Insects – Page 3

Two Great Turnarounds

A look back at yesterdays and todays Women’s World Cup matches, each of which saw the lower ranking side on top at times, and a photo gallery.

This post looks at two women’s world cup matches (I got more of yesterday’s than I usually would on a Tuesday because my employer had a commitment at West Raynham and wanted to go straight home once he had finished there, and there was no one else at work yesterday, so I ended up only being at work for a couple of hours, and being home in time for most of the England innings), Bangladesh v England and Australia v Pakistan.

YESTERDAY

When Bangladesh could do no better than 178 against England the match had all the signs of being ‘minnow v shark’. However Bangladesh are known to be stronger in bowling than they are in batting, and they rose to the occasion magnificently. When England were 103-6, with Heather Knight having escaped dismissal on three occasions, and still looking far from convincing a seismic shock looked on the cards. However Charlie Dean for all that she is selected for her bowling is a competent lower order batter as well, and she and Knight pulled the game round, Dean playing a determined supporting role while Knight blossomed from her difficult start to play the decisive innings. Knight’s first 15 runs occupied 50 balls and featured the three escapes mentioned. Her last 64 came off 61 balls. Dean and Knight added 79 undefeated runs for the seventh wicket (the winning hit, made by Dean, was a four). England made it two wins out of two to start the tournament, but it was a heck of a fight, and Knight probably used her entire tournament’s allocation of good fortune in the early part of what became the match winning innings.

TODAY

Absolutely no one would have expected today’s match to provide much of a contest – Australia have never lost to Pakistan in any format of women’s cricket. However between some poor Australian batting and some excellent Pakistan bowling Australia found themselves struggling at 76-7. It was here that their immense batting depth came in to play. First Kim Garth helped Mooney to raise the score 115, and then came the real revival. Alana King, undoubtedly the best batter to be at number 10 in anyone’s line up at this tournament, joined Mooney in a partnership of two parts. First they took the innings within two overs of its scheduled end, adding 72 in the process, with Mooney reaching three figures, a mark that took her 110 balls to reach and contained a mere nine fours (no sixes) – almost as if Joe Root was a left handed female instead of a right handed male. Then in the last two overs they went a bit crazy – going into those two overs Australia were on 187, and by the end of their innings they had reached 221. Mooney was out to the last ball of the innings for 109 (114), but it was King who had done most of the damage in those last two overs, boosting her score to 51 not out (a maiden ODI 50) from 49 balls, with three fours and three sixes, the only such hits of the innings. Mooney’s Brisbane upbringing may have left her better equipped to handle the heat and humidity of Colombo than many non-natives but it was still a remarkable feat of endurance to bat for so long and to run so many runs in those conditions. Sadly Pakistan were not able to offer anything with the bat barring 35 from Sidra Amin and some determined resistance from the lower order (the last three Pakistan wickets, after Amin’s dismissal, held out for just over 15 overs between them), and in the end Australia had won by 107 runs, but do not be fooled by the magnitude of their final victory – there would have been moments when they were seriously worried. As it is they have now won two matches and had one rained out. Pakistan have some wonderful bowlers, but their batting is too weak. Sidra Amin has scored six ODI centuries, but her team mates have a grand total of four between them.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This is a page from my current ‘bus book’

India Victorious Over Pakistan

A look back at today’s women’s world cup match between India and Pakistan and a photo gallery.

Yesterday’s women’s world cup match between Australia and Sri Lanka was washed away without a single ball bowled meaning that the points were shared. Today saw India taking on Pakistan in Colombo. India had won their opening match against Sri Lanka, while Pakistan had been beaten by Bangladesh.

A LOW SCORING BATTLE

Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl, perhaps reckoning that dew would make bowling more difficult in the second innings. They bowled pretty well, and no Indian managed to reach 50 (Jemima Rodrigues with 46 was top scorer). India did have other useful but not major contributions, and an explosive innings from Richa Ghosh at the death boosted them to a final score of 247. India bowled excellently, and only Sidra Amin played an innings of any substance for Pakistan. Kranti Goud, right arm medium fast, led the way for India, recording figures of 10-3-20-3. Renuka Singh Thakur, right arm medium, was economical but wicketless, ten overs for 29. Sidra Amin fought her way to 81, but was playing a lone hand. Pakistan rustled about a mere 159, going down by 88 runs. Kranti Goud was correctly named Player of the Match for a near flawless bowling performance.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

There was some seriously unpleasant weather around both on Friday and yesterday.

England Off to Winning Start at Women’s ODI World Cup

An account of England’s start at the Women’s ODI World Cup, against South Africa in Guwahati. Also a large photo gallery.

The latest edition of the women’s ODI world cup got underway this week. India beat Sri Lanka in the tournament opener, Australia beat New Zealand in the second match, which was harder fought than the eventual 89 run margin suggests – Australia were at point struggling at 127-5, and it was only their immense depth that enabled them to escape from there. Yesterday Bangladesh beat Pakistan by seven wickets. Bangladesh in that game opted for only one front line seam option, with five recognized spinners in their line up. That sole seamer, Marufa Akter, was named Player of the Match, having struck twice in her first over, a start from which Pakistan never recovered. Today saw England in action against South Africa, meaning that all sides have now played one match. The rest of this post looks back at that match.

ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA

This match took place in Guwahati in the far north-eastern corner of India. England won the toss and opted to bowl first. They pretty much followed the Bangladesh pattern of selection, going spin dominant, with Lauren Bell the only specialist seamer in the XI, though they also had Natalie Sciver-Brunt’s medium pace available to them, though giving her a full allocation given her recent injury issues would probably have been ill advised in game one of a long tournament. There was little sign of things to come in the first over, bowled by Bell, from which nine runs accrued. That was the last time anything really went South Africa’s way. Linsey Smith took the new ball at the other end to Bell, and her second ball accounted for Laura Wolvaardt, who essayed a drive and succeeded only in sending the ball straight back to Smith who took the return catch. The other opener, Tazmin Brits, was bowled by the first ball of the fourth over, Smith’s second, with the left arm spinner still yet to concede a run, and it was 12-2. South Africa could not come to terms with losing both openers so cheaply. In the fifth over Bell clean bowled Sune Luus to make it 17-3. Three balls later Linsey Smith clean bowled Marizanne Kapp for 4 and it was 19-4. Anneke Bosch and Sinalo Jafta managed a 12 run stand before Sciver-Brunt’s first ball as England skipper (she had been unable to bowl all summer) pinned Bosch so plumb in front that even with the dismissal making the score 31-5 the South African did not bother to go upstairs. Exactly two overs later Chloe Tryon was caught by Capsey off Sciver-Brunt for 2 and it was 38-6, and record books were being consulted for all time low scores in the format. The seventh wicket added 10 careful runs before the first ball of the 14th over saw Nadine de Klerk drive loosely at Sophie Ecclestone and succeed only in edging to slip where Heather Knight held a sharp catch to make it 48-7. Masabata Klaas managed to bat a little time (13 balls in total), but only accrued three runs before Charlie Dean bowled her and it was 60-8 in the 18th over. Sinalo Jafta, the only Protea to reach double figures, had got to 22, and batted pretty well, when she essayed a wild hoick against Ecclestone, missed and was bowled to make it 60-9. When those who are supposed to be able to bat have failed this epically one cannot expect a great deal from numbers 10 and 11, with no batting pedigree whatsoever, and in the circumstances Ayabonga Khaka (6 not out, a slight overachievement compared to her career batting average) and Nonkululeko Mlaba (3) did as well as anyone could have expected. It was Dean who took the final wicket, bowling Mlaba to make it 69 all out from 20.4 overs. Every England bowled who got on claimed at least one wicket, Linsey Smith finishing with 3-7 from four overs, while Sciver-Brunt, Dean and Ecclestone each took two wickets and Bell one. With only 70 to get the question was exactly how comprehensively would England end up winning. Tammy Beaumont never really got going but was not going to miss out on an opportunity to boost her batting average with a ‘not out’ – such opportunities are rarely granted to openers and she has been around a long time. Amy Jones did get going, and her unbeaten 40 from 50 balls put the South African collapse into perspective. Beaumont was 21 not out from 35 balls and South Africa gave away 12 extras (as compared to 8 by England). England won by 10 wickets with 35.5 overs to spare, and will go into their second match with a net run rate of +3.773.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The 45th Ryder Cup

A look back at the Ryder Cup, played at Bethpage Black golf course over the weekend. Also a photo gallery.

Over the weekend the USA and Europe did battle for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black golf course, Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. This post looks back at what happened.

THE TEAM ELEMENT

On Friday and Saturday team element of the tournament, one set of four foursomes and one set of four fourballs on each day, took place, before the event concluded with the 12 singles matches. In foursomes the players play alternate shots, so only two balls are in play in each group. In fourballs all four players are in action, each playing their own balls. Europe were utterly dominant over these two days, winning all four sets of matches, a first. USian world number one Scottie Scheffler set a less welcome new record – he became the first player in Ryder Cup history to be part of losing pairs in all four sets of matches over the first two days. Europe looked and played like a team, the USA like a collection of individuals. Keegan Bradley, the USian captain, was last involved in a Ryder Cup over a decade ago, while two of his assistants had no prior Ryder Cup experience at all and another, Jim Furyk, had mainly been on losing teams in his own Ryder Cup days. In all Europe led going into the final day by 11.5 to 4.5, with 14 being enough for them to retain the cup and 14.5 enough to win it outright. The biggest end of day two lead ever successfully overturned at a Ryder Cup is 10-6, by the USA at Brookline in 1999 and by Europe in ‘The Miracle of Medinah’ in 2012. In the latter match Europe were 10-4 down with the last two fourballs matches in play, and won both those games, with Ian Poulter putting in an Olympian performance to turn one of them round in its closing stages, whereas at Bethpage the last point on Saturday was won by Europe to extend their lead.

THE SUNDAY SINGLES

Before the day even started the score line changed. Viktor Hovland for Europe had a neck injury and was forced to pull out, which meant that a USian also had to pull out. As luck would have it the person who had been picked by the captain as the US’s fall guy in this event (each side puts one name in an envelope to cover for emergency withdrawals by the other side) was Hovland’s scheduled opponent anyway, so other than the award of half a point to each team, which made it USA 5, Europe 12 nothing else changed. The USA generally outpoint Europe in the singles, but Europe’s lead was so huge that a US comeback was the longest of long shots. USA did indeed outpoint Europe, but not by as much as they needed to. Only one European actually won a singles match on this day, Ludwig Aberg (that surname is apparently correctly pronounced like “oh-bairj”), but three other Europeans took half points from their matches, so the final score was USA 13 Europe 15. Europe thus retained the Ryder Cup, winning in the USA for only the fourth time.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Even at the tail end of September there are still butterflies about – this one was in Kettlewell Lane park this morning.

Spectacular Saturday

A look at some sporting action on a packed Saturday and a photo gallery.

There has been a lot of excellent sport today. This post is my take on the best of the day.

CRICKET

Hampshire held out for half an hour, adding 12 runs along the way, before James Fuller nicked a ball from Rahul Chahar through to Ben Foakes to be out for 33. Hampshire thus lost by 20 runs, with the Indian leggie, who had never previously taken a five-for in first class cricket, finishing with 8-51. Poor batting accounted for most of the dismissals. It seemed at this stage that Hampshire were going to be relegated, since Yorkshire v Durham was headed for a draw. Then Durham started losing wickets at an alarming rate, and their apparent policy of batting time and not bothering much about runs came back to bite them. Durham actually managed to bat for 44.5 overs in that second innings of theirs. The problem was they only managed 85 runs, which when they were facing a deficit of 129 (346 plays 475 on first innings) was not nearly enough to save them. They lost by an innings and 44 runs, which meant that they ended the season with 144 points, one fewer than Hampshire. It was the second time in a decade that Hampshire had seemed down only for Durham to go down instead of them – in 2016 Hampshire actually ended the season in a relegation position, but financial misdeeds by Durham led to the northern county being relegated and hit with a heavy points deduction for the 2017 season. Although there was first class cricket being played deep into the afternoon, with Middlesex v Gloucestershire seeing the last action of the 2025 English season my focus was elsewhere by then.

RUGBY

At 4PM the final of the women’s rugby world cup got underway at a packed Twickenham. England, on home territory, faced off against Canada, who had beaten New Zealand to claim their place in the final. Canada struck the first blow, with Asia Hogan-Rochester scoring a try on five minutes. The conversion was missed. Three minutes later a magnificent run by Ellie Kildunne saw the outgoing World Player of the Year score under the posts, and Zoe Harrison was unerring with the conversion to put England ahead. England crossed twice more before half time, with Harrison converting both, and although Canada scored a penalty the half time score was 21-8. Amy Cokayne thought she had England’s fourth try and her second, but the score was disallowed for an infringement. England and Canada each scored once, with neither try being converted to make it 26-13. Then Alex Matthews scored her second of the game and Harrison converted, and with under ten minutes left on the clock England were 20 points clear and the match was as good as done. In the dying minutes Sadia Kabeya was named player of the match, which given the utter dominance of England’s pack, of which she was a key part, was no great surprise. The final score remained 33-13. The attendance was confirmed as 81,885, not only a record for a women’s rugby match by a huge margin, but a record for any day of women’s rugby, beating the previous mark, set at a ‘sevens’ event in Paris by over 20,000. Sophie de Goede of Canada was named as the new Player of the Year.

GOLF

This year’s Ryder Cup got underway yesterday at Bethpage Black course on Long Island, New York. Europe were the holders, and by the end of yesterday they had won both the foursomes and fourballs session and were ahead by 5.5 points to 2.5. They also won today’s foursomes, by 3 points to 1 to extend their lead to 8.5-3.5. The fourballs are currently underway, with Europe bossing the top match, marginally behind in the second and the the third and fourth matches currently level. Europe are already assured of a lead going into Sunday’s 12 singles matches, and the key number for them is 14 points out of 28, since as holders they retain the cup in the event of a tie.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This Egret was at the edge of the Great Ouse, between the pontoon jetty and the lower Purfleet.

Nottinghamshire County Champions

Nottinghamshire sealing the County Championship in style, a game at Southampton that has become very interesting and some details about the relegation scrap. Also a photo gallery.

Nottinghamshire are officially confirmed as county champions. This post looks at just what is going on.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE v WARIWCKSHIRE

Officially the title was sealed beyond dispute when Nottinghamshire passed 300 inside 110 overs against Warwickshire yesterday. I was at work and missed the moment, but I heard the clip of Dave Bracegirdle’s commentary. It is a great triumph for Haseeb Hameed as captain, and he has been excellent this season both in that capacity, where his decision making has attracted considerable admiration from many commentators, and in his role as opening batter where has contributed four centuries to the cause. Head coach Peter Moores, who has now overseen triumphs at three separate counties, and bowling coach Kevin Shine, who has been namechecked by a number of his grateful charges, also deserve credit. From reaching that 300 Nottinghamshire went on to 374, a first innings lead of 116. They then bowled Warwickshire out for 133 in their second innings (last night they started superbly, reducing Warwickshire to 7-3, with both openers and night watcher Ethan Bamber back in the hutch, and they clearly did not let up today). They completed the job without the loss of a wicket, and it was Hameed who set the seal on their season with a boundary to bring up the winning runs. Scorecard here. There had been a good moment at the start of the Warwickshire second innings when their opener Alex Davies, who overlapped with Hameed in their Lancashire days made a point of removing one batting glove and walking over to shake Hameed’s hand to congratulate him on his success. Nottinghamshire as of now have 225 points, their over rate has not been bad enough to be punished, and the Trent Bridge pitch will not be docked points either, so they will be champions by a big margin. Exactly how big will be decided at Southampton…

HAMPSHIRE v SURREY

Hampshire have largely had the better of this match, with Surrey weakened by a combination of the ECB and the illness which has temporarily deprived them of Jordan Clark. However 17 year old Ralphie Albert on his first class debut scored a fighting 63 to help Surrey to 281 in their second innings, leaving Hampshire to score 181 to win. At 61-0 it was looking comfortable, but then things started to happen. By the tea interval Hampshire were six wickets down, four to Indian leg spinner Rahul Chahar and two to part time off spinner Dan Lawrence. Since the interval Chahar has been donated his fifth scalp of the innings, that of his compatriot Washington Sundar who played a wild drive, edged and was well taken at slip by Rory Burns. Hampshire as I type are 118-7 needing 63 to win. The eyes of Durham (especially them given the situation at Headingley and in the table) and Yorkshire will be on this – if the collapse continues and Surrey win the two northern counties will merely need a draw for both of them to stay up and Hampshire to go down, while a win for Hampshire would mean that Durham would have to engineer a win to stay up, sending Yorkshire down. Scott Currie has just fallen LBW, giving Chahar his sixth scalp and making it 121-8, 60 still needed.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign-off…

This Painted Lady was a candidate for the feature image at the time I photographed it (yesterday morning)…

Nottinghamshire’s Grip on the County Championship Strengthens

A look at developments on day one of the final round of fixtures in the 2025 County Championship and a photo gallery.

Today is the opening day of the last round of matches in the 2025 county championship. Surrey are playing at Southampton against relegation threatened Hampshire (it has finally been confirmed with one match to play that they system will not be changing next year, so promotion and relegation will be happening), while Nottinghamshire are at home to Warwickshire. Nottinghamshire started the day needing 11 points from their match to make certain of the title (as I make clear in this post they should already be safe). This post looks at what has happened so far.

AT SOUTHAMPTON

Surrey won the toss, chose to bat and batted horribly. They lost wickets early, and never really stopped the rot, ending up all out for a miserable 147, 103 runs short of even a first batting bonus point, thereby reducing the ask for Nottinghamshire from 11 points to six. Hampshire’s reply to date has been a microcosm of their season with the bat – all of the top three got in, and all got out when seemingly well set. Only Ali Orr, who fell to a catch down the leg side by Foakes deserves even a hint of sympathy – both Nick Gubbins and Fletcha Middleton played poor shots, giving part time spinner Dan Lawrence their wickets. Surrey’s awful effort with the bat means that Hampshire are still in control, currently 120-3 in reply to that measly 147 by Surrey. Surrey, with a number of players unavailable by order of the ECB gave a first class debut to 17 year old Ralphie Albert, one of whose grandfathers, snooker legend Jimmy White, knew a thing or two about scores of 147. Ralphie Albert, apparently no relation of Hampshire’s Toby Albert, bats right handed and bowls left arm orthodox spin.

AT NOTTINGHAM

Nottinghamshire started well, and soon had their first bowling point on the board. At 127-5 it looked like a second was on the cards with Surrey missing out on any batting points. However, two all rounders, Ed Barnard and Dan Mousley have baulked Nottinghamshire since then, putting on an unbroken 83. Thus Nottinghamshire still need five more points to win, and the overs situation, seemingly totally irrelevant when the fifth wicket fell, is now just appearing on the horizon – Nottinghamshire have 39 overs left to get the four wickets that would give them a full haul of bowling points, which is still favourable to them, but means that it is not impossible that they will be denied. However whatever happens in the rest of the Warwickshire innings Nottinghamshire will go into bat with their destiny in their own hands, and a chance to settle it in that innings.

PHOTOGRAPHS

A malfunctioning memory card that could only be saved by reformatting it cost me a lot of pictures, but fortune favoured me thereafter and I do have a proper gallery to share…

I was passing through St Peter’s Garden outside the church of St Peter and St Paul, Fakenham when someone spotted the camera and kindly told me about a Peregrine Falcon that was currently eating a pigeon on the far side of the garden. This picture and the next two resulted.

A Bittersweet Weekend for Hampshire

A look back at the finals of the men’s and women’s One Day cups – Hampshire v Worcestershire in the men’s version yesterday. Hampshire v Lancashire in the women’s today. Plus a photo gallery.

Both the Hampshire men’s and women’s sides played one day cup final matches this weekend, the men yesterday against Worcestershire at Trent Bridge and the women today against Lancashire at the Utilita Bowl. This post looks back briefly at both games.

YESTERDAY

The men’s final was heavily hit by rain with the Hampshire innings disrupted twice and reduced to 45 overs, and then the innings break massively extended, resulting in Worcestershire facing a DLS adjusted target of 188 from 27 overs. Hampshire’s innings had been largely dominated by left handed opener Ali Orr, who scored a splendid century, and was thus the person fourth-most responsible for Worcestershire facing a tough target (Messrs Duckworth, Lewis and Stern aka DLS being numbers 1,2 and 3 in the pecking order). Worcestershire kept in touch throughout, with chief credit going to Ethan Brookes who hit 57 off 34 balls. However Scott Currie, who had a superb day with the ball, bowled a magnificent 26th over in which he accounted for Brookes, Rob Jones and Tom Taylor, boosting his figures to a very impressive 5-35. Worcestershire ended that over on 175-7 needing 13 off the final over. Brad Wheal, a very experienced cricketer, including internationally with Scotland, had responsibility for bowling the final over of the contest, and it should have been within his compass to secure Hampshire the cup. Unfortunately he made a hash of things, and it took a mere four balls for the game to end, Worcestershire winning by three wickets with two balls to spare. Player of the Match awards nearly always go to members of the winning team, though on this occasion either Orr, Currie or a joint award might have been considered acceptable given how close it was, and Ethan Brookes, with that blazing 57, 1-52 with the ball and two catches got the award.

TODAY

Hampshire batted first and tallied a respectable 288, with big scores from Georgia Adams (77) and Maia Bouchier (66) while Grace Potts with 3-47 from nine overs was the pick of the Lancashire bowlers. Lancashire began the chase badly losing Alice Clarke to a run out by Freya Kemp for 3. Then Irish international Gaby Lewis and Seren Smale had a big partnership for the second wicket. When Smale fell for 72 and Fi Morris failed to get going, managing 9 from nine balls it was 183-3 from 35.4 overs, Lancashire needing 106 from 14.2 overs with a respectable but not outstanding batting line up – Kate Cross is a fine cricketer but number seven, where she was scheduled to come in, looks a place higher than would be ideal for her. Lancashire keeper and captain Ellie Threlkeld began the Lancashire revival with 32 off 30, helping the fourth wicket to add 60. Her dismissal, achieved by a combination of two Freyas, Kemp taking the catch off the bowling of Davies made it 243-4 from 43.5 overs, 46 needed from 6.1 overs, with the young Scot Ailsa Lister joining Lewis, by then into three figures and looking like the key player in the unfolding drama. With three overs to go 21 were still needed. The 48th over settled the issue, Lewis going after Georgia Adams to the extent of 16 from the over, which took Lewis to 141 not out from 143 balls, with 16 fours. Lister, herself capable of very fast scoring, levelled the scores with a four off the first ball of the 49th over, and after one dot ball then scored the winning single, with Lancashire have six wickets and nine balls to spare.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Some Sporting Highlights

A historic happening at the world athletics championships in Tokyo, the women’s rugby world cup semi-finals, an autism acceptance just a cuppa morning and a photo gallery.

There is a lot of sport going on this weekend. There is a world athletics championship on in Tokyo, and the semi-finals of the women’s rugby world cup have happened. This post begins with a piece of history from Tokyo before focussing on the rugby.

A SHARED MEDAL IN THE HEPTATHLON

By the time the final event of the Heptathlon, the 800 metres, Anna Hall (USA) was away and clear (especially as she was the quickest 800m runner in the field), Kate O’Connor of Ireland was also pretty safe for the silver medal, while Katerina Johnson-Thompson (GB) and Taliyah Brooks (USA) were contending for bronze, with the Brit needing to be six seconds or thereabouts quicker than the USian to take the medal. In the event after a noticeable delay the computer awarded them a shared bronze, each scoring 6,581 points for the seven events. O’Connor meanwhile had recorded her fifth PB of the competition. The second Brit in the field, Jade O’Dowda, finished eighth, her best yet at a major championship.

THE RUGBY SEMI-FINALS

Yesterday evening Canada took on New Zealand in the first semi-final of the women’s rugby world cup. Canada came out firing on all cylinders and had scored four tries by half time. They added a fifth early in the second half, and although the Black Ferns, unbeaten in rugby world cups since 2014, hit back hard thereafter the damage had been done, and Canada had booked their place at Twickenham.

The second match took place today, at the same venue as the first, Ashton Gate in Bristol. England were far from their best in the first half and were somewhat fortunate to lead by two points (7-5) at the interval. They played better in the second half, but it was only when Player of the Match Ellie Kildunne crossed for her second try, a spectacular solo effort, to put England 26-12 up that they looked in control. The conversion also went over. France did score once more but missed their own conversion so it was 28-17. Then Megan Jones went over for England’s fifth try right at the end – Harrison’s conversion, successful like all her other four, was the last kick of the match. The final at Twickenham is on Saturday, and although England finished strongly I reckon the Canadians will be feeling fairly confident after this semi-final.

LEGO ARCHITECTURE

There was an Autism Acceptance Just a Cuppa morning at King’s Lynn library today, and as usual I did some lego architecture while I was there…

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

As stick like as it appears this is apparently not a stick insect – it is a Plume Moth.

Nottinghamshire in Control of the County Championship

A look at the situation at the top of the county championship, with Nottinghamshire likely to win, and a photon gallery,

At around 3:15PM on Thursday Surrey were all out for 294 inn the final innings of a tough match at The Oval to give Nottinghamshire victory by 20 runs and put the midlanders in a commanding position at the top of the County Championship. This post looks at the rights and wrongs of point allocations in the county championship in relation to the situation at the top.

POINT ALLOCATIONS IN THE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

The basic point awards in the county championship are 16 points for a win and eight for a draw. In addition to these bonus points are awarded in the first 110 overs of each county’s first innings as follows: batting – up to five, awarded for reaching scores of 250, 300, 350, 4o0 and finally 450, and bowling – up to three, awarded for three, six and nine wickets respectively.

AT THE TOP OF THE
COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

The table below shows the top two in the county championship, the only two counties who can now win it (Somerset, in third, can amass no more than 199 points in total whatever happens in their last match). The second, third and fourth columns list wins, losses and draws in that order.

NOT	13	6	1	6	203
SUR	13	4	1	8	189

The situation shown above, where Surrey still have a very outside chance (they would need a big win, and they would need Nottinghamshire to either lose, or draw while scoring very few bonus points) illustrates some of the problems with the current points allocations. Had Surrey got home on Thursday afternoon they would have been on 205 points and Nottinghamshire on 187, and would have required only a draw from their final match. Yet, rather than the almost total command of the season that such a position would have been indicated they would have been level with Nottinghamshire on five wins, and benefitting from the high award from drawing matches, because they would have had eight draws to Nottinghamshire’s six. Effectively they would be being rewarded not for an ability to win matches, but for an ability to avoid defeat. The actual situation is still not doing justice to Nottinghamshire, who with two wins more in the season than Surrey have managed should be not just in a commanding position but uncatchable at the top. The high number of drawn matches is also less than satisfactory (I have previously written specifically about what a draw means in a cricketing context) and is down precisely to the over-generous award for such results, a situation which encourages sides to play safe and kill games rather than throwing down the gauntlet in a bid for victory (the single most egregious example from a large sample size was perpetrated by Sussex against Warwickshire, when they batted on and on in their second innings until they were some 400 ahead and there was only half a day left, which meant chances of a definite result were basically zero).

If the award of eight points for a drawn match is to stand then the award for a win needs to increase from 16 to 20. The alternative is to reduce the award for drawing games, which I would also be happy with. The other factor besides the bad points system behind the high number of draws has been the use of the Kookaburra ball in championship matches this season – the evidence is in and the experiment needs to be scrapped forthwith.

Finally, congratulations to Nottinghamshire for winning the 2025 County Championship (as I am sure they will, and even more sure they deserve to).

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

	Thomas on England Just About Hanging…
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on England Just About Hanging…
	A Cornish Christmas… on A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curat…
	Karan on A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curat…
	GP on A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curat…