November in England is not generally noted as a prime time for insect sightings, but a combination of warmth and sun brought them out today.
I mentioned yesterday that it was unseasonably warm. The trend continued today, and unlike yesterday, which was virtually unremittingly grey, it has been sunny for much of today. The combination of sun and warm temperatures has brought the insects out in some force.
THE FIRST SIGN
The very first picture I took this morning was a portent of things to come…
A blurry picture of an insect on a green leaf. The tree, to which this leaf is still attached, is on the private road that runs behind my house.
THE FIRST HUGE SURPRISE: A BUMBLEBEE
It was during my second walk of the day, in the early afternoon that things really became strange for an English November (which month we are now into remember). In the Kettlewell Lane woods I spotted a large bumblebee, not a creature that one normally sees at this time of year in England.
A large bumblebee at rest on a big green leaf. In the bottom left of the picture as you look is a fly, large by the standards of such creatures but significantly smaller than the bee.
A RED ADMIRAL
Walking on the path alongside Bawsey Drain (the section between Losinga Road and Columbia Way) I was given another way off-kilter sighting – a Red Admiral Butterfly. Given its physical state it may possibly be a freakishly long lived survivor, but to see such a creature around in November is frankly ridiculous, and more than a little disturbing.
A red admiral butterfly resting against a wooden fence This one is in very poor physical condition, with major damage to its wings.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
The first of three good pictures I got of last night’s half moon. A hover fly on a leaf (see next pic for a closer up version)A squirrel on a tree trunk.A wasp and two flies on a tree trunk.The bumblebee.Hoverfly on a thistle flower.The first of three shots of the Red Admiral
A look back at yesterday’s thriller at the women’s cricket world cup between India and England, with links to the scorecard and to a post by Hypocaust about the the numbers, plus a photo gallery.
Yesterday’s match at the women’s cricket world cup saw England facing hosts India at Indore. This post looks back at a remarkable match.
THE PRELIMINARIES
Lauren Bell and Sophie Ecclestone were recovered from the sickness that kept them out of England’s previous match, so England were back at full strength. India had opted to bolster their bowling. Natalie Sciver-Brunt won the toss and decided, to some surprise, that England would bat first.
THE ENGLAND INNINGS
Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont gave England a solid start, and then the rest of the England innings was dominated by a command performance from former skipper Heather Knight. Knight, well supported by current skipper Sciver-Brunt who helped the third wicket to put on 115 at better than a run a ball, took a mere 86 balls to reach her third career ODI hundred and first against India. After Sciver-Brunt was out we saw a familiar scene as Sophia Dunkley, Emma Lamb and Alice Capsey all fell cheaply – the England numbers 5,6 and 7 have a combined aggregate of 111 runs between them for the tournament so far, and then a second familiar scene as Charlie Dean ensured that the good early phase of the innings was entirely wasted by scoring a rapid undefeated 19 to boost the final total to 288, not massive on a good pitch but surely defensible.
THE INDIAN CHASE
For much this innings it looked like the hosts were heading to a comfortable win. In particular when the two left handers, Smriti Mandhana and all rounder Deepti Sharma were both going well England looked beaten for all money. Then Mandhana had a rush of blood to the head against Linsey Smith and holed out to Alice Capsey for 88 off 94 balls to make it 234-4 in the 42nd over and open up a possible way back in to things for England. Richa Ghosh never got going and managed a mere 8, caught by former skipper Knight off the bowling of current incumbent Sciver-Brunt to make it 256-5 in the 46th over. It was in the following over that England got the breakthrough that put them ahead on points for the first time in a long while, when Deepti Sharma, who had batted very well for her 50, got over aggressive against Ecclestone, who by her own lofty standards had had a poor time with the ball, and was caught by Dunkley to make it 265-6. With two overs to go India needed 23, and England were definitely favourites. The first ball of the 49th over, bowled by Lauren Bell, went for four, but the tall seamer came back well in the rest of the over, and India needed 14 off the final over, with Linsey Smith, England’s most economical bowler on the day, to bowl it. Smith bowled a superb over, and by the time the fifth ball had gone for a mere two runs India needed eight to tie off the last ball of the match, meaning that in effect Smith only had to bowl a legal delivery for England to get the win that would secure their semi-final berth. She did so, and it was hit for four irrelevant runs, meaning that England had won by four runs and became the third side to book a semi-final slot. India meanwhile are now in serious jeopardy of suffering the fate of the England men in 1999 – being ejected early from their own party. Even with that final irrelevant four Linsey Smith’s figures were 10-0-40-1, absolutely crucial to England’s success, though unsurprisingly Knight was named Player of the Match for her century. Scorecard here, and a for the numbers people here is Hypocaust’s post.
Some thoughts on the use of Colombo as an adjunct venue at the Women’s World Cup, which is mainly happening in India. Also a photo gallery,
This edition of the women’s ODI world cup was supposed to be entirely hosted in India. However the Indian government has a policy of denying admission to the country for Pakistanis, and they refused to make an exception for the Pakistan Women’s cricket team. That forced the finding of venues outside India, and Sri Lanka was chosen. This post looks at happenings there, especially with reference to the last two days.
AN OBVIOUS PROBLEM
While Sri Lanka, just off the southern tip of India, can indeed be considered close to the host country there is one problem with Sri Lanka at this time of year that downgraded the plan from sensible to Baldrickian – it is Sri Lanka’s rainy season. Further, although Dambulla is much drier at this time of year Colombo was chosen because it has better infrastructure. Finally, although the rain generally hits in mid to late afternoon and only sometimes lets up thereafter, all the matches have been scheduled to be day-night matches because that is what the TV people want. Thus the Colombo matches have been a combination of ‘no result’ (four times) and reduced overs contests (four times).
SRI LANKA v SOUTH AFRICA
Yesterday actually did provide a result. Sri Lanka, batting first, had reached 46-2 from 12 overs when the rain hit, and by the time a resumption was possible the contest was reduced to 20 overs per side. Sri Lanka did hit 66 more off the eight overs they had left to bat, and because they had only lost two wickets the DLS formula worked somewhat in their favour, giving South Africa an adjusted target of 133. However, those who are familiar with 20 overs a side matches will be aware that even 133 is rarely a difficult target, and Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits, with a half century a piece, made it look a ridiculously easy one, coasting home with their opening stand unbroken and 5.1 overs to spare. Wolvaardt who had also pouched two catches in the field and captained the side well was named Player of the Match.
PAKISTAN v NEW ZEALAND
Today it was Pakistan who got the booby prize of batting first in a game in which rain would make its presence felt. They were 52-3 when rain intervened for the first time, 92-5 from 25 overs when the rain made its second and final intervention. My own feeling is that any side batting first in Colombo at this tournament would be well advised to approach their innings as though playing a T20 – if the rain holds off enough to allow a match to be completed it is not likely to be much more than 20 overs a side in any case, and I would prefer a big total adjusted down for over expenditure of resources to a small one adjusted up for having conserved resources early on. Pakistan are pretty much out of the tournament anyway, and have looked the worst of the eight sides to qualify (barring against England – see here for more). New Zealand still have hopes, although there is one less semi-final slot open after today than there was starting the day, with the points being shared here meaning that South Africa have joined Australia in booking their slot.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
Two pics which between them show the Dice Box, a new combination of cafe and board game venue in King’s Lynn – I will be visiting there for a WNAG event in the not too distant future.A large pike caught in the Gaywood River near Kettlewell lane – I watched it being caught and took this picture (the close up of the fish came from the same original) after the catch was completed. A beetle on a footpath near my home (two pics)Possibly my last bee pic of 2025, taken at 4:20PM today.
A look at some sporting action on a packed Saturday and a photo gallery.
There has been a lot of excellent sport today. This post is my take on the best of the day.
CRICKET
Hampshire held out for half an hour, adding 12 runs along the way, before James Fuller nicked a ball from Rahul Chahar through to Ben Foakes to be out for 33. Hampshire thus lost by 20 runs, with the Indian leggie, who had never previously taken a five-for in first class cricket, finishing with 8-51. Poor batting accounted for most of the dismissals. It seemed at this stage that Hampshire were going to be relegated, since Yorkshire v Durham was headed for a draw. Then Durham started losing wickets at an alarming rate, and their apparent policy of batting time and not bothering much about runs came back to bite them. Durham actually managed to bat for 44.5 overs in that second innings of theirs. The problem was they only managed 85 runs, which when they were facing a deficit of 129 (346 plays 475 on first innings) was not nearly enough to save them. They lost by an innings and 44 runs, which meant that they ended the season with 144 points, one fewer than Hampshire. It was the second time in a decade that Hampshire had seemed down only for Durham to go down instead of them – in 2016 Hampshire actually ended the season in a relegation position, but financial misdeeds by Durham led to the northern county being relegated and hit with a heavy points deduction for the 2017 season. Although there was first class cricket being played deep into the afternoon, with Middlesex v Gloucestershire seeing the last action of the 2025 English season my focus was elsewhere by then.
RUGBY
At 4PM the final of the women’s rugby world cup got underway at a packed Twickenham. England, on home territory, faced off against Canada, who had beaten New Zealand to claim their place in the final. Canada struck the first blow, with Asia Hogan-Rochester scoring a try on five minutes. The conversion was missed. Three minutes later a magnificent run by Ellie Kildunne saw the outgoing World Player of the Year score under the posts, and Zoe Harrison was unerring with the conversion to put England ahead. England crossed twice more before half time, with Harrison converting both, and although Canada scored a penalty the half time score was 21-8. Amy Cokayne thought she had England’s fourth try and her second, but the score was disallowed for an infringement. England and Canada each scored once, with neither try being converted to make it 26-13. Then Alex Matthews scored her second of the game and Harrison converted, and with under ten minutes left on the clock England were 20 points clear and the match was as good as done. In the dying minutes Sadia Kabeya was named player of the match, which given the utter dominance of England’s pack, of which she was a key part, was no great surprise. The final score remained 33-13. The attendance was confirmed as 81,885, not only a record for a women’s rugby match by a huge margin, but a record for any day of women’s rugby, beating the previous mark, set at a ‘sevens’ event in Paris by over 20,000. Sophie de Goede of Canada was named as the new Player of the Year.
GOLF
This year’s Ryder Cup got underway yesterday at Bethpage Black course on Long Island, New York. Europe were the holders, and by the end of yesterday they had won both the foursomes and fourballs session and were ahead by 5.5 points to 2.5. They also won today’s foursomes, by 3 points to 1 to extend their lead to 8.5-3.5. The fourballs are currently underway, with Europe bossing the top match, marginally behind in the second and the the third and fourth matches currently level. Europe are already assured of a lead going into Sunday’s 12 singles matches, and the key number for them is 14 points out of 28, since as holders they retain the cup in the event of a tie.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
This Egret was at the edge of the Great Ouse, between the pontoon jetty and the lower Purfleet.A ‘compare and contrast’ picture – on the left is a ‘retro’ new build, and on the right an original.A shieldbug of some species or other on a green leaf (next pic is a close up)
Nottinghamshire sealing the County Championship in style, a game at Southampton that has become very interesting and some details about the relegation scrap. Also a photo gallery.
Nottinghamshire are officially confirmed as county champions. This post looks at just what is going on.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE v WARIWCKSHIRE
Officially the title was sealed beyond dispute when Nottinghamshire passed 300 inside 110 overs against Warwickshire yesterday. I was at work and missed the moment, but I heard the clip of Dave Bracegirdle’s commentary. It is a great triumph for Haseeb Hameed as captain, and he has been excellent this season both in that capacity, where his decision making has attracted considerable admiration from many commentators, and in his role as opening batter where has contributed four centuries to the cause. Head coach Peter Moores, who has now overseen triumphs at three separate counties, and bowling coach Kevin Shine, who has been namechecked by a number of his grateful charges, also deserve credit. From reaching that 300 Nottinghamshire went on to 374, a first innings lead of 116. They then bowled Warwickshire out for 133 in their second innings (last night they started superbly, reducing Warwickshire to 7-3, with both openers and night watcher Ethan Bamber back in the hutch, and they clearly did not let up today). They completed the job without the loss of a wicket, and it was Hameed who set the seal on their season with a boundary to bring up the winning runs. Scorecard here. There had been a good moment at the start of the Warwickshire second innings when their opener Alex Davies, who overlapped with Hameed in their Lancashire days made a point of removing one batting glove and walking over to shake Hameed’s hand to congratulate him on his success. Nottinghamshire as of now have 225 points, their over rate has not been bad enough to be punished, and the Trent Bridge pitch will not be docked points either, so they will be champions by a big margin. Exactly how big will be decided at Southampton…
HAMPSHIRE v SURREY
Hampshire have largely had the better of this match, with Surrey weakened by a combination of the ECB and the illness which has temporarily deprived them of Jordan Clark. However 17 year old Ralphie Albert on his first class debut scored a fighting 63 to help Surrey to 281 in their second innings, leaving Hampshire to score 181 to win. At 61-0 it was looking comfortable, but then things started to happen. By the tea interval Hampshire were six wickets down, four to Indian leg spinner Rahul Chahar and two to part time off spinner Dan Lawrence. Since the interval Chahar has been donated his fifth scalp of the innings, that of his compatriot Washington Sundar who played a wild drive, edged and was well taken at slip by Rory Burns. Hampshire as I type are 118-7 needing 63 to win. The eyes of Durham (especially them given the situation at Headingley and in the table) and Yorkshire will be on this – if the collapse continues and Surrey win the two northern counties will merely need a draw for both of them to stay up and Hampshire to go down, while a win for Hampshire would mean that Durham would have to engineer a win to stay up, sending Yorkshire down. Scott Currie has just fallen LBW, giving Chahar his sixth scalp and making it 121-8, 60 still needed.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign-off…
This Painted Lady was a candidate for the feature image at the time I photographed it (yesterday morning)……it was displaced in the pecking order by this remarkable insect find (yesterday early evening on the walk home from QEH, where I had chosen to get off the bus back from Fakenham)This annoyed me, as I had to walk round behind it (and the cab was empty, so in any meaningful sense of the word it was parked) due to the road being too busy and dangerous to walk round the front.A red bodied cranefly on a green leaf (three pictures)A less spectacular crane fly standing out strongly from the white wall against which it was resting.
A look at developments on day one of the final round of fixtures in the 2025 County Championship and a photo gallery.
Today is the opening day of the last round of matches in the 2025 county championship. Surrey are playing at Southampton against relegation threatened Hampshire (it has finally been confirmed with one match to play that they system will not be changing next year, so promotion and relegation will be happening), while Nottinghamshire are at home to Warwickshire. Nottinghamshire started the day needing 11 points from their match to make certain of the title (as I make clear in this post they should already be safe). This post looks at what has happened so far.
AT SOUTHAMPTON
Surrey won the toss, chose to bat and batted horribly. They lost wickets early, and never really stopped the rot, ending up all out for a miserable 147, 103 runs short of even a first batting bonus point, thereby reducing the ask for Nottinghamshire from 11 points to six. Hampshire’s reply to date has been a microcosm of their season with the bat – all of the top three got in, and all got out when seemingly well set. Only Ali Orr, who fell to a catch down the leg side by Foakes deserves even a hint of sympathy – both Nick Gubbins and Fletcha Middleton played poor shots, giving part time spinner Dan Lawrence their wickets. Surrey’s awful effort with the bat means that Hampshire are still in control, currently 120-3 in reply to that measly 147 by Surrey. Surrey, with a number of players unavailable by order of the ECB gave a first class debut to 17 year old Ralphie Albert, one of whose grandfathers, snooker legend Jimmy White, knew a thing or two about scores of 147. Ralphie Albert, apparently no relation of Hampshire’s Toby Albert, bats right handed and bowls left arm orthodox spin.
AT NOTTINGHAM
Nottinghamshire started well, and soon had their first bowling point on the board. At 127-5 it looked like a second was on the cards with Surrey missing out on any batting points. However, two all rounders, Ed Barnard and Dan Mousley have baulked Nottinghamshire since then, putting on an unbroken 83. Thus Nottinghamshire still need five more points to win, and the overs situation, seemingly totally irrelevant when the fifth wicket fell, is now just appearing on the horizon – Nottinghamshire have 39 overs left to get the four wickets that would give them a full haul of bowling points, which is still favourable to them, but means that it is not impossible that they will be denied. However whatever happens in the rest of the Warwickshire innings Nottinghamshire will go into bat with their destiny in their own hands, and a chance to settle it in that innings.
PHOTOGRAPHS
A malfunctioning memory card that could only be saved by reformatting it cost me a lot of pictures, but fortune favoured me thereafter and I do have a proper gallery to share…
I was passing through St Peter’s Garden outside the church of St Peter and St Paul, Fakenham when someone spotted the camera and kindly told me about a Peregrine Falcon that was currently eating a pigeon on the far side of the garden. This picture and the next two resulted.
A look back at the finals of the men’s and women’s One Day cups – Hampshire v Worcestershire in the men’s version yesterday. Hampshire v Lancashire in the women’s today. Plus a photo gallery.
Both the Hampshire men’s and women’s sides played one day cup final matches this weekend, the men yesterday against Worcestershire at Trent Bridge and the women today against Lancashire at the Utilita Bowl. This post looks back briefly at both games.
YESTERDAY
The men’s final was heavily hit by rain with the Hampshire innings disrupted twice and reduced to 45 overs, and then the innings break massively extended, resulting in Worcestershire facing a DLS adjusted target of 188 from 27 overs. Hampshire’s innings had been largely dominated by left handed opener Ali Orr, who scored a splendid century, and was thus the person fourth-most responsible for Worcestershire facing a tough target (Messrs Duckworth, Lewis and Stern aka DLS being numbers 1,2 and 3 in the pecking order). Worcestershire kept in touch throughout, with chief credit going to Ethan Brookes who hit 57 off 34 balls. However Scott Currie, who had a superb day with the ball, bowled a magnificent 26th over in which he accounted for Brookes, Rob Jones and Tom Taylor, boosting his figures to a very impressive 5-35. Worcestershire ended that over on 175-7 needing 13 off the final over. Brad Wheal, a very experienced cricketer, including internationally with Scotland, had responsibility for bowling the final over of the contest, and it should have been within his compass to secure Hampshire the cup. Unfortunately he made a hash of things, and it took a mere four balls for the game to end, Worcestershire winning by three wickets with two balls to spare. Player of the Match awards nearly always go to members of the winning team, though on this occasion either Orr, Currie or a joint award might have been considered acceptable given how close it was, and Ethan Brookes, with that blazing 57, 1-52 with the ball and two catches got the award.
TODAY
Hampshire batted first and tallied a respectable 288, with big scores from Georgia Adams (77) and Maia Bouchier (66) while Grace Potts with 3-47 from nine overs was the pick of the Lancashire bowlers. Lancashire began the chase badly losing Alice Clarke to a run out by Freya Kemp for 3. Then Irish international Gaby Lewis and Seren Smale had a big partnership for the second wicket. When Smale fell for 72 and Fi Morris failed to get going, managing 9 from nine balls it was 183-3 from 35.4 overs, Lancashire needing 106 from 14.2 overs with a respectable but not outstanding batting line up – Kate Cross is a fine cricketer but number seven, where she was scheduled to come in, looks a place higher than would be ideal for her. Lancashire keeper and captain Ellie Threlkeld began the Lancashire revival with 32 off 30, helping the fourth wicket to add 60. Her dismissal, achieved by a combination of two Freyas, Kemp taking the catch off the bowling of Davies made it 243-4 from 43.5 overs, 46 needed from 6.1 overs, with the young Scot Ailsa Lister joining Lewis, by then into three figures and looking like the key player in the unfolding drama. With three overs to go 21 were still needed. The 48th over settled the issue, Lewis going after Georgia Adams to the extent of 16 from the over, which took Lewis to 141 not out from 143 balls, with 16 fours. Lister, herself capable of very fast scoring, levelled the scores with a four off the first ball of the 49th over, and after one dot ball then scored the winning single, with Lancashire have six wickets and nine balls to spare.
A historic happening at the world athletics championships in Tokyo, the women’s rugby world cup semi-finals, an autism acceptance just a cuppa morning and a photo gallery.
There is a lot of sport going on this weekend. There is a world athletics championship on in Tokyo, and the semi-finals of the women’s rugby world cup have happened. This post begins with a piece of history from Tokyo before focussing on the rugby.
A SHARED MEDAL IN THE HEPTATHLON
By the time the final event of the Heptathlon, the 800 metres, Anna Hall (USA) was away and clear (especially as she was the quickest 800m runner in the field), Kate O’Connor of Ireland was also pretty safe for the silver medal, while Katerina Johnson-Thompson (GB) and Taliyah Brooks (USA) were contending for bronze, with the Brit needing to be six seconds or thereabouts quicker than the USian to take the medal. In the event after a noticeable delay the computer awarded them a shared bronze, each scoring 6,581 points for the seven events. O’Connor meanwhile had recorded her fifth PB of the competition. The second Brit in the field, Jade O’Dowda, finished eighth, her best yet at a major championship.
THE RUGBY SEMI-FINALS
Yesterday evening Canada took on New Zealand in the first semi-final of the women’s rugby world cup. Canada came out firing on all cylinders and had scored four tries by half time. They added a fifth early in the second half, and although the Black Ferns, unbeaten in rugby world cups since 2014, hit back hard thereafter the damage had been done, and Canada had booked their place at Twickenham.
The second match took place today, at the same venue as the first, Ashton Gate in Bristol. England were far from their best in the first half and were somewhat fortunate to lead by two points (7-5) at the interval. They played better in the second half, but it was only when Player of the Match Ellie Kildunne crossed for her second try, a spectacular solo effort, to put England 26-12 up that they looked in control. The conversion also went over. France did score once more but missed their own conversion so it was 28-17. Then Megan Jones went over for England’s fifth try right at the end – Harrison’s conversion, successful like all her other four, was the last kick of the match. The final at Twickenham is on Saturday, and although England finished strongly I reckon the Canadians will be feeling fairly confident after this semi-final.
LEGO ARCHITECTURE
There was an Autism Acceptance Just a Cuppa morning at King’s Lynn library today, and as usual I did some lego architecture while I was there…
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
As stick like as it appears this is apparently not a stick insect – it is a Plume Moth.Fungi near Kettlewell Lane (five pics total).One of the others at the Just a Cuppa Autism Acceptance morning at the library was wearing a t-shirt featuring this picture.Unfortunately I will be at work, but this, courtesy of the electronic display board outside King’s Lynn station, looks interesting.A small black and yellow bug on a green leaf.
A look at the situation at the top of the county championship, with Nottinghamshire likely to win, and a photon gallery,
At around 3:15PM on Thursday Surrey were all out for 294 inn the final innings of a tough match at The Oval to give Nottinghamshire victory by 20 runs and put the midlanders in a commanding position at the top of the County Championship. This post looks at the rights and wrongs of point allocations in the county championship in relation to the situation at the top.
POINT ALLOCATIONS IN THE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
The basic point awards in the county championship are 16 points for a win and eight for a draw. In addition to these bonus points are awarded in the first 110 overs of each county’s first innings as follows: batting – up to five, awarded for reaching scores of 250, 300, 350, 4o0 and finally 450, and bowling – up to three, awarded for three, six and nine wickets respectively.
AT THE TOP OF THE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
The table below shows the top two in the county championship, the only two counties who can now win it (Somerset, in third, can amass no more than 199 points in total whatever happens in their last match). The second, third and fourth columns list wins, losses and draws in that order.
The situation shown above, where Surrey still have a very outside chance (they would need a big win, and they would need Nottinghamshire to either lose, or draw while scoring very few bonus points) illustrates some of the problems with the current points allocations. Had Surrey got home on Thursday afternoon they would have been on 205 points and Nottinghamshire on 187, and would have required only a draw from their final match. Yet, rather than the almost total command of the season that such a position would have been indicated they would have been level with Nottinghamshire on five wins, and benefitting from the high award from drawing matches, because they would have had eight draws to Nottinghamshire’s six. Effectively they would be being rewarded not for an ability to win matches, but for an ability to avoid defeat. The actual situation is still not doing justice to Nottinghamshire, who with two wins more in the season than Surrey have managed should be not just in a commanding position but uncatchable at the top. The high number of drawn matches is also less than satisfactory (I have previously written specifically about what a draw means in a cricketing context) and is down precisely to the over-generous award for such results, a situation which encourages sides to play safe and kill games rather than throwing down the gauntlet in a bid for victory (the single most egregious example from a large sample size was perpetrated by Sussex against Warwickshire, when they batted on and on in their second innings until they were some 400 ahead and there was only half a day left, which meant chances of a definite result were basically zero).
If the award of eight points for a drawn match is to stand then the award for a win needs to increase from 16 to 20. The alternative is to reduce the award for drawing games, which I would also be happy with. The other factor besides the bad points system behind the high number of draws has been the use of the Kookaburra ball in championship matches this season – the evidence is in and the experiment needs to be scrapped forthwith.
Finally, congratulations to Nottinghamshire for winning the 2025 County Championship (as I am sure they will, and even more sure they deserve to).
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
The butterflies are not quite done yet, as this red admiral shows.A stick insect on a wooden fence.
A look at developments in the likely title decider between Surrey and Nottinghamshire at The Oval and a photo gallery.
Today is day three of four in the penultimate round of county championship 2025 matches. All else in the round is overshadowed by the clash at The Oval where leaders and title winners in 2022, 2023 and 2024 Surrey entertain second place Nottinghamshire. A definite result in the match will put the side that achieves it in a well nigh unassailable position with only one match to play.
DAY ONE: AN ISLAND AMID A SEA OF WASHOUTS
On Monday the combatants at The Oval got an entire day of play in, while none of the other eight fixtures across the two divisions saw so much as a single ball bowled. Rain was the main culprit, but some parts of the country were being battered by dangerously high winds as well (in west Norfolk where I live there were gusts strong enough to shake even the sturdiest trees, but as a veteran of the great storm of October 1987 I can absolutely confirm that these were not dangerously high winds). Surrey seemed to have fared pretty well, winning the toss, bowling first and dismissing Nottinghamshire for 231, and losing only one wicket in reply.
DAY TWO: A HUGE DAY FOR NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
I missed most of the action on this day due to being at work, though I got the very closing stages. Although it belonged to Nottinghamshire the single individual who will have the best memories of the day was a Surrey player, Matthew Fisher. Fisher came into this match never having recorded a five-for for his new county (he moved south from Yorkshire during the close season). By the end of yesterday he had two such hauls for them, one in each innings of this match. Nottinghamshire bowled Surrey out for 173, lost early wickets of their own before Liam Patterson-White (58) and Lyndon James (47) shared a big seventh wicket stand. Nottinghamshire, aided by this, ended day two on 219-8, an overall lead of 277.
DAY THREE SO FAR
The morning fell victim to the weather, but play was able to get under way at 1:10PM. I have not been following this match, as England are in action, facing up to Ireland in a T20I in Malahide. I can tell you via cricinfo that Nottinghamshire reached 256 in their second innings, Fisher claiming one further wicket to give him innings figures of 6-73 to follow has 5-61 in the first Nottinghamshire innings. Surrey chasing 315 to win have just started the final innings and are currently 3-0.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
A twig that I consider looks somewhat like a claw.The first of four pictures of this moth which decided to rest on my kitchen wall yesterday evening. With a £2 coin next to it to give it scale. The weather today has not been pleasant, though it is looking a little less dull outside as I type.
aspiblog 