Tag: Magpie

A Tactical Possibility for Australia

A look at an interesting tactical situation facing Australia in the T20 World Cup, and also a note on the state of play in today’s match between the USA and India, and a huge photo gallery.

In the small hours of this morning UK time Australia hammered Namibia at the T20 World Cup, a victory that ensures their progress to the next stage of the competition. England have Oman and Namibia to play and need to win both games, while Australia’s match against Scotland could decide which of England and Scotland qualify if England manage that. This post looks at the possibilities in more detail.

THE NET RUN RATE SITUATION

If England and Scotland both end on five points the fact that the match between the two was a washout means that it if Australia as would be expected beat Scotland (I would NEVER advocate that a side actually seek to lose a match – Brian Rose as Somerset skipper in the late 1970s was quite rightly hammered for doing exactly that to exploit a badly thought through qualifying system) it will be a matter of the margin by which they do so. While deliberately losing would clearly be wrong, if Australia find themselves chasing and know that completing the chase within a certain number of overs means England get through rather than Scotland then they would be perfectly justified in ensuring they take long enough over the chase to let Scotland qualify – I would expect England to do the same if they had Australia’s fate in their own hands. Also I would say that no one could object to Australia choosing to rest some of their big names for this match. Deliberately setting out to lose the match would be unacceptable, but deciding that one does not need to strain every nerve and sinew when one has already qualified is another matter entirely.

USA v INDIA SO FAR

Today’s match is between the United States of America and India. The USA need a win from either this match or their final match against Ireland to be sure of qualifying. USA were restricted to 110-8 from their 20 overs, with Arshdeep Singh recording figures of 4-0-9-4 for India. However, Saurabh Netravalkar, himself born in India before moving to the USA, has shaken things up early in the Indian innings – he got Virat Kohli for a golden duck, and has just added the wicket of Indian skipper Rohit Sharma. As I type this India are 13-2 in the fourth over, and have work to do.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

inter-species ci0operation – the magpie is performing cleaning services for the muntjac (on the grassland outside my front window)
A cranefly meeting point.

A Sunday Morning Walk

An account of this morning’s walk, a tool for you to use for estimating the extent to which Liz Truss is deluded given the rubbish she spouted to the Sunday Telegraph and the photographs from the walk.

Just a short post today, describing a walk I took this morning.

CHOOSING THE ROUTE

In view of the fact that I will be heading into town for an early supper and intend to set forth in daylight I decided to pick a route that would not overlap with this afternoon’s in any form. I also like to avoid main roads as I have mentioned before (Columbia Way, though it is quite substantial, does not get heavy traffic at any time for the simple reason that is not really on the way to anywhere). Thus I decided to concentrate on Lynn Sport Park and the Gaywood River Path.

THE WALK IN DETAIL

I started out following Columbia Way until I reached Green Park Avenue, which I followed until I got to the start of the footpath that I followed to the edge of Lynn Sport Park. I then diverged onto a minor road that leads to a point near the scout hut. I then followed a rough but walkable path to the scout hut before turning back. I now followed the road alongside the Gaywood River until the point that the river curves away and the road crosses it on a bridge. From there I visited Gaywood Library just in case they had something worth reading. I emerged with four library books in my bag and then headed back across the bridge, before following Swan Lane along the bank of the Gaywood to the start of the Gaywood River Path, which I followed until the path to the Discovery Centre diverged from it. I then headed to Columbia Way, recrossed it and approached my home from the opposite side of the green space in front it that I had used on the way out.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off starts with a bonus feature. Disgraced former Prime Minister Liz Truss was on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph today (many people were having their say about this on social media) demonstrating that she has clearly got a Decree Nisi if not a Decree Absolute from reality. Describing the economic establishment as ‘left wing’ demonstrates that she is beyond barking, but how far beyond I leave up to you (use the map below – I did not feel the District line offered sufficient scope) to decided just where she is in relation to barking:

Barking is in the red circle, and all points east count as ‘beyond Barking’ – where do you put Truss on this map?

Now time for my regular photographs…

A Session With Tapping House’s Physio

An account of yesterday’s very successful meeting with a physio from Tapping House.

INTRODUCTION

Louise Gent, physio at Tapping House Hospice, came to visit yesterday as planned. First of all I showed her my flat and demonstrated things like how I get in and out of bed and down to and back up from the toilet. She has arranged to get me a new piece of equipment for the toilet – a combination of  a frame and raised seat because she noticed that to get up I had to put both hands on the metal grip to generate sufficient leverage. 

This led on to discussions about…

THE FUTURE

Louise’s opinion having seen me in action was that my basic mobility is not too bad but that because of the fall I took at the weekend I lack confidence, which is entirely accurate as far I am concerned.

I will be attending regular sessions at Tapping House starting fairly soon. They provide transport for people, so this gets me out of the bungalow as well as helping to rebuild confidence and fitness without overstretching family or friends by needing someone to take me to Hillington where they are based. 

Tapping House have made it abundantly clear that they will do all that they can to help me, and I in turn will do my absolute best to benefit from their help, for which I am very grateful.

PHOTOGRAPH

Just one pic today – while I was watching the world go by from by bungalow a magpie was doing likewise from a perch near the top of a tree that is fully visible through my living room window…

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A Vote and A Day at Work

An account of a vote, a bus journey anbd a day at work.

INTRODUCTION

I am going to cover today’s events in chronological order…

THE VOTE

The easy way to make sure that you get something done is to do it early. Therefore I set off early from my flat so as to call in at the polling station before heading to catch my bus. My vote duly cast (Remain just in case anyone did not already know my intentions) I had more time than I needed to get to the bus station so I walked by a scenic route bagging a few photos along the way…

The polling station, with a couple of voters on their way in.

HEADING TO WORK

The bus arrived in good time, and the journey went without a hitch, helped along from my perspective by the non-stop action taking place in “The Great Zoo of China” (I borrowed the hardback earlier, see here for more details).

DZ

Just over two full pages which give an idea as to just how things are going to go horrifically wrong!

WORK

Not many photos from today as not much stuff was actually ready to be imaged, so I brought the database up to date. Here are images of the few lots that were ready for me…

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