Category: Photography

England Just About Hanging On

A look at day four at the SCG, a link and a photo gallery.

This post deals with day four of the final test match of the Ashes series, at the SCG.

A NEW TALENT ANNOUNCES ITSELF

Play resumed on day four with Australia 518-7, already 134 runs ahead of England on first innings. The last three Australian wickets boosted that total to 567, an overall lead of 183. England were further handicapped as they prepared for their second innings by a muscle strain suffered by Ben Stokes. Ben Duckett contributed 42, his highest score of the series. There was also a score of 42 from Harry Brook. Will Jacks, who as I have said elsewhere is actually more batter than bowler failed horrifically to take advantage of a promotion to number six, Stokes having decided to bat later in the order, playing a horrible shot to his second ball to give Cameron Green a catch off the bowling of Beau Webster. First to go had been Zak Crawley, LBW to Starc for 1. That meant that Jacob Bethell, batting at number three in spite of never having scored a first class hundred had to come in right at the start of the innings. He rose to the challenge brilliantly, playing a proper test match innings, showing skill, technique and the right temperament for the job in hand. It was during the stand with Brook that he reached that maiden first class century (while it is not commonplace for this to happen in a test match it is not super rare either – Charles Bannerman’s 165 in the first ever test match was his maiden FC century, and there is another member of the current England setup to have done the same thing, Gus Atkinson). Even after Brook’s dismissal and the Jacks howler referred to earlier he went on unperturbed, finding some support from Jamie Smith. Brydon Carse helped the eighth wicket to advance the score by 30, and at the end Matthew Potts was supporting Bethell, who ended the day unbeaten on 142, having faced 232 balls and hit 15 fours, with England 302-8, 119 to the good. Bethell’s innings was England’s third three figure score of the series, and both the previous two were scored by Joe Root, a universally acknowledged master of test match batting technique. I am not yet fully prepared to renounce my scepticism regarding Bethell’s selection, but I see no reason for this century not to be the first of many, and if he continues to deliver the goods as he did this day I will acknowledge that fact.

PHOTOGRAPHS

First I have a link to share, from science.org, to this article about how multi-cellular life may have come about. It is an appropriate share since my gallery includes pictures from all three of the multi-cellular or eukaryotic kingdoms. Now for my usual sign off…

A pair of swans on the Gaywood River
A purely plant picture – a leaf lying on grass.
Three cormorants perched on the structure I have named in their honour, with a large gull in among them.
A Little Egret just far enough into the Nar to be reflected back by the water.
And just a tad later on the wing.
A lapwing at the edge of the Nar.
A bracket fungus of some sort fairly high up a big tree.
The sculpted sections of the Gaywood, in The Walks, clearly did freeze to some extent (and bear in mind that today has been less cold than Monday or Tuesday and that there was rain overnight).
A kite flying above Bawsey drain.

Australia Take Control in Sydney

A look back at days two and three at the SCG and a photo gallery.

Before I get into the main meat of this post, the events of days two and three in the fifth Ashes test in Sydney I have some important news from today. On Christmas morning my computer started failing to recognize the existence of WIFI networks, and today I was finally able to take it to a friend in Fakenham who is a professional fixer of computers, and it is once again fully functioning.

AN ENGLAND INNINGS WITH A FAMILIAR PATTERN

England resumed on the second day on 211-3. For much of that second day things looked to be continuing to go their way. Although Jamie Smith suffered the daftest dismissal of the series (even in this series, where that particular field is highly contested it stood out like a sore thumb) just before lunch, slapping a long hop from part timer Marnus Labuschagne straight into deep extra cover’s hands most of the rest of the news for England was good. At 375-6 a very big total looked on, but the last four wickets tumbled for a mere nine further runs. It was still England’s best first innings effort of the series, and what made the whole pattern of this innings so familiar was that it was undergirded by a huge score from Joseph Edward Root. Root’s 160 was his second hundred of the series, and the 41st of his test career.

POOR BOWLING FROM ENGLAND

Having batted reasonably well England proceeded to bowl like drains. By the end of day two Australia were 166-2, with Travis Head in sight of his third century of the series. Matthew Potts, playing his first match since the game in Canberra against the Prime Minister’s XI, and his first first class match since the end of the English season was especially poor, conceding runs rapidly and not looking threatening.

ONE WAY TRAFFIC ON DAY THREE

Travis Head powered on to 163 in the early part of the day. By the close a much more experienced cricketer, Steve Smith, had also cruised past three figures, and Beau Webster, batting at number nine through a combination of a batter heavy original selection and the use of a night watcher the previous evening, supported him impressively in the closing stages, against a tiring bowling unit. Australia closed on 518-7, already 134 to the good, having scored 352-5 on the day. Potts had 0-141 from 25 overs, Carse had claimed three wickets but had also been very expensive. Tongue and Stokes each went at about three an over, and even part time spinners Jacks and Bethell were far less expensive than the two Durham bowlers who had shared the new ball. At their high water mark of 375-6 on the second afternoon England looked well placed, a day and a half later they have every appearance of being deep in a Kimberley diamond mine sized hole.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Ice on the surface of a frozen pond (lest the blue skies and evidence of sunshine fool you regarding the weather this January in England).
A section of Bawsey Drain, frozen over (the faster flowing Gaywood river has not frozen over, and the Great Ouse is an even less likely candidate for doing so).
This snow fell during Sunday night/ early Monday morning, and although there has been no new snow since then it has yet to disappear.
A footprint (mine) in the snow.

Day 1 in Sydney

A look back at the opening day of the final test match of the 2025-6 Ashes at the SCG and a photo gallery.

Late last night UK time the fifth and final test match of the 2025-6 Ashes series got underway at the Sydney Cricket Ground. This post looks back at the day.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Gus Atkinson was unavailable for England due to injury, and Matthew Potts was named as his replacement. This was England’s only change from the side that had won the Boxing Day test match in Melbourne, which meant that Shoaib Bashir, fast tracked into the England ranks due to the fact that his height would enable him to generate extra bounce, an asset that should make itself especially felt on Australian surfaces, would end up not playing a match in the entire series. Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat first.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FRUSTRATING

The bad element of the day came first, with England losing three wickets, Duckett (who has had a wretched series) for 27, Crawley for 16 and Bethell for 10. That was 57-3. and brought the two Yorkshiremen, Joe Root and Harry Brook together. This pair proceeded to bat beautifully until just before tea when it rained, sending the players in. In the event there was no further cricket in the day, though the commentators were absolutely adamant that there could and therefore should have been – it was dry for most of the evening session. Possibly, with most matches so far this series having not gone the distance, and two having finished in two days each the home side wanted as many days play as possible in Sydney and the local ground staff did not exactly bust a gut to get play back underway. The score at the end of a truncated day was 211-3, Brook 78 not out, Root 72 not out, and a wicket a piece for Starc, Neser and Boland.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Not a common sight for a town centre location – a pheasant outside St Nicholas Chapel

Cornish Christmas 6: The Journey Home

An account of my return journey from Cornwall to Norfolk, with a photo gallery.

This is my final post about my Christmas in Cornwall, and details the return journey.

A JOURNEY OF MANY PARTS

I was travelling on a Sunday, something I normally try to avoid because it can be problematic. I was booked on the 14:15 from Plymouth, and had various subsequent connections to make. We left Fort Picklecombe at 12:45, and arrived at Plymouth station a little over an hour after that. As I was booked in coach A I had to get to the far end of the platform to be able to get to my booked seat. The train ran a little bit late, but not enough to disarrange my subsequent plans (incidentally GWR have already paid compensation for the problems with my outbound journey). Because I was right at the front of the train I would have had to walk the entire length of the platform at Paddington to get to the bridge that gives access to the Hammersmith and City line platforms, which was never a practical proposition. I therefore went through the ticket gates onto the concourse at my end of the platform, and boarded a circle line train at the Praed Street platforms, changing trains at Edgware Road as required. At King’s Cross I found my way to my next train, a non-stop service to Royston from where I would catch a replacement bus to Cambridge North and then board a train for the last stage of the journey to King’s Lynn. Everything on this stage of the journey went smoothly, and I arrived into King’s Lynn station exactly on schedule at 20:48. It remained only to walk home, a journey of about 20 minutes, and then unpack.

PHOTOGRAPHS

It was of course dark for much of the time I was travelling, but not for the really scenic part of the journey before Exeter, though I was on the wrong side of the train to get the full benefit of that.

The first two pictures in this gallery were taken through the car window on the journey to Plymouth.
Then there were some pictures taken at Plymouth.
Pictures taken in transit from Plynouth start here.
On the Praed Street platforms.
At Edgware Road
Part of the sign indication the Metropolitan line platforms at Baker Street.
This picture should have featured a roundel as well as this, but someone walked right in front of the roundel while I was taking it/
Railway 200 stuff at King’s Cross
The route map on the train to Royston.

A Cornish Christmas 5: Walking and Games

An account of the final full day of my Christmas holiday in Cornwall, and a photo gallery.

On the Saturday, my last full day in Cornwall, we decided to make an early afternoon walk to the villages of Kingsand and Cawsand, and call in at a pub for a drink.

THE WALK

The walk from Fort Picklecombe to the villages starts by exiting the apartments via a covered walkway from the third floor which brings you out on the road out of the fort just by the officer’s mess. Once the fort has been left behind there is an opportunity, of which we availed ourselves, to leave the road and walk along a path that is part of the Mount Edgcumbe estate. Shortly after rejoining the road at the end of this section of path one leaves it again on to a section of the coast path, which takes one right to the edge of the villages. Because of their location, perched on a slope at the edge of a bay, most of the roads in the villages are too steep and/or narrow to permit motor traffic, making them less dangerous for pedestrians. There are two pubs, and we selected the second, the Halfway Inn. The drinks were excellent. It was a beautiful sunny day, and provided some fine pictures.

THE GAMES

One of the games at the apartment was a ‘where is it’? game with multiple difficulty levels available. After one trial using a political map and small placement markers we played the remaining games using the satellite map and the larger placement markers. By the time the last game I had finished, on this Saturday evening, all of us had one at least one game. I had almost won the opener on the Tuesday, but although I was first over the finish line I then got done by two successive sudden death questions. This Saturday evening I was again across the finish line first, after a number of right answers of which only some could be called guesses, and on this occasion I got a fairly easy sudden death question to seal the win.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The name ‘Jail Ale’ relates to a famous prison on Dartmoor – it gets a mention in “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.

A Cornish Christmas 4: Golitha and the Doniert Stone

A look back at the Boxing Day activities of my Christmas in Cornwall, with a video and lots of photographs.

On Boxing Day we went out walking. Our original plan was to do a circular walk beginning with the Golitha falls Nature Reserve and continuing with a circular walk. This was later modified.

GOLITHA FALLS

Golitha falls are actually more a series of rapids on the river Fowey than falls as such. The nature reserve is very beautiful and has some interesting historic connections – the town of Fowey, at the estuary of the river Fowey used to be important in the pottery trade, and the clay from which the china was made passed through this region. In the course of our explorations we saw details of a pipeline that had once carried liquid kaolin.

THE DONIERT STONE

Doniert was the last recorded King of Cornwall back in the ninth century. His stone and an accompanying half stone sit in a semicircular enclosure just off a road. Although our original walk plan had to be abandoned to a stretch that was too muddy to be passed – I had a shoe sucked off before we abandoned our original plan – we were able to find an alternative route to the Doniert Stone and see this very interesting historical relic.

VIDEO

Here is a video…

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my pictures from this excursion…

A Cornish Christmas 3: Cotehele and Calstock

An account of a visit to Cotehele House and a scenic walk thereafter.

I begin this third post in my series about my holiday in Cornwall with an apology. The photo gallery is incomplete due to a mishap in the course of this walk. I lost my tote bag, which contained among other things spare batteries for my camera, which meant that when the battery I was using ran out part way through I could not replace it. Fortunately someone had handed it in at reception at Cotehele House and I was able to retrieve it.

A STATELY HOME AND A SCENIC WALK

On Christmas Eve we visited Cotehele House, for six centuries home to the Edgecumbe family, until the then Earl of Edgecumbe passed it to the National Trust in 1965, and then went for a scenic walk, which began with a wander through the hills and ended with a walk back along the Tamar Valley. We passed Calstock Church, quite separate from Calstock itself (I got no pictures of the church as my camera was out of battery by then), got some glorious views of the Calstock Viaduct, which carries the Tamar Valley line over the river of the same name (I managed to capture some before my camera ran out), and visited a pub on the way back along the Tamar Valley. Surprisingly for a pub on a popular walking route in a scenic location the prices were not by British standards extortionate – I produced a £20 note to purchase three drinks, fully expecting only shrapnel back by way of change, and my change included a £5 note as well as a few coins. We got back to the fort just as darkness was falling.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here is my incomplete but hopefully still impressive photo gallery from this day…

The Cotehele/ Calstock pictures begin here.
A view of the house from the rear.
A distant view of the Calstock viaduct.
It was at this point that my camera battery failed.
A couple of late pictures after my bag was restored to me.
A boat we saw from the car on the journey back and that I was able to photograph after our return.

A Cornish Christmas 2: A Quiet Tuesday

Continuing my account of my Christmas in Cornwall with a brief post about Tuesday’s activities.

In the last post on this site I detailed my journey from Norfolk to Cornwall. Here I pick up the story with a brief account of the first full day of the holiday.

A WALK TO GET INTO THE SWING OF THINGS

The only thing I did of note on the Tuesday was to walk to and from Kingsand, which provided some photos. The walk is a pleasant one, featuring a stretch of the coast path, with some splendid views. There was some more serious walking to follow, as you will read.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My gallery in naturally dominated by the pictures I took while walking…

The walk pictures start here (this ius a covered walkway from the third floor of the apartment bit of the castle up the road out, near the officer’s mess.
Fort Pickelcome as seen looking back from the edge of Kingsand.
…and end here.

A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curate’s Egg Journey Down

An account of a “curate’s egg’ journey from King’s Lynn to Fort Picklecombe. Parts of the journey were indeed excellent, and I got some good photos along the way.

I am in Cornwall for Christmas. I travelled down yesterday, which journey I shall be covering in this post, and will staying until Sunday.

THE GOOD: KING’S LYNN TO PADDINGTON

My itinerary for this journey started with catching the 10:45 from King’s Lynn to Kings Cross, so I set off at 10 o’clock sharp to make sure I got to the station in good time. The train ran precisely as per schedule, and at 12:33 I alighted on to Platform 9 of Kings Cross station. The Hammersmith and City line journey from Kings Cross to Paddington, following the original route of the world’s first passenger carrying underground railway was also uneventful. I consumed a light meal courtesy of a branch of Costa that is structurally part of the station, and then it was necessary to be ready for the next and longest phase of the journey…

THE BAD – A GWR HORROR SHOW

Although today’s Great Western Railway has the same name as the company founded by the legendary Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and serves most of the same routes, I do not think that Brunel would be impressed with his company’s modern day namesake. Actually the current GWR should probably be glad that the dead cannot sue under UK law. As I scanned the departure screen on the bridge linking the various platforms at this iconic station (the photo gallery at the end of this post contains some pictures that should go some way to showing you why this station is rated as one of Europe’s finest) I noticed there were some cancellations, and some delays. My own train was among the delayed, and the estimated time was being pushed back in small increments. Eventually at 2:15, 12 minutes after the scheduled departure time we were finally given the platform information. I managed to get to my booked seat, and a few moments later we were finally underway. However the late departure caused us to end up behind a couple of stopping services between Exeter and Plymouth, so the train arrived very late at Plymouth (once I am back in Lynn the company will be hearing from me as I expect compensation from them for both the stress experienced at Paddington and the very late arrival in Plymouth).

THE FINAL STAGE

My sister met myself and my nephew at Plymouth station (he, due to mishaps associated with another train company, South Western, had ended up on the same train as me), and drove us to our final destination, Fort Picklecombe in Cornwall. Apart from the satnav making a few daft mistakes (at one point telling us to make a u-turn when we actually on the Torpoint ferry!) this part of the journey was thankfully uneventful.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs I took yesterday, plus a couple from this morning:

Ely Cathedral, through a train window approaching the station from the north.
An inspection train, near Ely.
The roof at Kings Cross.
A fine combination of central roundel, map to the left and information poster to the right, with a train on the other platform providing the backdroop.
A close up of the roundel.
This was probably the best picture I got of a roof arch at Paddington station.
A reasonably close picture of a Central line train approaching Ealing Broadway and a much more distant one of another train on the same line leaving that station.
A District line train at Ealing Broadway. It has steeper sides than the rounded Central line stock, and is also larger, the District having been built to mainline spec, while the deep level tube lines are smaller.
This yellow train (see also next picture) is I believe an engineering train.
Newton Abbot station features a standard-issue post box at platform level.
Two pictures of the lighthouse taken through the window of the living room at Fort Picklecombe.

Renegades Blown Away by Hurricanes

A look back at todays BBL game between Melbourne Renegades and Hobart Hurricanes and a photo gallery.

This morning UK time saw Melbourne Renegades entertain Hobart Hurricanes at Geelong. This post looks back at the match.

THE RENEGADES INNINGS

The match started strangely, with Josh Brown allowing Chris Jordan to bowl a maiden in the first over of the match. Maidens are rare birds in T20s, and I cannot recall a previous example of a match in this format starting with such an over. Tim Seifert got a single early in the second over, but off the fourth ball thereof Brown fell to a catch by Nikhil Chaudhary off Riley Meredith for an eight ball duck, an absurd innings in a T20. The third and fourth overs, bowled by Nathan Ellis and then Meredith bowling his second were taken for 17 runs each, and a Power Play score of 36-1 looked respectable. However, Hurricanes immediately tightened things up. In the ninth over Jordan bowled Seifert for 34 to make it 63-2. With the penultimate ball of the 10th over English leg spinner Rehan Ahmed bowled Mohammad Rizwan for 32, which brought about the mid-innings drinks break at 69-3. Two overs later Jake Fraser-McGurk and Ollie Peake were still together, and there was an obvious case for activating the Power Surge. However Renegades did the cowardly thing and held back in the hope of getting a better opportunity. Five balls into the 13th over Peake was well caught by Matthew Wade off Nathan Ellis to make it 86-4, and a chance to use the Surge with two batters who have both already faced a few balls had been squandered. Three balls into the 14th over and Hurricanes other leg spinner, Bangladeshi Rishad Hossain, bowled Fraser-McGurk to make it 88-5. Hassan Khan and Will Sutherland revived things for Renegades, and they eventually activated the Surge for overs 17 and 18. The first of these overs was beneficial to their cause, but the second, bowled by Jordan, was ruinous. Hassan Khan was out to the first ball of it, and Sutherland to the fourth, to make it 126-7. Jordan conceded one more run in the over, but still at that point had 3-9 from three overs. The last ball of the 19th over saw Gurinder Sandhu fall to a catch by Hossain off Ellis to make it 133-8. The final over was Jordan’s fourth and last as well, and with the second ball of it he accounted for Fergus O’Neill to make it 135-9. Jordan did not manage to complete his five-for, and ten runs accrued from the last four balls of the innings. However, 145-9 still looked a hopelessly inadequate score, and 4-1-19-4 was still an excellent set of bowling figures. Jordan has played over 400 T20s in his long career, and has never yet taken a five-for, though todays figures were not quite a career best – he has recorded 4-6 in the past. Rishad Hossain had 1-21 from his four overs and Rehan Ahmed 1-25 from his. If Stokes is still worried about Bashir’s lack of skill with the bat (see here) then perhaps Ahmed, a genuinely front line bowler could come into the side. It would be far from the first time that an English player in Australia not as part of a tour party has been drafted in in an emergency – George Gunn, in Australia for health reasons, was called in to the 1907-8 touring party and proceeded to top score in both innings on test debut, while in the 1990s Gus Fraser, omitted by Illingworth, was clever enough to arrange to be in Australia playing grade cricket, and soon found himself back in the side.

THE HURRICANES CHASE

Mitchell Owen fell to the first ball of the chase, caught behind by Rizwan off Jason Behrendorff. However Nikhil Chaudhary, recently demoted from opening to number three, then hit the second, third and fourth balls of that opening over for fours and Hurricanes were on their way, and never really looked back. The other opener, Tim Ward, was also dismissed in the Power Play, for 8, but Hurricanes already had 38 on the board by then. It was the third wicket stand between Chaudhury and Ben McDermott that killed the game stone dead. At the halfway mark Hurricanes were 95-2, with these two still together, and activating the Power Surge at the earliest possible opportunity was a blatantly obvious thing to do, and Hurricanes duly did so. Although they lost Chaudhury to the last ball of the Surge, caught by Fraser-McGurk off Sandhu for 79 (38) the two overs had also yielded 36 runs (18 each), and a mere 15 were needed for victory by then. It took 1.5 overs to knock those runs off, with no further wickets falling. McDermott ended on 49 not out (33). Hurricanes had won by seven wickets with 6.1 overs to spare and went top of the table. Jordan was named Player of the Match for his great bowling. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…