aspiblog

England Complete 3-0 Series Triumph Over West Indies

An account of England’s victory over West Indies at Edgbaston and resultant 3-0 series triumph, plus a photo gallery.

Yesterday I put up a post just as England were moving into a first innings lead over West Indies in the third test match of the series at Edgbaston. This post looks at the events that have unfolded since that one.

ENGLAND SURGE AHEAD

Jamie Smith and Chris Woakes extended England’s lead at a rapid rate. Smith just missed out on a maiden test century, but his 95 was a command performance, beginning with England still very much in jeopardy and ending with them in complete control. The scoring was not quite done even then – Gus Atkinson belted a couple of sixes coming it number ten, and England ended with a first innings lead of 94, and West Indies had an awkward mini-session to get through with the bat.

EARLY WICKETS FOR ENGLAND

West Indies did not make as much of a Horlicks of this mini-session of batting as the 1994 England side had in Trinidad, but the experienced Kraigg Brathwaite fell early, and Kirk McKenzie completed a truly miserable series (33 runs at 5.50 in six innings from a supposed number three) by doing likewise.

WOOD WASTES WEST INDIES

The West Indies had a respectable morning, though they needed far more. Mikyle Louis who had previously produced a succession of scores in the 20s completed a maiden test 50, and Kavem Hodge also reached 50. However, the lunch time score of 151-5, with da Silva batting in company with Hodge held out little hope for them, being a lead of only 57. The end of the West Indies innings was swift and brutal as the pace of Mark Wood was simply too much for them. Joshua da Silva had been somewhat fortunate to survive two LBW appeals from Wood when he was given out at the third time of asking and did not review it. Six runs later Alzarri Joseph had his stumps comprehensively shattered, and then at 171 came the killer blow for such hopes as West Indies retained, Hodge edging one through to Smith who made no mistake with the catch. Three balls later Jayden Seales’ off stump was sent cartwheeling. Number 11 Shamar Joseph creamed a four through the off side but the second ball of his innings was fast, full and straight, took the edge of his bat and flew to Brook in the slips. West Indies were all out for 175 and Wood had figures of 5-40 for the innings.

STOKES SLAMS HOME ENGLAND’S SUPREMACY

Zak Crawley was having a scan on an injured finger, which means that England needed someone else to open. However with a target of only 82 (three runs fewer than has ever been successfully defended in the fourth innings of a test match, and that match in 1882 was incredibly low scoring – the highest of the four individual innings was Australia’s second innings of 122) this was unliekly matter much. Rather than ask anyone else to do the necessary Stokes donned the pads himself and opened the innings with Duckett – two left handers answering to Ben opening the innings together. It was soon apparent that Stokes intended the match to be over before the tea interval – before the innings was two overs old he had struck four boundaries, and he continued in that vein, overshadowing Duckett, not generally noted for being a shrinking violet with the bat. Stokes reached 50 off just 24 balls, the quickest ever for England in test cricket (four balls quicker than Botham v India during the 1981-2 series), and two balls outside the all-comers record by Misbah-ul-Haq of Pakistan. Stokes finished things by belting the second ball of the eighth over for six to give England victory by ten wickets with two days and a little more than a session to spare. Wood’s blistering spell to terminate the West Indies second innings saw him named Player of the Match, while Gus Atkinson with 22 wickets at 16.22 each in the three matches was named Player of the Series. The West Indies have a promising bowling attack, but their batting is indubitably weak and lacking in depth. Playing Holder at six and da Silva at seven requires a much stronger top five than West Indies currently possess – Louis batted well today, Brathwaite is experienced but no ones idea of a great test opener and Hodge has been impressive, but Athanaze has played only one innings of note in this series, and I have already mentioned Kirk McKenzie’s shocking series. A full scorecard for this match can be seen here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

A little bit of a preamble to today’s gallery, relating to the first picture in it: one of my fairly recent library finds is Rachel McLean’s ‘Dorset Crime’ series, several volumes of which I have now read. I highly recommend this series, in which I have read books 1,3,4,5,6 and 7 to date. The seventh book, “The Blue Pool Murders” features a map showing all the locations (LJ Ross in her Northumbrian crime series does the same thing, as does Rebecca Tope in both her Lake District and Cotswold series). Preamble done here is my usual sign off…

Ups and Downs at Birmingham

A look at developments son far in the third test match between England and the West Indies at Edgbaston

Yesterday morning the third test match of the three match series between England and the West Indies got underway at Edgbaston, Birmingham.

THE PRELIMINARIES

England named an unchanged XI, logical but a little disappointing – one would have like to see Potts and/ or Pennington in action. West Indies showed one change – Motie who had missed the second match due to injury returning in place of Sinclair, who had stood in for him. West Indies won the toss and chose to bat first. Putting England in on a surface like the one at Edgbaston would have reeked of fear, so this was a positive sign.

DAY ONE

West Indies began well, with the opening stand yielding 76. However one wicket produced a clatter, and at 115-5 West Indies looked in deep trouble. Jason Holder and Joshua da Silva then had an excellent partnership for the sixth wicket. The lower order also contributed a little, and in the end West Indies posted 282 all out. Kraigg Brathwaite scored 61 opening the batting, Holder 59 in the middle of the order, and Gus Atkinson had the best bowling figures with 4-67, giving him 20 wickets one innings in to his third test match. England had a mini-session to negotiate before the close, and made rather a hash of doing so, losing both openers and nightwatcher Mark Wood to end the day on a precarious 38-3.

DAY TWO (SO FAR)

The day started as the previous one had ended, with England losing wickets rapidly – first Pope and then Brook departed cheaply, at which point it was 54-5. Root and Stokes began the recovery, putting on 115 together before Stokeshit a short ball from Alzarri Joseph straight to Kraigg Brathwaite at forward short leg. Root and Jamie Smith continued the good work before Motie trapped Root LBW 13 short of a century. In the course of this innings Root passed Lara’s career aggregate of test runs, took his own tally past 12,000 and in the process assured himself of ending the innings with his average above 50 – the sixth time in his career that he has moved his average above 50. That was 231-7, with Woakes joining Smith. Smith completed his second test fifty, and when the tea interval arrived England were 274-7, just 8 runs short of first innings parity. A rain delay has extended the tea interval but they are now back underway. While I have been preparing this for publication England have moved into a first innings lead, with Smith and Woakes still together.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The Hundred 2024

A look at goings on in the Hundred 2024 so far and a large photo gallery.

The most controversial competition in cricket, The Hundred, is under way for 2024. This post looks at some of what has happened already.

THE HUNDRED 2024

The Hundred got underway on Tuesday, and there was also action on Wednesday and Thursday, and will be more today.

Tuesday saw the Oval Invincibles successful in both the women’s and men’s games.

On Wednesday Southern Brave and London Spirit were the contending teams. London Spirit won the women’s match, largely thanks to a superb 65* from Heather Knight. Tilly Corteen-Coleman, making her Hundred debut at the age of just 16 had a dream start when she dismissed Meg Lanning with her second ball, holding a fine return catch to do so.

Yesterday was the turn of Manchester Originals and Welsh Fire. In the women’s match it looked at one point like the Originals could defend a total of 113, but Sophia Dunkley stepped on the accelerator at the crucial moment, turning a questionable looking 37* (34) into an indubitably match winning 69* (47).

The Men’s game embarrassingly one-sided, as an appalling batting performance from the Originals saw them tumble to 37-7. They recovered from there to post 86-8 from their 100 balls, but Welsh Fire made that total look absolutely as derisory as it was, never looking in any trouble at any stage of the chase.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

An Amazing Auction

A whistlestop tour of the greatest highlights of an outstandingly successful auction that took place on Wednesday.

On Wednesday just over 500 lots of mainly railway models went under the hammer at James and Sons. I had produced somewhere close to 3,000 images for this auction which gave me particular interest in proceedings. It was an extraordinarily successful auction, and my list of big achieving lots ran to about 80, and I had mentally adjusted my normal threshold for this upwards by some way early in the auction when it was obvious how it would go. For the rest of this post I am going cover a very few of these highlights.

THE HIGHLIGHT LOTS

Lot 507, a Bachman Aston Steam Breakdown Crane expected to fetch £30-40 climbed all the way up to £110. Here is the image gallery for that lot:

Lot 509, a large range of Bachman wagons expected to get 50-60 went for £180.

Lot 511 a boxed set of the ‘Northumbrian’ with certificate of authenticity, was estimated at 40-50 and went for £100.

Lot 551, a large collection of Hornby Gresley and Pullman coaches expected to fetch 80-120 soared to £220.

This image is a composite of the next three (the only way I could image a lot of this size)

Lot 653, a Hornby locomotive model ‘Walter K Whigham’, estimated at £30-40 went for £85.

Lot 714, a Hornby box set of Stephenson’s Rocket and its Carriages, estimated at 15-25 ended up going for £90!

Lot 760, a collection of Hornby coaches including a ‘Northumbrian’ pack, estimated at 40-60 went for £110.

Now comes a hat trick of triumphs. Lot 765, estimated at £10-15 went £100, 766 estimated at 15-20 went £120 and 767 estimated at 15-20 went for £90. These were all model locomotives.

I sign of with let 784, a NU Cast Locomotive LNER/BR class GER T26 class 2-4-0 Passenger Engine, boxed. Expected to fare no better than 10-15 it ended up selling for £70.

The Second Test Match Between England and West Indies

A look back at the test match at Trent Bridge between England and West indies. and a fine photo gallery.

I did not actually get to follow a great deal of the match that unfolded at Trent Bridge between Thursday and Sunday (scheduled for five days, but four proved enough). Thursday was a work day, so I got only the closing stages of England’s 416, and as documented in my previous two tests I was busy over the weekend.

A HISTORIC MATCH

England amassed 416 on the opening day, but had, as opening batter Ben Duckett admitted, “left a few runs out there”. The West Indies response was led by two batters from the tiny island of Dominica (also birthplace of pace bowlers Norbert Philip of the West indies and Phillip DeFreitas of England) Alick Athenaze (82) and Kavem Hodge (120, the first test century by a Dominican), and at the end of day two they were 351-5 in response to that 416 by England. In the end, assisted by England trying to be too clever against the tailenders, West Indies led by 41. During the bit of listening I got in on the Saturday in between concerts Brook and Root batted beautifully after Pope had completed a 50 and then got out. Both players would get hundreds, but for the second time in the match England didn’t maximise their opportunity, suffering a collapse late on. They did however pass 400 for the second time in the match, the first England team to do so (though it has been done against them at least once – Headingley 1948, England 496 and 365-8 declared, Australia 458 and 404-3 to win by seven wickets). Part of the reason that occurrences are rare (there have been 12 in all of test history) is that sides putting up big totals used to expect only to bat once – declining to enforce the follow-on was much rarer than it has recently become. Also scoring rates were less rapid in test cricket in days gone by, which mean that topping 400 twice would almost certainly not have led to victory (the extraordinary Headingley 1948 match aside). West Indies thus need 385 to win – fewer than had been scored in any of the first three innings of the match. By the time I got to catch up on the action on Sunday after Norton Hill the West Indies second innings was already underway, and it did not initially look promising for England. However, with 61 on the board Woakes had Mikyle Louis caught behind and a dramatic collapse set in, including off spinner Shoaib Bashir entering the record books by taking wickets in each of his first three overs – before this only one spinner had taken wickets in each of their first two overs in a test innings at Trent Bridge – Shane Warne, when he almost bowled Australia to victory in 2005 with England needing only 129 to win. When Wood dismissed Sinclair courtesy of a catch by Crawley West Indies had tumbled to 93-6. They were still six down when I left for my evening engagement, but England, with the aid of the extra half hour got the job done that evening. West Indies were all out for 143 in the end, Bashir 5-41, including the final wicket, Shamar Joseph clean bowled for 8. Pope was named Player of the Match for his scores of 121 and 51. England had underachieved with the bat in the first innings on their own admission, had arguably done the same in the second, and had still emerged victorious by the huge margin of 241 runs.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A Red Admiral looking rather the worse for wear.

Norton Hill

An account of my visit to Norton Hill near Snettisham yesterday.

On Sunday I was at Norton Hill, where the Hunstanton & District Rotary Club were running an event and had very kindly invited the West Norfolk Autism Group to have a stall. This post looks back at the event.

THE PLAN

I had said I would come on the Sunday as there was no way I could go on the Saturday (see my previous post). As I was envisaging leaving early due to having an evening commitment and wanting to catch up on the cricket at some point I planned being there as early as possible – which meant 11AM for the start of setup. I had arranged to travel by bus with another member of ours, and had picked out the number 35 leaving King’s Lynn bus station at 10:10 as the best option. I wasn’t over worried about buses back as there are at least three bus routes that run between Snettisham (Norton Hill is a few minutes walk from Snettisham town centre) and King’s Lynn, and even on a Sunday the services are pretty frequent (King’s Lynn – Hunstanton, which passes through Snettisham is Lynx Bus’s most important route). I hoped to help get things set up, take a look around and sample Norton Hill’s feature – a light railway. I did accomplish this.

THE NORTON HILL LIGHT RAILWAY

This railway runs for one kilometre (a circular journey), on tracks with a gauge of about nine inches. The locomotives though small are genuine steam locomotives. I managed to get there before it got really crowded, though I had a fairly long wait in the end, as I just missed getting on one train, and the next was reserved for a group of travelling singers, and actually broke down, meaning that the diesel locomotive kept for such emergencies had to be pressed into service. Fortunately the other steam train, on which I was travelling had no such issues. I enjoyed the journey, though the seating on the train I was on was very uncomfortable, and one kilometre was plenty from that point of view. On this short route a lot of pieces of railway infrastructure are duplicated in miniature – there are viaducts, there is one tunnel, which though not very long is impressively dark. This is very much a summer activity – there is no shelter for passengers. We got the bus back at around 3PM – it was 3:25 when we got in to King’s Lynn bus station. I was thus able to catch up with the cricket, though as you will see in my next post my evening engagement meant that I missed the conclusion.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here is my Norton Hill gallery…

This was one of a number of mosaics made by a member of ours and available for a donation. I didn’t actually buy it.

Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn Festival

A look back at Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn Festival.

I have had a very busy weekend – Saturday was Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn festival, and on Sunday I was involved with a fund-raising event at Norton Hill, and there was a family meal in the evening. This post deals with the Saturday.

HOW EARLY MUSIC DAY WORKS

Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn Festival comprises three concerts – a short one at noon, a longer one that starts at 7PM and a final short late evening concert that gets underway at 9:15PM. I attended with my mother, and we had lunch out after the noon concert. I then went home between that and the evening concerts to catch up on progress in the test match that was going on between England and the West Indies. The end of the early evening concert and the start of the late evening concert are so close together that one cannot do very much in the gap between them.

THE MIDDAY CONCERT

This was an organ recital by Harvey Stansfield and he had chosen some excellent works. Featured composers included JS Bach and the man he once walked 200 miles (each way) to see, Dietrich Buxtehude, among others. The organ at St Nicholas chapel is a superb instrument, and Stansfield’s performance was 100% worthy of such an instrument. Unfortunately attendance at this concert was both very small and very old – my mother looked younger than most of the audience, never mind me. Those who did the find the time to attend got a real treat. The full programme was: Bach, prelude and fugue in E Flat, Buxtehude, Praeludium in D Major, Coleridge-Taylor, Impromptu in F, Schumann, canonic studies 2&3 and Mendelssohn, Sonata no3 in D Major.

THE LUNCH

We had lunch at Marriotts, sat outside overlooking the Great Ouse (unfortunately the scene was marred by the river being at rather low tide which meant that lots of mud was on display). We were joined by my father who had already eaten, but who did indulge in a drink, and my nephew who both ate and drank. I, knowing that my arrangements for the rest of the weekend pretty much ensured that my next proper meal would be the Sunday supper had a steak and chips, which was a gargantuan meal.

THE EVENING CONCERTS

The early evening concert featured the European Union Chamber Orchestra and two guest recorder players, Tabea Debus and Miriam Monaghan. Being a chamber orchestra and hence limited in size the lead violinist, Hans-Peter Hoffman led the orchestra. The programme was Handel, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Corelli, Concerto Grosso Opus 6 Number 1, Telemann Concerto for Recorder in F, Vivaldi, Concerto for two violins in A major, Opus 3 Number 3, Telemann, Suite Perpetuum Mobile and Bach, Brandenburg Concerto number four. This was much better attended than the earlier event, and was just as enjoyable in its own different way.

The late concert was a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in their entirety, by Masumi Yamamoto on a harpsichord (the same harpsichord that had featured in the early evening concert, but a different player thereof). This music when played on a harpsichord by a really expert player (and she is certainly that) is superb, and certainly knocks the spots off any version of it on a piano.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My photo gallery for this post is purely St Nicholas Chapel (where all three concerts took place) and musical instruments…

England Women’s Perfect Summer

A look back at England Women’s last home match of the summer and a photo gallery.

As I write this post the England and West Indies men’s teams are locked in a test match battle at Trent Bridge. England Women played their last home match of the summer (they have a series in Ireland to come before heading over to Bangladesh for the T20 world cup) on Wednesday evening.

SETTING THE SCENE

England Women had won every match against Sri Lanka in the first part of their home season, and went into Wednesday night’s fixture having won all three ODIs and the first four T20Is against New Zealand. England had never previously won as many as 13 matches in a home season, which is what they were looking to achieve. They found themselves batting first…

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

England started badly, and at 87-6 they looked in big trouble. Heather Knight and Charlie Dean put on 54 together for the seventh wicket to dig England out of this hole, and a couple of good blows by Sophie Ecclestone at the end boosted the final total to 155-7. This was enough to require New Zealand to score their highest total of the series to win.

THE NEW ZEALAND RESPONSE

New Zealand were in the game for good while, and even kept Sophie Ecclestone wicketless, ending a run of 34 international innings in which she had claimed at least one scalp. However England never really looked in danger during this innings, and some good death bowling meant that the final margin in their favour was 20 runs.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Broad beans – a little too large for comfort but…

The England Side to Face West Indies on Thursday

A look at England’s selections for the upcoming second test match of the three test match series against the West Indies and a huge photo gallery.

England announced their playing XI for the test match starting on Thursday yesterday afternoon. I have now had time to process my thoughts, which are actually pretty straightforward.

THE PROBLEMS WITH THE XI

The top seven is precisely as expected, and I don’t see many changes there at present. Of the remaining four Atkinson of course had to retain his place after that stellar debut, and the selectors appear to have decided that Bashir is the first choice spinner, so again it makes sense that he retains his slot. However the remaining two places are the cause for concern – Woakes having done precious little at his favourite venue retains the number eight slot, and Mark Wood, in his mid-thirties and injury prone, has been given the slot freed up by the enforced retirement of James Anderson. I do not believe that either of these players should be playing, and I think Matthew Potts and Dillon Pennington, in the squad, and Sam Cook, now recovered from the injury that cost him a place in the squad for the first two tests, are all entitled to feel aggrieved. Anderson’s retirement was enforced allegedly because the selectors wanted to look to the future, and Wood hardly represents the future, and Woakes is also at the veteran stage of his career and has the additional strike against him that he has never had any test success overseas.

I also don’t buy the notion that Woakes provides ballast at number eight for two reasons:

against this opposition England should not require ballast at number eight.
If England are genuinely concerned in this regard then rather than select a veteran who is an unlikely tourist they could drop Bashir and play either Rehan Ahmed or Matthew Critchley at number eight as the spin option, with Atkinson and two out of Cook, Potts and Pennington rounding out the order.

I understand the stated reasons for forcing Anderson’s retirement but I regard naming Wood as his replacement as an act of rankest hypocrisy, out of keeping with looking to the future as it is. I consider this selection as utterly senseless.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a massive gallery for you…

Surrey Secure Home Quarter Final in T20 Blast

A look back at Essex v Surrey in the T20 Blast yesterday and a bumper photo gallery.

Yesterday afternoon there were various fixtures in the T20 Blast competition, and the one that I opted to follow was between Essex and Surrey. This post looks at that match and its wider context within the competition as a whole.

THE SITUATION GOING INTO THIS ROUND

The T20 Blast competition features two groups of nine teams, divided on geographical lines into a North group and a South group. The top four sides from each group progress to the quarter finals, with the top two in each group being rewarded for their extra success by getting to host their quarter final. The semi-finals and final are all played on one day to end the competition. Sussex were not in action this round, though their win in their previous match had put them second in the group. Gloucestershire were in action playing against Glamorgan, and that was the match most likely to impact on this one. Surrey knew that a win of any sort would guarantee them a home qualification, while Essex knew that at least a share of the points would ensure that they qualified. Surrey were not at full strength for various reasons but their line up still looked formidable. Essex did have a full strength side. In spite of the fact that there was other sporting action on the ground at Chelmsford was full.

THE SURREY INNINGS

Surrey batted first. Will Jacks played a superb innings, and was supported by various others along the way. Even so, with three balls to go Surrey had 178 on the board and Essex were reasonably hopeful. Cameron Steel ensured that those last three balls went for 11 runs and Surrey thus had 189 to defend. Jacks had scored 86 off 46 balls, and the best bowler for Essex was leg spinning all rounder Matthew Critchley, whose 4-0-22-2 was especially outstanding given the way the other Essex bowlers were treated. Critchley has been doing well in all formats lately, and if he continues to do so he may be a candidate for the next Ashes tour as English off spinners do not fare well down under, and there aren’t a lot of left arm spinning options.

THE ESSEX INNINGS

Dean Elgar, for many years a South Africa test cricketer, went cheaply, for just 9, but a successful chase looked possible while Adam Rossington and Michael Pepper, the latter fresh off a match winning 120* in Essex’s last outing were together. However, Pepper’s dismissal to the first ball of the tenth over, for 27, triggered something of a collapse, as 87-1 became 104-4 and then 124-5. At 148, with the required run rate getting out of hand, Essex’s last hope vanished when Rossington was caught by Jamie Overton off Sam Curran for 78 (46). That left Essex needing 42 off 15 balls with no front line batters left. They fought bravely, with news coming through that Gloucestershire had trounced Glamorgan, but the ask was just too much, and Surrey ran out winners by 13 runs, ensuring that they will play their quarter-final match at home. Gloucestershire’s big win moved them up to fifth and gives them a better net RR than Essex, which means that if they win their last group game and Essex lose theirs Essex will go out. Sussex and Somerset are fighting over which of them will end up in the top two and secure a home quarter final. In the other group the Birmingham Bears are qualified, but everyone else down to Derbyshire in seventh has some sort of chance of also doing so.

PHOTOGRAPHS

This gallery only contains about half of the new photos that I have ready to share, and there are more still on my camera…

	Aoteroa Axed by Ahme… on South Africa Finnished as Alle…
	Thomas on World T20 Cup Underway
	Anna on World T20 Cup Underway
	London Underground t… on Project Piccadilly
	Thomas on All Time XIs – Detective…