Tag: Butterflies

The County Championship Points System

A look at the points system in use in this year’s county championship and its main problem (the over generous reward for drawn games).

The second round of county championship matches gets underway on Friday (there is an IPL commentary today, which is just getting underway). This post looks into the rights and wrongs of the points system used in the county championship.

THE POINTS SYSTEM

The points system in use for this season is as follows:
16 Points for an outright win
8 points for a draw

In addition bonus points are awarded in the first 110 overs of each side’s first innings as follows: batting – 1 point for 250 runs, 2 for 300, 3 for 350, 4 for 400 and 5 for 450 and bowling – 1 point for three wickets, 2 points for six wickets and 3 points for nine wickets.

PROS AND CONS

I approve of the 16 points for a win, and though I accept that it adds a degree of complexity I also largely approve of the bonus point system. I have a problems with the allocation of eight points for a draw (it used to be five last season). Two matches in different ways illustrate the problems with rewarding a draw so highly. At Lord’s neither Middlesex nor Glamorgan were within a country mile of winning – the pitch won hands down, and there is no certainty that there would have been a result had that match been allocated eight days rather than the regulation four. At Hove Sussex utterly outplayed Northamptonshire but bad light forced an end with Sussex highly likely to win had it not done so, and Northamptonshire gained eight points which they had done precious little to earn. I do not go so far as legendary Somerset skipper of yesteryear Sammy Woods who was once heard to say “draws…they’re for bathing in” – I have witnessed some classic drawn matches, including the Old Trafford test match of 2005 and a match between Surrey and Hampshire, when with no chance of anything more than a draw for Surrey former South Africa test batter Hashim Amla batted the whole of the final day to shepherd his side to that draw. However I also do not particularly want to encourage sides to play safe and look to avoid defeat, and I feel that awarding as many as eight points for a draw (which if it comes with full batting and bowling points thus means 16 in total) is likely to encourage negative tactics. I think five points is ample for a draw. A further problem with eight points for a draw is exemplified by the fact that Durham and Hampshire have eight points a piece for four days of doing nothing because the outfield was always deemed too wet for cricket. Surrey meanwhile have 11 points because in just over 80 overs of cricket at Old Trafford they managed to bowl their hosts out for 202, and were 15-0 in reply.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a bumper photo gallery, particularly notable for the variety of butterflies featured…

A Tortiseshell butterfly
A Peacock butterfly
The most exotic butterfly of the year so far – an Orange Tip
Peacock butterfly
Peacock butterfly
A shieldbug.
Tortiseshell butterfly.
A peacock butterfly
A comma butterfly (two edits).

How Would I Approach Bidding At An IPL Auction

My view (as a keen cricket fan who works for an auctioneer) on bidding at IPL auctions, with some pungent observations about what happened with Mitchell Starc.

Today I look at the workings of IPL auctions. There is a particular signing at the most recent such auction that will feature later as (IMO) a clear cut example of folk losing their heads.

HOW AN IPL AUCTION WORKS

Each franchise has a total budget for assembling their squad of 90 crore rupees, with the pay of the players they retain from the previous edition deducted from that. There are 25 spaces available in each squad, with a minimum of 18 of those spaces having to be filled. The starting XI can contain up to four overseas players and the full squad is allowed to contain eight such players.

AN EXAMPLE OF HEADS BEING LOST AT AUCTION

Australian left arm pacer Mitchell Starc sold for 24 crore at the last IPL auction – over a quarter of the successful bidder’s total available budget for one player. This is a signing that almost cannot end up being a good one – if he has a stella tournament (and figures after two of 14 group games of 8-0-100-0 suggest otherwise to put it politely) then so he should at that price, while anything less represents failure. Also, with that much of the budget blown on one player there are bound to be weaknesses elsewhere in the squad.

HOW I WOULD HANDLE BIDDING AT AN IPL AUCTION

I would set myself limits beyond which I would not bid no matter how much I wanted to secure the player concerned. I would probably never venture beyond 10 crore for anyone, and even if I suspected I was bidding for a reincarnation of Garry Sobers I would limit myself to 15 crore. I would also concentrate a lot of my attention on players who other franchises seem to be ignoring, rather than being over eager to join in bidding frenzies. I would not want to spend massive money on specialist batters – bowlers up to a certain point yes, and all rounders are obviously always valuable when you have to have at least five bowlers in your XI (and six would be recommended, just so that if someone is getting absolutely smoked you don’t have to give them their full four overs). Mitchell Starc has 12 group games, plus KOs if his team qualifies for those in which to improve his current figures for this tournament, but I cannot see any way in which even he, magnificent bowler though he is, can justify that ridiculous fee. At the moment with those cumulative figures to date of 8-0-100-0 and coming at that astronomical fee he is on course to be the worst flop in IPL history.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The South Gate from the town side.
The South Gate from the outside.
The iconic Custom House.
The statue of George Vancouver.

Cricket Season Approaches

A look ahead to the upcoming cricket season and a bumper photo gallery.

It is now less than a week until the English first class cricket season kicks off. In the meanwhile there has been some interesting action in the IPL, though I am following today’s game only through cricinfo, as this long weekend features Classic FM’s ‘Hall of Fame’ countdown – the 300 most popular pieces of classical music as voted for by listeners (you get to pick your top three if you choose to vote, and the pieces with the most votes make it into the charts) – and I always follow as much of this countdown as I can.

Surrey start the season as winners of the last two county championships. The last side to win three in a row were Yorkshire in the 1960s (1966, 1967, 1968). A decade earlier Surrey themselves set the all time record by winning seven in succession (1952-1958 inclusive).

I end this look ahead to the season by mentioning two youngsters who may well feature for England before the season is done. Somerset batter James Rew was simply magnificent last season, and if he can pick up where he left off he will have to picked. Surrey pacer Tom Lawes has shown considerable promise, and with Broad retired, Anderson surely nearing the end, Wood already 35 and with a history of injuries, Robinson’s fitness unreliable (to put it generously) there are more than likely to be vacancies in the pace bowling department.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a bumper photo gallery to finish with – the weather has been very springlike in recent days…

A view of King’s Lynn from the edge of Harding’s Pits
Getting the whole frontage of the town hall in a single picture is a challenge, but I found one place from where it can be done today.

RCB Win WPL

An account of yesterday’s WPL final between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore and a bumper photo gallery.

The final of the second edition of the Women’s Premier League took place yesterday afternoon UK time. The two teams to make it there were Delhi Capitals who had qualified by the direct route of topping the league stage, and Royal Challengers Bangalore who had had to go the long way round.

THE DELHI CAPITALS INNINGS

Aussie legend Meg Lanning and Indian star Shafali Verma opened the batting for Delhi, and they got away to a flier, scoring 61 from the six overs of Power Play without being separated. The seventh over stemmed the flow, and then the match took a dramatic turn in the eighth over – 64-0 becoming 64-3 in the space of four balls as Verma’s explosive innings ended caught in the deep, and then Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey both scored ducks. Ten runs later came a crucial moment as Shreyanka Patil pinned Lanning LBW, a decision that was sent upstairs in sheer desperation but confirmed as being out. The floodgates were well and truly open now for the RCB bowlers, and the scorecard soon read 87-7, at which point Radha Yadav and Arundhati Reddy offered a little resistance, ended by the run out of Yadav who had become only the third player of the innings to reach double figures. Patil completed the rout with the scalps in very quick succession of Reddy (the fourth and last double figure score of the innings) and wicket keeper Taniya Bhatia, to give her four wickets for the innings and put her at the top of the wicket takers list for the tournament. At high water mark Delhi Capitals had been 64-0, and they ended up all out for 113 – all ten wickets going for 49 runs. Other than the run out every wicket went to spin bowling – Molineux’s three that started the rout, Patil’s four and two for leg spinner Asha Sobhana.

THE RCB CHASE

RCB have had an IPL franchise since that competition started in 2008 and have never won the competition, and RCB women had not won only previous edition of this tournament. It was only the fact of RCB’s status as serial non-winners that could cause anyone to view of a chase of 114 as other than a formality, and in the end it was exactly that. Yes, victory was only achieved in the final over, but of greater significance than the exact time at which the winning run was scored was that RCB lost only two wickets, and were never really struggling with the run rate – the nearest they came to being so was when they need 29 from the last four overs, but the two batters together at that stage, Ellyse Perry, an Aussie legend to rival even Lanning, who only a few days earlier had shone with the other side of her game, becoming the first ever to take a six-wicket haul in a WPL game, and Richa Ghosh (India’s current first choice keeper, though she is rather more accomplished with the bat than with the gloves) stayed calm and took their side to a well merited victory. Sophie Molineux, whose triple wicket burst interrupted Delhi Capital’s momentum and changed the course of the match was named Player of the Match. Uttar Pradesh Warriorz and India off spinning all rounder Deepti Sharma was named Player of the Tournament. The Player of the Match award was unquestionably correct – statistically Molineux was outdone by Shreyanka Patil, but it was Molineux’s burst that derailed the Delhi Capitals when they appeared set for an enormous score. A full scorecard can be viewed here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a splendid photo gallery – the first bees of the year are out and about, and not only did I have another sighting of the Brimstone Butterfly, I also got another butterfly, a Comma…

The Final Day of the Six Nations 2024

A look back at the final day of Six Nations 2024 action, and a bumper photo gallery, presented in three parts.

The 2024 Six Nations rugby tournament concluded late yesterday evening, with France playing England in Lyon in a match that would decide second and third spots in the final table. This match was the third match a final day and that it had no bearing on who won the tournament shows that the schedulers miscalculated somewhat.

THE EARLIER GAMES

The first match of the day saw Wales and Italy facing one another in a game that Wales had to win to avoid the wooden spoon. A win for Italy would make it their best ever Six Nations showing. It was also confirmed as a final international appearance for George North of Wales, and I suspect there may be other members of this Welsh squad who will not be seen at international level again. The Italians were 11-0 up at half time, and a converted try right at the start of the second half extended the lead to 18. At that point Wales finally showed a hint of fighting spirit, and in the end the final score was remarkably close, but Italy’s early dominance had ensured that justice was done, and that they did indeed record the win that gave them their best ever Six Nations showing.

Ireland needed only a single point from their match against Scotland to ensure that they would retain the championship that they won last year. Scotland came out fighting, making it clear from the word go that they were not just there to assist in Ireland’s coronation. Ireland proved good enough in the end, and retained their championship, underlining their status as the current dominant force in European rugby.

FRANCE V ENGLAND

This match would have no bearing on who won the tournament, but no game between these old rivals is ever meaningless, and there was plenty of pride at stake, as well as which of these sides would end up in second place. The match was an absolute belter of a game. The lead changed many times. With only a few minutes to go England got a penalty, and in the situation George Ford opted to kick for the corner hoping to set up a try rather than settle for three points. A superb kick gave England a line out just ten metres from the try line, and some slick work from that line out got them the try, and Ford, as unerring with the boot as he had been all game, duly scored the conversion to put England ahead. Then, with 38 seconds left on the clock France were awarded a penalty. For them, with three points being sufficient to re-establish their lead in the dying seconds it was a ‘must kick’ opportunity, though at 49 metres it was a major challenge to do so. Ramos, the French kicker, managed to put it over and the home crowd celebrated. There was time for the match to restart, but there was never any doubt that the French would retain possession for long enough thereafter to hang on for the win and with it second place in the table.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Yesterday was a very spring like day, and I deliberately extended my walks to and from King’s Lynn library where there was a ‘just a cuppa’ morning for autistic adults to take full advantage of it. Thus comes a gallery three parts…

Friday afternoon’s walk and the walk to the library…

The walk to the library yesterday starts here.

Lego architecture at the coffee morning…

Modification of the roof to include an overhanging observation platform.
The final modification – the blue bases used here represent part of a river, with clear blocks forming a stepping stone type crossing thereof.

The walk back from the library…

A brimstone butterfly fluttering around the greenery near Kettlewell Lane (four pics)

Home Internet Restored

A brief post celebrating the fact that after a week and a half without it I once again have broadband access at home. Ends with a bumper photo gallery, including the first butterfly of 2024.

The engineer came round near the beginning of the official slot of 8AM – 1PM today and connected up my new EE Home Hub, so after a gap of a week and a half I have Broadband at home once again.

A FRIGHTENINGLY WARM FEBRUARY

As I type this it is 12 degrees Celsius outside (53.6 Fahrenheit for USian readers), and that is far from out of keeping with the last week or so, when double figure positives have been the rule rather than the exception. February in high northern latitudes such as England is generally one of the two coldest months of the year alongside January, and the outside temperature hitting double figure positives on a regular basis is way out of kilter. Yesterday while out and about I saw my first butterfly of 2024, a small Tortoiseshell, while the spring flowers are in full bloom.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Saturday and yesterday were both good days for photography, in spite of being cloudy, and I therefore finish this post a king size gallery…

This shot and the next seven after it showcase the Lego architecture that I indulged in at the ‘Just a Cuppa’ morning for Autistic Adults at King’s Lynn Library on Saturday.
This close up of the entrance also shows the topmost part of the gothic archway which links the front porch to the main building.
A small Tortoiseshell butterfly in the grass alongside Bawsey Drain, heading towards North Lynn.

All Time XIs – Given Name Begins With A

An all time XI of players whose given names begin with A, with a lot of honourable mentions. Also a photo gallery.

Last year I took an alphabetical trip through cricketing surnames. This post may be the starting point for a trip through cricketing given names. For the moment it is an All Time XI of players whose given names all begin with A.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Andrew Strauss (left handed opening batter). One of the openers in the England test side that rose to number one in the world rankings in 2011.
  2. Andrew Stoddart (right handed opening batter). Captained England to an away Ashes series win in 1894-5, the first such series to contain five matches. In the second match of that series he scored a then England record 173 in their second innings. England, all out for 75 at the first time of asking managed precisely 400 more second time round and went on to win the match to go two up in the series. He also captained England at rugby union.
  3. Andrew Jones (right handed batter, occasional off spinner). No one’s idea of a stylish player, the Kiwi was a gutsy, gritty number three good enough average 44 in test cricket as part of what was not the world’s strongest batting line up.
  4. Aravinda de Silva (right handed batter, occasional off spinner). The Sri Lankan at one time held the test record score for his country with an innings of 267. He also produced Player of the Match performances in the semi-final and final of the 1996 ODI World Cup.
  5. *Allan Border (left handed batter, occasional left arm orthodox spinner, captain). The first ever to reach the career milestone of 11,000 test runs, and for about the first decade of his long career he was continually attempting to rescue lost causes.
  6. Alfred Mynn (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). The greatest all rounder of his era, known as the Lion of Kent.
  7. +Adam Gilchrist (Wicket keeper, left handed batter). One of the greatest ever.
  8. Alan Davidson (left arm fast medium bowler, left handed batter). An all time great of the game, and his left arm angle adds variation to the attack.
  9. Andy Roberts (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). The original leader of the four-pronged pace attack that made West Indies such a ferocious force in the late 1970s and on through the 1980s, and a handy lower order batter as well.
  10. Anil Kumble (leg spinner, right handed batter). The fourth leading test wicket taker of all time, behind Muralidaran, Warne and Anderson, and one of only three bowlers ever to take all ten wickets in a test innings (and only two of those, Jim Laker and Kumble, did so in winning cause).
  11. Allan Donald (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). The first unquestionably great bowler of South Africa’s second incarnation as a test nation.

This side contains a powerful batting line up, with genuine match winners in that capacity occupying the top seven slots, numbers 8,9 and 10 all capable of useful efforts in that role and Donald the only genuine tail ender. The presence of only one genuine spinner is offset by the presence of Border and de Silva as back up options in that department, while the pace attack of Davidson, Donald, Roberts and Mynn is superb.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Angelo Mathews, who recently made history as the first player ever to be ‘Timed Out’ in an international match, has had a fine career without doing quite enough to dislodge any of my chosen players. Andrew Flintoff would be the choice of many for the all-rounders slot but the truth is he took a long time to deliver at the top level, and his time at the top was very brief before injuries spoiled the latter stages of his career. Two regular openers named Arthur, Messrs. Morris and Shrewsbury, a left hander and a right hander respectively, were both unlucky to miss out. Arthur Frederick Augustus ‘Dick’ Lilley was a potential candidate for the gauntlets, but the fact that he was always known by his nickname and the presence of Gilchrist persuaded me to give the latter the nod. Alyssa Healy was also a candidate for the gauntlets. Alec Stewart was a candidate for the openers role, but would have sneaked in under false pretences had I given him the gauntlets. Two Archies, MacLaren of Lancashire and England and Jackson of Australia deserve mentions. Two Alfreds, the impeccably accurate Shaw and the leg spinner Freeman merit mentions – the latter misses out because while his FC numbers were almost beyond belief his test returns were no better than respectable. Alec Bedser was a superb bowler, but I rank him behind my three chosen pacers. Angus Fraser had a fine career, but not quite good enough to merit serious consideration. Angus Alexander Patrick Atkinson, generally referred to as Gus Atkinson, is a highly promising young pace bowler and a competent lower order batter, but he is not as yet a serious challenger to any of my chosen pacers. Azhar Mahmood was a fine all rounder. Two current Aussie tweakers, Alana King and Amanda-Jade Wellington deserve mentions. Abdul Qadir who virtually kept the art of leg spin alive in the 1980s deserves the acknowledgement of an honourable mention. Ajaz Patel, in spite of having a test match all-ten, has to miss out – his side were soundly thrashed in the match in question, and his all-ten was more down to the absolute impotence of the rest of the bowling attack than to any particular brilliance of his. On a pitch that absolutely demanded two genuinely front line spinners I would drop Mynn, promote Gilchrist one place up the order and bring in Axar Patel at number seven. Albert Trott is a case of ‘what might have been’ and therefore it is only an honourable mention for him. Azmatullah Omarzai of Afghanistan may yet force his way in to this XI, but he is at the moment one for the future.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A remarkably late appearance for a red admiral.

Pakistan and Australia Locked in Battle

A look at developments in today’s cricket world cup match between Australia and Pakistan, a heads up about auctions taking place next week and a photo gallery.

Today’s world cup match features Australia and Pakistan and is taking place in Bengaluru. The first part of this post looks at developments in this match.

THE AUSTRALIA INNINGS

Pakistan won the toss and opted to bowl first. Australia got away to a flying start, helped by Usama Mir dropping an easy chance to be rid of Warner early on. The opening stand yielded 259, and they came quickly, with a total of 400+ looking more likely than not at that stage. However, as wickets began to tumble the scoring rate declined, and in the end Australia had recorded 367-9 from their 50 overs. Warner had scored 163 and his opening partner Mitchell Marsh 121, while the standout bowler was Shaheen Shah Afridi with 5-51 from his 10 overs. Haris Rauf took three wickets, but that was only after taking a blasting early on – his first five overs went for 70.

THE PAKISTAN REPLY

Pakistan needed a fast start with the bat to stay in the hunt and they got one. Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq each topped 50 but got out before going really big. This was the first occasion in world cup history that all four opening batters had scored 50+. Babar Azam fell to an excellent catch by Pat Cummins for 18, but Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel are going well and have got Pakistan to 203-3 in the 31st over, keeping them in the contest. Scoring has been brisk because the pitch is very flat, the outfield is lightning fast and the ground is significantly above sea level.

TWO-DAY AUCTION

Next week James and Sons have a two-day auction. Day 1 (Tuesday) features mainly militaria, while day two features over 600 collectable railway models. The full catalogue can be viewed here or here. The models start with lot 501, which is on page six of the-saleroom’s listing (first link) and page nine of easyliveauction’s listing. Here are a few sample images:

Lot 610 (five images)
Lot 616 (six images).
Lot 617 (eight images)

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

three goldfinches perching on an aerial.
This picture and the next show military planes which flew over King’s Lynn while I was waiting for my bus into Fakenham yesterday.
These last few pictures were taken today – not an ideal day for photography).

While I have been preparing this for publication Pakistan have lost one wicket but have also moved on to 263 in the 38th over. 105 off 12.3 overs is not particularly daunting by modern standards.

2023 ODI World Cup Latest

A look at recent developments in the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup, including two spectacular upsets – Afghanistan beating England and The Netherlands downing South Africa. Also two photo galleries.

There have been many developments in the tournament since my last blog post. This post looks at these developments.

AFGHANISTAN BEAT ENGLAND

In Sunday’s post I was anticipating a historic win for Afghanistan over England. That win duly materialised, with the final margin being 69 runs in Afghanistan’s favour – 284 vs 215. Afghanistan thoroughly deserved their win, and I was delighted that the Player of the Match award went to Mujeeb Ur Rahman for a very rapid 28 which gave the Afghanistan total a late boost and three good wickets, rather than Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s 80 securing him the award which is what I had feared. This was obviously a great occasion for Afghanistan, but it was also a great occasion for the tournament as a whole – going into this match there had not been an upset of any sort, and this was a seismic one.

PHOTO GALLERY ONE

Having paid tribute to Afghanistan I break the post up a bit with this…

SRI LANKA V AUSTRALIA

Both of these teams had started with back to back losses, which meant that one of them would end the game firmly ensconced in the last chance saloon, almost certainly needing to win all six of their remaining games to qualify, while the other would still be in considerable jeopardy but would have some leeway. In the event Sri Lanka were never in the hunt, and Australia recorded a very comfortable win.

A SECOND UPSET

I was at work yesterday, so missed most of the match between The Netherlands and South Africa. The match was reduced by rain to 43 overs a side, and by the time I got back the Netherlands had amassed 245 from their allocation and had South Africa in considerable trouble at 133-6, needing 113 from 13 overs. The one hope for South Africa was that David ‘Killer’ Miller was still there. When he was out with the score at 147 the only remaining question was what the margin would be when the Dutch completed a victory that would be an even more king sized upset than Afghanistan’s over England. In the event, while never making anything approaching a serious assault on the target the South African tail provided stern resistance, with Keshav Maharaj leading a charmed life to score the luckiest 40 anyone could ever witness, and the final margin was 38 runs, which decidedly flattered the proteas. There was an added piquancy for a number of members of the Dutch XI – they had been born in South Africa and moved to their ancestral homeland after not making the grade in the land of their birth. They would have been even more overjoyed than their team mates to have bloodied South Africa’s nose in this manner.

AFGHANISTAN v NEW ZEALAND SO FAR

Afghanistan are back in action today, against New Zealand. In spite of the fact that their great win over England had come by means of batting first, posting a total and defending it they made a very questionable decision to field first when they won the toss today, possibly allowing worries over evening dew to influence the decision. They didn’t bowl all that badly, but their fielding would have shamed the Rain Men – five catches went down, none of them hugely difficult and at least two downright easy. New Zealand ended their 50 overs with 288-6 from their 50 overs, which was a lot more than they should have got. Afghanistan lost both openers cheaply, and nothing else that has happened in the opening ten overs of their innings, which have just ended (with three straight maidens) with their score 28-2, needing 261 off the last 40 at 6.525 per over. Rahmat Shah has just scored his first runs, a two and a one, from his ninth and tenth balls, while Hashmatullah Shahidi is on 1 off 17 balls.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…