beetles – Page 5

The England XI For The First Test Match

A look at the England XI for the upcoming test match against the West indies, which was annoucned today, two days in advance of the match starting.

The England Men’s Playing XI for the test match against the West Indies that is due to start at Lord’s on Wednesday has been announced. In batting order it is: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, *Ben Stokes, +Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson. This will be Anderson’s last game for England. This post gives my thoughts on the final XI.

THE BATTING

Jamie Smith deserves his elevation to the test ranks, but I would not have made him wicket keeper, a role he does not usually play for his county. I also think that number seven is not an ideal slot for him – he is a regular number four for his county, and I would have preferred to see Stokes put himself at number seven and allow Smith to bat a place higher at number six. Woakes has a fine record in England but is an unlikely tourist, and his selection smacks more than a little of hypocrisy given that Anderson’s retirement has been effectively forced since the selectors want to look to the future.

THE BOWLING

The bowling looks thin and will look even thinner if Stokes’ knee plays up enough ton prevent him from bowling. The only member of the attack capable of producing genuinely quick deliveries is Atkinson, with Anderson for all his advanced (by international cricket standards) years probably still quicker than Woakes, and Stokes if he bowls no longer seriously quick. Bashir did well enough in India, but there is little reason to believe that he will be especially tricky to play on English pitches. Dillon Pennington and Matthew Potts, both in the squad and both left out of the final XI can feel hard done by, as can left arm spinner Jack Leach, now officially confirmed as being below Bashir in the selectors pecking order. I would have placed more reliance on that powerful top seven than has actually been done and had one or other of Potts or Pennington playing in place of Woakes. The West Indies are not among the most formidable of test foes right now, and I would still expect this XI to be good enough against them, but I cannot pretend to be impressed by it.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (don’t forget – if you want to view pictures at a larger size just click on one)…

No cormorants today, but oystercatchers…

Different Format, Same Result

Yesterday, following on from the ODI series that in which England Women comfortably won all three matches the T20I series between the England and New Zealand women’s teams got underway.

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

England found themselves batting first. They were given a strong start by Danni Wyatt and Maia Bouchier, the former being preferred in T20Is to Tammy Beaumont, who was in the commentary box instead. Bouchier’s dismissal brought Natalie Sciver-Brunt to the crease, and she immediately put the Kiwis to the sword, making even Wyatt look somewhat pedestrian by comparison. Wyatt entered the record books when she brought up her 17th T20I 50, moving ahead of Sarah Taylor to the top of the England list of makers of such scores. Sciver-Brunt was already into the 40s by then, but she finally fell just short of 50. The left handed Freya Kemp maintained the momentum. Wyatt’s innings ended for 76. England finished with 197-3 from their 20 overs.

THE NEW ZEALAND RESPONSE

New Zealand started fairly well, although they were always behind the required rate. As had been a regular theme of the ODI series it was the spinners (of whom England had no fewer than four for this match, with a series in Bangladesh coming up in the futures) who applied a chokehold from which the Kiwis could not escape. At 63-1 New Zealand seemed to be faring respectably, especially given that the only one to go, Georgia Plimmer, had been run out, her third such dismissal in four innings. Once the second wicket fell however the floodgates opened, with leg spinner Sarah Glenn claiming three scalps in a single over, and Charlie Dean and Sophie Ecclestone picking up a wicket the score soon read 67-6. Jess Kerr, sister of leg spinning all rounder Amelia Kerr, batted in a manner that should have caused some of the more senior Kiwi batters no little embarrassment, making 38 to give the Kiwis a hint of respectability. Near the end the fourth front line England spinner, Linsey Smith, picked up a wicket. New Zealand finished with 138-9, beaten by 59 runs, which in a T20 is an absolute pummelling. Scorecard here.

PIZZA MAKING

Today there was a Pizza making session for autistic adults at the King’s Lynn branch of Pizza Express. Great fun was had by all, and my Pizza was certainly good.

The base in the tray in which the pizza would be cooked.

The above show stages in the preparation of the pizza, and below is the final outcome…

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off, in two parts, from yesterday and today…

Part 2…

Surrey Versus the Clock

Today is the final day of a round of County Championship fixtures. The tie of the round has been the top of the table clash between Surrey and Essex. This post looks at goings on there and elsewhere.

SURREY v ESSEX

Surrey scored 262 batting first with Jamie Smith, newly elevated to England’s test ranks (albeit as new keeper, rather than in his best role of specialist batter), scoring exactly 100. Essex were restricted to 180 in reply, Paul Walter top scoring with 64. Jordan Clark took 3-33, Daniel Worrall 3-40, and there were two wickets for James Taylor and one for Tom Lawes. When Essex had Surrey 127-6 in their second innings, 70 of them from Smith, it looked like they were in the contest, but Ryan Patel scored a century, enabling the last four wickets to add 151. The last two wickets added 85 of those, and Taylor at 10 and Worrall at 11 scored 3 and 4 respectively, such was Patel’s dominance and manipulation of the strike at that stage of proceedings. That left Essex needing 361 to win, and by the close of day three they were 21-2. There has been some rain today, but in the cricket that has been possible Surrey have claimed three wickets, Tom Lawes getting Matt Critchley and Tom Westley in successive balls, both caught behind by Foakes, and just recently Worrall claiming the key scalp of former South Africa test opener Dean Elgar for 60. Essex are 121-5 at present, 240 short of an always unlikely looking target, and with only five wickets left.

ELSEWHERE

There are two potential big run chases going on. In division one Somerset are 163-3 in pursuit of a target of 410 to beat Warwickshire. In division two Glamorgan were set a massive 593 by Gloucestershire, and although that still looks highly unlikely the Welsh side are 397-5 as I type, 196 short of their target. Sam Northeast has a ton to his name, a feat already achieved in the innings by Marnus Labuschagne. Supporting Northeast at the moment is all rounder Dan Douthwaite.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Three dragonflies from two species in a single shot. I have chosen this as the feature image.

A Thriller and a Display of Dominance

Over the weekend I followed the whole of one classic T20 match and the first innings of a very one sided One Day International (I missed the second innings as there was a family get together happening in Wells Next The Sea which I wanted to be part of). This post looks at both games.

THE MENS T20 WORLD CUP FINAL

This match would see history made whoever won it – India and South Africa, the two teams to make the final were both undefeated, and no side had ever gone through a Men’s T20 world cup undefeated. India batted first and their innings had its up and downs. The dominant feature was Virat Kohli’s one and only major innings of the tournament. They ended up with 176 to defend. South Africa batted well in their turn. They seemed to have settled the matter decisively when the 15th over, bowled by Kuldeep Yadav was butchered for 24 runs reducing the requirement from 54 off six overs to 30 off five overs. This virtually forced Indian skipper Rohit Sharma to turn to his best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah. The 16th over was economical, but no wickets fell, so South Africa still looked favourites. The 17th over kept India in contention, and saw them claim the vital wicket of Heinrich Klaasen. For the 18th over Sharma rightly opted to use Bumrah’s last over, hoping to close things out then. Bumrah not only kept it tight as always, but also got rid of Marco Jansen, which meant that with the required rate starting to become genuinely alarming for them the South Africans had only David Miller of their recognized batters left. Arshdeep Singh bowled the crucial 19th over, and by the end of it South Africa needed 16 off the last over, though Miller was at the strikers end. Hardik Pandya bowled the final over, and off the first ball thereof Miller went for a big shot down the ground and Suryakumar Yadav took a brilliant running catch to all but seal the match. Number nine Kagiso Rabada did his best, but another catch by Suryakumar Yadav off the penultimate ball of the match accounted for him, and South Africa needed nine off one ball to win. Nortje scored a single off the final ball and India won by seven runs (176-7 plays 169-8). In spite of South Africa’s reputation in global tournaments it has to be stated that THIS WAS NOT A CHOKE – India bowled superbly in the closing overs, and held a couple of excellent catches. This match was settled by good Indian cricket, not bad South African cricket. Scorecard here.

NEW ZEALAND WOMEN IN A SPIN

This was the second match of a three match ODI series between the England and New Zealand women’s teams, taking place at New Road, Worcester. New Zealand found themselves batting first as they had in the first match in which they were thoroughly hammered. At 114-3 with Amelia Kerr set and Maddy Green looking impressive as well they had a chance of a competitive total, but then the world’s number one and two ranked Women’s ODI bowlers, Sophie Ecclestone (left arm orthodox spin) and Charlie Dean (off spin) made their presences felt. Dean started the rout by pinning Green LBW, then Ecclestone got Brooke Halliday for six and Lauren Down for a duck, both clean bowled. Dean then got the big wicket of Amelia Kerr, caught and bowled for 43. Then a catch by Natalie Sciver-Brunt off Ecclestone accounted for Kiwi keeper Isabella Gaze for a duck, and three balls later Ecclestone clean bowled Molly Penfold for another duck to secure her fifth wicket, and 114-3 had become 124-9. Jess Kerr hit her way to 14, boosting the final total to 141 in company with Fran Jonas, before a second Sciver-Brunt catch, this time off the off spin of Alice Capsey ended the innings. Ecclestone has taken at least one wicket in each of her last 30 bowling innings across formats, a run going back to the start of 2023, and overall in those 30 innings she has taken 68 wickets at 14.75 a piece.

I missed the England run chase, but I do know that it was such an utter formality that Natalie Sciver-Brunt was able to engineer things at the end so that Maia Bouchier scored her first senior century (she has previously reached three figures in a U13s match). Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Upcoming Auction

A look back at the auction that happened at James and Sons earlier this week and a look ahead to the July auction. Also a bumper photo ga;llery.

Although James and Sons, for whom I work, have just had one auction, there is another ready to go, almost a month before it actually happens. This post looks back at the auction that happened this week and forward to the next one.

THIS WEEKS AUCTION

There were 427 lots under the hammer at the auction that happened this Wednesday. It was overall successful. The headline lot, a lifetime collection of real photographic postcards of Swaffham (Swaffham is a market town, more or less forming the right angle of a right angle triangle of which the three corners are King’s Lynn, Fakenham and Swaffham – the hypoteneuse of this triangle is the King’s Lynn-Fakenham side, which measures 22 miles or about 35 kilometres, so it was an item of local interest) housed in an album and all in splendid condition. This sold for £850. I got lucky with lot 611, a set of postcards made from black and white photographs of birds, missing one card, but still in its British Museum (Natural History) wallet and with the accompanying mini-guide to the cards. The designation of the museum in this lot indicates its age – it is a long time since the Natural History Museum was affiliated to the British Museum. Below are my pictures of the lot since acquiring it…

THE NEXT AUCTION

We have two auctions in late July. On Tuesday the 23rd a collection of sporting memorabilia will be going under the hammer, but I have hardly had anything to do with that sale. On Wednesday the 24th over 500 lots of collectors models, mostly trains, but some buses and lorries as well, will be going under the hammer. Imaging for this auction has been my focus for a while (the job is by no means complete, but many more have been imaged than not. The printed catalogue for this auction arrived at our premises this week, and it is already viewable on both our online platforms – links below.

This is from lot 600. My preferred platform for bidding and following the progress of auctions is easyliveauction. The train lots start at lot 501.

….the other online platform we use is the-saleroom.com. This image is part of the gallery for lot 603 (almost all of these items are still in their original boxes).As before, the train lots start in the 50os.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a bumper gallery of my regular photos to end with…

The T20 World Cup Semi-finals

A look back at the T20 World Cup semi-finals and a photo gallery.

Yesterday was semi-finals day at the T20 World Cup. This post looks back at the two matches.

AFGHANISTAN v SOUTH AFRICA

This match was played in Trinidad, starting at 1:30AM Thursday UK time (8:30PM Wednesday Trinidad time). Unfortunately it was ruined by the fact that the ground staff had failed miserably to produce a surface that was fit for cricket. Some of the pitches in New York in the early part of the tournament were difficult to bat on, but the difficulties while some moaned about them were fundamentally fair. The pitch at Trinidad for this important match was blatantly unfair, with extremely variable bounce (swing, seam movement or spin can be countered, and they do not put batters personal safety at risk, variable bounce does, and it is impossible to get in the right position to play your shots because there is no means of knowing what the right position will be). Afghanistan in the face of South Africa’s powerful pace attack subsided to 56 all out, which South Africa chased down for the loss of only one wicket. Obviously Afghanistan were well short of a defensible total, but on that track I reckon another 40 runs for them would have had South Africa sweating. For Afghanistan it was a sad end to what has been a great tournament for them. They have a good bowling unit and two batters who are indisputably of the highest class in Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran. There is a suspicion of a soft underbelly to the batting – almost all their significant scores have featured major contributions from one or other of the top two. For South Africa this was the end of a miserable run of losses in semi-finals of global competitions – they had reached seven previous semi-finals across formats and never won one.

ENGLAND V INDIA

This match was scheduled to start at 3:30PM at Providence, Guyana. This would have meant that I missed a lot of it with Thursday being a work day. However the start wads delayed by rain, and there was a second rain delay part way through the Indian innings. This match did not have a reserve day, but with a 10:30AM local time start they had a lot of leeway on the one available day – 250 minutes of spare time was allotted for weather interruptions (these morning starts were chosen with little regard for local fans because they fit with peak TV viewing times in India). India put up a decent total that soon looked very impressive as England mad an absolute hash of attempting to chase it. An overly zealous devotion to the concept of ‘match ups’ led to left handers Moeen Ali and Sam Curran being promoted up the order, the problem with this being that neither is actually a good enough batter to belong high in the order. Liam Livingstone who had bowled well with his mixed spin (he can bowl both off breaks and leg breaks and varies them according to who is facing) was England’s last serious hope with the bat, but Jofra Archer failed to respond to his call, resulting in a run out that left England miles adrift and with only bowlers left. India thus won very comfortably and will face of against South Africa in Barbados tomorrow.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A damselfly on the edge of a lily pad. These are smaller and have more diaphanous wings than the dragonflies.

Reaching Back to WG Grace Twice Over

A look back at two matches that in different ways link back to WG Grace and a very large photo gallery.

Today is the fourth and final day of a round of county championship matches. I am following Essex’s attempt to beat Kent, which at the moment seems to be going their way. Yesterday two matches saw events that in different ways harked back to WG Grace. This post looks at both matches, one of which I listened to and one of which I heard about.

HAMPSHIRE V SURREY

Surrey won the county championship in 2022 and 2023, and are well placed to make it three in a row this year. However, even the strongest sides occasionally get things badly wrong, and at Southampton over the three days that the match lasted Surrey most certainly did. Surrey won the toss and chose to bat. A poor morning with the bat for Surrey was immediately followed by a devastating post-lunch burst from Kyle Abbott which yielded him a five-for in next to no time, and Surrey had mustered a measly 127. By the close of day one Hampshire were 102-1, Fletcha Middleton gone for 35, and Toby Albert and Nick Gubbins looking solid though not scoring with any great pace. Both completed centuries on the second day, Albert’s being his maiden first class ton. With this solid base to build on the later batting was more aggressive, and by the end of day two Hampshire were 495-4, with Ben Brown 99* and Liam Dawson 74*. The only question by then was whether Surrey could save the match. Brown completed his hundred and went rapidly on to a career best 165*. Dawson was out for 81, while James Fuller helped Hampshire towards their declaration with 34* off 27 balls. Hampshire’s declaration came at 608-6, leaving Surrey just over five sessions to bat to save the game. Burns was out early, and a good catch by Albert off Organ removed Sibley for 28 (86). Thereafter only Foakes showed the necessary application to bat for a long time. Lawrence scored 42 off 50 balls, a most inappropriate innings for the circumstances, while Steel, Clark, Sean Abbott and Atkinson managed 21 between them. With the result settled Surrey number 11 Dan Worrall emerged as top scorer for them, hitting his way to 48, with his dismissal leaving Foakes undefeated on 19 having survived 107 balls. The margin was an innings and 278 runs, the worst defeat Surrey had ever suffered in a county championship match, though the 1948 Australians beat Surrey by an innings and 296, as did an England XI in 1866, the match in which WG Grace scored his maiden first class century, a then ground record 224*. Full scorecard here.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE V DERBYSHIRE

This match is a ridiculous run fest and will end in a draw. However when Gloucestershire were 131-4 in reply to Derbyshire’s 526 it might have got interesting. At that point James Bracey and Graeme van Buuren came together for Gloucestershire, and their fifth wicket stand ended up producing 277, an all time Gloucestershire record for that wicket, breaking one of the oldest county records, set by WG Grace and William Moberly in 1876 (Moberly was also an excellent rugby player, captaining Oxford University to victory in the first ever varsity rugby match and appearing for England against Scotland in 1872). In the run up to lunch today Gloucestershire had a clatter of wickets fall, but Aussie import Beau Webster smashed a rapid 76 to take them into a first innings lead – 530 against 526.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a large photo gallery to share. My next gallery will be a bit different as early tomorrow morning I head north for a brief holiday in Scotland, near Perth to be precise (a journey accomplished by means of fast bus to Peterborough and trains from Peterborough to Perth). Here is today’s offering…

England Women Continue Winning Start to Home Season But…

A brief look back at the closing stages of the first ODI between England Women and Pakistan Women, which took place yesterday.

Yesterday saw the first ODI between the England and Pakistan women’s sides (the day before should have seen a T20I between the men’s sides but unremitting rain all day long led to the authorities at Headingley concluding an hour before the scheduled start time that it would not be possible to get the match on and abandoning it). I was at work for the majority of yesterday’s game, but did get the closing stages.

A SCRAPPY SUCCESS

Pakistan look in with a chance for over half their batting innings, but having got the target below 100 at what should have been a manageable rate with six wickets standing they lost both incumbent batters in quick succession. The over that killed any prospect of a Pakistan revival was a wicket maiden by Sophie Ecclestone which meant that after nine of her ten overs she had figures of 3-24. Although the Pakistan tail reduced the deficit they never looked like challenging in the closing overs. They survived until the final over, but by the time the last ball was bowled they needed 38 from it to win the match, and only scored one of them, so England won by 37 runs. However, it was undeniably slipshod from England’s bowlers, with Extras contributing 40 to Pakistan’s total, including 31 in wides, and a better side than Pakistan would certainly have punished them for this. I missed the batting efforts, but that no one got to 50 (Capsey’s 44 was the highest score of the match) tells a story. So far in three T20Is and one ODI between these sides there has been one individual half century – Wyatt’s 87 in the third T20I, and she was dropped on 12 in that innings. Ecclestone’s 3-26 from 10 overs secured her the Player of the Match award. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a fine photo gallery to share today…

This is some variety of Frog Leg Beetle.

Two Contrasting Routes to Victory

A look back at the first two matches I followed in this round of County Championship matches – Surrey outclassing Worcestershire and Essex beating Warwickshire after Alex Davies ushered them back into the game by refusing to enforce the follow-on.

The current round of county championship fixtures is nearing its conclusion (I am now tuned into Somerset v Kent, which will shortly resume after an innings break, with Somerset needing 189 to win in 54 overs) and in this post I look back at the first two matches to command my attention since play started on Friday morning.

SURREY V WORCESTERSHIRE

Worcestershire won the toss and put Surrey in. Initially it looked like working very nicely for them, when Surrey tumbled to 15-4, but Jamie Smith and Dan Lawrence righted the ship well enough (Lawrence’s 84 was especially impressive) that with the addition of a late flourish by Jordan Clark (42*) they managed to top 200. By the end of an action packed opening day Worcestershire were already seven down in their own first innings, and they managed a mere 128 all out by the end of it, Dan Worrall claiming six cheap wickets. Burns, Sibley, Smith, Lawrence and Clark all demonstrated that batting was not impossible on this surface. Lawrence made 87, and Clark got within sight a century, Surrey eventually being all out for 427, a lead of 512. Surrey themselves chased down a target of over 500 against Kent last season, but such targets are rarely successfully chased, especially against a seam attack of Roach, Worrall, Atkinson and Clark on a pitch offering them a bit of assistance. Although there was some late hitting from Nathan Smith (60 from number 8) and Ben Gibbon (75 from number 10) Worcestershire’s fate was sealed by then – even with this late flourish they reached only 231, which meant Surrey won by 281 runs. Dan Worrall followed his first innings 6-22 with 4-35 at the second time of asking. About the only genuine bright spot for Worcestershire was provided by first class debutant Yadvinder Singh (a product of the South Asian Cricket Academy), who claimed four wickets in Surrey’s second innings to give a hint of his potential. For those wondering about the pitch, it was never a death trap, but Surrey undoubtedly prepared a ‘result’ pitch, believing that they were more likely to benefit from such than the visitors, and they were right – they had the bowling to make full use of whatever was there for them and Worcestershire didn’t. Scorecard here.

ESSEX V WARWICKSHIRE

The match above concluded on the third evening, and I followed various other games for the remainder of that day, but had noticed an interesting scenario unfolding at Chelmsford and resolved to follow that game to its conclusion today. Essex started today 224-4 chasing 330 for victory. However it was the story of how that situation arose that made the scenario particularly interesting. Warwickshire had scored 397 batting first and Essex were rolled for 162. At this point, with whoever batted next facing an awkward mini-session before the close, and the Essex batters probably not in the best of spirits after failing once already that day Warwickshire skipper Alex Davies made a bizarre decision not enforce the follow-on with that lead of 235, thereby exposing his own side to that awkward mini-session of batting. Warwickshire were five down by the close of day, and the Essex bowlers finished the job on day three with Warwickshire mustering a beggarly 94 all out. Warwickshire needed early wickets on the fourth morning and did not get them – the target was down to 42 before they finally struck, Jordan Cox holing out for splendid 112, his second first class hundred for his new county. Pepper, the new batter, fell early to make it 293-6, but Simon Harmer, fear of whose off spin in the final innings may have influenced Davies’ fateful decision not to put Essex back in when he had the chance, batted nicely, while Matt Critchley was playing a splendid innings and richly deserved to join Cox with a three figure score. Unfortunately he was denied this, being on 99* when a boundary to Harmer gave Essex a four wicket win. When it comes to enforcing the follow-on there should be no ‘always’ and no ‘never’ – each case should be assessed on its merits, and my strong view here is that Davies messed up – with an advantage of 235 and whoever batted next facing an awkward mini-session before the close (which also meant his bowler’s would have a nights rest to break up their labours) it was clear cut to enforce it, and his decision to inflict that awkward mini-session of batting on his own side ultimately cost him and them the match. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

England Women Complete Series Sweep Over Pakistan Women

An account of England Women’s victory over Pakistan Women earlier today, a victory which gave them a 3-0 series sweep. Also a photo gallery.

While Surrey were pushing for victory over Worcestershire – duly completed a few minutes ago – my attention was elsewhere for a period in the middle of the day – the third and final T20I between the England and Pakistan women’s teams got underway at 1:00PM. This post looks back at that match.

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

England again found themselves batting first. They started slowly but accelerated well, initially through Danni Wyatt, who was lucky on 12, when Muneeba Ali failed to hold on to a catch behind the stumps, and punished Pakistan heavily for the lapse, ultimately scoring 87 off 49 balls. Amy Jones scored some quick runs late on, and the innings had a farcical ending when there was almost a run out when the batters came back two on the final ball, and then an actual run out when they took on a third to celebrate the reprieve. England were 176 all out to the last scheduled ball of their innings.

THE PAKISTAN REPLY

Pakistan started solidly, though a bit slowly, the openers passing 50 together. However, they both fell in the space of a few balls and two more wickets fell quickly as 60-0 became 73-4. The fifth wicket pair batted well up to a point, but were always falling further and further behind the required rate. Eventually 39 were needed off the last over, and with Sophie Ecclestone to bowl it there could only be one outcome. The final margin was 34 runs, and England had won the series 3-0. Wyatt was Player of the Match for her scintillating innings, and Amy Jones was Player of the Series.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

	amsutcliffebtinterne… on All Time XIs – Detective…
	All Time XIs –… on The Museum Detectives
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on The Museum Detectives
	Thomas on England Just About Hanging…
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on England Just About Hanging…