conceded just seven runs from her own last five balls of the match, meaning that she had 1-22 from her 20 balls. Then off the the 96h ball of the innings, with Em Arlott bowling to close out the match she took a superb catch to dismiss Sciver-Brunt for 64, comfortably the highest individual score of the game, and made off a mere 40 balls. That left Rockets needing 20 off four balls to win the match, and at no time did it look remotely probably that they would do it. The final margin was 11 runs (note the importance of that 15 run gap between what the sides scored in the middle part of their innings). Phoenix had won the Power Play by virtue of not losing a wicket themselves while Rockets did, totally bossed the middle phase – 70 to 55 – and narrowly lost the ‘death balls) – 42 to 46. As well as Taylor who I have already mentioned another youngster, 21 year old leg spinner Hannah Baker, had 2-18 from 15 balls. Emma Lamb’s 55 (32), the chief reason for Phoenix’s substantial total, earned her Player of the Match. A mention also for the fielding of Ailsa Lister – three of the first four Rockets wickets went to catches taken by her. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Wheel clamps are an uncommon sight these days…
…this one in place due to the vehicle being untaxed, and omission that has clearly been put right, since the next time I walked past that location the vehicle was gone.
The town wall from the park side
The town wall looking along Kettlewell Lane.
The beetle the was the star of my previous post (https://aspi.blog/2025/08/08/a-beetle-watching-the-nar-outfall/)

pho

A Beetle Watching the Nar Outfall

The star of this post is a beetle I spotted watching the Nar Outfall from a very precarious perch at the apex of a concrete wall overlooking the Nar Outfall. There are three pictures of the beetle.

This is a whimsical little post from this morning’s walk.

A BONUS FIND

I was on the bridge over the Nar Outfall, with the Great Ouse, which the Nar joins, about 20 yards away. My attention was principally directed at the structure I have dubbed ‘Cormorant platform’ because those birds make such frequent use of it. One such was on the platform and in full display mode (these pictures will feature in my next post). While I was photographing this bird my eye was caught by something on the very apex of the concrete wall that protects pedestrians on the bridge from falling into the Nar Outfall. Closer inspection confirmed that it was a beetle, enjoying the sun and apparently the view of the water from its somewhat precarious perch.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures I took of the beetle.

The first shot
A second improved picture
The third and final picture. This picture and its immediate predecessor convinced me when I edited them that the grooved carapace which I had originally though to be black was actually a very dark green.

An Announcement re Heritage Open Day 2o25

Details of my stewarding commitment for this year’s Heritage Open Day (Sunday 14th September). A picture gallery from today at work.

This post, with a gallery from today at work, is going to be a brief one.

HERITAGE OPEN DAY 2025

King’s Lynn has its annual Heritage Open Day on the second Sunday in September. On this day various interesting buildings are opened for public viewing. This year that second Sunday is the latest possible date – the 14th. In order to ensure that the day runs smoothly stewards are required at the various buildings. Stewards will tell you about the history of the building, will monitor numbers, and at some of the busier and/or more problematic sites will engage in a measure of crowd control. I have been one of the stewards for some years now, and of course made myself available again this year. I have recently found out where and when I will be stewarding. For stewarding purposes the day is divided into thirds – 10AM to Noon, Noon to 2Pm and 2PM to 4PM. I will be stewarding at the Bank House Hotel, whose chief attraction is a remarkable cellar system, dating back to times when rather more goods arrived in and departed from King’s Lynn than the King’s customs guys ever knew about, between noon and 2PM. I am delighted to have been given this venue.

PICTURES

The majority of these were scans. Unlike on Tuesday, when I told you which was which, I leave it to you to see if you can tell…

Lot 150 (four images total). These are high value because they are mint. Although they are quite hard to tell apart each is a slightly different colour.

A Long Morning Walk

A detailed account of a long walk I took this morning, with plenty of photographs, Also a gallery of photos not related to that walk.

This morning it was bright, sunny and already showing promise of becoming the warm day it now is. I thus decided to make my morning walk a long one.

SETTING FORTH

I left by the back door, headed up the unnamed private road that runs behind my house, crossed Raby Avenue onto Smith Avenue, walked along that road to the point at which it swings 90 degrees and becomes Townshend Terrace, at which point I diverged by way of a short path that leads alongside a pond to Loke Road. Crossing Loke Road I then took Harefield Parade, alongside a second pond, this one with a curved edge. From the end of Harefield Parade I followed a footpath that leads into Kettlewell Lane Park. I left the path in Kettlewell Lane in order to walk alongside some bushes that often harbour insect life. There was one such sighting today. Then I walked along the bank of the Gaywood River until it was time to leave Kettlewell Lane Park and cross the main road at Eastgate Bridge. Having crossed the main road I took Highgate, past the Methodist Chapel, continuing until I reached the footpath that crosses the Gaywood and ultimately brings one out on Wyatt Street. I crossed Wyatt Street to another footpath section which runs alongside Eastgate Academy, joining Blackfriars Road about 100 yards from the train station. I made my way past the train station and into The Walks…

A bee in my back garden.
This I think is a supergiant hoverfly – it was on a nettle leaf in Kettlewell Lane Park
This was alongside the Gaywood River.

THE WALKS TO THE GREAT OUSE

Entering The Walks I headed on to St John’s Walk, which if you follow it all the way leads through past the Recreation Field to Tennyson Avenue, though on this occasion I followed it only as far as the sculpted sections of the Gaywood river the flow through this area of parkland. Shunning paths I walked right alongside the river, where there is a lot of plant life, and sometimes interesting insects. I left the river where my route intersected with the Broad Walk (which runs from directly opposite King’s Lynn library through to the home of King’s Lynn Town football club). I took the Broadwalk through the Guanock Gate and across the Gaywood, before then following a path that cuts through to a bigger path, which leads to the Seven Sisters Gate, by which I left the parkland. I followed the road until I reached a path that leads through to London Road, emerging near a light controlled crossing from which the South Gate is visible. I crossed London Road here and walked down past the South Gate, then swinging right, crossing the Nar, and leaving the road at a path that leads into Harding’s Pits. The path that I had chosen cuts another path that I might have chosen about halfway along its length, and I followed this path from the intersection to the Great Ouse…

ALONG THE GREAT OUSE TO PURFLEET QUAY

I now turned north along the Great Ouse, following the footpath until it joined the road at the Nar Outfall, and then after crossing the Nar I took the unsurfaced footpath that follows the dike around old Boal Quay and then on level ground runs alongside the wall that is part of King’s Lynn’s flood defences, coming out close to the river. I followed the town centre section of the river front past the pontoon jetty, at which several boats were moored, past the courthouse, past the Bank House hotel and across the mouth of the Purfleet, from where one gets a splendid view of the Custom House. I went via the display honouring famous mariners associated in some way with the town and the statue of Captain George Vancouver, who surveyed and charted the Pacific Northwest coast all the way from San Diego, California to Anchorage, Alaska (it took him four years – 1791-5 – to complete this monumental task, and in Canada there is a city named Vancouver). From Purfleet on, though I made one diversion, I was at all times headed towards home…

A composite image showing both the statue of Captain Vancouver and the plaque affixed to the stone plinth on which the statue is mounted.

HOMEWARD BOUND

I walked along Purfleet Quay past the Custom House, crossed King Street and headed along New Conduit Street, past the junction with the High Street, past the statue of King John (unworthy of my camera) and past the construction on the old Argos site that will be King’s Lynn’s new library and community hub when it is complete, then up past the old post office and St James’ Leisure Centre, and in to The Walks, and up past the station, at which point I diverted by way of Morrison’s where I had a small amount of shopping to do. The shopping attended to I left the environs of Morrison’s by way of a short footpath that leads from the carpark through to Highgate. From the point at which I met the footpath by which I left Highgate on my out my route duplicated the outbound route in reverse as far as Loke Road, at which point I headed along Loke Road, across Raby Avenue and on to Columbia Way, ultimately returning to my home via the front door.

Coming along nicely.
A solid looking insect, with an overripe blackberry in the top left corner giving it scale.
A close up of the insect.
I think this is a gatekeeper butterfly.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Just to wrap things up here is gallery of photos not from this particular walk…

This grasshopper was resting in a flower no more than 60 metres from King’s Lynn train station.

A Productive Day at Work

An account of my day at work including a full image gallery.

I don’t normally blog on workdays but I felt that today was interesting enough to make an exception to the rule.

COMBINING TYPING AND IMAGING

I am currently working on what will be day one of a two day stamp sale, typing up handwritten descriptions in the correct format for an auction catalogue and also imaging the lots (unlike day two, which I started first and have almost completed, and which is an exercise in recycling old lots these are new lots). At the start of today I had got to lot 54, and had 11 lots ready for the typing and imaging process, which gave time for more lots plus descriptions to be found. After I had dealt with those 11 lots I then typed up a further 20 descriptions, did the imaging (a mix of photographs for the bigger lots and scans for the smaller ones). Then I repeated the process for a further 15 lots bringing the total to a hundred. I still had a little time left, so I did a further five lots as a bonus (lot 100 had been my self-set minimum point to reach to by the end of today). I will resume on Thursday starting from lot 106. As you will see from the image gallery that follows the extra five lots were not just a bonus in terms of being ahead of where I reckoned on being – the last of the extra lots was of personal interest. My approach to the imaging was to take the photographs of the larger lots first, and then scan the smaller ones. Save for lot 101, described in its caption, I took no more than a single scan of any scannable lot – secondary images when I deemed them appropriate were extracted from the original scan.

PICTURES

Here is today’s image gallery…

The first of the scans.
Back to photography
This lot as you will see had features of interest on both sides.
A close up of the embossed Southwestern Railway Company crest
Extracted from the previous image, the locomotive.
Some more scans.
Back to photography
More scans
Photographs again.
Scans
Photographs
Scans
Photographs
Scans
Photographs
Scans
Photographs
Scans
Lot 101, a composite scan – the lot comprised a total of six stock cards, one double sided, with necessitated three separate scans and then a ‘bolt together’ operation in Paint.
Lot 102, the last scanned item of the day.
Lot 103, double sided, and too large to be scanned.
Lot 104.
Lot 105 – some railway history.

England Fall Short at The Oval

An account of an extraordinary hour of cricket this morning to end an extraordinary series, plus a look ahead to England’s winter tour and a photo gallery.

Play resumed today at The Oval with England needing 35 runs to win and having four wickets left. This post describes a crazy hour of cricket this morning.

THE END OF A GREAT SERIES

The weather had closed in after two balls of a Prasidh Krishna over yesterday evening, so he started proceedings this morning. Jamie Overton hit the first two balls of the day for fours, the first a superb shot, a pull that sent the ball in front of square for four, and the second an edge. Then came a huge moment, when Jamie Smith, the last front line batter remaining for England, was out caught behind. Overton and Gus Atkinson advanced the score to 354, 20 to win, 19 for the tie that would be enough to give England the series. Then Overton was given LBW, a very slow decision by umpire Dharmasena (so slow that Overton was actually at the bowler’s end having run an intended leg bye by the time the finger was raised). Overton reviewed it, and it was umpire’s call on wickets, just brushing the outside edge of leg stump. Some might argue that if it taken Dharmasena as long as it did to assess the situation there had to be doubt in his mind and therefore he should not have given it. That brought Josh Tongue in join Atkinson. Three runs later Krishna bowled Tongue to make it 357-9, and Woakes, his left arm in a sling (he dislocated a shoulder in a fielding attempt on day one, and was on the field for the first time since that injury) made his way to the middle, following in the footsteps of the likes of Lionel Tennyson, Colin Cowdrey, Paul Terry and Malcolm Marshall in batting one-handed in a test match (Tennyson actually scored 63 and 36 one-handed in the face of Aussie speedsters Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald). Atkinson did his best to advance the score, and Gill twice refused to alter his deep set field on the last ball of overs, allowing Atkinson to take the strike when India could have given themselves an over at the injured Woakes. On the second of those occasions the score ticked to 367-9, one big hit away from levelling the scores and winning the series for England. Siraj, who had bowled his heart out and must by this point have been pretty much out on his feet, took the ball for yet another over. With the first ball of the new over he hit Atkinson’s stumps, and just before midday India had won the match by six runs. The turning point that enabled all this drama, and England’s eventual failure by so slender a margin was Harry Brook’s crazy dismissal yesterday with England 301-3 and India looking every inch a beaten side. For the record Siraj’s marathon bowling efforts secured him the Player of the Match, while Shubman Gill was India’s player of the series for his 754 runs across the five matches and Brook England’s, with 481 runs in the series. A scorecard of the match can be seen here.

LOOKING AHEAD

This winter England travel to Australia to renew test cricket’s oldest rivalry. Australia hold The Ashes, and the last time an England side regained the urn down under was in 1970-1 when Ray Illingworth skippered the side to victory in the series that ended Bill Lawry’s playing career (England sides retained the urn down under in 1978-9, 1986-7 and 2010-11 as well). Can this England do the almost impossible? Possibly, though it will be incredibly difficult even for such a confident England outfit as this one. If the likes of Wood, Archer and Atkinson are fit on a consistent basis rather than the odd match here or there that will be a big help. Woakes will almost certainly not be able to tour, but I would probably not pick him for an Australian tour anyway – even fit he would be unlikely to make much of an impact there. More worrying is that England’s pig headedness has left them with an opener averaging barely more than 30 in test cricket and a number three averaging a little over 35 in test cricket (an a series in Australia is not the time to be blooding newcomers to the test scene). Although a little under five runs an innings separates these players there is another difference – Crawley’s test average is a near duplicate of his first class average meaning that he is quite simply not good enough at the job. Pope however has a magnificent record in first class cricket and has failed to translate that to consistent success at test level. I would like to see Rehan Ahmed’s form for Leicestershire recognized with a place in the squad. If England want to attempt to equip themselves with something approaching a replacement for Stokes the player (Stokes the captain and Stokes the talisman are irreplaceable) then Jordan Clark has a lot going for him. In all probability, if England are to prevail Stokes will to be both the Brearley and the Botham of the squad.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

An Unexpected Final Day

How the fifth and final match of the 2025 series between the England and India men’s teams is poised and a large photo gallery.

I had expected to be posting about the conclusion of the final test of the 2025 series between England and India today, but the weather at The Oval turned nasty, bringing an early close with the match interestingly poised. Therefore the series will finish tomorrow.

HOW THINGS STAND

This match has seen astonishing twists and turns. First Atkinson, returning from injury at his home ground, took five cheap wickets to restrict India to 224 in the first innings. Then England made a blazing start in response only to lose wickets in a heap thereafter to a combination of good bowling and more than a few bad (or in some cases downright stupid) shots. In the end their advantage was 23. England bowled well again, but their fielding was the stuff of horror stories – six catches were dropped (I would probably class the sixth as more of a great stop than a drop had the rest of the fielding been up to snuff) and one clear cut run out opportunity fluffed. With this generous assistance India built lead of 373. England were 50-1 coming in to day, with Crawley having again demonstrated his inadequacy as a test opener. At 106-3 with Duckett and Pope gone in addition it looked good for India, but then a great stand between Root and Brook seemed to have settled things in England’s favour. Then Brook gifted India his wicket in a truly bizarre way – he actually completely lost his bat while playing an aggressive shot and ended up caught at mid off. This shortly after completing a century, his tenth in test cricket, off 91 balls. Jacob Bethell had his second failure of the match, and then not very long after completing his 39th test century Root was caught behind for 105. Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton were together at the crease, struggling to score as the ball suddenly started misbehaving when a black cloud reduced the light sufficiently for the umpires to take the players off with the score 339-6. That cloud then released its contents, and shortly after 6PM Oval groundsman Lee Fortis confirmed to the umpires that there was no way the surface would be playable by the cut off time of 6:42PM and that was the end of day four. England thus need 35 with four wickets standing to win the match, 34 for test cricket’s third ever tied match which would also win them the series, while India need four wickets for 33 or less or level the series. Chris Woakes dislocated his shoulder in the course of diving for a ball on day one, and would only bat in extremis, just to add to the variables. This has been an outstanding series, meriting comparison with the 2005 Ashes series, and in many ways that third ever tie in test history would be the most appropriate way for it to end.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

You may recall that I showed a female Karner Blue in yesterday’s gallery. This picture taken on Monday has now been confirmed as a male of the same species, which is considered to be endangered.
The female Karner Blue

Combined XI for the England v India Test Series 2025

The selection of a composite team for the 2025 test series between the England and India men’s teams, now approaching an end. Also a photo gallery.

The five test series between the England and India men’s teams is nearing an end – we are on day three of the fifth and final match, and I am not entirely convinced that day five of this match will be needed. This post picks a composite XI for the series.

SELECTION CRITERIA

This is a team of this series, so it is based on performances that have happened within this series. However, I reserve the right to alter positions in the batting order if I deem it necessary (explanations will be provided). Please feel free to comment with suggested changes, but bear in mind the effect that these will have on the balance of the side.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. KL Rahul (India, right handed opening batter). Over 500 runs in the series, and even though Jaiswal (the unlucky candidate for an opening berth, Crawley being plain and simple not good enough) is going well in this innings a shoo-in for this slot.
  2. Ben Duckett (England, left handed opening batter). Just edges Jaiswal for this slot – both have contributed well at various stages.
  3. Shubman Gill (India, right handed batter, vice captain). At one time he seemed to have Bradman’s record aggregate for a series (974 in 1930) in his sights but has fallen off in the latter half of the series. Nevertheless, his deeds, including 430 across the two innings of the match India won, make him a shoo-in.
  4. Joe Root (England, right handed batter, occasional off spinner). Has had a fine series, highlighted by moving past Messrs Dravid, Kallis and Ponting to go from fifth to second in the list of all time test career run scorers.
  5. +Rishabh Pant (India, left handed batter, wicket keeper). Has been typical Pant with the bat, though hasn’t actually done a huge amount with the gloves this series due to injuries preventing him from doing so.
  6. Jamie Smith (England, right handed batter). England’s leading run scorer of the series, and because he plays as a pure batter in domestic red ball cricket I have given Pant the gloves ahead of him.
  7. *Ben Stokes (England, left handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler, captain). Has been talismanic this series, and England are really feeling his absence from the current match.
  8. Washington Sundar (India, left handed batter, off spinner). Made his maiden test century in the course of this series, and also did his part with the ball, including a cheap four-for in the second England innings at Lord’s.
  9. Gus Atkinson (England, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). Has missed most of the series through injury, but he has taken eight wickets to date in the current match (and has been let down by his fielders this innings), which is enough for me to give him the nod.
  10. Akash Deep (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). He claimed a ten wicket match haul in the only game India have won so far, and in the current match, where again India are looking in a strong position, he has contributed a maiden test 50, having been sent in as night watcher last evening and benefitted from some generosity from England’s fielders.
  11. Jasprit Bumrah (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). The best fast bowler in the world at the moment, although India have fared better this series in the matches he has missed, his own personal performances have been splendid when he has been fit.

EXPLANATIONS/ HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I played Gill at number three rather than number four because both number fours have had great series, and none of the number threes have done especially well (if mandated to play someone who batted at three in the series I would select Pope and drop Root, but under strong protest – Pope has had an adequate series, whereas neither Sudarsan nor Nair have made a big score from number three for India). I opted to promote Gill because he is well used to batting up the order, whereas Root famously dislikes the number three slot.

Even though he fits less well with Root’s part time off spin than does Jadeja I opted for Sundar at number eight because he has done more with the ball than Jadeja this series, and I wanted to honour his maiden test century (for my money England’s petulant reaction to India’s refusal to accept the draw the very instant it became available was entirely indefensible).

The fast bowlers were problematic because only Siraj has played the entire series, and he has not been all that impressive except in being better at staying in one piece than the others. However all three of my picks have great individual performances to their credit, Deep’s 10-for being a clear cut match winner.

Gill has handled the captaincy reasonably well, but not well enough to get the job over Stokes, though I have endeavoured the show a measure of respect for his leadership by explicitly naming him as vice captain.

Duckett over Jaiswal was practically a coin flip of a choice, and I have no objection to those who resolve that decision either way. Anyone raising a voice on Crawley’s behalf merely demonstrates their lack of cricket knowledge.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This comes from work – I am currently assembling (and imaging) day one of a stamp/ postal history sale, using the lots and handwritten descriptions thereof which I type up.
A graphic of my selections.
I spotted this near the end of my lunch time walk, more or less equidistant between the discovery centre and my home. It has been identified for me as a female Karner Blue butterfly.

Advantage Surrey

A look at goings on in the county championship, a link and two photo galleries.

A new round of county championship matches got underway yesterday. Surrey, leaders by four points going into this round, are playing away at relegation threatened Durham. Second place Nottinghamshire meanwhile are at home to third place Somerset. This post looks at what has happened in those two matches.

DURHAM v SURREY

I missed most of yesterday’s play, being at work. However, I can tell you that Durham won the toss and opted to bat, and that they were all out for 153. Dan Worrall claimed four wickets, Sam Curran three and Indian spinner Sai Kishore two. Surrey reached the close of play yesterday on 182-5, 29 ahead already. Thus the task for Durham this morning was to wrap the Surrey first innings up before the lead became unmanageable. Unfortunately for Durham not only did they take the entire morning session (literally – the tenth Surrey wicket fell on the stroke of lunch, just as Durham’s first innings had ended onn the stroke of tea yesterday) to get through Surrey, they also conceded 140 runs in the process. Dan Lawrence scored 88 and Jordan Clark 82. Durham are batting better second time round, but at 127-2 they are still 42 runs in arrears as I type. Emilio Gay is currently 73 not out. The bonus points in this match (awarded during the first 110 overs of each side’s first innings are Durham 3 (a full haul of bowling points, 0 for the miserable batting effort), Surrey 5 (a full 3 for bowling, 2 for batting).

GALLERY ONE

I have opted to split today’s gallery…

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE V SOMERSET

All that I know of this match comes via cricinfo. Nottinghamshire won the toss an opted to bowl first. They began well, reducing Somerset to 25-3. However at that point they were baulked by James Rew and Tom Abell, who put on 313 for the fourth wicket, Rew making 166 and Abell 156. There was not a huge amount thereafter, the next biggest contribution being 31 not out from Craig Overton. Somerset tallied 438 in the end, taking 132.3 overs to get there. The bonus points for this innings (awarded only for the first 110 overs of each side’s first innings) were 3 to Somerset for batting and 2 to Nottinghamshire for bowling. Craig Overton got Ben Slater early in the Nottinghamshire reply but Haseeb Hameed and Freddie McCann are currently holding the fort for the midlanders.

KOOKABURRA BALLS

This round is the last of this season (and I hope ever) to be played with Kookaburra balls. There has been plenty of high scoring around as is usual when the Kookaburra is used in England. This leads to make a suggestion, just to help the ECB reach the right conclusion about the ghastly things: when this round of matches is done and dusted each county should ceremonially burn their remaining stock of Kookaburra balls.

GALLERY TWO

Just before I apply my usual closure to this post I have a link to share. A new species of dinosaur has been unearthed in Argentina. The site from which I share this is Argentine, which means that it is written in Spanish, but they do have a translate button that I have made use of. Click here to read the full article.

Time now for my usual sign off…

A new butterfly sighting today – this is one of the smaller ones.