Category: Cricket

Cricket, Photos and Links

Some thoughts on the recently concluded England v West Indies women’s series and the match in progress between England and Bangladesh, some links and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

I will start with the cricket related stuff before moving on to some other stuff later on. Without further ado I will move on to…

CRICKET

Before moving on the match in Chittagong which is superbly poised at the moment a few words on…

ENGLAND WOMEN’S SERIES WIN IN WEST INDIES

Having surrendered tamely in the fourth match to bring the series back to 2-2 the England Women played superbly to win the fifth match and with it the series. Highlights were the bowling of Alex Hartley and a unbeaten half-century from Natalie Sciver (to date the only international cricketer to have been born in Tokyo).

CHITTAGONG CRACKER

With two days to play the first Test Match between Bangladesh and England at Chittagong is superbly poised. England are 228-8 in their second innings, leading overall by 273. A six wicket haul on debut for 18 year old Hasan Mehedi Miraz, runs for Tamim Iqbal and a second innings five for for Shakib feature among the highlights, but the starring role thus far has belonged to…

BEN STOKES

Having started the third day by taking 3-2 for give him overall innings figures of 4-26, Stokes came in to bat in the second innings with England rocking at 46-4, which soon became 62-5. He proceeded to produce the highest individual score of the game so far, with 85.

PHOTOGRAPHS

LINKS

We start with a couple of petitions:

First, from Norfolk’s only current Labour MP, Clive Lewis:

Defend NHS Services for Older People

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Tory NHS cuts are heaping yet more pressure on an Adult Social Care system already being cut to shreds. This is exemplified by the proposed closure of the 24-bed Henderson unit at the Julian Hospital due to lack of funds. Cuts like these are a false economy and make no sense in the long run. This government is squeezing the life out of our NHS by demand huge so-called savings at the same time as demand is soaring. Sign my petition to help us defend NHS services for older people.

Sign my petition to help us defend NHS services for old people.

My second petition comes from Hope Not Hate and is in support of of Gary Lineker and Fatima Manji who have both been subjected to a a barrage of bigotry in the last few days. Please sign here.

My next link is to the Mirror website by way of my own London transport themed website for a story about a London bus crashing into a bridge.

I now have two links to cricinfo in connection with first section of this post:

  • The current state of play in the test match at Chittagong.
  • Cricinfo’s official report on the third day’s play in Chittagong.

I end this section with a link which segues in to some more photographs. Having described and imaged huge numbers of posters for James and Sons’ October auction I was given a similar task for the November auction, this time involving lobby posters and brochures. It was while scouting for information on the set of three lobby posters that will be lot 689 in that auction that I noted the IMDB did not have an image for the movie this posters were advertising (it is an obscure film that was made in 1966), so I submitted my image, which you can see here.

SOME FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

These photographs are all from work…

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Lot 689 – if you want the posters that feature as IMDBs official image bid for them on November 30!

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This brochure should find a buyer.

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This composite image was for a poster advertising our November auction which will be on show at a collector’s fair in Newmarket tomorrow.

poster – this is the link to the complete poster.

Championships and Contrivances

Some thoughts on the closing stages of this years County Championship, as it goes into its final day with three potential winners.

INTRODUCTION

Somerset are within touching distance of their first ever County Cricket Championship, but the situation is complicated by the fact that their only two rivals are in direct opposition.

THE CURRENT STATE OF PLAY

Courtesy of cricinfo, here is the situation in the key matches:

cricinfo

The situation is that a draw in the Middlesex v Yorkshire game is not enough for either side – the five points they would each gain from that would still leave them adrift of Somerset. Tomorrow is the last day of the match, which means that time constraints are well and truly in play. Clearly, with a draw rendered worthless by the situation both sides will do all in their power to win the game, which leads given time limitations to the question of just what would be acceptable in the way of a third innings declaration by Middlesex. It is possible that Yorkshire could win the match in the most satisfactory way, by taking the remaining eight Middlesex wickets early enough to give themselves an easy fourth innings target. For Middlesex the question would be how much risk could they take in setting a target bearing in mind that they have to have a legitimate chance of taking 10 wickets to do so?

ACCEPTABLE VS UNACCEPTABLE

Given that Middlesex are still 39 runs behind, unless Yorkshire deliberately concede runs to hasten a declaration (which would certainly cause raised eyebrows in Taunton) it is unlikely that Middlesex would be in a position to consider a declaration much before teatime. My own rough and ready view is that if come the tea break tomorrow Middlesex have a lead of somewhere in the region of 170 that in the circumstances would be an acceptable risk – Yorkshire would have to go for the target, and an asking rate of approximately 5.5 an over with no fielding restrictions would introduce enough risks that Middlesex could hope for the 10 wickets they need. A declaration giving Yorkshire 120 or so to chase in that final session would definitely (albeit actuated by very different motives) be verging on ‘Cronje’ territory, and almost regardless of when it was made, a declaration giving a target of under 100 should be considered as out and out match fixing.

Although I have indicated previously that as an underdog supporter I would like to see Somerset win, the key thing here is that any victory for Middlesex or Yorkshire should be seen to have been won out on the field, and not in the dressing rooms.

England Out of the Cricket World Cup

A personal view of England’s exit from the Cricket World Cup

The match between England and Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval has just ended, with James Anderson being clean bowled to give Bangladesh victory by 15 runs. This means that Bangladesh are in the quarter-finals, and irrespective of what they do in their last game against Afghanistan England are heading home at the first possible opportunity. Buttler’s aggressive 65 kept the match alive longer than the England team as a whole deserved. The dismissal of Chris Jordan, run out when his bat was over the line but in the air, summed up England’s failings in a nutshell.

This is England’s worst ever showing in a cricket world cup – although morally speaking 1996 when England progressed into the quarter-finals only by virtue of unconvincing victories over Holland and the United Arab Emirates was on a par.

To Bangladesh, and especially Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim who batted so beautifully, the former racking up Bangladesh’s first ever world cup century my heartiest congratulations. To England: it is time to face facts – you are not even a passable one day side – never mind a good one.

For the rest, I hope that Ireland can conjure up one more good result against either India or Pakistan to ensure their progress to the quarter-finals. I think that todays result is a good one for cricket as a whole – it nails for good and all the notion that the quarter-final line ups could be predicted from the start of the tournament.

I have some pictures from yesterday to share…

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I have some pictures from yesterday to share..