Tag: Ruddy Darter

England in Command at Lord’s

A look at what is happening in the test match at Lord’s when the rain relents enough for anything to be happening, and a photo gallery.

The second test match of a three match series between the England and Pakistan men’s teams is in progress at Lord’s. Today is the third day, and even with some quite significant disruption by the weather it is against the odds that this game will reach day five. This post looks at what has happened so far.

DAY ONE

I had expected to miss pretty much the whole of day one due to work, but weather interruptions meant that I got to hear some of it once I was home from work. England reached 248-9 in difficult conditions, which looked pretty respectable especially given the known frailty of the Pakistan batting.

DAY TWO

Yesterday began with the last England pair, Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue, batting entertainingly. They advanced the score by 42 at pretty much a run a minute before Atkinson was last out for 45. Imam-ul-Haq had picked up a calf strain, and somewhat surprisingly did not bat at all. With the exception of Azan Awais, who fought hard, and got into the 40s, no one batted at all well for Pakistan in the face of some excellent England bowling. Ollie Robinson was almost unhittably accurate, recording figures of 13-6-11-4, while Jofra Archer bowled with lightning speed to record 11.2.-1-26-3. Josh Tongue picked up a couple of wickets, while Atkinson was wicketless. Pakistan had managed a beggarly 110 all out giving England a first innings lead of 180. By the close England were 81-3, 261 ahead, and the match already looked beyond Pakistan’s reach.

TODAY

Rain against disrupted things, and it was not until 2:20PM that play that could underway. Emilio Gay, unbeaten on 30 overnight, got an unplayable ball from Mohammad Abbas – it shot straight along the ground to pin him LBW. Abbas has since then added the wickets of Brook for 34, and Jamie Smith for 7, but Lawrence is batting well on 37, and Atkinson has just started his innings, on 7 not out, with a nice four off Abbas. England are 162-6, a lead of 342 overall, and certainly more than they are likely to need. England will be hoping there aren’t too many more interruptions, while Pakistan need something Noachian to save them. As I type rain has just intervened again.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I saw this dead fish in the pond nearest to my house.
A ruddy darter
A ‘hornet hoverfly’.
A painted lady
A close up of a ruddy darter

A Comprehensive Win for Somerset

A look back at the portion of Somerset v Essex that I was able to follow after the test match concluded so early, and a photo gallery.

Today is the final day of a round of county championship fixtures. With the test match at Headingley between England and Pakistan failing to go the distance (see here) I have been focussing instead on Somerset v Essex at Taunton.

AN INTERESTING DECISION

I started to follow this match when Somerset, having produced a mighty first innings score, were bowling Essex out cheaply in their first innings. As always when such a possibility arises there was speculation over whether or not the follow-on should be enforced. I felt, as did veteran Somerset commentator Anthony Gibson, that they should do so. I thought their best chance of winning was to bowl Essex out again, and I did not think that Essex with a deficit of 311 to overturn were remotely likely to be able build a winning lead and have time to bowl Somerset out a second time. In the event Somerset themselves also reckoned that putting Essex back in was the right thing to do.

A HUGE PARTNERSHIP

Essex lost their third wicket at 127, still 184 short of avoiding the innings defeat. At that point Charlie Allison and Matt Critchley joined forces for what proved to be a very long partnership. At the close of day three Essex were 314-3, three runs ahead overall, with the pair still in occupation. Although Essex had done superbly to get into that position I still felt only two results were on, a draw if Essex kept batting well and a win if they did not. In the event Jack Leach had a magnificent morning for Somerset, gaining the reward that his hard graft through the Essex innings had earned him. By lunch he had figures of 53-21-77-5, four of those wickets in the morning session. Essex were 394-7, 83 ahead, and their best remaining hope was Simon Harmer, mainly an off spinner but also a very useful lower order batter.

THE CLOSING STAGES

Leach, the hero of the fourth morning, left the field injured early in the afternoon, but young off spinner Archie Vaughan claimed the last three wickets, clean bowling Shane Snater, having Harmer inside edge one into the stumps for another ‘bowled’ in the scorebook and finally pinning Porter, a genuine number 11 (FC batting average 6.39) LBW to end the Essex second innings on 412, a lead of 101. Smaller totals than that have been defended over the years – way back in the 1930s Essex themselves once defended 54, bowling Yorkshire out for 33, to give just one example, but Essex would need to strike hard and early to win. They got one thing right, giving Harmer, their best hope on this fourth day pitch, the new ball. However their field setting for their star off spinner was awry – the fielder on the boundary square of the wicket on the offside was wasted, since they could only come into play if Harmer bowled short, which he was never likely to do. Harmer himself should probably have insisted on that fielder being deployed elsewhere. Somerset started the chase very brightly, having 50 on the board before the end of the seventh over. Harmer did pick up the wickets of Josh Thomas for 31 and Lewis Goldsworthy for 6 but Kiwi international Henry Nicholls ensured that there would be no nonsense, scoring an unbeaten 18 and staying with Tom Lammonby (39 not out) while the winning runs were scored. Scorecard here. This very impressive win means that Somerset are now third in the table behind Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

You will need to look close due to excellence of the camouflage, but there is a small green creature on the leaf.
A Little Egret with its wings fully spread out in flight, low over the Nar outfall.
The Egret, now wading in the water of the Nar Outfall.
Possibly a Ruddy Darter or possibly some other species of damsel or dragonfly perched on a big green leaf overlooking the Gaywood river.

All Time XIs – Duplicated Initials

An all time XI of players whose first two initials are identical and a large photo gallery.

In this post I create an XI of players who each have two forenames that begin with the same letter of the alphabet. While CCC ‘Box’ Case (Somerset) did not do enough to qualify there is one completely alliterative player in the team. I have shown due regard for team balance, and as you will see a few serious players missed out.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Tamsin Tilley Beaumont (England Women, right handed opening batter). Tammy Beaumont as she is better known is an outstanding opening batter. Her double century in this year’s Women’s Ashes saw her join the club of players to have scored centuries in all three international formats. Also as a result of that innings she has 40+ averages in both Tests and ODIs.
  2. Conrad Cleophas Hunte (West Indies, right handed opening batter). His impressive test record looks better still when considered in light of the fact that he was never part of a settled opening pair.
  3. Ramnaresh Ronnie Sarwan (West Indies, right handed batter). Averaged 40 in test cricket at a time when WI as a whole were struggling.
  4. Walter William Read (England, right handed batter). An aggressive stroke maker, and good enough to be only the second English batter after WG Grace to score a first class triple century. He also had a test century, a remarkable 117, scored from number 10 in the order, with William Scotton stonewalling at the other end.
  5. *Warwick Windridge Armstrong (Australia, right handed batter, leg spinner, captain). In test cricket he scored 2,863 runs at 38.68 and took 87 wickets at 33.59, while at first class level his figures were 16,158 runs at 46.83 and 832 wickets at 19.71. He also averaged a catch a match in the field in spite of his considerable bulk. Added to this he was a shrewd and ruthless skipper, the first ever to lead a side to victory in every match of a five match series (the 1920-1 Ashes).
  6. Robert Richard Relf (Sussex, right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). He was originally picked for his bowling, but an innings of 210* (he would add two further FC double centuries to that before the end of his career) as nightwatch earned him a permanent move up the order and his bowling took second place thereafter. His best innings bowling was 8-79. He never earned an England call up, but he did once score 73 for the Players against the Gentlemen.
  7. +Cyril Clairmonte Depeiaza (wicket keeper, right handed batter). He preferred his middle name Clairmonte to his first name Cyril. He had one of cricket’s more interesting nicknames, based on that surname “Leaning Tower”. His career was very brief, but his only FC century came in a test match (as part of a seventh wicket stand of 347 with Denis Atkinson, who made 219), and he averaged over two dismissal per game at that level (7 catches and four stumpings in five appearances), while he made 40 dismissals in his total FC career of 16 matches.
  8. George Gibson Macaulay (England, off spinner, right handed batter). Only eight test appearances, which yielded him 24 wickets at 27.58, and 112 runs at 18.66 with an HS of 76. In FC cricket he took 1,837 wickets at 17.65 with a best of 8-21 and scored 6,055 runs at 18.07 with an HS of 125* (one of three FC centuries). When he first came to the Yorkshire nets he bowled fast but he acted on advice from George Hirst to slow his pace and develop spin instead.
  9. Wesley Winfield Hall (West Indies, right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter). A great and lion hearted fast bowler.
  10. John James Ferris (Australia, England, left arm swing bowler, left handed lower order batter). Nine tests, one of them a game on a privately organized tour of South Africa elevated to test status in retrospect (his “England” appearance) yielded him 61 wickets at 12.70 each, while his 198 FC matches, including a spell at Gloucestershire, yielded 812 wickets at 17.54.
  11. Jasprit Jasbirsingh Bumrah (right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter. One of the best contemporary pacers in the game, currently coming back from an injury layoff. He has already done enough to secure his place, including claiming membership in the select club of visiting pacers to have terrorized the Aussies on their own pitches (his test best came there, 6-27 at the MCG in 2018).

This side has a well equipped though not sensational batting line up, and a wonderful bowling attack. Bumrah, Hall and Ferris to bowl pace, swing and seam, with Relf as fourth seamer if needed, and a spin pairing of Macaulay and Armstrong, with the latter to captain them amounts to serious riches in that department. In other words this side is a bit like 1930s Yorkshire or 1950s Surrey – the batters will more than likely score enough for the bowling unit to capture 20 wickets.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I have already mentioned the overall grand champion of alliterative initials, CCC ‘Box’ Case, and the fact that his record falls just short. Two early Aussie openers, HH Massie and JJ Lyons might have had Beaumont’s slot, though in each case the sample size is small. Both had one things going for them – they were very attacking in approach, which would make them a good contrast to Hunte. A side picked for limited overs would feature Moeen Munir Ali (England), attacking batter and useful off spinner, but his long form record does not justify selecting him, especially with Macaulay, a far superior off spinner, inked in for a slot. At least three classy pace options had to be overlooked – WW Davis and WW Daniel (both WI) and JJ Bridges (Somerset, 685 wickets at 25.71 in FC cricket). Readers may well have their own suggestions.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off – it has been unpleasant for much of today, but I got out early enough that I caught only the warning signs of unpleasantness to come, in the form of an ominously stiffening wind…

I am reasonably confident that this (two pics – next one a little closer up) is a Ruddy Darter.