A look at some recent action in the men’s and women’s T20 cups and a large photo gallery.
Both the men’s and women’s domestic T20 cup competitions are going on at the moment. Yesterday both Surrey teams recorded wins at Southampton. Today Essex Women are closing in on victory over Birmingham Bears Women (I followed the early part of that match, before the first part of today’s action at The Oval got underway). This post looks at some of these matches.
YESTERDAY EVENING
I got home from work yesterday just in time to catch the closing stages of Hampshire Women v Surrey Women. It went down to the very final ball, which Paige Scholfield hit for four to get Surrey over the line. The men’s match provided plenty of entertainment, but not a close finish. Surrey’s strong bowling unit, given a total of 193 to defend by their batters, were simply too good for the Hampshire batting, and the margin was very substantial in Surrey’s favour. Southampton has been a happy hunting ground for Surrey men in this tournament – they last lost to Hampshire there way back in 2015. Is it time for Hampshire to schedule this fixture for an out ground? Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Basingstoke have all staged matches over the years.
TODAY
Essex won the toss and batted. They scored 150-3 from their 20 overs, Cordelia Griffith scoring 47 not out of 36 balls and Madeline Penna 41 not out off 42 balls. Some good captaincy by Grace Scivens, at 21 a very young skipper, and some ordinary batting from Warwickshire seemed to have settled it. At 111-6 it looked all done. However, since then another youngster, Charis Pavely, a left arm spin bowling all rounder, has been showing an audience that includes a number of school parties what she can do with the bat, and it now looks like Birmingham Bears are going to win. Pavely is currently 67* (38), with five fours and three sixes.
Surrey Women are currently in action against Lancashire Thunder Women, while the second half of this somewhat unorthodox double header will feature Surrey Men against Sussex Sharks Men. The current match started with a bang – Bryony Smith hitting the first ball of it for four and then being bowled by the second to give Sophie Morris instant revenge. Sophia Dunkley got to 10 and was then bowled by Tara Norris. Then a disastrous piece of running between the wickets cost Surrey the wicket of Kira Chathli. A mini-revival led by Grace Harris and with Danni Wyatt-Hodge struggling but fighting gamely has just ended with Wyatt-Hodge going stumped by Threlkeld off Sophie Morris to make it 50-4 in the eighth over, S Morris 2-5. Paige Scholfield has joined Harris.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
A new insect sighting – for all its colouring this is too large to be any kind of bee or wasp.Photographing swallows is hard because they move fast and a are never at rest.A Cinnabar MothA Cinnabar Moth caterpillar.The hot weather we are having here in King’s Lynn has brought the dragonflies out.Two Little Egrets in one frame.
A look back at the three and a bit days over which the South Africa men’s cricket team finally and decisively shed the chokers tag they had carried for over quarter of a century, and a photo gallery.
At 12:46 today, Saturday 14 June, Kyle Verreynne scored the single that completed a win by five wickets for South Africa over Australia in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s. This post looks back at the match.
DAY ONE
Both sides were stronger in bowling than in batting, so even though there was potential trouble ahead from Lyon getting to use a fourth innings pitch it was no great surprise that South Africa opted to bowl first when they won the toss. South Africa provides probably the best conditions in the world for fast bowling, and that was reflected by the presence in their ranks of Rabada, Jansen and Ngidi plus Wiaan Mulder as fourth seamer, with Keshav Maharaj the only front line spinner, with Markram a part time off spinner. Rabada in particular bowled superbly on the opening day, and when Australia were all out for 212 it looked like South Africa were well placed. However, they had a tricky session of batting to navigate before the close, and did not do so very well. By the end of the day they were 43-4 and most of the good work of their bowlers looked to have been undone.
DAY TWO
I missed almost the whole of this day due to being at work. However, I know that Cummins was in particularly fine form, and that South Africa were all out for 138, a deficit of 74 on first innings. South Africa hit back hard by reducing the Australian second innings to 73-7. However the character of the match changed from this point – the eighth wicket stand yielded 61. By the close Australia were 144-8, an overall advantage of 218, and it was already known that South Africa would need the largest total of the match in the final innings thereof.
DAY THREE
I missed the first part of this day’s play as I was attending a first aid training course in the dockside area of King’s Lynn, somewhere I have never previously had occasion to visit. A long final wicket partnership between Starc and Hazlewood had left South Africa needing 282 to win. Ryan Rickelton was out very cheaply, and Wiaan Mulder once again suggested that he was miscast as test match number three, and should probably swap batting positions with David Bedingham, managing 27 on this occasion. However, from 70-2 at the dismissal of Mulder, Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma, the South Africa captain, took complete control of the day and indeed of the match. There were precious few moments of vulnerability for either as they batted on through a sunny afternoon and evening. Markram reached his hundred just before the close, as valuable a test knock as has ever been played for South Africa, and with Bavuma solid in support the Proteas closed the day on 213-2, needing a mere 69 more to win. Markram had 102 not out to his name, Bavuma 65 noy out.
DAY FOUR
Bavuma did not last long on this morning, adding just one to his overnight tally before Cummins elicited an edge, and Carey took the catch behind the stumps. Tristan Stubbs, next in, never looked comfortable. At 241 came two big moments. First Starc appealed for LBW against Stubbs, and when it was turned down acceded to Carey’s suggestion that it be sent upstairs. Fine cricketer though he is, Carey has to be regarded as one of the worst judges of a review the DRS era has ever seen. Here, in an echo of Headingley 2019, though their opponents were rather more strongly placed than England back then, it was duly confirmed as being sufficiently clearly not out for Australia to have burned their last review. Stubbs did not benefit much personally, as Starc’s next delivery hit his stumps to make it 241-4, 41 needed. Bedingham settled in quickly, and he and Markram seemed to be heading toward the target quite serenely. The main question by now looked to be whether Markram was going to reach 3,000 test runs before the end of the match. With Markram on 136, and his career tally on 2,993, and South Africa needing just a further six he flicked a ball from Hazlewood into the on side and was caught by Travis Head. Australia unsurprisingly did not celebrate the dismissal. Wicket keeper Kyle Verreynne now came in to join Bedingham. This pair saw it home for the last few runs, with Verreynne as mentioned in the intro scoring the winning run. It has been 26 years since South Africa acquired the chokers tag. Then, in the 1999 ODI world cup a win in their last ‘Super Six’ match would have consigned Australia to an early flight home, put Zimbabwe in the semi-finals and left the tournament at the Proteas mercy. Allan Donald was the victim of a panic run out with the scores level, which meant that Australia and South Africa met again in the semi-final, and Australia did not grant South Africa an opportunity to redeem themselves, and went on to dominate the final as well. In the intervening years they have had other close calls, including in the 2024 T20 World Cup, when they need 30 from the last five overs with five wickets standing and failed to get home, largely because of some magnificent bowling by Jasprit Bumrah. Thus this is not merely a match and a trophy won for South Africa, it is much needed healing balm for some deep psychological wounds they have acquired over the years. Full scorecard here.
PHOTOGRAPHS
One small bit of housekeeping first: I have created a page listing my series of posts about my 50th Birthday Holiday in far western Scotland in chronological order. As you may imagine I have a fairly rich trove of unused photos since my return to King’s Lynn, so today’s offering is in the nature of a highlights package…
No, this is not a carelessly discarded boiled sweet, it is a metallic shieldbug.A shieldbug of a different variety.A particularly impressive heron.I think the butterfly in this picture and the next is a Painted Lady.This could be a Hummingbird Hawk MothThe one non-highlight part of this gallery – as I am unlikely to be there again I have shown all my pics from the dock area.I saw this on my back from yesterday’s training session.These fish were swimming near the surface of the pond closest to my home.
An account in three parts of the return journey from the far west of Scotland to my home in eastern England,, by way of a conclusion to my series about my holiday around my 50th birthday.
Welcome to the final instalment in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around my 50th birthday. The previous post dealt with the birthday meal, which was the last significant event of the holiday itself. This post looks at the journey home.
ACHNOSNICH TO CRIANLARICH
To combat the perils of Sunday travelling (necessitated by my birthday itself falling on a Saturday this year) I had limited the train part of my journey to Crianlarich, a junction station where the routes from Oban and Mallaig meet on their way into Glasgow, although I could have got significantly closer to the Ardnamurchan Peninsula had I trusted the Mallaig branch to be running. Thus for the first part of the journey I would be travelling in my parents car, sharing the back seat with my bags. We had decided that we should aim to be away by 9AM, to ensure getting to Crianlarich in good time. I did not have a booked seat on either this train or the connecting service from Glasgow to Edinburgh, but I did have a booked seat on the train from Edinburgh to Peterborough, and to make that I had to make both previous trains. We had a smooth journey to Crianlarich, though the sight of a crowd of people outside the station caused a bit of worry. It turned out that they were waiting for a replacement bus as a train heading towards Oban had malfunctioned and had to be pulled from service. There was thankfully no hint of trouble affecting services heading into Glasgow. Because of the role Crianlarich plays in this section of the railway the arrival of the service coming in from Oban did not end the wait – we still had to wait for the service from Mallaig to arrive and be coupled to the other for the onward run to Glasgow.
Here are my photos from Achosnich up to and including the platform at Crianlarich Station…
CRIANLARICH TO EDINBURGH
The run from Crianlarich to Glasgow was smooth but left me only a few minutes to make the change of trains at Glasgow Queen Street. The run on to Edinburgh was also smooth, and at Edinburgh Waverley I had the luxury of time. Owing to the station cafe at Crianlarich being closed and there being no other opportunities en route it was not until Waverley, around about 4:30PM, that I had the opportunity to get food. Safely ensconced in my booked seat for the long, though fast, run to Peterborough, and thus knowing that I would be home that night, I phoned my parents to let them know that all was going to be OK.
Here are my photographs for this section of the journey:
EDINBURGH TO HOME
The Edinburgh to Peterborough run was smooth, though a trifle crowded. Just south of York I visited the buffet car for further sustenance. Owing to the fact that Sunday night train and bus services overlapped very poorly I was making the journey on from Peterborough by train on this occasion, which meant a change at Ely. Fortunately there were no issues at any stage, and it would have been about 11:15PM, somewhat more than 14 hours after setting off from Achosnich, that I got back to my home in North Lynn (the train to Lynn arrived there at about 10:50, but when tired and carrying holiday baggage the walk from the station to North Lynn is not as insignificant as I generally consider it).
Continuing my account of my holiday in far western Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday with an account of the birthday meal.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around my 50th birthday. Following on from the post about the morning and afternoon of the day itself (Saturday 31 May) we now deal with the evening, when we having the birthday meal.
MINGARY CASTLE
The birthday meal was booked for the Mingary Castle restaurant, and it seemed logical to arrive a bit early and have time to look at the castle and its grounds. In appearance Mingary Castle looks much as Tioram Castle, at the extreme east of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, would had it not been allowed to fall into ruins (check this post from three years ago for more about Tioram). There are some splendid sea views from the grounds (while the castle does have windows they are effectively functionless). There is also an interesting little display near the car parking area including sculptures of two frogs and a bench on which three monkey sculptures sit side by side, one seeing no evil, one hearing no evil and one speaking no evil. Inside the castle is quite impressive as well.
THE MEAL ITSELF
There were some things that would be served anyway, and we had to choose two course out of three from a set menu. Since the starter was entirely tomato based we went for the main course and the dessert. When it came to drinks they had beer available – I chose a local product called Dark Mile, which proved to be excellent. The meal was magnificently cooked, especially the lamb for the main course, which was done in three different ways.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are my photographs from the evening…
The frogs.The three monkeysAn outside view of the castle.Dark Mile
Continuing my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around my 50th birthday with the first of two posts about the day itself.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday. We have arrived at the day itself, the last full day of the holiday.
THE BIRTHDAY MORNING
Saturday May 31st started with heavy rainfall. I had brought my sister’s present to me with me so I would have something to open on the day, and my mother had brought a card from an aunt. This card is splendid, and now has its place in my collection of railwayana. The present from my sister was an incomplete scorecard from the legendary 1926 test match at The Oval, where England secured their first Ashes series win since before WWI. From the parts of the scorecard that were pre-filled in and the additions by its original owner I deduce that whoever it was attended days two and three in person but was not there for Australia’s final collapse on day four, though they definitely knew about it since at the bottom of the scorecard there is in big red characters (probably by way of a marker pen) the result: England won by 289 runs. There is a detailed account of this match written pretty much contemporaneously since England chairman of selectors at the time Pelham Warner wrote a book about the 1926 Ashes, “The Fight For The Ashes 1926”, a copy of which is in my cricket library.
PORTUAIRK
In the afternoon the weather cleared up, and we walked to Portuairk and did some exploration of the seaside there. This helped us work up an appetite for the birthday meal, which will be the subject of the next post in the series.
PHOTOGRAPHS
To view pictures at full size click on them/ If you open the first picture in the gallery you can view all of them, including an option to do so as a slide show. Here are the photographs that relate to this post…
The cardA close up of the locomotiveThe scorecardClose up of the England innings.Close up of the Australian innings.The resultThe reverse of the scorecard.
Continuing my account of my holiday in the far west of Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday with a post about our visit to Sanna.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday. This is the third post about the activities of a fairly busy Friday (May 30th), following on from the account of the Glenborrodale Nature Reserve walk and a post about the activities of the middle part of the day. This post covers our visit to Sanna.
AN OVERVIEW OF SANNA
Here is a map showing the location of Sanna:
This map, cropped from an image of a larger map, shows the location of Sanna and some other west Ardnamurchan landmarks, including the port of Kilchoan, the lighthouse and Achosnich, where we were staying.
Sanna is right in the heart of a ring of mountains created by volcanic action many millions of years ago, and is considered a site of Special Scientific Interest. This is also an area where crofting is practised, which means that sheep graze on the open land. As a visitor then (not applicable to us as none of us are pet owners) it is your responsibility to keep your pet under tight control – your right to have your pet run loose ends well before the crofters rights to have their sheep graze in safety begin – and if your pet is making trouble it may well be shot and you will have no redress. In addition to this the basic general rule of being out in the green places applies: take nothing except photographs and leave nothing except footprints.
WHERE THE LAND MEETS THE SEA
Although Sanna is about as far from the birthplace of golf as one can get while still being in mainland Scotland (St Andrews is on the east coast of Scotland) the land in its vicinity is very much of the type of which that game was first played – the word links in its golf context derives from the terrain in question linking the land and the sea. It must be acknowledged that although I would regard building such a thing there as an act of desecration that the grassland around Sanna would undoubtedly make a very challenging golf course. There is a splendid river mouth very close to Sanna – it formed the furthest limits of our exploration. Some of the buildings in Sanna are quite interesting, but the true delight of the area is of course its scenery. There are detailed information boards about the geology of the area, to top up what I covered in this post. I enjoyed my visit and would recommend a visit there if you ever in the area (it would be an absurdly long detour if you were not already in the area for another purpose).
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are my photographs from Sanna.
The western half of the Ardnamurchan peninsula as viewed from space.The official warning notice to visitors.The remains of a stone built cottage.
The middle part of the Friday of my birthday holiday – Camas Nan Geall, Kilchoan Jetty, an abortive attempt to access Greadal Fhinn and a successful location of St Comghan’s church.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday. This post follows naturally from its immediate predecessor in the series.
CAMAS NAN GEALL
We had passed this on our way to the nature reserve and wanted a closer look, so on the way back we stopped there. We did not go all the way down to the seaside, but there was nevertheless plenty to see. We encountered a group of birdwatchers who had eyes on a white tailed eagle (it was too distant to be seen without binoculars). We had prepared sandwiches for lunch and I ate mine here.
KILCHOAN JETTY AND AN ABORTIVE WALK
We needed to visit the shop in Kilchoan anyway, and Kilchoan Jetty is very close to the shop. We also attempted to visit an old burial site called Greadal Fhinn but that proved abortive.
KILCHOAN OLD CHURCH
We were able, after a small amount of confusion over how to access it, to get to the old, now ruined, church of Kilchoan, dedicated to St Comghan. The new church and accompanying new manse have car parking space, and the walk up to the old church, which goes through two fields and along a stretch of what was once the old manse’s driveway. The site is very attractive and commands some splendid views. St Comghan started life as an eighth century prince of Leinster, but fled his native land and came to Scotland. The church named in his honour served Kilchoan for at least half a millennium. I end this post at this point, because our final port of call on this day, Sanna, merits a post of its own.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are my photographs from this part of Friday…
Camas Nan Geall starts here.The Kilchoan section begins here.A distant view of St Comghan’s.
Continuing my account of my 50th birthday holiday with an account of the walk around Glenborrodale nature reserve.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday (I was away from 25th May to 1st June inclusive). We are now starting to deal with Friday May 30th which was a fairly busy day.
WHEN WEST IS EAST
Glenborrodale is itself pretty far west, and the nature reserve is west of the village. Thus most people approaching the nature reserve do from the east, to the point that the directions in our booklet of walks for getting there assumed as a default that everyone would be approaching from the east. However, we were actually approaching from the west, which meant that the instructions for getting there had to be mentally flipped – we had to realize that we were going to see the nature reserve before we saw the village it is named after. Here is a map plus some supplementary detail:
This map, extracted from the information board at Strontian, shows the whole Ardnamurchan Peninsula. We were staying more or less at the point where the road to the lighthouse diverges from the road to Portuairk, right at the western end of the peninsula, while Glenborrodale is in the south-eastern corner of the peninsula. This was actually the furthest east we travelled on any of our excursions during the week.
THE WALK
The walk is circular, ending with a stretch along the road to get back to the car park. The nature reserve part of the walk starts with a long ascent, then a brief flat patch where one walks on boardwalks (these boardwalks are superb, and made the walk much more enjoyable than it might have been). Then there is a long downhill section back to the road. There are information boards at various points along the route about what you can see. This nature reserve is under the aegis of the RSPB and they have a section about this walk on their website. I did not manage to spot a Violet Beetle, but I did get one green bodied dragon fly and three common/ highland darters in the course of the walk. I thoroughly recommend this walk should you be in the area.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here is my gallery from this walk….
A brightly colour butterfly resting on a dandelion.A green bodied dragon flu rests on a fern frond.The first of the three darters (I saw them all in very quick succession)
A look at the areas closest to where we were staying. Most of the pictures come from two walks to and from Portuairk, but some were taken through the car window, and some just outside out converted caravan.
This is the ninth post in my series about my recent holiday in Scotland. Achosnich, where we were staying can barely said to be a place at all – about five houses clustered immediately above a road junction where the road out from Kilchoan splits into two, one leg going up through Achosnich and on to the small seaside village of Portuairk and the other going to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and the westernmost point of mainland Britain. The photos in this post were mainly taken during two walks on the Thursday, when the weather was too bad to permit major excursions.
A CONVERTED CARAVAN
The main body of the house in which we were staying started life as a caravan. To make a house of it a porch area/ utility room was added to one side of the centre of the building. This, which also houses a washing machine and drying frames, is reasonably spacious, as are the dining and living room areas, though the kitchen is cramped, and no more than one person should be trying to do things there at any one time. The main bedroom has a small amount of space around the bed, and has been painted an unappealing shade of purple. The second bedroom has a not terribly large bed with some space its foot, and a wardrobe and two drawers in one corner (these, and the frame of the wall mounted mirror are painted the same shade of purple is as on show in the master bedroom). There is just about space between the side of the bed and the wall of the bedroom to sideways shuffle along the side of the bed. The shower room has the shower cubicle itself, with a good strong protective curtain, and a tiny anteroom area where one towel can be hung on the rail. The lavatory and bathroom sink are in a similar sized ‘room’, with both being more like cupboards than real rooms.
THE WALK TO PORTUAIRK
The walk to Portuairk features some excellent views, and Portuairk itself is a very scenic village. The road continues at sea level until the start of a footpath the leads to MacNeil Bay. On these occasions I did not spend much time in the environs of Portuairk, though there will be another post later in this series from an occasion when I spent longer there.
Continuing my series about my Scottish holiday with a post about a walk to MacNeil Bay.
This is my eighth post in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around my 50th birthday (a full week – May 25th to June 1st inclusive). It follows on from the visit to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse.
THE WALK TO MACNEIL BAY
The path we followed left the road a noticeable way back inland from the lighthouse. MacNeil Bay was the first destination, and had we felt like doing so we could have walked on to Portuairk. In the event, the walk down to the bay and a bit of time spent there was amply sufficient. MacNeil Bay is very beautiful, and we were there in good weather.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are my photographs from this walk and the bay itself…
aspiblog 