Somerset Top

Early yesterday evening Oliver Price claimed the final Derbyshire wicket to give his side victory by 213 runs with 6.3 overs left to be bowled. That brought an end to the latest round of championship fixtures. This post looks back at the main events of yesterday (see here for details of the two matches that ended on Friday).

KENT v WORCESTERSHIRE

This match was threatening to get interesting win the visitors needed just over 100 with five wickets left, and Brett D’Oliveira closing in on three figures. While not being anywhere close to the standards of his grandfather Basil this D’Oliveira is a solid county batter, and given proper support by the later Worcestershire batters he could have made it very tense indeed. In the end Kent had 84 runs to spare, and D’Oliveira was left stranded with a century to his name.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE v DERBYSHIRE

The county of my birth have been having a rotten season in the county championship, coming into this round with only one win to their name. It did not look like changing when they batted on and on in their second innings against Derbyshire, finally declaring to set the visitors 318 in 45 overs. Batting out for the draw should have been straightforward, but Derbyshire had a horrible collapse at the start of the innings, plunging to 41-6. The only batter of substance left was Martin Andersson, who dug in grittily. The fact that it took 24 overs for the last four wickets to fall underlines how atrociously the early Derbyshire batting failed, with six of them falling in the first 14.4 overs of the innings.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE HOIST ON OWN PETARD

Northamptonshire might have thought they were doing OK when they needed 205 to win the fourth innings. However their own pitch preparation came back to bite them. They had prepared a spinning surface hoping for their bowlers to benefit, but it was Durham left arm spinner Callum Parkinson who reaped the rewards, with six cheap wickets are Northamptonshire crashed for 50 in the final innings.

THE STALEST OF STALEMATES

A combination of a flawed points system (on which I have animadverted before) and lack of enterprise by both counties consigned Nottinghamshire v Leicestershire to an early grave, awaiting only the formality of handshakes at the first legal opportunity. Once Leicestershire had avoided the possibility of being made to follow on, partly with the assistance of Josh Davey, who also helped his former county Somerset in the process neither side showed any interest in making a game of things. Leicestershire could have challenged Nottinghamshire by declaring as soon as the follow-on was avoided, effectively daring them to set a target if they were game. Nottinghamshire once they finally got the elusive wicket could have decided: OK, we still have a decent lead, and we are going to throw the bat for 20 overs and see where we end up, and if Leicestershire fancy attempting the chase good luck to them. In the event as indicated Leicestershire batted on until that last wicket fell, and Nottinghamshire showed no interest in anything other than a polishing up of batting averages. This is precisely the sort of event that underlines the folly of assessing a draw as worth half as much of a win. One result of this is that Somerset sit on top of the table, four points ahead of Nottinghamshire.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A hornet mimic fly in flight, approaching some greenery on which a small green insect rests.

The Hundred Eliminators

A look back at yesterday’s Hundred Eliminator matches and a photo gallery.

Yesterday afternoon and evening at The Oval saw the Eliminator matches in T he Hundred. This post looks back at both matches.

SOUTHERN BRAVE V SUN RISERS LEEDS

Brave had tailed off after a superb start to the season, while Sun Risers had qualified at the last gap, by winning their final group match. Brave had the best bowling unit in the tournament but their batting had largely not fired. This match encapsulated their season. They managed only 114 from their 100 balls, and although they got both their opponents Australian superstars, Phoebe Litchfield and Annabel Sutherland, cheaply they never looked like defending an inadequate total. Thus it will Sun Risers Leeds taking on Trent Rockets at Lord’s tomorrow.

MANCHESTER SUPERGIANTS V SUN RISERS LEEDS

Manchester Super Giants were put into bat, and responded brilliantly. ‘Tall Paul’ Walter who began his career as a bowler who could bat but has morphed in the last couple of years into a highly proficient opening batter who only bowls occasionally played a superb innings, and found explosive support from Heinrich Klaasen. Walter with 80 off 46 balls including three fours and eight sixes was the rock on which a massive score was built, while Klaasen with 63 from just 26 balls, with six fours and four sixes had at one point put them in a position from which 200+ was a possibility. In the end they managed 186-4, a formidable total in this format. ‘The Bison’, also known as Mitchell Marsh, and Zak Crawley were both out cheaply in reply, but Ryan Rickelton and Harry Brook had a fine partnership. Once Brook was out for 49, pinned LBW by Sonny Baker no one else really threatened, though Liam Patterson-White and Tom Lawes each produced entertaining cameos with the match already lost. Patterson-White, sixth out, was the fourth victim of Josh Tongue, to go with Marsh, Crawley and Dan Lawrence. Super Giants had used their seamers to effectively terminate the Sun Risers challenge, and now Liam Dawson, not used at all in the first 90 balls of the innings, bowled all of the last ten. He claimed the wicket of Brydon Carse, and conceded 13 runs. Sun Risers ended on 166-7, beaten by exactly 20 runs. In a massive scoring match Josh Tongue’s 4-26 from 20 balls was a deserving winner of ‘match hero’. It will therefore by Manchester Super Giants v Trent Rockets (Rockets won both the women’s and men’s league stages and thus qualified direct into both finals) in the men’s final at Lord’s tomorrow evening.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Iyer’s Insipid India

A look at the Indian men’s cricket team’s visit to Ireland and England, the latter part of which i s still in progress, a link to a chronological listing of my ‘Arisaig 2026’ posts and a photo gallery that is basically a highlights package of the last month.

I completed my series about my Scottish holiday on Wednesday, and have today created a page which lists all the posts in that series in chronological order. I now move back to the present. The Indian men’s and women’s cricket teams are both in England at the moment, with the latter playing their first ever test match, at a venue (Lord’s) whose pavilion was barred to women within the lifetimes of some of the players. I will have much to say about that match in due course, but as today is day one I look instead at the doings of the men’s side who have been playing T20Is (20 overs per side international matches) in Ireland now England.

THE EMERALD ISLE

Ireland have a bit of a tradition of embarrassing theoretically more illustrious opposition, going back as far as 1969 when they caught a visiting West Indies side on a very green pitch and rolled them for 25. They have added India to their scalp bags. Their victory in the opener might have been put down as a fluke, or to India being unfamiliar with Irish conditions, but when they repeated the dose in the second and last match to win the series it looked like India had major problems.

IN ENGLAND SO FAR

From Ireland India travelled east to England for a five match series. India had put up a good total in the first match when rain intervened and washed the rest of the match out. Three more matches have been played since then, and England have bossed all three. The most recent took place yesterday evening, and showcased most of India’s problems, with one exception – until last night Shreyas Iyer, recently promoted to the captaincy had done little with the bat since taking the reins. Last night he batted beautifully, scoring an unbeaten 80 from 49 balls. The problem was that his team mates combined to score a mere 78-7 from the 71 balls he did not face in the innings, a truly abysmal rate of scoring for this format. That total of 158 did not look likely to pose a threat to a confident England side, and in the end it was made to look an almost comically bad one. Harry Brook led the rampage with 79 not out from just 35 balls, while Phil Salt was also in brutal form. In the previous match India had bowled first, seen England score 201 and responded to a stiff challenge by slumping to 76 all out and defeat by 125 runs. With the final match of the England leg of this tour to take place at 2:30PM tomorrow India’s record for the trip stands at five defeats and one washout – and although at the time of the washout I thought they had been favourites to win that match their subsequent efforts suggest that actually England would have chased that one down as well. I have an idea as to the root cause of India’s problems on this tour: the IPL happens in (generally) small grounds on incredibly flat tracks, where scores of 250 in 20 overs are not uncommon and bowlers are seen as merely providing the deliveries to be hit for yet another succession of sixes, while the pitches in Ireland and England although good for batting have not left the bowlers completely out of things. Indian T20 batters tend to struggle in anything other than conditions tailor made for them, while the bowlers have grown unused to being significant factors.

PHOTOGRAPHS

While I have been concentrating for blogging purposes on my Scottish holiday it has been a splendid time for photography, and the gallery I now present is a highlights package spanning most of the period from 7th June, my first day back from holiday, to the present (reminder that photos can be seen at full size by clicking on them)…

A damselfly with a slender mainly black body and blue ring round the tail segment.

Upcoming Stamp and Postal History Auction

How an auction catalogue is put together and uploaded, a coda on the ‘computer is not always right’ theme and a photo gallery.

Yesterday at work I finalised and uploaded a stamp and postal history auction that will happen on June 23rd, starting at 10AM. This post describes the process of creating and uploading this auction.

CATALOGUE CREATION

Creating an auction catalogue involves the use of ExCel, and in the case of this auction involved typing up handwritten descriptions provided by our stamp expert. All the lots also had be imaged, with some requiring image galleries rather than just a single image. It is not sensible for the describing to run too far ahead of the imaging – if a catalogue ends up going live with lots of missing images the first thing that happens thereafter is a flood of incoming emails on the theme of ‘where are the pictures for x lot?’. Therefore I followed a system of doing a chunk of typing, then a chunk of imaging and so on (usually 10 lots per block, and depending on the imaging required either five or six such blocks in a day). Going into yesterday I had 460 descriptions typed up and 451 lots imaged, and because my employer decided he wanted me to upload the catalogue that day I imaged lots 451-60 and then typed up the descriptions and imaged lots 461-470 before calling a halt.

THE PROCESS OF UPLOADING

We used two online platforms, the-saleroom.com and easyliveauction and the process auction creation is different for each. On the-saleroom it is easier to copy an old auction and change the details that need changing (date of sale, category of item being sold and so on) than to start the process from scratch. To be uploadable (this applies to both platforms) the catalogue has to be in csv format and set to comma delineated), while on the saleroom the images can be bulk uploaded by way of the media manager, a long but straightforward process. On easylive the image gallery has to be compressed before it can be uploaded, and when the compression has been done the images will be processed and then uploaded. Fortunately on this occasion there were no hitches, and the catalogue was ready to go on both platforms by not long after 2PM – and it would have been a little earlier than it was but for a little detail that forms a….

…CODA: THE COMPUTER IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT

On the saleroom there are never problems with image galleries – the method used to separate main images from secondary images is one we adopted at their request. However for reasons which are beyond me the easylive system is not to be trusted in this regard. I went through the easylive gallery, and as I had anticipated most of the lots with multiple images had to have the so-called primary imaged changed. If it helps the programmers at easylive then when it is a catalogue I have been involved with the primary image is always the one whose name consist of just a number, while the secondary images, usually close ups of features of particular interest, have a number, a dash, and then a letter (or on odd occasions when the lot has warranted a really big gallery two letters). Once I had sorted everything I sent out emails to bidders in our two most recent stamp auctions. Before ending this part of the post with an illustrative example of an image gallery I offer you links to both catalogue listings:

easylive saleroom

A quick reminder – click on an image to view it at a larger size.

The main image for lot 155, showing the whole lot, and just named ‘155’.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Three Cracking T20s

A look back at three splendid cricket matches and a photo gallery.

Not only are both the women’s and men’s English domestic T20 tournaments now in full swing, there is also a T20I series going on between England and New Zealand women’s teams. This post, typed as I listed to Bears v Somerset in the men’s tournament looks back at three classic matches.

ENGLAND v NEW ZEALAND

This one did not start out as though it would develop into a classic – New Zealand were 5-3 in the second over and 11-4 in the fourth, batting first. Linsey Smith was the chief destroyer, claiming three victims with her crafty slow left arm swing (note she rarely if ever actually spins the ball, it is all about movement in the air for her). Then New Zealand were dug out of trouble by a fifth wicket stand of 159. Sophie Devine with 87 off 57 balls was the principal scorer. England were never quite on terms in the chase, and the issue was virtually settled by two errors in successive balls from Maia Bouchier. First she was guilty of ball watching, resulting in the run out of the vastly experienced Heather Knight, and then on the very next ball she suffered one of the softest dismissals you could ever see. That left England needing pretty much two a ball and with two brand new batters together at the crease, and New Zealand were in control from then on, winning eventually by 14 runs to level the series, with the next match to be played tomorrow.

THE SEVERN BRIDGE DERBY

Yesterday in the men’s T20 tournament Glamorgan entertained Gloucestershire. The match was an absolute nailbiter, going right down to the last ball, when Matt Taylor succeeded in getting a delivery from Fazalhaq Farooqi away for the four runs Gloucestershire still needed. This match was 158 plays 157, and was a far better spectacle than 260 plays 240 on a road could ever have been.

THE LONDON DERBY

At noon today Middlesex and Surrey assembled at Lord’s in the men’s T20 tournament. Yet again a low scoring match proved to be an absolute belter of a game. Middlesex batted first and managed 143-8 from their 20 overs, and that represented a decent recovery from a low water mark of 89-6. After 10.3 overs of the Surrey innings Middlesex looked in charge, with Lawrence having just gone to make it 56-4. That brought Laurie Evans in to join Surrey skipper Sam Curran. Curran assumed control of proceedings and played a magnificent knock, while Evans did all that was required of him. With three overs to go the pair were still together and the ask was down to 27. The 18th over effectively sealed the deal, with 24 accruing from it, including three sixes by Curran, the last of which took his score to 70. It took four more balls, three of them legal, for the job to be done, a wide and two singles accruing, with Curran appropriately scoring the winning run. In the end Curran and Evans did their jobs so well as to make it look like a very comfortable win for Surrey, but those who actually followed the game know different, and that the final margin of six wickets with nine balls to spare is a deceptive one.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

WNAG Pensthorpe Trip 2026 6: Artwork and Insects

Continuing my series about The WNAG outing to Pensthorpe last weekend. This one deals with artworks and insects.

Welcome to the sixth post in my little series about the annual WNAG excursion to Pensthorpe which took place a week ago today. Still to come after today are a post about the Waders Aviary and a page linking to each article in the series.

ARTWORK AT PENSTHORPE

There are many pieces of art dotted around Pensthorpe, and there is also a bridge inspired by a very famous artist. Flowers, birds and insects all feature, as does a fairy standing on a feather, and a heron sculpture in a stream. I also deemed one of the pieces worthy of a very short video:

GALLERY 1: ARTWORK

INSECTS

Pensthorpe do not particularly emphasize the insect species that can be seen there, but it is no surprise that there are some fine specimens. I actually saw a damselfly flutter past while on the trailer ride, but not even I could attempt to photograph that one – a small moving target when one is oneself on the move is simply not doable. However I did get some remarkable sightings.

INSECT PHOTOGRAPHS

Two damselflies in one shot – which at that time was a first for me…

WNAG Pensthorpe Trip 2026 1: Setting the Scene

An introduction to yesterday’s excursion to Pensthorpe with the West Norfolk Autism Group, setting the scene for several more posts, with a selection of photographs.

Yesterday was the day of the annual West Norfolk Autism Group excursion to Pensthorpe, and we benefitted from excellent weather for the occasion. This post provides a rough outline of the day and a selection of photographs, while I will look more closely at various aspects of the site in future posts.

THE TRIP

I was one of those booked on the coach, which departed from its usual slot near Gaywood Library. We had asked people to arrive promptly so that we could set off at 9:30 sharp, and as it happened everyone was on the coach in time for us to set off a few minutes earlier than that. We arrived at Pensthorpe not long after 10, and once we had our wristbands in place there were only two fixed points to the day – the trailer rides for those who were booked on one of these, in my case at 11:15AM and lunch, which in my case was to be at about 1PM. Other than that, up until departure at 4:30PM the day was to be what we chose to make of it. We arrived back at Gaywood at about 5:15PM, and I walked home.

MY DAY AS IT HAPPENED

With limited time between our arrival and my slot on the trailer ride I deliberately did not venture too far afield at first, starting with a visit to the Waders Aviary, then a walk round some of the closer parts of the site, including the crane and flamingo enclosure and the Monet inspired bridge. Then it was the trailer ride, in a new trailer pulled by a tractor, with a reduced capacity meaning that we had three rides scheduled rather than two as in previous years. Between the trailer ride and lunch I ventured further, getting as far as Kingfisher Reach, where the path meets the route followed by the trailer, before heading back towards the restaurant for lunch. After lunch, which was excellent, I spent the afternoon engaged in further explorations, as well as revisits to some favourite spots. I was back at the coach in good time.

PHOTOGRAPHS

This gallery is just a small selection of the photographs I have from yesterday, designed to give you a hint of what is to come…

This pic which appears out of position in this gallery was the first time I had got multiple damselflies in one picture.

Surrey v Essex

A look at the early stages of Surrey v Essex in the fourth round of County Championship matches of 2026 and a photo gallery which features a damselfly, the first such sighting for me in 2026.

Another round of county championship matches got underway at 11 o’clock this morning. This post looks at the first two sessions (the latter of which has just ended) at The Oval where Surrey are hosting Essex.

THE PLAY SO FAR

The big news for Surrey was that Gus Atkinson was in the side for his first game of the season. They won the toss and opted to bowl first, so Atkinson was in action straight away. During the course of the morning session there was exactly one moment of trouble for Essex and that was self inflicted – a piece of running so poor that had the throw hit Paul Walter would not even have been in the frame. A rare lapse from Walter saw a return chance offered to Sean Abbott, but the Aussie seamer was unable to hold on to it. Finally, with 183 runs on the board and Elgar looking nailed for a ton Jordan Clark found an edge and Ben Foakes accepted the chance. The former South Africa test opener had scored 92, and had been largely untroubled. Tom Westley, returning from injury, cane in at number three. He struggled to 1 from 27 balls before Tom Lawes bowled him, probably almost as much of a relief to him given his lack of form as it was to the rest of us. That was 194-2. Charlie Allison joined Paul Walter, and pair carried Essex through to tea at 229-2, Walter 95 not out, Allison 23 not out. Play has resumed since I started work on this post, and Walter has moved into three figures, which he has by and large earned, though he did benefit from a couple of fortunate moments as detailed.

QUESTIONING RECEIVED WISDOM

It seems nowadays to be hardwired into captains minds that if you win the toss at The Oval you opt to bowl. However it is put it mildly not a policy with a stellar success rate. Relatively recent instances include Surrey racking up 820-9 declared against Durham, Surrey in their most recent match of this season topping 500 against Leicestershire, and now Essex headed for a huge total against Surrey. I also think the Surrey ground staff might well have questions to answer about the sheer weight of runs their surface is offering up – none of the other matches in action today look in great danger of degenerating into runfests with no real hope of a result, whereas that is a very obvious possibility in this match.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Before showing the full gallery I have an extract from it, a close up of a splendid insect from today…

Until today I had not seen a dragonfly or a damselfly in 2026. This is definitely a type of damselfly. Its mainly red body, with a black tail section that itself has four red bands can be clearly seen below the outlines of the four folded wings, while the thorax section features two bands of yellow and some yellow spots behind it. The head is quite shiny, with two large red compound eyes, and all six of the creatures limbs are clearly visible as it basks on a green leaf near Kettlewell Lane.

Now for the gallery…

Upcoming Auction

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

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

THIS WEEKS AUCTION

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

THE NEXT AUCTION

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

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

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

PHOTOGRAPHS

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

England Women Continue Winning Start to Home Season But…

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

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

A SCRAPPY SUCCESS

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

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a fine photo gallery to share today…

	Somerset Top –… on Two Very Different Matche…
	England Win Series A… on England in Command at Lor…
	A Comprehensive Win… on England’s Innings Victor…
	Phoenix Flop –… on Phoenix Reduced to Ashes
	Nikolas Perčić on A Succession of Blunders