Tag: Butterflies

County Championship Day Three

A look at developments on day three of the county championship and a large photo gallery.

This post looks at developments on day three of the county championship. I missed the evening session as there was a bowling session at Strikes which served both as the West Norfolk Autism Group’s third birthday event and as our official World Autism Week event. The birthday cake was spectacular – the pictures will be in tomorrow’s post.

A COUNTY RECORD SCORE

Tom Banton of Somerset had already beaten the individual record for Somerset (342 by Justin Langer) by the close of play yesterday, and today he went on to a final score of 371, the third highest at Taunton (behind Archie MacLaren’s 424 in 1895 and Graeme Hick’s 405 not out in 1988. Other than these two only Brian Lara’s all time FC record 501 not out for Warwickshire v Durham and Sam Northeast’s 410 for Glamorgan against Lancashire are ahead of him in English FC cricket. Somerset declared when he was dismissed, their score being 670-7, a first innings lead of 516 over Worcestershire (nowhere near the record – Victoria led NSW by 886 on first innings in 1926 – 1,107 plays 221, and Railways led Dera Ismail Khan by 878 in 1964 – 910-6 declared plays 878). Worcestershire have batted better second time round, but at 280-5 they are still 236 short of avoiding the innings defeat.

TWO RESULTS

Although today is only day three of four two matches are already done – Kent beat Northamptonshire by 145 run early this morning, and Hampshire completed a five-wicket win over Hampshire this evening.

ESSEX v SURREY

Some brilliant bowling by Essex, especially Simon Harmer, had Surrey in deep trouble at 180-6, 402 in arrears. However a lower order fightback led by Ben Foakes (92), with significant contributions from Jordan Clark, Matthew Fisher and James Taylor got Surrey to 365, still 217 short of Essex’s score. Essex enforced the follow-on, as they pretty much had to, but Burns and Sibley survived the six overs that remained in the day unscathed. Surrey will resume tomorrow on 9-0 in their second innings, 208 adrift. Simon Harmer, on a surface that was offering little to any bowler toiled away to record first innings figures of 47-12-83-4, outstanding in the circumstances. Essex’s three top class seamers Porter, Cook and Snater all had respectable figures as well. Sam Cook should be an England bowler before the season is out, while Snater has played many matches for the Netherlands. Porter is unlikely to get the call up this late in his career, and the reason he has missed out for all his effectiveness over many years is that he lacks pace (even Sam Cook, probably the quickest od the trio, is not by any means an express bowler).

PHOTOGRAPHS

Today is apparently Dandelion Day, which is why i chose the feature image I did. There is more about these plants here. Now for the gallery…

Essex in the Ascendant

A look at developments in the county championship, focussing principally on Essex v Surrey at Chelmsford. Also a photo gallery.

The weather continues to be ideal for cricket, although Nottinghamshire provided us with the first delay of the season, a late start due to the automated sprinkler system switching itself on in error and wetting the outfield. I have been listening, as I did yesterday, to Essex v Surrey at Chelmsford and using cricinfo to keep on eye on developments elsewhere,

CHELMSFORD

Essex have had another excellent day. Both Matt Critchley and Michael Pepper completed centuries. Noah Thain, a young all rounder who bats right handed and bowls right arm medium pace and was only playing because the plug had been pulled on an arrangement for Shardul Thakur to play for Essex scored an aggressive 26 to take Essex to a declaration at 582-6. Dan Lawrence took three of the wickets with his off spin but also went for 169 runs. Surrey lost Sibley early, and Pope was dropped early in his innings, but at the moment they are 75-1 in the 31st over. Essex are probably safe from defeat, although at Chesterfield in 1904 they lost after scoring 597 in the first innings (Percy ‘Pete’ Perrin 343 not out, the highest ever individual innings in ultimately losing cause) – Derbyshire hit back with 548 (Ollivierre 229), Essex scored exactly 500 runs fewer in their second innings than they had in the first and Derbyshire knocked off the required runs with nine wickets and a bit of time to spare, Ollivierre adding 92 not out to his first innings double century.

A DEFINITIVE ANSWER

Tom Banton of Somerset is known as great white ball batter, but there were questions about his place in red ball cricket. Events at Taunton where Somerset are playing Worcestershire suggest that Mr Banton can handle batting in red ball cricket – Worcestershire were all out for 154, and Somerset are currently 580-6 with Banton 316 not out, third on the all time Somerset individual scores list behind Justin Langer (342) and Viv Richards (322), having moved ahead of the previous leading English born Somerset scorer, Harold Gimblett with 310. He has a way to go to reach the Taunton ground record, the 424 scored by Archie MacLaren of Lancashire in 1895.

The match that is most advanced is Northamptonshire v Kent, already into its final innings. Kent have scored 231 and 171, Northamptonshire 143 and 46-2, needing 214 more to win with eight second innings wickets standing.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

New Season Underway

A look at developments on day one of the new County Championship season, with particular reference to Essex v Surrey since that is the match I am following. Also a photo gallery which includes a Butterfly Special.

Today is the first day of the English cricket season. Just for once the weather is playing ball (although I am in Norfolk, where there is no FC cricket, the information from Chelmsford where the match I am following is taking place is that they have the same weather that we do, while no game anywhere has been disrupted), with the sun shining down from clear blue skies, and the temperature sufficiently warm that jumpers are not required.

ESSEX v SURREY

Essex won the toss against the winners of the last three championships and did what was obvious on a bright, warm, sunny day – chose to bat first. They had a makeshift opening pair, with former South Africa test opener Dean Elgar not available until later in the season. Charlie Allison, making his first class debut, was accompanied out to the middle by ‘tall Paul’ Walter (6’7″), not a regular opener but possessed of a good technique. Walter averaged 40 with the bat last season from the middle of the order. Walter batted fluently more or less from the get go, while Allison on his debut supported him well. It was Dan Lawrence who broke the stand, trapping Allison LBW for 25 with the score on 78. Tom Westley, now 36 years old, joined Walter, and immediately looked in command. He had reached 40, seemingly untroubled, when a combination of tight bowling , smart tactics and a poor choice of shot accounted for him. He attempted to whip a ball from Roach through the leg side and succeeded only in picking out Jamie Smith, stationed at short midwicket in anticipation of just such a shot being played. Jordan Cox came it at number four, and has looked pretty good so far, although he has just been beaten by a ball from Jordan Clark. Essex look well placed at 185-2, on a pitch that has blatantly been prepared with the intention of drawing the sting of Surrey’s powerful bowling unit – it is slow and flat.

ELSEWHERE

Yorkshire have received a tough welcome back to division one action, having been bowled out for 121 by Hampshire, who are currently 53-0 in reply. Worcestershire started reasonably well against Somerset, but fell away badly to be all out for 154 in the first innings. Kasey Aldridge, right arm fast medium and a useful lower order batter as well, took 5-36 for Somerset. Somerset have lost a wicket in reply but will be pleased with how things are going overall. The other matches are also going pretty well for the bowlers – the Chelmsford game is an anomaly.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Before presenting the full gallery I have a brief subsection for you.

BUTTERFLY SPECIAL

Today being so warm has been good for butterfly sightings (see the feature image at the top of this post). I have four in total to report. In chronological order there is a European Peacock from the carpark of the King’s Lynn branch of Morrisons:

Next is an Orange Tip from the greenery between Kettlewell Lane and the Gaywood River, a good location for sightings.

Third from the same location is one I am slightly unsure of – it is either a Green Veined White or a Large White.

Finally, from my lunchtime walk, we have a Large White near Bawsey Drain.

THE FULL GALLERY

My usual sign off…

The first ducklings of 2025 (at least in King’s Lynn).

Random Jottings

A piece of bizarreness from the IPL and a win for the good guys in Wisconsin, plus a large photo gallery.

My main reason for posting is that I have a large photo gallery to share. However I have a couple of small things to share as well.

AN UNBEATABLE RECORD

I was at work yesterday and by the time I was in a position to tune in to the commentary on the IPL match (Lucknow Super Giants v Punjab Kings) there was no real point doing so as it was obvious which way the match was going and there could be no big finish. However, I did keep a cricinfo tab open. Thus I was able to see with my own eyes the calling of officially the most pointless ‘strategic time out’ ever, and while it might be equalled and I can be certain that will not be surpassed: LSG had scored 171-6 from their 20 overs, and at the end of the 16th over of the reply PBKS were 171-2 – scores level, the chasers with eight wickets standing and four whole overs available in which to get that run! It actually took until the second ball on the resumption for PBKS to complete the job.

WINNING IN WISCONSIN

Ordinarily I probably would not even have been aware of an election of a new judge in Wisconsin, but Elon Musk had been putting huge amounts of money behind one particular candidate in the hope of altering the political balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. As far as I am concerned a defeat for Elon the Execrable counts as a win, so I am pleased to be able to say that Musk’s candidate has been defeated.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Change at the Top for England Women

A look at who could/ should be appointed to the recently vacated roles of coach and captain of the England women’s team, plus a photo gallery including a splendid comma butterfly.

Two announcements have come out in recent days, neither remotely surprising to any follower of cricket. John Lewis has been fired as coach of the England Women’s team after overseeing the disastrous recent women’s Ashes tour, and the captain of nine years, Heather Knight, has resigned that role. This post looks at possible replacements.

THE COACH

This is a short section since Charlotte Edwards, who has established an outstanding record as a coach since the ending of her own legendary playing career, is apparently interested in the job. If those recruiting have their heads screwed on the process should thus be very straightforward – “name your price, Charlotte” or words to that effect.

THE CAPTAIN

There is no immediately obvious successor here. Natalie Sciver-Brunt, the current vice-captain, is of similar vintage to Knight, and cannot be considered a long term option. Similarly Tammy Beaumont and Danni Wyatt-Hodge are both too old to be considered anything other than short term fixes. I can see two candidates who have enough experience while also being likely to be around for years to come, and both of whose places in the side as players are beyond question. Charlie Dean, off spinner and useful lower order batter, would be my choice for the role. The other candidate who I consider to be in the mix is Sophie Ecclestone, the best in the world at what she does and clearly possessor of a good cricket brain.

PRELUDE TO PHOTO GALLERY – COMMA

I was nearing the end of my morning excursion when a glance at the giant buddleia bush near the Eastgate Bridge over the Gaywood River was rewarded with the sight of a comma butterfly basking in the sun (today is the first official day of northern hemisphere spring, and by that point I was warm enough that my jumper was in my bag and I was in short sleeves).

PHOTOGRAPHS

Now for the full gallery…

My First Butterfly of 2025

Describing my first butterfly sighting of 2025, with a picture of the butterfly and a large photo gallery.

I will present a full photo gallery at the end of this post as usual, but the feature is indicated by the title.

THE SIGHTING

Yesterday morning in the course of my extended walk to the bus stop for work I had reached the final stage, a short trip along a stretch of the Gaywood River that briefly runs parallel to Gaywood Road, from where I get the bus, and was already reasonably pleased with the photos I had got – it was bright, sunny and by the standards of early March it was warm as well. Before crossing Loke Road, next to the bridge that takes that road across the Gaywood, I had managed to photograph a pair of swans just before they left my field of vision as they headed in the opposite direction to me. I was not expecting anything further, but halfway between the bridge and the path through to Gaywood Road (it pretty much hits Gaywood Road at the bus stop) I spotted a European Peacock butterfly among the dry reeds at the far edge of the river from me. I managed to get a photograph. This butterfly is no great rarity, nor is King’s Lynn outside its usual range, but even so is is rare to get a sighting this early in the year. I emailed Butterfly Conservation about it last night and received an enthusiastic response this morning.

My first butterfly sighting of 2025.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here is the rest of today’s gallery…

WBBL Logjam

A look at the WBBL table, and a bit about the latest ,match which took place earlier today between Hobart Hurricanes and Sydney Sixers. Also a photo gallery.

After today’s WBBL match between Hobart Hurricanes and Sydney Sixers the WBBL10 table is more congested than London during rush hour. This post looks both at today’s match and at the competition as a whole.

THE TABLE

Women’s Big Bash League

TeamMWLPTNRR
ST-W32141.158
MS-W32140.775
PS-W32140.352
BH-W42240.133
MR-W4224-0.156
HH-W5234-0.227
SS-W4224-0.407
AS-W4132-0.900

The above table is courtesy of cricinfo, and a more detailed version can be viewed here.

With the exception of the Strikers, with one win and three losses, every team has four points, and only the Hurricanes, having played a game more than all their rivals are noticeably worse off, while the Scorchers, with a game in hand on everyone and two in hand on the Hurricanes are probably best placed of the sides to progress. Each side plays ten group matches, and at the moment it looks like most, if not all, will have some sort of qualification chance as the competition reaches its business end.

TODAY’S MATCH

Today’s game was largely dominated by one single performance. In a match in no other batter got past 30 (two Englishwomen, Hollie Armitage for the Sixers and Danni Wyatt-Hodge for the Hurricanes scored exactly this number) Ellyse Perry, already the tournament’s leading run scorer heading into this match, scored 86 off 62 balls. Sixers 155-7 proved enough to win by six runs. Perry cemented an already fairly undeniable claim to the POTM award by adding two catches to her 86 runs. Most notable among the Sixers bowlers were Ecclestone, approaching her best form for the first time in this tournament, with 4-0-22-2, and the youngster Caoimhe Bray with 3-0-13-2. Bray has more in common with her idol, Perry, than merely being a pace bowling all rounder: Perry scored a world cup goal for the Matildas, and although Bray has not yet featured in a full squad for the football side, she has played age group internationals in that sport. As is often the case when she is at or near peak form no opposition batter ever looked remotely comfortable facing Ecclestone. The Hurricanes best bowler on the day was leg spinner Amy Smith, with 1-20 from three overs.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Deeply irresponsible by whoever set a fire here, so close to trees…
…and they did it again a day later/
A muntjac paddling in Bawsey Drain.

The Women’s T20 World Cup

A look at the Women’s T20 World Cup, now underway in the United Arab Emirates, and a photo gallery.

The Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 is underway. It was due to be staged in Bangladesh but was then moved at the last minute to the United Arab Emirates, although Bangladesh are still officially tournament hosts. In this post I look at what has happened so far in the matches I have been able to follow.

THE EARLY STAGES OF THE TOURNAMENT

Australia, winners of six of the previous eight editions of this tournament, are as expected looking formidable once more. The extraordinary number of genuine all rounders they have in their squad (including the two recognized wicket keepers, who opened the batting together – Healy getting the gloves, Mooney playing as a pure batter – they had no fewer than six such players in their XI – Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath and Annabel Sutherland, all in the top seven of the batting order, and all well capable of bowling their full four overs, are the others) means that rather than struggling to cover all bases they have a positive embarrassment of riches. Effectively they were taking to the field with a team of about 15 – seven front line batters including the keeper, and eight front line bowlers – the four all rounders listed and four players chosen specifically on ground of their bowling skills.

England were fairly impressive in disposing of ‘hosts’ Bangladesh – their 118-7 from their 20 overs is the highest team total thus far recorded at Sharjah, where the pitches have been low and slow, and runs have been at a massive premium, and was enough for them to win by 26 runs. To give you an idea of the nature of the Sharjah surface, England picked four specialist spinners – Linsey Smith, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn, and Nat Sciver-Brunt’s four overs of medium pace were the only overs by anyone other than those four for them. Further commentary on this is provided by Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s innings – the recently married (hence new, hyphenated surname) opener scored 41, but even she, normally exceptionally quick scoring, was barely striking at 100.

India suffered a humiliation against New Zealand in their opening match, going down by 58 runs. They were sloppy in the field (though far from the only offenders in this regard – a shedload of catches have gone down this tournament), with at least two very easy catches going down and a good 20 runs being conceded through poor ground fielding, and very poor with the bat. They were better today against Pakistan, but again there were lapses in the field, and they were overcautious with the bat, eventually getting home with only seven balls to spare, doing little to reduce the massive negative net run rate the NZ game left them with. This is important because they also have Australia in the group which almost certainly means that the other sides are fighting over one semi-final slot. Sri Lanka have yet to grow out of their dependence on Chamari Athapaththu – once the batting all rounder fell cheaply in their opening fixture they never looked like making a contest of it. South Africa were impressive – left arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba took four cheap wickets for them, and their opening pair of skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits knocked the target off without being parted, each topping 50 in the process.

Dubai has been a better venue for cricket than Sharjah, which I am not convinced is still up to international standard, but even there the 160 that New Zealand posted against India is a massive outlier – 120 would still be respectable there, and 130 would be make the side scoring it favourites to win.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I am not sure of the correct way to dispose of an unneeded mobility scooter, but dumping it in the river (in this case The Gaywood near Kettlewell Lane) is definitely not it.

Cornwall – Rame Peninsular Walk

An account of walk in my parents local area, complete with photo gallery.

On Tuesday we did a walk in my parents local area. This post describes my particular walk (all of us did somewhat different things).

THE CONSTRAINTS

In order to fit in around people’s limitations (time and otherwise) both cars were being used – my mother, my sister and I were travelling in one to Rame Head where our walk would begin, while my father took the other to a different parking spot and walked towards us, meeting us part way through our walk. We would walk together to the second parking spot, my father would give my mother a lift back to Rame Head so she could take the other car into Liskeard where she had an appointment, and would then drive back along the route the my sister and I would be walking to give us the possibility of a lift back to the fort. He overtook just on the far side of the twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand from the fort, my sister chose to take the lift back, while I opted to stay walking.

THE WALK

The path from Rame Head is extremely scenic, with some wonderful sea views. Out on Rame Head there was a wind blowing, but once away from the head the path was quite sheltered, and the temperature was fairly warm. The second stage of the walk, with my sister, was all road based, but there were one or two decent views along the way. The final stage, on my own, was road based until Kingsand, then on to a path through the Edgecumbe estate up the point at which that path intersects with the road above Fort Picklecombe. The path offers some fine views and was good for walking on.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my pictures taken during the walk…

Early in the walk.
October is late in the yeat for butterflies, but they are not quite done yet.
A distant view of Fort Pickelcombe (taken from the far side of Kingsand/ Cawsand).

How a West Country Derby Final Came to Be

A look at the two T20 Vitality Blast semi-finals, Somerset v Surrey and Gloucestershire v Sussex, and a large photo gallery.

Today is finals day in the T20 Vitality Blast, the longest day of the English cricketing year – both semi-finals and the final take place on one day. The venue this year is Edgbaston, and since none of the four teams involved are based there I will use strict alphabetical order when referring to the matches. This was the second straight time that all four semi-finalists were from the south group. The format of the day is that the first semi-final starts at 11AM, the second at 2:30PM and the final, which is still to come and is played under lights, at 6:45PM. This post looks at the two semi-finals.

SOMERSET v SURREY

Somerset are the holders, Surrey have such strength in depth that they are a threat in any competition. Somerset won the toss and opted to bowl first. Surrey started well, and it looked ominous for Somerset when skipper Gregory inexplicably allowed a ball passing within half a metre of him to go the boundary without even trying to stop it. However, Gregory made amends with the ball, helping to put the skids under Surrey’s good start. In the end it took a bit of a final flourish to get Surrey up to their final total of 153-9, no more than respectable.

It looked a good deal more than respectable when Somerset were 7-3. However Sean Dickson and James Rew proceeded to settle in and then share an all time finals day record partnership for any wicket, 144 in total before Dickson perished in the moment of victory for 78 off 57 balls. New batter Gregory hit his second delivery for six to secure to the victory, and to add insult to injury for Jordan Clark it was also called no-ball meaning that it cost him eight runs in total. James Rew was 62 not out from 44 balls in what was his debut in this competition. This makes it twice in three days across formats that Somerset have put one over on Surrey. Full scorecard here.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE v SUSSEX

Gloucestershire were probably the least fancied of the four semi-finalists. Sussex had boosted their own stocks by absolutely annihilating Lancashire in their quarter-final. Sussex won the toss and decided to bat first, a decision they soon had cause to regret. David Payne was supremely economical, taking 1-9 from his four overs of left arm seam. At one stage Sussex were 44-5 and then 64-7. The eighth wicket stand between Jack Carson and Oliver Edward Robinson was worth 37 and at least spared Sussex the humiliation of having less than 100 to defend. The first ball of the 19th over ended the innings with the score 106, leaving Gloucestershire with an easy task. Miles Hammond, who had taken four catches in the field, the most ever by a non-wicket keeper in this competition (not the first Hammond of Gloucestershire to feature in such records – the legendary Wally Hammond once pouched ten in the course of a first class match, still a record for non-keeper a century on), was out cheaply for just 7, but Bancroft and Bracey had a good partnership for the second wicket. Cameron Bancroft reached 39 before he was second out, and Oliver Price joined James Bracey. Bracey was especially impressive as this pair moved towards victory. Just before the end Robinson, who had bowled his four overs of right arm medium pace for 23 runs but no wickets, excellent in most circumstances but here failing to answer Sussex’s biggest requirement, shelled a very straightforward chance from Bracey, a single accruing. Price took another single, and then Bracey secured Gloucestershire their place in an all west country final by driving one down the ground for six. Gloucestershire had eight wickets and 6.2 overs to spare, dealing even more ruthlessly with Sussex in this semi-final than Sussex had dealt with Lancashire in their quarter-final. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Just before my usual sign off, the toss has just happened for the final, with Gloucestershire winning it and opting to bowl first. Now for the photographs…

Flowering Ivy features heavily today – at this time of year it is vital for pollinators, there being a limited amount of stuff still in flower.