Tag: Photography

Two Small Run Chases, Two Very Different Approaches

A look back at yesterday’s matches in the Women’s T20 World Cup – two small run chases, and two very different approaches from the two chasing sides. Also a photo gallery.

Although a test match got underway today between the Pakistan and England men’s sides in Multan, which I will be writing about in due course my focus for this post is yesterday in the Women’s T20 World Cup.

INDIA v PAKISTAN

Pakistan had won their first match of the tournament, India had lost theirs heavily. India bowled well and had moments in the field, though they were far from unblemished there – two easy catches went to ground. Pakistan messed up their batting order, with the captain coming in too late. In the end Pakistan left themselves with a mere 105 to defend. Surely this was time for India to stamp on the accelerator right from the start in an effort to undo some of the damage their shellacking by New Zealand had done to their net run rate. However they were consumed by caution, and in the end they completed the job with only seven balls to spare, which was not what they needed. Unless India can somehow beat Australia it now looks like the game between New Zealand and Pakistan will be a virtual play-off for a semi-final slot due to India’s poor net run rate.

SCOTLAND v WEST INDIES

Scotland never really got going at all, and in the end they failed even to reach 100, finishing their 20 overs with 99-8. West Indies did what India hadn’t earlier in the day and went hard at the chase. Qiana Joseph atoned for her horror innings in the previous game by scoring 31 off 18 balls, Deandra Dottin, in the second match of the second phase of her international career scored 28 not out off 15 balls, and Chinelle Henry hit 18 not out off 10 balls. West Indies needed only 11.4 overs to complete their task and had six wickets to spare. Joseph and Henry hit a six each along the way, and Dottin had two sixes, the second of which was the winning hit. West Indies with the boost to their net RR currently sit top of their group, though they will be displaced by whoever wins today’s match between England and South Africa.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The Women’s T20 World Cup

A look at the Women’s T20 World Cup, now underway in the United Arab Emirates, and a photo gallery.

The Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 is underway. It was due to be staged in Bangladesh but was then moved at the last minute to the United Arab Emirates, although Bangladesh are still officially tournament hosts. In this post I look at what has happened so far in the matches I have been able to follow.

THE EARLY STAGES OF THE TOURNAMENT

Australia, winners of six of the previous eight editions of this tournament, are as expected looking formidable once more. The extraordinary number of genuine all rounders they have in their squad (including the two recognized wicket keepers, who opened the batting together – Healy getting the gloves, Mooney playing as a pure batter – they had no fewer than six such players in their XI – Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath and Annabel Sutherland, all in the top seven of the batting order, and all well capable of bowling their full four overs, are the others) means that rather than struggling to cover all bases they have a positive embarrassment of riches. Effectively they were taking to the field with a team of about 15 – seven front line batters including the keeper, and eight front line bowlers – the four all rounders listed and four players chosen specifically on ground of their bowling skills.

England were fairly impressive in disposing of ‘hosts’ Bangladesh – their 118-7 from their 20 overs is the highest team total thus far recorded at Sharjah, where the pitches have been low and slow, and runs have been at a massive premium, and was enough for them to win by 26 runs. To give you an idea of the nature of the Sharjah surface, England picked four specialist spinners – Linsey Smith, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn, and Nat Sciver-Brunt’s four overs of medium pace were the only overs by anyone other than those four for them. Further commentary on this is provided by Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s innings – the recently married (hence new, hyphenated surname) opener scored 41, but even she, normally exceptionally quick scoring, was barely striking at 100.

India suffered a humiliation against New Zealand in their opening match, going down by 58 runs. They were sloppy in the field (though far from the only offenders in this regard – a shedload of catches have gone down this tournament), with at least two very easy catches going down and a good 20 runs being conceded through poor ground fielding, and very poor with the bat. They were better today against Pakistan, but again there were lapses in the field, and they were overcautious with the bat, eventually getting home with only seven balls to spare, doing little to reduce the massive negative net run rate the NZ game left them with. This is important because they also have Australia in the group which almost certainly means that the other sides are fighting over one semi-final slot. Sri Lanka have yet to grow out of their dependence on Chamari Athapaththu – once the batting all rounder fell cheaply in their opening fixture they never looked like making a contest of it. South Africa were impressive – left arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba took four cheap wickets for them, and their opening pair of skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits knocked the target off without being parted, each topping 50 in the process.

Dubai has been a better venue for cricket than Sharjah, which I am not convinced is still up to international standard, but even there the 160 that New Zealand posted against India is a massive outlier – 120 would still be respectable there, and 130 would be make the side scoring it favourites to win.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I am not sure of the correct way to dispose of an unneeded mobility scooter, but dumping it in the river (in this case The Gaywood near Kettlewell Lane) is definitely not it.

Cornwall – The Return Journey

An account of my return journey from my Cornish excursion, including a very large photo gallery.

In this post I bring the account of my Cornish sojourn to a close with an account of the return journey.

TIMING PROBLEMS

I was booked on the train leaving Plymouth at 3:15PM and had to be out of my hotel room by 10:30AM at the latest. My hope was that I could find somewhere to leave my bigger bag and spend much of the intervening time exploring Plymouth, but my hotel was not an option, being a place that did not offer full service, and Plymouth station proved not to offer that option either. Therefore I spent a long time in the vicinity of Plymouth station until I could board the train.

THE JOURNEY ITSELF

The train set off on time. My booked seat was on the wrong side of the train for the very scenic Newton Abbot – Exeter section, but the train was virtually empty, so I moved across temporarily, moving back as we arrived into Exeter St Davids (I don’t think the reservations were actually being enforced, but one can never be sure). The train arrived into Paddington as per schedule, and aside from the inevitable overcrowding my journey on the Hammersmith and City line to King’s Cross was also uneventful. The last potential problem area was Kings Cross train station where platform details are sometimes confirmed at the last minute. Fortunately on this occasion that did not happen, and I was settled in a seat near the front of the train in very good time. I was due to arrive at King’s Lynn at 9:00PM, and the train stuck to schedule. I made it back to my flat in decent time as well.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs from this day…

The dragonfly sculpture in San Sebastian Square.
The expanse of Armada Way.
It is not quite to my taste, but I can see the architectural merits of this building.
The beginning of the seaside section of the route.

Cornwall – A Stay in Plymouth

An account of a day in Plymouth, my last full day away from home on my recent excursion.

This will be the second last post about my recent visit to my parents in Cornwall (I arrived home at about 9:30PM yesterday), and deals with a period for most of which I was not in Cornwall.

CONFUSIONS OVER DATES

I had booked my train tickets, to and from Plymouth, based on the dates of my parents holiday in Crete being from the 3rd to the 17th of October. The actual dates were the 2nd to the 16th, which meant something had to be done for the final night of my time away. Originally I was going to be at the backpackers hostel on Union Street, but further changes occurred while I was at my parents place, and in the end I was booked to into Ocean Stays hotel on Citadel Road. This is not a full service hotel, and does not have a reception area, so check in has to be done online, and it also meant the necessity of speaking to someone about depositing the larger of my bags there to free me up a bit for the time before I could take possession of my room. Fortunately this was achieved fairly quickly, and by about 9:30 I was able to begin my exploration of Plymouth.

STARTING TO EXPLORE PLYMOUTH

Since The Hoe was more or less on the doorstep of my hotel I started my explorations from there. I also took in plenty of other stuff as you will see. For lunch I had a recommendation of a Turkish establishment at Derry Cross, which is at one end of Royal Parade, a wide thoroughfare which also serves as the start and end point for all Plymouth based bus routes, and which in conjunction with the even wider and entirely pedestrianized Armada Way forms a giant T that effectively defines Plymouth city centre. Armada Way is also the beginning of the route to Plymouth Railway Station, of which more in the final post in this series.

Dunya, for such is the name of the Turkish establishment in question, lived up to what I had been told. I ordered from their lunch menu – mixed olives with feta for a starter and lamb kofte for main, which with a ginger beer added in came to £16, and kept me going for the rest of that day.

For the afternoon I returned to the Hoe, and awaited details of the two codes I needed to be able to enter the hotel – a door code, and a code for the key safe in which the room key is kept between customers (these key safes are located just inside the hotel). By the time I got the two codes I was ready to turn in. My room proved to basic, but very acceptable. It had a shower, and a fridge, both fo which proved useful, but no chair, let alone a table, so I did my photo editing sat on the bed, with the computer actually living up to its official designation of lap top for once.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My photographs from Plymouth:

Cornwall – Rame Peninsular Walk

An account of walk in my parents local area, complete with photo gallery.

On Tuesday we did a walk in my parents local area. This post describes my particular walk (all of us did somewhat different things).

THE CONSTRAINTS

In order to fit in around people’s limitations (time and otherwise) both cars were being used – my mother, my sister and I were travelling in one to Rame Head where our walk would begin, while my father took the other to a different parking spot and walked towards us, meeting us part way through our walk. We would walk together to the second parking spot, my father would give my mother a lift back to Rame Head so she could take the other car into Liskeard where she had an appointment, and would then drive back along the route the my sister and I would be walking to give us the possibility of a lift back to the fort. He overtook just on the far side of the twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand from the fort, my sister chose to take the lift back, while I opted to stay walking.

THE WALK

The path from Rame Head is extremely scenic, with some wonderful sea views. Out on Rame Head there was a wind blowing, but once away from the head the path was quite sheltered, and the temperature was fairly warm. The second stage of the walk, with my sister, was all road based, but there were one or two decent views along the way. The final stage, on my own, was road based until Kingsand, then on to a path through the Edgecumbe estate up the point at which that path intersects with the road above Fort Picklecombe. The path offers some fine views and was good for walking on.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my pictures taken during the walk…

Early in the walk.
October is late in the yeat for butterflies, but they are not quite done yet.
A distant view of Fort Pickelcombe (taken from the far side of Kingsand/ Cawsand).

Cornwall – Penzance 3: The Journey Home

An account of my return journey from Penzance to Liskeard to bring the Penzance ‘series within a series’ to a conclusion.

I am writing this post from a hotel room in Plymouth where I am spending the last night of my excursion, due to a mix up over holiday dates (I booked my train tickets based on my parents flying out to Crete tomorrow, whereas they are actually doing so today). I will cover the events of today in considerable detail in a later post. Suffice it to say for the moment that I am happy with my room. For today I complete my coverage of my excursion to Penzance with an account of the return journey.

PENZANCE TO LISKEARD

While I was heading east from Penzance to Liskeard my sisters was heading westwards towards Plymouth, from where she would be picked up. In the event although my train reached Liskeard some while after hers reached Plymouth I was back at Fort Picklecombe first due to the shorter journey from Liskeard as compared to Plymouth. There were two short stoppages on my journey from Penzance to Liskeard, but overall it was a smooth run. I got some good pictures along the way.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs from the return journey…

The photos from the return journey start here.
Truro Cathedral in as much of its glory as can be captured through a train window.

Cornwall: Penzance 2 – Penzance and its Environs.

An account of my explorations of Penzance and its Environs, complete with plenty of photographs.

This is the second of three posts I shall be writing about my trip to Penzance yesterday, and deals with my time in Penzance.

EXPLORING

I began my explorations by walking along the sea front and past the harbour, before heading upwards into town. In this early part of my exploration I passed the post box which was painted gold to honour 2012 Olympic Gold medallist and Penzance native Helen Glover. I also renewed my acquaintance with the Egyptian House, a remarkable building in Penzance. After lunching in a pub I followed a different route back towards the station and the path that heads towards Marazion. This road was well chosen as it enabled me to see a statue of Penzance’s most famous son, 19th century science great Humphry Davy.

TOWARDS MARAZION

I walked along the path towards Marazion as far as a point at which there is a bridge over the railway to one side and a route down the beach on the other. I made use of both side routes, doing some photography from the bridge. I turned back at this point, deciding it was time to get a train back to Liskeard. I had enjoyed Penzance.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here is the main gallery for this post…

The Glover gold painted post box (two pics) .
The Egyptian House – many pics.
A connection from Penzance to the legendary Robert Menzies, which extends via Lady Bradman (nee Jessie Menzies, a distant relation of Robert) to Donald Bradman.

Cornwall: Penzance 1 – The Journey There

Starting a series-within-a-series about my trip to Penzance yesterday. This post deals with the train journey there.

The weather here in Cornwall is much improved from Sunday, an improvement which started yesterday afternoon, while I was visiting Penzance. This post is the first of three I shall be producing, covering Liskeard to the just before arrival in Penzance (Penzance station will feature as the starting point of the third post, about the journey back).

A COUPLE OF MINOR IRRITATIONS

My original plan had to been to catch the 10:33 out of St Germans, but unfortunately that had to be readjusted to catching the 11:12 out of Liskeard as we did not have time to get to St Germans for the earlier train. At Liskeard I joined a small queue for the ticket office (I was third in line at that stage, with two more people having joined the queue by the time the first customer had been dealt with, a mere trifle of 17 minutes later). I still had ample time after completing my purchase of a return to Penzance (fortunately the second customer in the queue was quick, as I was) to get down to the platform and take some pictures at platform level before the train came in (Liskeard has a slightly curious layout, with platforms 1 and 2 both being approached by way of a footbridge, while platform 3 which is the terminus of a minor branch line to Looe is approached by a separate footpath and is at 90 degree angle to the other two platforms).

A SMOOTH JOURNEY

The journey from Liskeard to Penzance passed smoothly, though with the usual frustrations for a photographer in motion of failed shots due to misjudging the precise moment at which to click the shutter to capture the target. I arrived into Penzance at about 12:50 and was ready for the next stage of the day, which will covered in my next post.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here is the picture gallery for this post…

The final approach to Penzance (station building at front of shot).

The Tamar Valley Line

An account of a trip on the Tamar Valley line, complete with large photo gallery.

Yesterday was the first full of my stay in Cornwall, and this post describes my main activity for that day. Today the weather is truly vile – high winds, lashings of rain and more recently to add to the mix fog as well so that the lighthouse that is usually clearly visible from my parents apartment is currently entirely shrouded from view.

A PLAN MISFIRES

I was dropped in Plymouth yesterday with a view to purchasing a Devon and Cornwall railcard (cost £12) to gain a 1/3 discount on all train fares in the region for a year. Unfortunately such a card can only be obtained if documentation relating to an address in the area can be produced and I had no such documentation. However I bought a return ticket to Gunnislake, northern terminus of the Tamar Valley Line, cost £7.90. I had over an hour before the next train to Gunnislake was departing, so filled some of the time by gaining greater familiarity with the environs of Plymouth station. Pedestrian access from the station to other areas of town comes by a way of path that leads under a roundabout. The central area of the under-roundabout path is dedicated to wild flowers and is pleasant walking. The hour of my journey arrived…

A SCENIC JOURNEY

The journey to Gunnislake could be described as a journey of two parts in two different ways:

  1. For the first small portion of line (Plymouth – St Budeaux Victoria Road)the stops are frequent and the surroundings urban, specifically a commercial port area whose best days were long in the past, before the line then becomes very rural in character and the stops become much more widely spaced.
  2. The route has a hairpin at Bere Ferrers, so that the train reverses its direction fo travel for the last three stops on the route (Bere Alston, Calstock and Gunnislake).

Also, as I failed to realize for the outbound journey the windows on the side of the train from which you board at Plymouth and at Gunnislake for the return journey offer much finer views than the other, which is why the majority of my best photos from the two train journeys were taken on the return one where I positioned myself correctly.

GUNNISLAKE

Gunnislake village is down a significant hill from Gunnislake station, and Tamar Valley is still further down (I did not venture right down into the valley). The Cornish Inn offered an acceptable pint, and also a view of what I suspect to be Gunnislake’s most intriguing resident, an African Grey Parrot named Ozzy, complete with warning notice written from his perspective.

THE RETURN JOURNEY

It was sufficiently warm that I removed my jumper while in Gunnislake. The train (a two coach crawler, and fairly basic, though less spartan than the laughably misnamed ‘sprinters’ that used to do the Sheffield to Barnsley run when I lived in that part of the world) was due to depart at 15:14, and it actually did precisely that. The return run went well, and I made up for not having had many successful pictures on the outward run as you will see. I think that if I make a second excursion on this line at some point I will book to Bere Alston, walk from there to Bere Ferrers and pick up the return train at Bere Ferrers.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures I took yesterday…

This one was taken through the window of my parentt’s apartment.
A few pictures from Plymouth Station and its immediate environs.
The Tamar Valley section of the gallery begins here.
The view from Maker Heights on the way from Plymouth to Fort Picklecombe.
The lighthouse mentioned in the introduction, taken from outside the fort yesterday.

Cornwall 2024 – The Journey There

An account of my journey from King’s Lynn to Plymouth yesterday, with a fine photo gallery.

I am in Cornwall, staying with my parents for a few days. I travelled down yesterday, and that journey will be the subject of this post.

KING’S LYNN TO LONDON

I was booked on later trains than I would have liked – leaving Lynn on the 1:42Pm and arriving into Plymouth where my parents would be meeting me at 8:13PM. I set off from my home in North Lynn an hour before the train was due to depart from King’s Lynn, and was on the platform with huge amounts of time to spare. The train suffered a couple of minor delays en route to London but I still had over 50 minutes to get from King’s Cross to Paddington. I arrived at Paddington half an hour before the train to Plymouth was due to depart, but it took a long time for the platform information to be confirmed, and I had only a few minutes to make my way to my seat by the time that happened.

PADDINGTON TO PLYMOUTH

I was on a train that was stopping at more places than usual for a journey to Plymouth – Newbury, Hungerford, Pewsey, Westbury and Castle Cary between Reading and Taunton. I got some good pictures between London and Exeter, but it was dark by the time I got to the seaside section of route between Exeter and Newton Abbot, and that meant it was hardly possible to take pictures due to the interference of reflections owing to the extreme contrast between the brightly lit train interior and the near darkness outside. The train arrived into Plymouth almost exactly as per schedule, which I understand is not a frequent occurrence with GWR long distance services. Apart from the overcrowding on the Hammersmith & City line between King’s Cross and Paddington the journey went well overall.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my pictures to go with this post…