A look at developments in the Womens T20 World Cup and a bumper photo gallery.
Since I last blogged there have been three games in the tournament: Ireland v England, South Africa v New Zealand and Australia v Bangladesh. This post looks at those matches (the first of today’s two matches, between India and West Indies is just getting underway).
IRELAND V ENGLAND
England were heavy favourites, and the match went to form. However Ireland showed a bit of fight. They were 80-2 at one stage but a collapse led to them being all out for 105. Sophia Dunkley made a brutal early assault on this small target, taking just 21 balls to reach 50. However, Ireland never completely gave up, and although England had plenty of time to spare they were six wickets down by the time they crossed the winning line.
SOUTH AFRICA V NEW ZEALAND
This was a must-win game for both sides, as each had lost their opening match of the tournament. New Zealand did reasonably well with the ball, only a fighting 40 from Chloe Tryon getting SA to 132-6 from their 20. However, for the second time in as many matches both Kiwi openers went without scoring, and it was soon 18-4. New Zealand did not improve much from this awful start, eventually being all out for 67 to lose by 65 runs. This total was nine runs fewer than the Kiwis had scraped against Australia in their first match of the tournament.
AUSTRALIA V BANGLADESH
Bangladesh could not score with any speed, although they did at least reach three figures. They bowled better than they had batted, and although defeat for Australia looked a serious possibility it take them until the 19th over to finally reach the target.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have another big haul of photographs. I plan my walking routes to to ensure that opportunities arise, and also, living as I do on the edge of a very compact town I am able to conduct almost all of my non-working life on foot, and whether I expect the opportunities to arise or not I never venture forth without at least one camera…
This picture and the two following show the Egret, this time in the vicinty of Bawsey Drain, in flight.
A post noting a new West Indies men’s test record opening partnership and looking at what this might mean for West Indies going forward. Also walk details and of a course a photo gallery.
In today’s post I look a story developing in Zimbabwe, and what it might mean for West Indies Men’s test team.
A NATIONAL RECORD OPENING STAND
Zimbabwe are not the most threatening of opponents, but as against that West Indies had to contend with regular interruptions due to the weather and the fact that overhead conditions when play was possible during the first two days certainly favoured the bowlers. Remarkably, the opening pairing of Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul were still together for the start of the third day’s play. With the score on 296 Brathwaite was dropped, and he then hit the next ball for four to bring up WI’s first ever 300 run opening stand in test cricket (also beating the previous national record of 298 by Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes in the process). The stand had reached 336 by the time Brathwaite was dismissed. England’s all time record opening stand was also achieved in southern Africa – Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook putting up 359 at Ellis Park, Johannesburg during the 1948-9 tour of South Africa. Tagenarine Chanderpaul was still there on 207* when West Indies declared at 447-6, while Brathwaite had scored 182. Zimbabwe ended the day 114-3 in reply. They can only hope to save the match, while West Indies need 17 wickets in the last two days to win it (and also for Zimbabwe’s first innings to end up at 247 or less – with so little time left WI cannot hope to win if they have to bat a second time unless it is in pursuit of a very small total, with Zimbabwe having just avoided an innings defeat).
WEST INDIES OPENING WOES
In their entire history West Indies have had two authentically great opening partnerships, Greenidge and Haynes already referred to, and the earlier combination of Allan Rae and Jeffrey Stollmeyer. Conrad Hunte, an excellent test match opener in the late 1950s and early 1960s, never had a truly reliable opening partner, and neither did Chris Gayle in the 2000s. A side who can get away to a strong start when batting have a much better chance than one that regularly loses early wickets, and while finding a reliable opening pair has been far from the only problem West Indies have had since the end of their golden era in the early 1990s it will be big news not just for them, but for cricket as a whole, if this pair prove to be the real deal (Brathwaite already has a substantial test record, but Tagenarine Chanderpaul has only played a few matches, though he has made a stellar start to his test career).
PHOTOGRAPHS
Most of the photographs in today’s gallery come from two walks, with a few in between them. Yesterday I was invited to an early supper at a flat on Purfleet Quay. By the direct route this a walk of 15-20 minutes, but I had decided to go a long way round on the way there and take the quick route home due to the fact that the latter walk would be entirely in the dark. Thus I headed by way of the two ponds near me, the stretch of the Gaywood near Kettlewell Lane, across Littleport Street, past Highgate Methodist Chapel, across another section of the Gaywood, along the only section of main road I followed during the walk down past the station to the entrance to The Walks. I headed onto St John’a Walk, then took the footpath past the Red Mount Chapel and turned onto Broad Walk, emerging onto London Road, which I crossed onto the top of Millfleet, then passing through Hillington Square and inter alia All Saints Church, the oldest in King’s Lynn. Then it was down to the river by various side roads, a quick check in at the location where the Nar joins the Great Ouse, then round the dike that overlooks old Boal Quay, and on to the Great Ouse which I followed as far as the point where the Purfleet joins it, and having crossed the bridge I then headed up Purfleet Quay to the flat.
The second walk was today, and I started by walking along Columbia Way until it meets Bawsey Drain, along which I headed towards town. I departed from Bawsey Drain via the last bridge across it before one reaches town, headed by a combination of minor roads and footpaths through to Loke Road near Loke Road Recreation Ground, from which I followed a path which leads to the Kettlewell Lane river section, and then I looped round by way of Morrison’s, before passing the Kettlewell Lane river section a second time, heading past the two ponds and thus back to my back door.
The latest in my “100 cricketers” series, featuring the opening batters from the eighth XI.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest post in my “100 cricketers” series. In this post the spotlight is on the openers from the eighth XI. The introductory post to the whole series can be found here, and the previous post in the series in whicb I introduced the eighth XI is here.
A GREAT OPENING PAIR
As with the my seventh XI, with Greenidge and Haynes, this XI features an opening pair who batted together in real life, and did mighty well as a combination. They had one poor series, the 2005 Ashes, which Australia ended up losing. In the 2001, 2002-3 and 2006-7 Ashes, all featuring this opening pair and won by Australia, the Aussies rarely started an innings badly. The 2010-11 Ashes saw Australia regularly losing the first wicket early, and with Pontingat 3 and Clarke at 4 also having shocking series with the bat a series of inadeqaute totals resulted, and England not only won the series, but on three occasions out of five they won matches in they had to bat only once. England’s own inconsistency in the test arena recently stems from not getting enough runs at the top of the order – since Strauss’ retirement England have not had a reliable opening combination, and the more recent retirement of Cook has opened another big hole at the top of the order. The second postin this series contains a radical solution of mine to this problem, meanwhile with a new county championship season under way tomorrow it would be particularly good timing were a young opener or two to hit their straps right from the start. Now on to the players themselves, starting with…
The tall, dominating left hander scored 8,625 test runs at 50.73. At Brisbane at the start of the 2002-3 series Nasser Hussain won the toss and put Australia in. By the end of day 1 they were 364-2, Matthew Hayden 197 (he would score another century in the second innings after Ponting declined to enforce the follow on), the match and series were both as good as gone. In between Brian Lara’s two efforts he held the individual scoring record for a period with an innings of 380 against Zimbabwe at the WACA. His one blip came in the first four matches of the 2005 Ashes (he made 138 at The Oval in the fifth match, but with Australia needing to win, and therefore by all logic to spend as much time out in the middle as possible, he was twice party to the team going off for bad light (by the rules of the day the batters had to be asked if they wanted to go off). The match ended in the draw the allowed England to regain The Ashes (I fully expect that the Ashes series later this summer will likewise end with England winning, though it will probably be settled before the final game).
A left-hander like his opening partner, but much shorter in stature, though no less aggressive in approach in his own way. He scored 7,696 test runs at 45.27, witrh 23 centuries and a best of 250 against England at the MCG. Like Hayden he struggled for most of the 2005 Ashes before making a century in the final match. He played in the county championship for Middlesex and Somerset, which helped him to reach 86 first class hundreds. With this pair to get the innings underway for them my eighth XI will usually have a good base for the middle order, featured in the next post in this series to build on.
An account of my recent doings at Musical Keys with a photographic interlude.
INTRODUCTION
A few sessions back at MusicalKeys, an event run for autistic people that I am a regular attender of, I switched from using Scratch to using a different package called Reaper. This Saturday just gone I reached a point at which I feel that my work on Reaper is now worth talking about. Also I have some good pictures that I can slip in as part of the back story.
SCRATCH AND REAPER
Scratch enables one to play notes on various musical instruments and also has some saved sound loops for variation. Effectively therefore Scratch enables one to play music and sounds but not really to create anything beyond the framework within which to do so. Reaper is both less and more – less in that it has no versions of musical instruments, more in that is really all about combining different recorded sounds into a larger whole, and therefore has much more of a creative element to it.
BEFORE SATURDAY’S SESSION
I had spent one session assessing the available sound segments, working out which ones I liked and which of those combined well together, and a second session combining shorter segments into longer ones by putting together segments that would or could naturally flow together, but at the start of Saturday what I actually had was a set of useful components that I could start to think about assembling into proper length pieces…
INTERLUDE – WALK TO THE SCOUT HUT
I had decided to lengthen my walk to the venue by taking in a stretch of the Great Ouse before rejoining the regular walking route to Gaywood by way of Seven Sisters and the Vancouver Garden, and a quick sampling of the air outside my flat convinced me of the need to don an extra jumper – it was cold, as some of the photos will make very plain. I had also allowed myself time for a visit to Gaywood library, since I would naturally pass very close to it. It may have been cold, but the birds were out in force, especially near the Great Ouse.
Leaving the river by way of Hardings Pits I headed for the South Gate and thence Seven Sisters and the parkland areas…
Among other things the walk through the parkland provided me with absolute proof of how cold it was – gulls walking on water.
DECEMBER 9TH AT MUSICAL KEYS
John, who usually supervises the sessions was not feeling well, so having driven the equipment over he spent the afternoon sat in his car, while his assistant Kirsten took charge of the sessions.
Once I had opened up Reaper, checked and adjusted the speaker volume (at least 99% of the time it is set too loud for me and I have to reduce it, often considerably – on this occasion it had been set to 70% of full volume and I reduced that to 35%) it was time to put my plan of exploring options for combining various elements to make a larger whole into practice. Before moving on here is a photo I took at the end of the session.
The piece that I called Organ and Strings was one of three background sounds that I used in the bigger pieces, the others being the drum and brass backgrounds. “Ensemble” and “Composite” as those names suggest were medium sized components, while “Horizontal” and “All in” were the two large scale components that I combined to make the final full size pieces. The two big pieces (12 and 16 minutes long respectively) were comprised of “Horizontal”-“All-in”‘-“Horizontal” and “Horizontal”-“All-in”-“Horizontal”-“All-in” respectively. By the time I had listened to the 16 minute piece at the end it was pretty much the end of the session. The next session is on January 6th and I shall work out some way to build on what I have already created.
Answers to a query of mine and to a puzzle that I set, accompanied by some photos.
INTRODUCTION
This little post features answers to two problems and at the end a few photos.
BIG AVIAN FIND
A couple of hours ago I put up a post featuring some large water birds that were new to me. Since then two people in the comments section (Cindy and Vicki) have suggested Muscovy Ducks as a possibility, and my twitter friends @team4nature have made a similar though more detailed suggestion.
This level of consensus is sufficient for me – these are Muscovy ducks, possibly domesticated and possibly crossed with some other breed (possibilities raised by @team4nature). Here to conclude this section is the feature image from the previous post:
SUPERPRIME RESOLVED
I offered up this problem from brilliant last night:
This is my own solution, posted as such on brilliant, and reflecting mu frustration at the sheer number of people commenting based on failure to fully read the terms of the question:
A post for “Earth Day”, which argues that every day should be Earth Day. Read, enjoy and please share.
INTRODUCTION
Today is “Earth Day”, and it is all well and good to name it so, but the truth is that we should by now be capable of realising that every day should be considered to be Earth Day. This post is therefore dedicated to “Earth Day” but also to realising the inadequacy of “Earth Day”. There is a parallel here with the various “Autism Awareness” days, weeks and months (yes there is one of each) and their unfitness for purpose which I written about elsewhere. All of my own text in this post will be in green because it is about nature. Links where they appear will be in bold and underlined.
INTRODUCTION TO “EARTH DAY” COURTESY OF LIVESCIENCE.COM
Four days ago I came across this excellent post about the development of “Earth Day” on livescience.com. It is simply titled “Earth Day: Facts & History“, and it is an excellent read. The screenshot below will serve as an aperitif:
A MESSAGE FROM SWEDEN
Five days ago Annaput a post sharing a poster created by one of her friends under the title “Power listen to the voice of nature“. Anna’s message in that post is simple and compelling. Below is her friend’s poster which inspired it:
Poster by Margareta Arnedotter Jansson
A THUNDERCLAP
This one is for those of you who are on any of facebook, twitter and/ or tumblr. I have shared it before, and on its final day I do so once again. It is titled “Birds Join Bees this Earth Day“, and focuses on the damage pesticides are doing to pollinators.
A GCSE IN NATURAL HISTORY
I consider this to be an excellent idea. Once again this is something that I have shared previously, and with eleven days to go until the deadline on this petition I do so again, considering it perfect subject matter for “Earth Day”. Pleasesign and share if you are UK citizens and have not already done so – let’s use today to get this past 10,000 signatures!
THE NETHERLANDS STEAM AHEAD WITH TRAINS POWERED BY GREEN ENERGY
ALL trains in The Netherlands are now powered by wind generated (i.e renewable) electricity. For more and a video (also embedded below) please click here.
CYCLISTS NOW HAVE THEIR OWN VERSION OF THE ‘BECK MAP’
Since he gained permission from his employers to unveil it to a wider public in 1931 Henry C Beck’s schematic diagram of the London Underground network, known colloquially as the “Beck Map” has taken the world by storm and become the template for public transport maps across the globe. Now, in it’s home city a Beck style map has been produced for the benefits of cyclists. There is a detailed article about this on indy100.comfeaturing this map, which is reproduced below for your benefit:
EVERY DAY SHOULD BE EARTH DAY
We need to appreciate nature and the Earth every day of our lives. One day per year is most emphatically not enough. We also need to remember to very important things:
1. There is no “Planet B” at this moment – if we turn this planet into somewhere completely inhospitable to Homo sapiens we have nowhere else to go.
2. Following on from that first point we need to always bear in mind that we need Earth more than Earth needs us.
To finish this post, save for a few of my own photographs I turn again to Anna, and a piece of artwork I have shared before which she created based on comment that I made on one of her blog posts:
These pictures of items that will be going under the hammer on the 22nd,, 23rd and 24th of May at James and Sons.
I travelled on this railway in my childhood, too many years ago to mention.
This picture, reminding us of where we and everything else on earth comes from seems an appropriate one to end the post.
Links an important petition and an important thunderclap. A couple of other nature related links, a classic nature related meme and some of my own photographs.
INTRODUCTION
A couple of big things to do with nature came to my attention today and I have decided to share them with you. In addition to the two major links there will be some of my own thoughts, a nod in the direction of New Zealand and some appropriate photographs of my own. As you will have noticed by now, the text in this post is green, and that is because it is a post entirely dedicated to nature. Links in the text will in bold and underlined, while images relating to other posts will also be formatted as links.
THOUGHTS ON NATURE
My own interest in the natural world and concern for nature are both lifelong. I literally cannot remember a time when these attributes were not part of me. Although I grew up in London I had a common practically on my doorstep, lots of natural history books, and of course being in London meant I was within easy travelling distance of the museums at South Kensington. In my childhood the Geological and Natural History museums were two separate entities, though they have long since been amalgamated into one museum, the Natural History Museum. Therefore you can imagine my reaction when I saw something on twitter about…
A GCSE IN NATURAL HISTORY
A petition on the official site created for petitions addressed to the UK parliament to create a Natural History GCSE has been launched. This means that it is only open to those among my readers who are UK citizens to sign, which I regret, but you can still view this petition (there is a screenshot below to whet the appetite) even if you are not a UK citizens. UK citizens please sign and share.
My next major link is to a…
THUNDERCLAP
To be part of a thunderclap you have to be on some form of social media (facebook, twitter or tumblr to be precise). This particular thunderclap is about the importance of pollinators and the fact that scientists have established that birds as well as bees are pesticide victims. If you are able to add your voice to this thunderclapplease do so. Below is a screenshot for further clarification.
Yes, this thunderclap is well ahead of target, as it should be, but just as the importance of pollinators cannot be overstated, so this thunderclap cannot ever be said to be over-supported.
A COUPLE OF FURTHER LINKS
Miles King over at anewnatureblog has today produced a splendid piece titled “Time to rename Defra the Ministry of Agriculture and Fieldsports” in which he reveals the extent to which our government is failing in its duties as regards the environment. Below is a screenshot of the section of the post dealing with the downright dishonourable Andrea Leadsom by way of introduction.
Now it is time for…
A NOD TO NEW ZEALAND
Jerry Coyne, author of the books “Why Evolution Is True” and “Faith Versus Fact”, and who also runs a blognamed after the first of those books is currently in New Zealand, and it is from there that this wonderful picture (click on it to view it in its original econiche) comes:
It is nearly time for some of my own photos, taken yesterday and today, but for the penultimate section of the post I share once again…
Some thoughts on autism and ableism, and some links relating to the same, topped off with some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
I have a few links to share, and of course some photos will be included, but this post starts with some of my own thoughts before I start sharing links. I have decided that all of my own text in this post will be #RedInstead as it is themed so much around Autism. Links will be underlined and in bold, and any images from other blogs will also serve as links to the posts from which they were taken (these blogs will also have a text link).
THE LINK BETWEEN AUTISM & ABLEISM
I am #ActuallyAutistic and have experienced mental health issues over the years. Do I consider myself disabled? The short answer to that question is no. However I do consider that the way in which neurotypical society views my condition (please note condition, not disorder) does disable me. To give just one example of this, 74% of all autistic adults in the UK, my country, are unemployed, and that percentage rises to 85% when underemployment is factored in. I am in the 26% who are actually in paid employment but not the 15%. These statistics are shameful ones (if they differ significantly in your part of the world feel free to comment further). They are based on the pathologizing of autism and indeed a more general societal pathologizing of difference. Anyone who has seen at work can confirm that I am more than capable of being a useful employee (indeed I cannot be considered as other than essential to my current employer).
Therefore, although I do not identify myself as disabled as I do identify myself as sharing some of the problems experienced by people with disabilities.
ABLEISM
I start the sharing sections of this post with the latest in Erin Human’s series of posts about ableism. The piece is titled “What causes ableism?”, and I offer you the infographic/ meme which heads it as an aperitif:
Next, courtesy ofdisabledgo comes what can only be described as a ‘good news with a massive asterisk’ story. West Yorkshire Police have confirmed that they are willing to launch criminal investigations into bus drivers who refuse to allow wheelchair bound passengers on to their vehicles without good cause. The massive asterisk of course is twofold: the fact that this has to be rated a good news story at all rather than being standard, and following on from that the fact that other police forces do not as yet appear to have made the same commitment. The full piece appears under the title “Police force pledges to investigate bus drivers who ignore access laws” and I urge you to read it in full.
AUTISM
There are a total of four links in this section, with the opener and closer both courtesy of thesilentwaveblog. The opening link is titled “Yeah I’m walking for autism“, and it is her response to yet another campaign to raise funds for purposes that are quite clearly at variance with the actual needs of autistic people. She also her explains how she uses walking. I urge to you to read the full piece, and present the picture that heads it for your further edification.
My penultimate link is to a post on No Stereotypes Here titled “Words are Words“, and taking the form of an open letter to the organisation targetted in the graphic above. I present this site’s header image below.
My final link is to thesilentwaveblog’s most recent offering, which tackles the subject of eye contact, under the title ‘“Look me in the eye.” (No.)‘, and below is the image which heads it.
aspiblog 