England Women in Euro Semis by the Barest of Margins

A look back at events in Switzerland last night, where England just got past Sweden and into the semi-finals of the women’s football European championships. Also a video, and a photo gallery.

I rarely write about football, but at the moment the women’s european championship, being defended by England, is in progress in Switzerland. Last night saw a quarter-final match between England and Sweden. This post looks back at what happened.

BEHIND, BEHIND, AHEAD

Sweden took a 2-0 lead fairly early on in proceedings, and held that lead for a decent span of time. However, England clawed their way back to equality. It was 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes. It was still 2-2 after 30 minutes of extra time. Thus it went to a penalty shoot out. Sweden had marginally the better of the early stages of this, and when their fifth penalty taker stepped up she knew that if she was successful Sweden would be through. She failed to score, which took the teams into a sudden death situation. Another miss by England, and Sweden had a second opportunity to close it out, and again they failed to take it, meaning that there would be at least two further spot kicks. England’s seventh penalty taker was veteran right back Lucy Bronze, who had scored one of their two goals in open play. She kept her head and suddenly after having seen two attempts at victory fail Sweden’s seventh penalty taker had to score to keep her side in the tournament. She sent her shot over the bar and England were through. It was rough luck for Sweden, who have made a habit of reaching quarter-finals and then not managing to go any further in that the moment that the Swedish kicker missed that final penalty was just about the only time of the entire evening that England were in front, and they had been behind for long periods. For England and their coach Sarina Wiegman it keeps the possibly of retaining the trophy (and for Wiegman, who coached her native Netherlands to success two tournaments ago a third straight success at the European Championship). Ultimately however it came down to a battle of nerves and the only non-goalie to keep a cool head in the closing stages of that shootout was Bronze.

PHOTOGRAPHS (AND VIDEO)

Before the photographs, here is the longest video I have ever filmed (just under two minutes, and it shows the train on the Lynnsport Railway being given a test run with no passengers aboard):

My usual sign off…

I have previously been guilty of mislabelling this – it is not a Cinnabar Moth, it is a six-spot Burnet Moth.

Deepti Sharma Guides India to ODI Win Over England

An account if the first ODI in a three match series between the England and India women’s teams and a large photo gallery.

The ODI series between the England and India women’s teams started today at 1PM, at the Utilita Bowl near (not in) Southampton. This series has a little extra importance as there is an ODI world cup coming up later this year, so both sides were looking to put down a marker.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Nat Sciver-Brunt was fit to play, though not to bowl, which left England with a dilemma in terms of the balance of side. In the event they solved the problem by playing a batting all rounder, Alice Davidson-Richards at number six, and five bowlers, of whom two, Charlie Dean and Sophie Ecclestone are useful batters as well. Sciver-Brunt won the toss and chose to bat.

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

England started badly with both openers, Tammy Beaumont and wicket keeper Amy Jones going cheaply. Sciver-Brunt and Lamb mounted a fightback, but then both were out in quick succession to make it 97-4, with Sophia Dunkley, on her 27th birthday, being joined by Davidson-Richards. The pair batted superbly, putting on 106 for the fifth wicket. At 203-5 England needed someone to inject some extra speed into the scoring late on, so Ecclestone was promoted ahead of Dean to number seven. Ecclestone scored 23 not out off 19 balls, and Dunkley reached 83 (92). The final ball of the innings, from Amanjot Kaur, bowled Dunkley, in keeping with my belief that there are only three acceptable outcomes to the final ball of a limited overs innings: a boundary, a wicket or at the least a run out attempt.

THE INDIAN REPLY

Kate Cross opened the bowling for England, and unfortunately she was definitely off the boil. At no stage of the innings did she ever look threatening. Lauren Bell had moments with the ball, but only one wicket fell remotely early, Mandhana edging Bell through to Jones for 28 to make it 48-1. The second wicket fell at 94 when Ecclestone got one through the previously very impressive Pratika Rawal for 36. Rawal averages in the60s in this format in her brief career so far. Eight runs later Harleen Deol suffered a dismissal that was probably in all honesty somewhat worse than ‘village’, being run out because although her bat was beyond the crease line she had failed to ground it, a truly amateurish way for a top order batter in an international line up to go. The fourth wicket, that of skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was a credit to England however. Kaur was given not out by umpire Redfern, who does not get much wrong, but even though the bowler, Dean, herself wasn’t 100% confident Sciver-Brunt sent it upstairs, and the ball tracking showed that it pitched just outside off, hit Kaur below knee level (and the Indian skipper is not a particularly tall woman) and in line with off stump, and was doing just enough to thump into middle had it not been obstructed. That was 124-4, and brought Deepti Sharma into join Jemimah Rodrigues. From here on to the end Deepti Sharma was in complete control of proceedings, never fussing or panicking. Two further wickets did fall, Rodrigues to a catch by Jones off Filer for 48 and Ghosh stumped by the proverbial country mile after charging at Dean and missing her shot, but as the end of the innings approached the required run rate tumbled. In the end number eight and medium paced bowler Amanjot Kaur, like a ham actor stealing the Oscar winner’s scene, ended proceedings by hitting the first two balls of the 49th over, bowled by Cross, for fours to win the match for India. India had won by four wickets with ten balls to spare, and Deepti Sharma’s 62 not out from 64 balls to mastermind the key stage of the chase quite rightly earned her the Player of the Match award.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

There was a little rain yesterday after a long dry spell, and it brought the snails out.

Beckenham Blast

An account of a remarkable match between Surrey and The Blaze at Beckenham in the Women’s One Day Cup, and a photo gallery.

On Wednesday the Women’s One Day Cup saw Surrey entertain The Blaze (I am not sure why they have been allowed to continue under that name while all other such names disappeared in the close season reforms to women’s domestic cricket in England and Wales) at Beckenham. This post looks back at a remarkable day.

AN UNUSUAL VENUE

Shrewd observers may have already noted that the ground at Beckenham is officially known as The Kent County Ground, making this not in actuality a Surrey home game. Beckenham is only just Kent rather than Southeast London, and I presume Kent raised no objection to the venue being used for a Surrey home game.

TWISTS AND TURNS

The Blaze batted well, though no one made a really massive score. There was a fluent 80 from Amy Jones opening the batting, 56 from Scotland all rounder Kathryn Bryce, 82 off just 67 balls from Georgia Elwiss, and a rapid 34 from Scotland wicket keeper batter Sarah Bryce. They racked up 346-9 in total, a fine score, but at Beckenham, with its flat pitch and lightning fast outfield not necessarily a winning one. Ryana McDonald-Gay was the most economical Surrey bowler with 1-53 from her ten overs. Leg spinner Dani Gregory was the most penetrative, with 3-63 from eight overs.

Surrey lost Dunkley for 20, but then Capsey played a superb innings. The problem was she did not get enough support. Danni Wyatt-Hodge scored an aggressive 43 off 40 balls, while Paige Scholfield was even more aggressive for her 37off 31 balls, 24 of those runs coming in the form of sixes. After Scholfield’s dismissal Davidson-Richards, Chathli, Franklin and Moore all went fairly cheaply (Franklin’s 17 was the best score by any of these four). At 227-7, with McDonald-Gay, definitely more bowler than batter coming in to join Capsey, and only Alexa Stonehouse and Dani Gregory, the second as close to a genuine number 11 as you will see in 21st century professional cricket still to come it looked like the Blaze had secured the points. McDonald-Gay helped Capsey to add 65 for the eighth wicket. Stonehouse also offered support, but at 307, with Surrey still 39 adrift Capsey’s great knock ended for 125. Gregory rose to the occasion and batted above her usual station, but the real revelation was Stonehouse from number 10 in the order. By the time the final over started not only were the last pair still there, they had somehow reduced the runs needed to nine. Stonehouse hit the first ball of that final over for four and the heist looked on. The next four balls saw five needed off five balls turn into two needed off one, or one for a tie (there are no ‘super overs’ in this competition, so a tie would mean a share of the points), with Gregory, the number 11, on strike. In the event Gregory managed the single that split the points, and since each side had scored 346-9 from their 50 overs. This was the highest scoring tie in the history of women’s List A cricket. I suspect that Elwiss, who had followed her 82 with the bat by taking 3-35 from seven overs and taking the catch that dismissed McDonald-Gay would have been named Player of the Match for her all round contribution, though Capsey’s innings also deserves credit. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHY

My usual sign off…

I thought this picture of three green insects on the head of a daisy was going to be my feature image…

County Championship Action

A look at happenings in the latest round of county championship matches, which got underway yesterday morning. Also a photo gallery.

This season’s sixth round of championship fixtures got underway yesterday morning. As an indication of changing times it was on May 9 1895 that WG Grace’s first class season got under way. After that late start to the season the fixtures came thick and fast, and precisely three weeks after his season had begun the good doctor notched up his 1,000th run of the campaign. This post looks at what happened yesterday.

BURNS’ BUNGLE

Surrey are taking on Warwickshire at Edgbaston. Yesterday, on a lovely sunny day, Rory Burns the Surrey skipper won the toss, and with overhead conditions suggesting that it was a time to bat and no hint of demons in the pitch he opted to put Warwickshire in to bat. Not only were wickets slow in coming (while runs were not so), both the first two, those of openers Alex Davies and Rob Yates, for 45 and 86 respectively, would have had the batters very annoyed with themselves. Davies, having started very impressively, charged down the pitch at part time off spinner Dan Lawrence, missed his stroke and was bowled. Yates, looking nailed on for a century, had an uncharacteristic swing at one from Tom Lawes and succeeded only in nicking it behind where Foakes, as ever, was unerring. Sam Hain got to 26 before he was caught by Lawrence off Clark. Then Lawrence, whose 20 overs of off spin on day one of a championship match form Exhibit A in the case against Burns’ decision to bowl first, took the only really well earned wicket of the day, producing a fine delivery to bowl Aussie all rounder Beau Webster for 15. New Zealander Tom Latham was looking utterly secure, and moved past three figures with no hint of difficult. He was joined after the dismissal of Webster by Ed Barnard, treated by his former county Worcestershire as a bowler who bats, but now at Warwickshire regarded as a genuine all rounder who is if anything more batter than bowler. This pair were still in residence at stumps, with the score 364-4, and Latham closing in on 150. They are still together as I type, just over a quarter of an hour into day two, with three runs added to the overnight total as they settle in. Ed Barnard has moved to 50 since I typed this section, Latham has passed 150 and Warwickshire are 394-4. Dan Lawrence is about to have his first bowl of day two at 11:37AM.

ELSEWHERE

The most inconsistent day yesterday was that of Sussex, who started with an opening stand of 80, then lost five wickets for one run, and six for eight runs, then recovered to post 284, with off spinner Jack Carson registering a maiden first class hundred and first class debutant James Hayes contributing an unbeaten 33 from number 11 as the tenth wicket stand yielded 73. For Glamorgan, in action against Kent at Canterbury Ben Callaway, an all rounder who bowls both off spin and left arm orthodox spin, was 91 not out, closing in on what will be his maiden first class century. He has just reached the landmark while my photo gallery was uploading. Essex, seeking to recover from a setback against Somerset (see here), are not going well against Yorkshire at Chelmsford. They bowled the visitors out for 216, a decent effort, but are currently 35-4 in reply.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This picture and the nest show the new library/ community hub;s current stage of development.

Records Galore at Lord’s

An account of yesterday’s Royal London Cup final.

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday Nottinghamshire and Surrey contested the final of the Royal London Cup at Lord’s, and it is that match that is the subject of this post. However, before I move on to the body of the post I have one other thing do…

A NEW WEB ADDRESS

I recently upgraded my package for this blog because I needed more space for photos. As part of the deal I acquired a free domain name, so for an overview of this blog you can now go to aspi.blog. This new address is considerably short than the old one.

THE ROYAL LONDON CUP FINAL

Surrey batted first and scored 297 from their 50 overs. Mark Stoneman, who must have been considered by the England selectors for the test match that starts on Thursday scored 144 not out, at that time the second highest score ever in a big Lord’s final. Many of us had hoped that he would break the record which had stood at 146 since the 1965 Gillette Cup final (a 60 overs a side match as compared to 50), not least because of the identity of the old record holder, a certain G Boycott.

The Nottinghamshire response started as though the innings was being played on two different pitches – while Alex Hales was in complete control at one end, a succession of batsmen struggled and failed at the other. When Chris Read came in at the fall of the fifth Nottinghamshire wicket Surrey were still probably just about favourites, not least because there was not a lot of batting to come (Luke Fletcher is a capable lower order batsman but Messrs Broad, Pattinson and Gurney are all very definitely picked purely as bowlers.

Read played a fine innings, while Hales blazed on into record setting territory. He set the record in emphatic style with a thumping boundary. By the time Read was out Nottinghamshire were pretty much home and dry. In the end it was Luke Fletcher who hit the winning runs, with Hales 187 not out. This is Hales’ second recent record breaking innings, as he also holds the record for an England men’s One Day International with 171 (the distinction is necessary, since the highest individual score for England in any One Day International is Charlotte Edwards’ 173 not out for the womens team).

Mention of womens cricket leads me to finish this section with another record. Chamari Atapattu of Sri Lanka scored 179 not out in a team total of 257-9 against Australia in their womens world cup match. Australia chased them down, with skipper Meg Lanning 152 not out. The key difference was that Lanning was well supported, first by Nicole Bolton with 60 and then by Ellyse Perry who was 39 not out at the end. Atapattu set two records with that innings. First, and unwanted, the highest individual score for a losing team in an ODI. Second, that 179 not out was 69% of the team’s total, also an international record. Viv Richards had scored 189 not out in a total of 272-9 against England in 1984, which is a similar percentage to Atapattu, but for no3 in the list you have to go back to March 1877 and the inaugural test match, when Charles Bannerman scored 165 out of 245 all out in Australia’s first innings (also the first innings of the match).

A FEW PHOTOGRAPHS

I always like to include photographs in my posts, so here a few to end this one:

Bawdeswell Church captured through the window of a moving bus.

The frontage of St Peter Mancroft church, which is pretty much plumb in the centre of Norwich.

A Walk and Some Links

A walk in and around King’s Lynn and a number of interesting and important links.

INTRODUCTION

I am making the walk the centrepiece of this post, with some links either side of it, starting with some general links, and then following the walk with some science and nature themed links.

SOME GENERAL LINKS

First up, Heather Hastie has produced this post titled “Betsy Devos Doesn’t Inspire Confidence in the Future of US Education”

From The Mighty comes this piece, titled “17 Things Not to Say to People on the Autism Spectrum”

Steve Rotheram has put out a call for Jeremy Hunt to end the NHS crisis. The link is here.

Courtesy of Disability News Service, here is an article about how one of Britain’s biggest bus companies is attempting to weasel out of a supreme court discrimination ruling.

THE WALK

Yesterday was bright and sunny, so I went out for a walk. The sun was shining on to the Lower Purfleet, revealing that the surface still had a thin covering of ice…

When posting about a walk in King’s Lynn I always like to showcase at least one of our historic buildings, and today I have this picture showing Hanse House and the Rathskeller with the towers of King’s Lynn Minster in the background:

There was nothing else of note until I reached the Nar outfall, where I have often observed cormorants. This time there were no cormorants, but there was a small wading bird which I had not seen before and which consultation of my bird book suggested was a Common Sandpiper…

I left the river by way of Hardings Pits, taking a couple of shots (one each way) at that moment.

Crossing the Nar on my towards the parkland I took a picture from the bridge…

Passing through the Vancouver Garden I spied a squirrel. It eluded my first attempt to photograph it, but…

I then decided to make it a long walk and headed for Lynn Sport, to then go back into town by way of Bawsey Drain. Along the way I got a shot of the railway station as seen from Tennyson Road level crossing…

At Lynnsport I stopped to photograph a decorated signpost…

The Bawsey Drain segment of the walk provided a number of pictures, including a raven and some moorhens…

bawsey-drain-2 — Unfortunately Bawsey Drain is used as a dumping ground by people who cannot be bothered to dispose of their rubbish properly.

While walking a,long John Kennedy Road I took this picture of the back of St Nicholas’ Chapel…

Right at the end of the walk I spotted a pied wagtail..

NATURE THEMED LINKS

The first link in this section is to a piece that appeared as part of WEIT’s Hili Dialogue series. The star of the series is a cat, the eponymous Hili, also known as the Princess of Poland. Hili has a staff of two, Andrej and Malgorzata and graciously permits a dog named Cyrus to share in this. The pieces always feature something about that particular date, and apparently yesterday was Penguin Awareness Day. While I do not object to a day being designated Penguin Awareness Day, surely we should be aware of them and the rest of the natural world every day. To read the piece in full, click on the graphic below which is extracted from it:

This leads neatly on to two recent pieces from Anna, the first of which is titled “This can never be wrong”, the ‘this’ being taking care of our planet. The other piece from Anna that I am sharing here is about the Save Trosa Nature campaign.

Rationalising the Universe’s latest offering is about Newton’s Laws of Motion.

WEIT get another mention, for this piece about a new species of moth which has been named after Donald Trump.

I started the ‘general links’ section of this post with a piece by Heather Hastie. I now finish the piece with another piece, the title of which, “Huge Crack in Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica Grows” is sufficient introduction. I ‘pressed’ a link to this yesterday, but it is so important that I choose to share it again.

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