Final Ashes Test Sees Familiar Scenario

Looking at the state of play in the final Ashes test match and in the closing stages of the County Championships, a couple of dates for the diary and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

The final test of this year’s Ashes series has no bearing on the destination of the urn – Australia have already ensured possession of that with their victory at Manchester. However, an England win would tie the series (previous examples of such include 1962-3, 1965-6 and 1972). This post looks at that, and at the closing stages of the County Championship.

THE TEST MATCH

Australia won the toss and put England in to bat. England were somewhat fortunate to reach a semi-respectable 294, Root being dropped three times en route to 54, while Buttler with 70 produced his only major score of the series, and Leach again showed his ability to hang around, lasting 80 minutes (43 balls) for 21. However, in addition to Root’s good fortune Denly, Stokes, Bairstow, and all-rounder Sam Curran, in for Jason Roy, all scored between 14 and 22, and in all cases were culpable in their own downfall. Denly and Burns put on 27 together for the first wicket, the biggest opening stand by either side in the series to date. Archer dealt swiftly with both Australian openers, Labuschagne and Smith have had a good partnership, but Labuschagne has just gone for 48, LBW to that man Archer, adding to this match’s substantial tally of ‘nearly but not quite’ innings and the even more substantial match tally of innings ended by batter error.

I have to say that I am a bit worried about how this match is going, because a 2-2 series draw would give the England selectors something to hide behind and excuse inaction, whereas a 3-1 beating would surely compel action. For similar reasons I take scant comfort in Buttler’s 70, which may simply have bought him an extension to a test career that has yielded inadequate returns for a specialist batter. I hope Anderson can regain fitness because the young speedster Archer and the wily veteran swing merchant Anderson in partnership is an enticing prospect.

SOMERSET SOON TO CELEBRATE

Somerset are poised to win their first County Championship, having ruthlessly disposed of Yorkshire, while the best their only rivals, Essex, can hope for in this round is to avoid defeat at the hands of Warwickshire. Tom Abell produced a gritty performance in the Somerset second innings, when Yorkshire might have stayed in contention had they taken quick wickets, and with more aggressive efforts by Tom Banton, George Bartlett and Lewis Gregory to back him up Somerset ended up with a huge lead, and a dispirited Yorkshire collapsed for the second time in the match. Warwickshire put up 517 (23 year old Matthew Lamb 173) against Essex, who could only respond with 324, and made to follow on, 101-1 so far at the second attempt. Somerset have 205 points with two games to go, and Essex, playing their penultimate game, and with no chance of the 16 for a win are currently on 192 points, which if they avoid defeat will become 197. Thus at worst Somerset will be in a position from which one more win in their last two games will guarantee them the title, as would two draws, while even a draw and a defeat would leave them heavy favourites. Other than Somerset the only teams not to have won a county championship are Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire (who were twice named Champion County in the 1870s, before the competition was out on an official footing in 1890). In the second division Lancashire disposed of Derbyshire in a match made notable by Josh Bohannon, whose previous highest score in a fledgling career was 98 not out, but who this time round scored 174, batting at no 3 and coming in after the fall of an early wicket. One big hundred does not make an England test player, but if he continues to score heavily from near the top of the order the selectors would have to take note (this innings gives him a record of 660 first class runs at 47.14).

Matthew Wade has just fallen to Sam Curran to make it 118-4 in the test match. Mitchell Marsh, whose medium pace somehow accounted for five England wickets, is now at the crease.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have two major events coming up – Sunday is Heritage Open Day, and I will be stewarding at Lath Mansion, Nelson Street from 2PM to 4PM. A week on Tuesday is the second “Yes We Can” day at the Corn Exchange, and I will be helping to run the NAS West Norfolk stall.

Yes I Can — NAS West Norfolk branch chair Karan McKerrow posted this graphic on facebook this morning.

Now for my usual sign off…

P1270171 (2) — Railway art at Stuart House…

P1270172 (2) — …where I was for a cheque presentation in connection with the King’s Lynn Beer Festival, where the charity to benefit was my own NAS West Norfolk.

P1270173 (2) — Preparing for the press photographs to be taken.

P1270181 (2) — NAS West Norfolk will be running regular drop in sessions at this scout hall on Portland Place, South Lynn

P1270186 (2) — The main room (but there are several other substantial rooms in this place)

P1270208 (2) — A peculiar bug with a stirped carapace.

Cricket and Other Stuff

Cricket, in the course of which I make a very radical suggestion for dealing with England’s top order woes, and a few other things, including Maths and Public TGransport.

INTRODUCTION

As well as some stuff about the state of play in the current England vs India series I have a couple of mathematical problems for you and some of my own photographs at the end.

ENGLAND’S DREADFUL START

England won the toss yesterday morning before the fourth test match of the five match series against India at the Ageas Bowl, ~~Botley~~ Southampton. This was the last thing they managed to do right for some considerable time. At last, with the scoreboard reading a barely credible 86-6, Sam Curran, inexplicably dropped from the last test match and now returning to the fray, emerged from the pavilion. Much of the carnage was more due to good Indian bowling than bad batting, although Jennings (already on borrowed time for my money) will not want to see replays of his LBW (however good a piece of bowling it may have been padding up to one which would have uprooted the middle stump otherwise never looks good). Fortunately England’s tail managed to produce a diplodocid (see picture at end of this paragraph) proportion of the innings. Curran, making the ridiculous decision to drop him from the previous game look positively ludicrous, racked up 78 before he was last out, the total hvaing reached a semi-respectable 246.

Diplodocus — This is why I described the contribution of the England tail as being of diplodocid proportions.

India are currently 135-2 in response. Only once in test match history has a side come back from 0-2 down to take a five match series, in 1936-7 when Australia’s comeback was fuelled by scores of 270, 212 and 169 from Don Bradman in the course of those last three matches. In 1894-5 Australia levelled the series at 2-2 after being 0-2 down but Andrew Stoddart’s England rallied to win the decider.

England’s continuing top-order woes need to be addressed if they are to avoid surrendering a series on which they seemed nto so long ago to have a vice-like grip. Rory Burns must come into the side in place of Jennings. I would also bring Pope back but place him lower in the order. brief interjection – BIG NEWS – Kohli Is Out! Also, thinking about the need for top order runs I now tender a suggestion far more radical than Rory Burns – there is one England opener who has making stacks of runs all over the place of late – the one and only Tammy Beaumont! The way they have performed thus far none of the current top order are entitled to object to that suggestion.

Yes going with two new openers would be a colossal gamble, but they could scarcely fare much worse than Cook and Jennings have in this series.

A COUPLE OF MATHEMATICAL TEASERS

Both of these, from my usual source, are very easy problems which have tripped a number of solvers up. I give them in the reverse order to which they appeared:

And

HERITAGE OPEN DAY

Heritage Open Day this year is Sunday September 16th. There will be some 60 sites open in the King’s Lynn area, and if you there on the day do make sure you visit. If you happen to visit the cellars at the Bank House between 12 noon and 2PM I will be one of the volunteers you encounter.

TWO STORIES OF BRITISH PUBLIC TRANSPORT DAFTNESS

I start this section with the more minor but also more personal of these stories. Today I made my travel arrangements to Sheffield for a cousin’s wedding. I checked bookings from King’s Lynn to Sheffield, and the cheapest ticket would have cost me £68.20. Knowing that a ‘plan B’ was available I then checked out bookings from Peterborough to Sheffield and lo and behold up came a ticket for just £38.50, which when the two bus tickets on the ExCel are added in amounts to £51 all up. In other words to have travelled by train from King’s Lynn all the way to Sheffield would have cost me 33% more than the combined bus/ train route I am actually taking. Now of course not everyone booking this journey would have known of the alternative, and I wonder how many people have been swindled in this.

My second story of public transport daftness is that The Elizabeth Line (aka Crossrail) will not now be coming into service until nearly a whole year later than planned (more here).

PHOTOGRAPHS

The pictures here are of items I purchased at our auction on Wednesday (it was reasonably successful, with a few big sales, and a lot of items finding buyers).

Lot 121 – I scanned these items rather than photographing of them.

Under a viaduct and over a bridge — A photograph of the item taken this morning

360 — Two of the four items in this lot were of sufficient interest for me to consider bidding, the Nobel Prize cover, and the one that really settled it, the Classic Locomotives.

Classic Locomotives FDC — The main cover photographed this morning.

Classic Lcomotives stamps II — The first of two close-ups of the stamps (the reflectivity of the protective covering makes this a challenge).

Classic Locomotives other side — The ‘cover’ part of this item contains a lot of information when opened up (see also next picture for the other side).

The Ouse Amateur Sailing Club

The final post in my account of Heritage Open Day – dealing with the Ouse Amateur Sailing Club.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the final part of my account of Heritage Open Day 2017. Once I have published this post I will be creating a page to make this series of posts more accessible, but for the present my account of the day consists of:

Overview – covering the whole day and indicating which aspects of it would receive dedicated posts.
27 King Street – Focussing specifically on the building where I did my stint as a volunteer steward.
2 Hampton Court – A mainly photographic account of a unique experience at a property that is currently being renovated.
The IFCA Boat – My visit to the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority research vessel moored at the pontoon jetty.

SETTING THE SCENE

After two hours volunteering at 27 King Street I was feeling drained because of the level of interaction involved in the process. I therefore decided to head to the Ouse Amateur Sailing Club on Ferry Lane, which opens it doors to non-members on Heritage Open Day, and where I could spend a bit of time on their river view terrace and decide whether to call it a day or to head home.

AT THE CLUB

My pint purchased I duly headed for the terrace. The weather was too chilly to permit staying outside for too long, so I made periodic trips back inside to warm up. I resolved the decision of what to do next in favour of calling it a day, and headed for home having had a good day.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The one picture here not directly associated with the club, but since it kis at the top end of Ferry Lane it belongs here.

The IFCA Boat

Continuing my account of Heritage Open Day 2017 with a detailed look at IFCA and their research vessel.

INTRODUCTION

Continuing my account of Heritage Open Day 2017, we now turn our attention to the IFCA Boat, moored at the pontoon jetty for the occasion. This post follows on from:

ABOUT IFCA

The Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority are responsible for balancing the needs of the fisheries industry with conservation, within six nautical miles of the shore. As well as the website to which I have linked they also have presences on facebook and twitter for those of you who are social media users. Here are photographs of their general leaflet:

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ON THE BOAT

The boat that was open to us was a research vessel (moored at the end of the jetty was an enforcement vessel, but we could only look at that, not board it). On board was all kind of equipment, a number of maps and charts and some free leaflets of which more later. The boat has a main deck area where you join it from the jetty, a couple of cabins that are open for access, a control unit, and area below decks which is not accessible and an upper deck which is accessible by way of a short but very steep staircase (so steep that I was just one of many to deem it necessary to descend facing backwards rather than forwards). Here are the photographs I took while aboard:

View from the top deck — This was the view from the upper deck.

SOME PUBLICITY SAMPLES

Near the start of this post I showed the general leaflet produced by IFCA, and I finish with samples of the rest of their publicity materials that were available on the boat:

CLOSING COMMENTS

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the IFCA research vessel and learning about IFCA and the important work that they do. I close this post with a message from an earlier post of mine, “Marxism 2017 – Day 3: Outline“:

2 Hampton Court

Continuing my account of Heritage Open Day 2017 with an account of the unique opportunity presented by the fact that 2 Hampton Court is currently being renovated.

INTRODUCTION

This post continues my account of Heritage Open Day 2017, which started with an overview and continued with a post about my experience volunteering at 27 King Street. This post deals with an opportunity that was available for the first and probably last time this year. Having anticipated the effect that my two-hour volunteering stint was likely to have on me I had decided this warranted being seen before that.

SOME HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

A double sided A4 information sheet about some of the history of the place had been put together by Hendrina Ellis:

There is no connection between this Hampton Court and the famous Hampton Court in Surrey (there are in fact at least three places with this name, the other being in Herefordshire, and the one in Surrey is the newest of the three, being a touch under 500 years old).

2 HAMPTON COURT IN PICTURES

As well as the building itself there was a small exhibition about the history surrounding it. For the rest of this post my camera takes centre stage, giving you the chance to see what I managed to capture of this unique experience:

Elaborate lettering — I was so impressed by this display that…

Renaud de Bar — …I took close up shots of each individual sheet

CONCLUSION

This was an excellent start to Heritage Open Day. The King’s Lynn Preservation Trust did a splendid job of presenting this building to best effect.

27 King Street

An account of my stewarding stint on heritage open day.

INTRODUCTION

This post is the first of the detailed Heritage Open Day 2017 posts following on from the series opener. I visited the building that this post is dedicated to twice – first to familiarise myself with it, and then to spend two hours stewarding there.

THE STEWARDING EXPERIENCE

As I mentioned in the overview piece as I was stewarding alongside councillor Lesley Bambridge. All we knew when we started was that there were no visitor forms left for people to fill in, and that the basic rule was that if a door was open the room was accessible, otherwise not. Additionally, although it was possible to climb the staircase from ground to first floor there were no open doors on that floor, and above the first floor were private flats. We were three-quarters of the way through our stint when we discovered that we were supposed to be keeping count of visitors. From the moment we started keeping count we recorded 61 people coming in, which multiplied by four gives 244 people, which I rounded down on our tally sheet to approximately 240. Multiplied by three for the whole day this gives about 720 people coming in, and this was one of the more minor attractions.

That number of visitors also serves to explain why those two hours took quite a lot out of me – that scale of personal interaction is no joke for an autistic person.

I have put myself down to volunteer again next year, and look forward to doing it again.

27 KING STREET IN PHOTOGRAPHS

I took some photographs on my preliminary visit and had occasional opportunities while stewarding as well.

Blurb — The official info sheet (there were three copies strategically positioned within the building).

Ellipsoid skylight 1 — This was the first of four internal and two external shots I took of this feature. Does this feature have a name other than my own “Ellipsoid Skylight”.

Ellipsoid skylight external 1 — Externally it looks like a greenhouse roof.

Boss desk 2 — The little white rectangle on the front centre of the desktop is the A4 size info sheet.

Heritage Open Day 2017 – Overview

An overview of Heritage Open Day 2017 and the solution to a mathematical problem.

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday was Heritage Open Day in KIng’s Lynn, and as readers of this blog will know I was one of the volunteers helping to run the event. This post is a scene setter, giving an overview and indicating which parts of the day I will be giving individual posts to later on. At the end of this post I will include the answer the puzzle I posed at the end of my previous post.

STARTING THE DAY

I was going be stewarding at 27 King Street from 12 until 2, and knowing that I would find that experience a draining one I decided to see a handful of places before 12. The first place I visited was the one I had marked down as “must see”, because it was probably the only time the opportunity would be there do so –

NO 2 HAMPTON COURT

This property being currently vacant and of considerable historic interest it was open, and within was a little local history exhibition as well as the place itself. I will be giving this a dedicated post, so here for the moment is a single picture to whet your appetite:

I decided to head for King Street by way of the river front, and between this property and the river front is…

THE SECRET GARDEN

I knew that my aunt would be running things in this garden, so a quick visit seemed in order.

SG2 — When this was first built those arches fronted directly on to the river.

The main attraction (especially as the cockling boat Baden Powell was absent) down at the river front was, as on previous occasions…

THE IFCA RESEARCH VESSEL

IFCA stands for Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, and their remit is to insure that population levels of sea creatures living within six nautical miles of the shore do not decrease too dramatically. I will be creating a dedicated post about this, so I offer this picture as bait…

My plan on leaving this vessel was to…

PAY A PRELIMINARY VISIT TO 27 KING STREET

I deemed it sensible to familiarise myself with the building that I would be stewarding, so that was my next port of call. As I was at the river front I decided to go by way of the Lower Purfleet, where there was sure to be something interesting happening…

Queen Street — The first three pictures were taken on my out from my flat, before we get to stuff from the section between the river and King Street.

THE TUESDAY MARKET PLACE AND ENVIRONS

After my preliminary look around No 27 King Street I had half an hour to spare, so headed in the direction of the Tuesday Market Place. I paid calls at three buildings in that area, Bishop’s Lynn House, St Ann’s House and St Nicholas Chapel before heading back to no 27…

VOLUNTEERING AT 27 KING STREET

I arrived back at no 27 a few minutes early. My fellow steward for the 12PM to 2PM slot turned out to be veteran councillor Lesley Bambridge. As I will be writing a dedicated post about this I will say no more here. For a picture, here is a quirky architectural feature:

Ellipsoid skylight 4 — I have never seen a skylight shaped like this – for the moment until I get more information I will call it the Ellipsoid Skylight.

A CLUB ON FERRY LANE

After finishing at 27 King Street I made my next port of call the Ouse Amateur Sailing Club, where I consumed a pint. After that I decided it was time to call it a day as I was unsurprisingly feeling ‘peopled out’ – 27 King Street attracted a lot of visitors while I was there. Here is a picture taken while at the club:

View from the terrace — This is the view looking downriver from the club’s terrace.

THE 101 PROBLEM

In “Anderson Joins the 500 Club and Other Stuff” I included the following problem from brilliant:

First of all the answer:

There at least three areas of mathematical knowledge that would give you an ‘in’ to this one – logarithms, compound interest and Pascal’s triangle. Since I have some knowledge of all three this problem barely brought a crease to my brow. Here are a couple of good solutions from others:

The second solution I am sharing here had a particular appeal to me:

Just to finish, the exact power (in terms of positive integers) of 101 that is the the first to begin with a number other than 1 is 70, and 101 ^ 70 runs to 140 digits.

Links, Pics and Puzzles

Lionks to various pieces I have found on the internet, an answer and solution to one problem and a new problem, and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

This is a sharing post with some of my own stuff as well. I hope you enjoy it.

CROSSBOW BOLT STOPPED PLAY

Play between Surrey and Middlesex at the Oval has been halted and the ground has been locked down because a crossbow bolt was fired from outside the ground into the ground. Everyone at the ground is now in sheltered areas not out in the open. Armed police are now present at the ground. The match has now been officially abandoned, and a controlled evacuation of the ground is now underway.

SCIENCE AND NATURE

First a trio from wildlifeplanet:

“Unreal Photos Of Animals From The Scandinavian Vicious Forest” – a piece highlighting the work of Finnish photographer Konsta Punka taking pictures of forest creatures:
“Beach That Disappeared 33 Years Ago Has Reappeared”
“Here Is The Bird That Is Able To Fly For 10 Months Non-Stop (Video)” – a piece about the swift.

Hurricane Harvey has quite rightly received a lot of coverage. Here are three of the better pieces:

“Harvey Didn’t Come Out of the Blue. Now Is The Time to Talk About Climate Change” this comes from the website systemchangenotclimatechange
“HARVEY DIDN’T COME OUT OF THE BLUE. NOW IS THE TIME TO TALK ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE.” This is from theintercept.com and is written by Naomi Klein.
“Why are the crucial questions about Hurricane Harvey not being asked?” – an excellent piece by George Monbiot in the Guardian.

THE BEST BUS STOP

This bus stop is the subject of a post on illaboratoriodipleeny titled “Una meravigliosa fermata del bus….” that was brought to my attention by Anna, who was as impressed by it as I am. Here is the bus stop:

SOME POLITICAL PIECES

I start with a tool created by the Labour Party called the living wage calculator. You enter your postcode and it tells you how many people in your area would benefit from the minimum wage being increased to £10 per hour. Below is what is says about my postcode:

My next two pieces both come from the Skwawkbox:

“CONFIRMED: IT’S #LEONARD V #SARWAR FOR SCOTTISH LABOUR” electing Sarwar would mean a continuation of the approach that has failed miserably for both Kezia Dugdale and her predecessor Jim Murphy, whereas Leonard would be a move to the left.
“NURSE: WHY YOU NEED TO GET BEHIND THE #SCRAPTHECAP CAMPAIGN” – this is about the pay cap imposed on public sector workers, which the Tories recently voted to uphold. Their subsequent celebrations at having successfully voted to make life worse for public sector workers were utterly sickening.

My final link in this section comes from Pride’s Purge and is a superb exposure of one of the nastier displays of mendacity that the right wing press have been guilty of. It is titled “How the press lied about the little girl staying with Muslim foster parents. Here are the facts.“

A SOLUTION AND A NEW PROBLEM

In one of my posts on Monday I set a problem from brilliant. Here is I show the answer and an impressive solution. I also offer a new problem to end the section.

Thomas’ answer:

I admit to being lazy on this one – knowing that the internal angles of an octagon add up to 1080 degrees and that 7 x 90 = 630 I realised that with seven acute angles the remaining angle would have to be over 450 degrees, and the max is just under 360 degrees which takes you back to where you started. However 6 x 90 = 540 which means that the remaining two angles would have to add up to something in excess of 540 degrees, which is no great difficulty. Therefore I gave the correct answer of six (in less time than it has taken me to type this). However, one solver by the name of Atomsky Jahid produced a splendid effort:

A NEW PROBLEM

The mass extinction at the end of the Permian era is at the time of writing officially the largest in Earth’s history. An estimated 96% of all species on Earth at that time were rendered extinct. If the death rate in species that were not completely wiped out had been the same as the extinction rate what proportion of living creatures would have been wiped out in this event?

PHOTOGRAPHS

Guildhall — With Heritage Open Day coming up soon I decided to revisit these first two pics which feature thw town hall.

Greyfriars + wm — Greyfriars tower and the war memorial

P1040566 — A hald-moon in an early evening sky.

P1040564 — The first of three closer up and enhanced shots of the half-moon.

Coming Up: Heritage Open Day 2017

Official publicity for Heritage Day 2017 in King’s Lynn.

INTRODUCTION

I have mentioned Heritage Open Day 2017 several times in this blog, including the fact that I will be stewarding at 11-13 King Street between 12 and 2PM. The official pamphlet for the event is now out, and with just less than two weeks to go I take this opportunity to share it with you.

THE MAP

Here is the map that is in the middle of the pamphlet, to help you orient yourselves:

THE PAMPHLET IN ORDER

This section shows the full pamphlet in all its glory:

A COUPLE OF CLOSE FOCUSES

The first place I havce chosen to focus on is Hampton Court, where my aunt lives:

I finish this post with 11-13 King Street:

A Couple of Announcements

An announcement, a warning and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

I am planning a major blog post for tomorrow morning, but there are a couple of things I wish to share now.

HERITAGE OPEN DAY

Heritage Open Day 2017 is on Sunday September 10, and as usual many King’s Lynn buildings will be opening their doors for the occasion. This year I will be among the volunteers. I will be stewarding at 11-13 King Street between 12 and 2PM. Here are a few pictures of the place taken today:

11-13 King Street, where I will be stewarding from 12 to 2PM on Heritage Open Day.

A WARNING FROM AMERICA

There is an online magazine called Autism Parenting Magazine. Amy Sequenzia, a very well known autistic person and autism advocate has had a very bad experience with them recently, as has one of her friends. I found out about this from americanbadassactivists, who put up a post linking to Amy’s original, which appears on the Autism Women’s Network. As someone who is both autistic and heavily involved witha charity that helps autistic people I am shocked by the attitudes and behaviour of the people who run this online magazine. Below, in screenshot form, is some of the detail from Amy’s piece:

A POSITIVE ENDING AND PHOTOGRAPHS

I always like to end my posts with pictures, but before I do here is a link to something much more positive than the last piece I linked to. This piece, from Science Whys is titled “We Are Family” and it ends with a wonderful quote from Maya Angelou: “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

Now for those photographs:

	The First Two Days i… on A Successful Auction
	Marizanne’s Mastercl… on From Victory to Rout in Two…
	From Victory to Rout… on An Extraordinary Opening …
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on Thunder v Scorchers
	Thunder v Scorchers… on Brilliant Bray Bosses Sydney…