Tag: Butterflies

All Time XIs: England in Australia

An all time XI of England players whose finest hours came in Australia, and a photo gallery,

With an away Ashes series approaching I offer a variation on the all-time theme – an England side picked specifically with achievements IN Australia in mind (yes, sceptical Aussie readers, I can find 11, and that without too much difficulty).

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. *Len Hutton (right handed opening batter, captain). England’s successful skipper both at home in 1953, when he was the first professional to lead England in a home Ashes series, and away in 1954-5, also recorded a series batting average of 88.83 on the unsuccessful 1950-1 tour.
  2. Alastair Cook (left handed opening batter). 766 runs at 127.67 in the 2010-11 triumph, including 235 not out at Brisbane, 148 at Adelaide and 189 at Sydney. He also scored an unbeaten at 244 at Melbourne eight years later.
  3. Ken Barrington (right handed batter, occasional leg spinner). The Surrey stalwart had racked up nine test centuries on various overseas tours, including 1962-3 in Australia, when he fared magnificently, before scoring one in a home test match (256 versus Australia at Old Trafford in 1964).
  4. Wally Hammond (right handed batter, occasional right arm medium fast bowler). Almost a century after he set it his 905 runs at 113.125 in the 1928-9 Ashes remains a record for a series in Australia, and second on the all time list behind Don Bradman’s 974 at 139.14 in England in 1930. He was also joint leading run scorer four years later with 440 at 55.00, an aggregate an average exactly duplicated by Herbert Sutcliffe, and his scores in 1936-7 included an undefeated double century.
  5. David Gower (left handed batter). Four Ashes tours in all (1978-9, 1982-3, 1986-7 and 1990-1), with two of them in winning cause. In 1978-9 at Perth he came in on the first day with England in trouble at 41-3 and proceeded to score his maiden Ashes ton, with Boycott blocking at the other end. England won that match, still the only time they have ever won a test match in western Australia, and took the series 5-1. He scored centuries on all four of his Ashes tours, including an innings on the last of them that Bradman rated among the top five he ever saw in Australia.
  6. +Matthew Prior (right handed batter, wicket keeper). England’s keeper in the successful 2010-11 tour, and he was a big part of the reason for that success.
  7. Ian Botham (right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). Crucial to England’s 1978-9 triumph, and the 1986-7 trip saw the last of his 14 test centuries, and a five-for later in the series.
  8. Frank Foster (left arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). A splendid all rounder until a motorcycle accident ended his career early, he was one of two bowling stars (the other is also in this XI) of the 1911-12 tour, when England lost the opener but won all four of the other test matches, with 32 wickets in the series.
  9. Hedley Verity (left arm orthodox spinner, right handed batter). One of the greatest masters of his craft ever to play the game. and a useful lower order batter. His role in the 1932-3 triumph was acknowledged by his skipper Douglas Jardine. He was the only bowler Donald Bradman admitted to facing as an equal, and I had very little hesitation in selecting him for the spinners slot.
  10. Frank Tyson (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). One of two choices for this slot, it was pretty much a coin toss as to who should get the nod. I went for his 1954-5 heroics over those of Larwood two decades previously.
  11. Sydney Barnes (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). 77 test wickets in Australia, in 12 matches in that country. At Melbourne in the 1911-12 series on a good track he had the top four Aussie batters back in the pavilion for a single between them in his new ball burst. England won that series 4-1, with Barnes claiming 34 wickets in the series.

This side has a very powerful top five, a keeper/ batter who succeeded down under, a legendary all rounder and four great and well varied bowlers. A bowling unit of Barnes, Foster, Tyson, Verity and Botham, with Hammond and Barrington available as back up options should be capable of functioning well on any surface.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

There were three main rivals to my chosen openers: Andrew Strauss, who opened and captained on the 2010-11 tour and the old firm of Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe. I wanted a right hander to go with Cook, which ruled out Strauss, and the need for a captain gave Hutton an additional advantage over the other contenders. Archie MacLaren had a great series in 1897-8, but that was a bit of a flash in the pan given his overall record, and England lost that series.

Eddie Paynter had a superb record against Australia and could have had David Gower’s slot. Among right handed players who might have featured in the middle order were KS Ranjitsinhji, Kevin Pietersen (whose test best of 227 was scored at Adelaide) and Ted Dexter, who electrified crowds in 1962-3. Colin Cowdrey made six tours of Australia, an England record, including answering an SOS call at the age of 42, 20 years after first travelling down under. I regretted not being able to include the left hander Frank Woolley. Denis Compton was never the player in Australia that he was elsewhere and had to be excluded. If Joe Root rights the one wrong on his stellar CV, the lack of a ton in Australia, he will merit consideration.

Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff’s only visit to Australia in 2006-7 was a personal nightmare for him and ruled him out of consideration, while Ben Stokes has not yet fully delivered down under.

Among the keepers who could have been considered were LEG Ames (1932-3), Alan Knott (1970-1, and in defeat in 1974-5) and Bob Taylor (1978-9).

Derek Underwood performed a similar role in 1970-1 to that of Verity in 1932-3, and Johnny Wardle and Bob Appleyard both fared well in 1954-5. Graeme Swann fulfilled his brief of bowling economically in 2010-11, but flying home halfway through the 2013-14 tour tells against him.

Among the faster bowlers there are three honourable mentions: Harold Larwood in 1932-3 did what Frank Tyson did a couple of decades later and might well have had that slot. John Snow had a phenomenal tour in 1970-1. In 2010-11 James Anderson had a wonderful series, and had his moments on other tours as well.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I suspected that this series of cormorant/ heron pictures would provide today’s feature image…
A jay using a piece of scaffolding as a perch.
…until this Red Admiral appeared this afternoon.

Warm Spell Brings Out the Insects

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

The 45th Ryder Cup

A look back at the Ryder Cup, played at Bethpage Black golf course over the weekend. Also a photo gallery.

Over the weekend the USA and Europe did battle for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black golf course, Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. This post looks back at what happened.

THE TEAM ELEMENT

On Friday and Saturday team element of the tournament, one set of four foursomes and one set of four fourballs on each day, took place, before the event concluded with the 12 singles matches. In foursomes the players play alternate shots, so only two balls are in play in each group. In fourballs all four players are in action, each playing their own balls. Europe were utterly dominant over these two days, winning all four sets of matches, a first. USian world number one Scottie Scheffler set a less welcome new record – he became the first player in Ryder Cup history to be part of losing pairs in all four sets of matches over the first two days. Europe looked and played like a team, the USA like a collection of individuals. Keegan Bradley, the USian captain, was last involved in a Ryder Cup over a decade ago, while two of his assistants had no prior Ryder Cup experience at all and another, Jim Furyk, had mainly been on losing teams in his own Ryder Cup days. In all Europe led going into the final day by 11.5 to 4.5, with 14 being enough for them to retain the cup and 14.5 enough to win it outright. The biggest end of day two lead ever successfully overturned at a Ryder Cup is 10-6, by the USA at Brookline in 1999 and by Europe in ‘The Miracle of Medinah’ in 2012. In the latter match Europe were 10-4 down with the last two fourballs matches in play, and won both those games, with Ian Poulter putting in an Olympian performance to turn one of them round in its closing stages, whereas at Bethpage the last point on Saturday was won by Europe to extend their lead.

THE SUNDAY SINGLES

Before the day even started the score line changed. Viktor Hovland for Europe had a neck injury and was forced to pull out, which meant that a USian also had to pull out. As luck would have it the person who had been picked by the captain as the US’s fall guy in this event (each side puts one name in an envelope to cover for emergency withdrawals by the other side) was Hovland’s scheduled opponent anyway, so other than the award of half a point to each team, which made it USA 5, Europe 12 nothing else changed. The USA generally outpoint Europe in the singles, but Europe’s lead was so huge that a US comeback was the longest of long shots. USA did indeed outpoint Europe, but not by as much as they needed to. Only one European actually won a singles match on this day, Ludwig Aberg (that surname is apparently correctly pronounced like “oh-bairj”), but three other Europeans took half points from their matches, so the final score was USA 13 Europe 15. Europe thus retained the Ryder Cup, winning in the USA for only the fourth time.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Even at the tail end of September there are still butterflies about – this one was in Kettlewell Lane park this morning.

Spectacular Saturday

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 County Champions

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.

Nottinghamshire’s Grip on the County Championship Strengthens

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.

Some Sporting Highlights

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.

Nottinghamshire in Control of the County Championship

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.

NOT13616203
SUR13418189

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.

More Record Breaking from England

A look back at last night’s carnage at Old Trafford and a photo gallery.

The ODI series between the England and South Africa men’s teams ended with a record breaking win for England. The T20I series between the same two teams started with a narrow win for South Africa in the first match. The second match took place last night…

A REMARKABLE BLITZ

England batted first, and they got off to a flier. Jos Buttler reached 50 off 18 balls, Phil Salt took only one ball longer. The hundred was on the board before the six over Power Play was done. Buttler was first out, for 83 off 30 balls. Salt went on to a century, his fourth in T20 internationals, putting him behind only Rohit Sharma (five) on the all time list. Salt reached that mark off his 39th ball, an England all time record. The runs continued to amass at a ridiculous rate, and in the final over England became the first side ever to take a top tier (i.e. test playing) nation for 300 in a T20I. They ended up with a score of 304-2, pg which Salt’s share was 141 not out from 60 balls. South Africa had swelled the number of balls England actually faced by bowling a number of wides and no-balls. Bjorn Fortuin, a left arm spin bowling all rounder who had replaced Corbin Bosch, a right arm medium pace bowling all rounder, in the XI fared as well as anyone, taking 2-52 from his four overs. Kagiso Rabada, an all time great of the game, was left nursing figures of 4-0-70-0. With that kind of score on the board there could only be one result, and in the end the final margin was 146 runs. Sam Curran had 2-11 from two overs, varying his pace superbly (one of his slower balls was clocked at 47mph, similar to the stock pace in her playing days of world cup winning left arm spinner turned commentator Alex Hartley), and at the end, with the result long since confirmed (at the end of the 16th over South Africa needed 147 from four overs, and were down to tail enders only) Will Jacks picked up 2-2 from a single over of off spin.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The County Championship

A look at the situation in the 2025 County Championship with two rounds remaining and a photo gallery.

The county championship of 2025 has two rounds left, the first of which begins this coming Monday, at 10:30AM. This post looks at how it stands.

TIGHT AT THE TOP

Most of the matches in this round were drawn due to weather interruptions. The big exception to this rule were Nottinghamshire, who faced Worcestershire, bottom of division one, and almost certain to finish in that position, though not to be relegated, since the powers that be are mulling potential changes and have refused as yet to confirm or deny whether promotion and relegation will be happening. Nottinghamshire’s win, and Surrey being held to a draw by Warwickshire means that although Surrey are still top their advantage has been cut to single point. These two being locked in battle is a throwback to the late 19th century, when they were the two best sides in the country and had a very fierce rivalry. No one else has a serious chance of taking the title, since there is a 22 point gap back to third place.

THE BOTTOM

Worcestershire are more or less guaranteed to finish bottom of division one. There are five teams fighting to avoid second bottom, with everyone from Essex in fifth down to Durham in ninth close enough together that any one of those sides could end up second bottom, which may or may not mean relegation.

DIVISION TWO

Leicestershire are top, and if promotion and relegation do happen they are certain to be promoted. Glamorgan in second are almost as sure of their position, with a 27 point gap between them and third place. Kent look like this year’s wooden spooners, 28 points adrift of the next worst side.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…