Tag: Butterflies

A Pulsating End to The #MAshes

A look at the conclusion to an amazing Ashes summer, a mention of a hugely successful auction and a large photo gallery.

The men’s Ashes of 2023 ended on Monday. The first part of this post looks at that final day’s play.

WHO WRITES YOUR SCRIPTS BROADY?!

After the close of play on day three of this match Stuart Broad told the world that it would be his last as a competitive cricketer. On the fourth morning he struck the last delivery he received in test cricket for six, on the fifth evening he took a wicket with his last ball as a test cricketer, giving England victory by 49 runs and a 2-2 drawn series, a result which leaves The #MAshes in Australian hands but also means that the visitors will now go longer without an away series win than any other side in the history of The Ashes – it will be 26 years since their last by the time 2027 comes round, beating the 24 years between successful England trips down under in 1986-7 and 2010-11.

Australia had looked decently placed going into the final day – 135-0, needing 249 runs more to win the match. However, both openers went quickly that final morning (Warner just before I got back from delivering Green Party leaflets in South Wootton, Khawaja just after I had tuned in). Australia were still genuinely in the hunt until Woakes, deservedly Player of the Match, England Player of the Series and winner of the Compton-Miller medal, accounted for Steve Smith, which left Carey plus the bowlers to score over 100 between them. Starc and Cummins both fell fairly cheaply, while Murphy for the second time in the match showed himself rather better than a standard number 10, but when Broad got him the writing really was on the wall. Carey was last to go, also to Broad. Moeen Ali’s test career also ended on Monday, and he took a couple of crucial wickets.

The eventual 2-2 series result was just about fair, though Australia were somewhat flattered by it – the rain ruined game at Old Trafford was going meltingly in England’s favour, and you could probably replay the first two matches of the series a thousand times over and not have Australia emerge 2-0 up.

A GREAT BANKNOTE SALE

A week ago today James and Sons had the second auction of a double header. Tuesday had featured stamps and postal history, and was a success by any normal reckoning. However, the Wednesday sale, a massive collection of banknotes, was probably the greatest success James and Sons have had in the decade since I started working there. Not only did pretty much every lot find a buyer, on most occasions they went for way more than we had dared to hope. Lot 695, expected to fetch 10-12 went for £75…

Lot 741, estimated at 25-30 went for £140…

Lot 877 was the star of the show, expected to go for 30-40 and instead soaring away for £380…

I used this lot to provide the picture for a press release I sent out yesterday.

Lot 894, expected to fetch 25-30 actually went for £180…

Any image can be viewed at full size by clicking on it.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I continue to seek and find things to photograph while out walking…

A second Holly Blue in the space of a few days, this one at the edge of the Kettlewell Lane green space.

A Composite #MAshes 2023 XI

A special butterfly picture, a composie #MAshes2023 XI with 12th man, and a splendid photo gallery.

What has been a superb Men’s Ashes (#MAshes for social media users) approaches its conclusion. The centrepiece of this post picks a composite XI from that series. However, I have plenty of other stuff to share, and before the centrepiece I have a photograph that given its significance and quality deserves special treatment (it has already generated interest on Mastodon)…

A HOLLY BLUE

I was out walking this morning when I spotted a butterfly that was new to me. I was able to get a very good photograph of the wonderful little creature, and Mastodon provided the answer to my inquiries – it was the Holly Blue, a species recognized as endangered (see this Guardian article):

A Holly Blue butterfly on a nettle leaf, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, 30/07/2023

A COMPOSITE #MASHES 2023 XI

Before I list my CXI in batting order let me emphasize that I am picking on the basis of THIS SERIES and this series only.

  1. Usman Khawaja (Australia, left handed opening batter). He has been Australia’s stand out batter of this series by a mile.
  2. Zak Crawley (England, right handed opening batter). Some, familiar with my opinions of him, will be surprised by this selection, but I am picking based on this series, and Warner has been negligible and Duckett patchy, whereas Crawley has had a fine series. It will take more than one fine series, even against the oldest enemy, to convince me that Crawley is the real deal as a test match opener, but denying plain facts is not my style, and the plain facts are that based on this series Crawley gets the slot.
  3. Marnus Labuschagne (Australia right handed batter). By his own stratospheric standards not a great series for him, but he gets the slot by default – since Pope’s injury England have struggled massively with this slot, experimenting with Brook for one innings, and then relying on Ali until his injury this match, with Stokes stepping up in their final innings.
  4. Joe Root (England, right handed batter, occasional off spinner). Only one century, but a couple of near misses as well, and the odd moment with his spin, plus some excellent catches. His opposite number, Smith, has had a decidedly quiet series.
  5. Harry Brook (England, right handed batter, occasional medium pacer). A very good series for him, though no century to show for it. It was ill advised to use him as an ersatz number three, an experiment that lasted one innings, but he played some fine knocks in his regular slot, especially at Headingley, Old Trafford and the first innings of this match at The Oval.
  6. *Ben Stokes (England, left handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler, captain). Knee problems have reduced his bowling to a virtual side show (he is allegedly practicing spin bowling in an attempt to prolong his ability to describe himself as an all rounder), but he has played at least one crucial innings, and his captaincy, not withstanding the short stuff at the Aussie tail on Friday, has been a cut above that of Cummins.
  7. +Alex Carey (Australia, wicket keeper, left handed batter). Massively the better of the two keepers on show this series, and Bairstow’s runs in the last couple of matches do not in anyway compensate for his clumsiness behind the stumps, which has cost England hundreds of runs through the series.
  8. Mitchell Starc (Australia, left arm fast bowler, left handed lower order batter). He gets smacked, but he also picks up wickets, and he provides something that no one else in the series does, in terms of the left arm angle.
  9. Mark Wood (England, right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter). The quickest bowler on either side, and he has had a good series.
  10. Stuart Broad (England, right arm fast medium bowler, left handed lower order batter). He has announced that the current test match will be has last match as a competitive cricketer, but this is not a sentimental pick – he has also taken over 20 wickets in the series, the fifth time he has done that against Australia, and taken his Ashes tally past 150, putting him alone among England bowlers but behind Lillee, McGrath and Warne overall.
  11. Todd Murphy (off spinner, left handed lower order batter). I didn’t want to name a side without a front line spinner, and with Leach injured before the series started and Lyon injured early in the series there was really only one option – Ali has been as ineffective as one might expect of a 36 year old with little interest in red ball cricket and a moderate prior record to be.
  12. Chris Woakes (England, right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). I am naming a 12th man because the veteran Warwickshire all rounder has done well, proving once again that he is formidable in England, and while I couldn’t fit him in the XI I wanted to honour him.

The starting XI has a strong batting line up, a fine keeper and a strong and balance bowling attack, and the designated 12th man could cover any vacancy other than Carey or Murphy without crippling the side.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The Oval and Other Stuff

A mention of goings on at The Oval, A mention of James and Sons recent auctions and a mention of leafleting for the Green Party, plus large numbers of photos.

As I type this England and Australia men’s teams are doing battle at The Oval in the last match of a superb Ashes summer. This post starts with a brief look at what is going on there.

‘BAZBALL’ V ‘BOYCSBALL’

Yesterday England were put into bat, and managed 283 from 54 overs, Brook leading the way with 85. Australia by the close were 61-1. This morning saw an utterly craven batting effort from the Australians, with lady luck saving them on several occasions. Labuschagne in particular seemed to be digging in for a draw even though it was only the second morning! His dismissal for 9 off 82 balls brightened things up a little, but not much. Fortunately the afternoon session has seen Australia being punished for their wilfully slow scoring. Three wickets have fallen since the interval, two to Broad and one to Anderson. This leaves Australia currently 153-5, 130 runs behind England. If Australia, as is currently more than possible, end up behind on first innings they will have only themselves to blame.

A BANKNOTE AUCTION

James and Sons auctioneers, my employers, had a two day sale this week. Day one was stamps and postal history and seems to have gone well. Day two was banknotes (a huge lifetime collection from all around the world), and went superbly. I will be writing more about this later, but I touch on it briefly today as I secured two lots along the way: Antarctica and Djibouti (the latter containing an item of railwayana). Here are the images (to view an image at full size just click on it) that people got to see during the auction:

Here are some more images taken since I took possession of these notes…

LEAFLETING FOR THE GREEN PARTY

This morning I went to South Wootton to collect some leaflets for Michael de Whalley’s campaign to be elected for the vacant Freebridge seat on Norfolk County Council. I have started delivering them, doing one side of Low Road and all of Old Manor Close on my way home. Here are images of the leaflet:

PHOTOGRAPHS

These photographs come from three sources – my morning walk before work yesterday, my walk home in the evening having alighted at Gaywood and while I was out and about today…

While I was preparing this post for publication Alex Carey became the sixth Aussie to be dismissed this innings, holing out to cover off Root. They are still over 100 adrfit.

All Time XIs: Alliterative

An alliterative all time XI and a large photo gallery.

This variation on a favourite theme of mine features an XI all of whom have alliterative names. I have applied all my usual criteria for selecting a side of class and balance, and the biggest omissions will be explained after I have presented the XI.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. William Woodfull (right handed opening batter). An accumulator whose speciality was batting for long periods of time. He will combine well with the other opener.
  2. Gordon Greenidge (right handed opening batter). The Barbadian was a stroke maker by inclination but was also capable of batting for long periods when needed.
  3. Richie Richardson (right handed batter). A test average of 45 maintained over a long career gets him in.
  4. Steven Smith (right handed batter, occasional leg spinner). The best test batter of the modern era.
  5. Saud Shakeel (left handed batter, occasional leg spinner). Currently establishing himself at the highest level, having very recently scored a test double century.
  6. Mulvantrai ‘Vinoo’ Mankad (right handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner). A very fine all rounder, he reached the test double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in 23 matches, a record beaten only by Ian Botham (21 matches).
  7. *Frank Foster (right handed batter, left arm fast medium bowler, captain). His test averages were the right way round – 23 with the bat, 20 with the ball, and if the former figure looks on the low side for a number seven, he was also the first Warwickshire player ever to score a triple century. I have named him as captain because he also skippered Warwickshire to their maiden county championship title in 1911. The vice-captaincy would be a toss up between Woodfull and Richardson, with Smith ruled out of any sort of leadership position given how his tenure as Aussie skipper ended.
  8. +Ben Barnett (wicket keeper, left handed batter). In the era in which he played precisely one regular keeper had a test average better than his 27 – Leslie Ames of Kent and England who averaged 40 with the bat in test cricket.
  9. Malcolm Marshall (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). One of the greatest fast bowlers ever to play the game and a useful lower order batter to boot.
  10. George Geary (right arm medium-fast bowler, right handed batter). Two Ashes winning moments on his CV and the second cheapest all-ten in FC history (10-18 for Leciestershire v Glamorgan) as well.
  11. Muthiah Muralidaran (off spinner, right handed tail end batter). 800 test wickets, and for those who point to Zimbabwe and Bangladesh among his victims, 624 of his 800 wickets came against teams other than these, and he paid 24 a piece for those wickets – his average against all teams other than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe was better than Warne’s against all comers.

This side has a powerful top five, great all rounders at six and seven, a keeper who could bat, and three great bowlers, two of whom could contribute with the bat to round out the order. Malcolm Marshall and Frank Foster with the new ball, Geary as third seamer and Muralidaran and Mankad as front line spin options is an attack that should take 20 wickets on almost any surface.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Colin Cowdrey is the biggest name among qualifiers that I have left out, but I wanted at least one of my front line batters to be left handed, and Shakeel was the obvious solution. Gautam Gambhir might have had an opening slot in place of Woodfull. William Mervyn Wallace of New Zealand did well in the few tests that he got to play, but he always went by ‘Merv’, a shortening of his second given name. Deandra Dottin of West Indies Women could not be accommodated in the XI, but merits an honourable mention. Ben Brown and Chris Cooke both have good county records as keeper batters, but have never been picked at the highest level, while Richie Robinson of Australia was not the keeper that his compatriot Barnett had been, though he was a finer batter – as regular readers know I prioritise keeping, and a side with Geary due to come in at 10 cannot be described as short of batting. George Giffen was a great all rounder, but given his bowling style had I picked him instead of Mankad I would have had to pick Bishan Bedi instead of Muralidaran and my contention is that Murali and Mankad would be a better spin pairing than Bedi and Giffen. George Garton, a left arm fast bowler, might have his advocates, but Foster was proven at the highest level which Garton isn’t, and also I wanted Foster as captain. Picking legendary 19th century speedster John ‘Foghorn’ Jackson over Geary would have increased the pace of the attack, but he benefitted from bowling on pitches that were often so rough that he didn’t have to do more than bowl fast and straight (he played in the era immediately before WG). Two county fast mediums deserve a mention but not a place in the XI: Brian Brain and Tim Tremlett (father of Chris, son of Maurice). Paul Parker’s batting does not justify picking him, but he would be this XIs designated fielding sub.

DISQUALIFICATIONS

Two players who would otherwise have merited consideration were disqualified for going on rebel tours of apartheid South Africa: Graham Gooch and Colin Croft.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Early Music Day at the Lynn Festival

A look back at yesterdays Early Music Day concerts at the Lynn Festival, a link from this day last year and lots of photographs.

Yesterday was Early Music Day at the Lynn Festival. This featured three concerts, all held at St Nicholas Chapel. This post looks at all three concerts.

CONCERT ONE: AN ORGAN RECITAL

The Organ at St Nicholas Chapel is a truly magnificent instrument, designed and constructed by the London firm of Henry Willis & Son, and completed in 1900. David Flood proved to be a magnificent performer as well, and he chose pieces all of which could have been played on this organ when it was first completed in 1900.

CONCERT TWO: THE ORCHESTRA OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

This concert did not feature a full orchestra, it was a smaller ensemble, all of whom belong to this orchestra. This means that rather than a conductor being present they took their lead from the First Violinist. The concert was excellent, featuring some splendid music.

CONCERT THREE: HARPSICHORD AND VIOLA DA GAMBA

Masumi Yamamoto was on the harpsichord and Ibrahim Aziz on the viola da gamba, an instrument much closer in shape and size to a modern cello than it is to a viola, in spite of the name. The concert both started and ended with them playing together, but each also played solos in the middle. Here are some photographs (quick reminder, all photos can be viewed at full size by lcikcing on them) specifically relating to these concerts…

St Nicholas Chapel
The organ.
An information board about the organ.
This picture and the the next show controls for the organ.
The wooden angels in the inside roof of the chapel presented and interesting challenge.

FROM THE ARCHIVE AND GENERAL PHOTOGRAPHY

A year ago today I published my all time XI of players whose surnames begin with the letter E. Since then a new name has appeared on the scene: Abhimanyu Easwaran produced a succession of big scores in Indian domestic cricket. I am not yet prepared to break up my opening pair of J Edrich and Elgar just yet, but the latter is under threat, especially if Easwaran gets his opportunity to perform at a higher level and delivers. Now for my usual sign off…

Men’s Ashes: Climax or Anti-climax

A look at development’s in the men’s Ashes as we wait for play to get underway on day four at Old Trafford.

Today is Early Music Day at the Lynn Festival (will be blogging about this in due time), and I am making use of the long break between the first and second concerts (the second and third are basically back to back, with insufficient time between the end of one and the start of the other to come home) to keep an eye on the cricket should there be any developments at all today and to post this.

THE MEN’S ASHES – THE STORY SO FAR

Australia won the first two matches, though England had good chances in both, and could blame poor catching, especially by Bairstow behind the stumps, for the fact that they were not at least 1-1. England won a thriller at Headingley, with Harry Brook scoring a vital 75 in the final innings. That brings us to…

THE FOURTH MATCH – OLD TRAFFORD

Penultimate matches of Ashes series at Old Trafford include 1896 (2nd match of a 3 match series, Australia won by three wickets after England staged a remarkable but unavailing fightback – Ranjitsinhji on test debut conjured 154* after England were made to follow on, which meant Australia needed 125 to win, and fast bowler Tom Richardson narrowly failed to pre-empt Bob Willis’s Headingley heroics by 85 years, taking 6-76 as Australia limped over the line), 1902, when an Australian win by three runs gave them the Ashes, “Laker’s Match” of 1956, when the off spinner’s 19-90 in the match gave England victory by an innings and 170 runs and guaranteed retention of the Ashes for them, 1981, when a blazing Botham century set up victory by 103 runs which guaranteed England a series win and retention of the Ashes, and on the debit side of the ledger the bore draw of 1964 when Aussie skipper Simpson, knowing that a draw was enough for his side, literally ensured this off his own bat, occupying the crease until the third morning as Australia scored 656-8 declared (Simpson 311), England then scoring 611 to utterly kill the game.

Australia blatantly selected their side for this match with a draw in mind – they picked no specialist spinner and had two seam bowling all rounders and keeper Carey batting at number eight. England, rather than bringing in any new played had Moeen Ali officially at number three, Bairstow continuing as keeper and an 8-11 of Woakes, Wood, Broad and Anderson. England won the toss and put Australia in. The pitch proved better for batting than either side had reckoned on, and Australia’s 317, lasting just into the second day, was a definite underachievement by them. Woakes was the bowling star with five wickets. England took the bull by the horns, and it was that rarity, Crawley’s day. The Kent opener rode his luck to score a very rapid 189, backed by good performances from Ali and Root. Bairstow became the second Yorkshireman with a surname beginning with B to score 99* in a test match, as Anderson was pinned LBW before he could reach the landmark. Bairstow’s knock took a mere 81 balls, rather a contrast to the other 99* by a Yorkshire ‘B’, Boycott’s knock at Perth in the 1979-80 mini-series. England had tallied 592, a first innings advantage of 275. Wood came to the party in Australia’s second innings, claiming three wickets as Australia closed the third day on 113-4, still 162 adrift of making England bat again. There has been no play so far today, as Old Trafford’s tutelary deity, Jupiter Pluvius, has put in an appearance. There is a pitch inspection happening as I type this. The last two covers have just come off, much to the disgruntlement of the Aussies, who were hoping for today to be entirely washed out (they are looking and playing like a side who are mentally shot, and their attitude to the covers coming off is further indication of that). If the rain holds off, play will commence at 2:45PM.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Before my usual sign off, here one year on from its creation is a link to my all-time Ds XI.

Women’s Ashes Series Ends All Square

An apology, a look at the last two matches of the Women’s Ashes, a team of that series and lots of photographs.

This post focuses mainly on the women’s Ashes series which concluded yesterday evening. However, before I get into the main meat of the post there is one necessary item to attend to…

A CORRECTION

On Monday I reblogged my All Time G’s XI to coincide with the 175th anniversary of the skipper’s birth. I was guilty of inattention – the anniversary day, and the date of the original post was of course July 18th, not July 17th. I should have done a proper post on Monday and reblogged the Gs on Tuesday. Here are some of a bountiful recent harvest of photos…

THE LAST TWO MATCHES OF THE WOMENS ASHES

Australia secured retention of the Ashes by winning the penultimate ODI on Sunday by three runs. Australia posted 282, 26 of them off the final over of the innings, bowled by Lauren Bell. England fought hard in response, with Natalie Sciver-Brunt scoring a superb century. She was on strike for the final ball of the innings, off which England needed six to win or four to tie. Unfortunately she could only manage a single.

While England could no longer win the Ashes they could draw the series by winning the last match, which took place at Taunton yesterday. England batted first, and with Sciver-Brunt hammering another century, her seventh in ODIs, four of which have come against Australia they reached 285 from their 50 overs. Rain intervened after 19.2 overs of the Australian innings, and the DLS adjustment left them needing 171 of24.4 overs. They never really looked like getting them, and England eventually won by 69 runs, to level the multi-format Ashes series at 8-8. They also became the first team win an ODI series against Australia in a decade, and had won four of the seven matches overall, the 8-8 score line being caused by the test match carrying double points. Although Australia keep the Ashes it is England who are the happier side – they have a lot of very talented cricketers who now know that they can go toe to toe with Australia.

Time for a second photo gallery…

A COMPOSITE WOMENS ASHES XI

This is my team of the series:

  1. Tammy Beaumont (England, right handed opener). A double century in the test match, a major contribution in the first ODI.
  2. Beth Mooney (Australia, left handed opener). Made a lot of significant contributions in all formats.
  3. *Heather Knight (England, right handed batter, occasional off spinner, captain). Had a fine series, and given the respective resources at their disposal I would reckon that tying the series is a greater achievement for her as captain than it is for Healy.
  4. Ellyse Perry (Australia, right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler).
  5. Natalie Sciver-Brunt (England, right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler). Even if she had done nothing else in the series (which is far from the case), those back to back centuries in the last two matches would be enough to justify her inclusion.
  6. Annabel Sutherland (Australia, right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). The 137* in the test match was the highlight of her series, but she contributed with both bat and ball all the way through the series.
  7. +Amy Jones (England, wicket keeper, right handed batter). Her opposite number didn’t have a great series (perhaps the triple role of captain, keeper and opener is simply too much – Alec Stewart struggled when he had the triple role), while she did. The greatest moment of her series came last night when she pulled off a miraculous stumping off the bowling of Sciver-Brunt.
  8. Ash Gardner (Australia, off spinner, right handed batter). Her eight-for to win the test match would qualify her all on its own, but she had other moments in the limited overs matches as well.
  9. Alana King (Australia, leg spinner, right handed lower orderbatter). This one was a tough call, with Georgia Wareham the challenger. However, I refuse to fill a bowling position based on lower order runs, so King gets the nod.
  10. Sophie Ecclestone (England, left arm orthodox spinner, right handed lower order batter). A heroic effort in the test match, a good T20 series, and her bowling was crucial to England’s success in the final ODI.
  11. Kate Cross (England, right arm fast medium bowler, right handed lower order batter). With Katherine Sciver-Brunt retiring she became the de facto leader of England’s seam attack, and she did her job superbly in this series.

This side has a superb batting line up, four genuinely front line seamers (Cross, Sutherland, Perry, Sciver-Brunt), three great and contrasting spinners, a fine captain and a superb keeper.

Cornwall 2023 3: The Allotment

Continuing my account of my long weekend in Cornwall with a look at my parents allotment.

Welcome to the next post in my mini-series about my long weekend in Cornwall. This post is devoted to my parent’s allotment, which I saw twice, for an extended period on the Saturday and very briefly on the Sunday morning.

THE ALLOTMENT’S CONTRIBUTION TO MEALS

Save for the Sunday lunch, which was a large meal out, virtually every meal of the weekend featured something that had been grown in my parent’s allotment.

ACHIEVING A BALANCE

Although as already noted the allotment provides my parents with a lot of food it is not all food plants – wildflowers are also allowed to grow there, which means that bees and butterflies can make use of it, and the grass is not cut short, which is important as a number of butterflies rely on long grass for their caterpillars.

A BUTTERFLY RESCUE

There was a butterfly in the shed when I was there on Saturday, and it failed to realize that there was no way out through the windows (they don’t open). My mother attempted to escort it to the open door but failed to do so. I eventually captured it in a flowerpot and managed to keep control of it just long enough to get it close enough to the open door of the shed that it flew away to freedom.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The last 12 photographs are of the butterfly that had to be rescued.
Not strictly allotment related – one of a number of attempts to capture the view from Maker Heights.
This picture and the next show the two plants that we returned to the allotment on the Sunday to put in.
At the edge of the allotments on the way back to the car.
The last three pics are of views spotted between the allotment and Looe.

Game on at Trent Bridge

A look at developments in the women’s test match at Trent Bridge and a photo gallery.

The Women’s Ashes test match at Trent Bridge is hotting up, as England bowlers get in among the wickets. This post looks at developments since yesterday.

THE REST OF YESTERDAY

During yesterday’s post I noted that Tammy Beaumont was hunting down records. She did break the Betty Snowball England record score that had stood since 1935, and she did complete her double century. She was finally last out for 208, the fifth highest score ever by a women’s test cricketer. England had tallied 463, a deficit of 10 on first innings. By the close Australia were 82-0 and it looked like they were in a very strong position.

TODAY

England bowled much better today, but Mooney and Litchfield pushed their opening stand up to 99 before the breakthrough occurred. Australia still looked in a very strong position at 178-3, but England have claimed four wickets in very quick time, and Australia are 198-7 with Alyssa Healy and Alana King batting together. For England Ecclestone has three wickets so far, giving her eight in the match, with veteran seamer Cross and young speedster Filer each claiming two scalps.

PHOTOGRAPHS

A small gallery today, but I hope a good one…

Women’s Ashes Under Way

A look at developments so far in the women’s Ashes and a substantial photo gallery.

Yesterday morning the Women’s Ashes got underway with day one of a five day test match (this move being not before time – see here). This post looks at the action so far.

THE PRELIMINARIES

The warm up matches (England v Australia A and England A v Australia) both went better for England than Australia. England’s chosen XI included an international debutant in Lauren Filer and a test debutant in Danni Wyatt. Filer was part of seam/ pace trio alongside veteran Kate Cross and the tall swing bowler Lauren Bell, while the front line spinner was inevitably Sophie Ecclestone. In addition to these Natalie Sciver-Brunt’s medium pace, Sophia Dunkley’s leg spin and Heather Knight’s off spin were also available as back up options. Australia’s side included Ellyse Perry, adding to her many entries in the record books by taking part in a tenth Women’s Ashes series. They opted for two front line spinner, Ashleigh Gardner and Alana King. They also had such strength in the batting department that Annabel Sutherland, a regular number three in Australian domestic cricket and coming off the back of a century in her warm up game was at number eight (she is a seam bowling all rounder, and has a better record at the age of 21 than Perry did when she was that age. Australia won the toss and chose to bat.

DAY ONE

Yesterday was a work day for me, so I missed a lot of the action, but tuned in just in time to catch Sophie Ecclestone’s second wicket. Two balls later Aussie skipper Alyssa Healy was out for duck and it was 226-5. That was as good as it got for England, and by the end of the day Australia were 328-7, with Sutherland going well.

DAY TWO

The second morning definitely belonged to Australia. Bell claimed the wicket of Alana King, but Kim Garth has providing staunch support for the brilliant Sutherland since then. Australia have just reached 450, with Sutherland now on 121. Ecclestone has been by far the best of the England bowlers, and now has figures of 44-9-115-3, with the rest of the attack going at closer to five an over than four – rather a contrast to the men’s test, when England’s supposed front line spinner was the one getting smacked around while the seamers were significantly more economical (on a side note, the England men’s selectors seem to have realized that persisting with Ali is not on – Rehan Ahmed has just been added to their squad). Although Australia are in a very strong position England are themselves a powerful batting side, with an opener, Beaumont, coming off a double century in her warm up match and a few others in good form. As I type this Garth has just been given LBW to Ecclestone, though she has reviewed it, it has been confirmed as out and Australia are 457-9, Ecclestone has 4-120 in her 45th over of the innings. Darcie Brown, the sole member of this Aussie XI with no batting pedigree has joined Sutherland at the crease.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The first four pictures in today’s gallery were taken a few days earlier than any of the others, which all date from the last couple of days. To view a photo at full size just click on it.