A look at Surrey v Gloucestershire, a mathematical teaser, an article and some photographs.
Although I am giving some details from a cricket match and have used that as my title this is not exclusively a cricket article. I also wish to take the opportunity to welcome any new readers who may come to the site as a result of an article about me in the Lynn News, a screenshot of which is the feature image of this post. Also, I am going off on holiday later today, to northern Scotland (I will be travelling on an overnight train for some of the journey), and posting may be limited for the next eight days for that reason.
SURREY V GLOUCESTERSHIRE
This match has seen some dramatic swings in the just over four sessions it has been going for. At 105-1 Surrey looked in control, at 183-5 the pendulum had swung towards Gloucestershire, and by the close yesterday at 285-5 it was evenly poised. Hashim Amla, the former South African international, had a ton to his name by the close and Jamie Overton at n07 reached 50 off the final ball of the day. Overton fell to the first ball of the morning, which brought Sean Abbott to the crease. Gloucestershire then made a very odd call, seeking to keep Amla off strike to attack Abbott who is a decent lower order batter and had been sent in ahead of someone with 10,000 FC career runs to his name. This backfired horribly, Abbott making 40 out of a stand of 61. His dismissal at 346 brought Rikki Clarke (he of the 10,000 FC runs) to the crease, and at the moment he and Amla are still together. The score is now 385-7, with Amla closing in on 150. To come are the two specialist spinners, Virdi and Moriarty. Gloucestershire have been excellent thus far this season, but it is hard to see any way for them to win this game from here.
A MATHEMATICAL TEASER
I regularly feature problems I have encountered on the website http://www.brilliant.org here, sometimes adapated, and I do so again today:
A small additional question: can you identify the four mathematicians after whom Carl, Leonhard, Emmy and Sophie are named (answers to both parts of this question in my next post).
PHOTOGRAPHS
I always include photographs in my blog posts, and I have some for you now:
A look at the action thus far one day one of round three of the county championship plus some photographs.
In this post I look at the first morning’s action in round three of this year’s County Championship. My particular focus is on the London derby, but commentaries on all games can be accessed by visiting www.bbc.co.uk/cricket and clicking on the live county cricket button and then selecting your commentary from the available list. Youtube and the county websites are making live streams available to watch free of charge, and extra detail can be obtained from www.cricinfo.com.
MIIDDLESEX V SURREY
I missed the start of play due to being out walking, but I witnessed most of the action, including all the wickets. Middlesex won the toss and put Surrey in to bat. They have included leg spinning all rounder Luke Hollman, who I look forward to hearing in action, but it has been all seam so far. Tim Murtagh, now 39, took a couple of early wickets, and the ‘Sunbury Shotgun’ aka Toby Roland-Jones (he hails from Sunbury and is double barrelled) dislodged Pope and Foakes with good deliveries. Stoneman produced a gritty performance, batting through at one end, and Jamie Smith was also unbeaten had lunch but had played a trifle streakily, including being on the receiving end of a “wasted on thee lad” moment when a delivery from Martin Andersson beat everything on its way through to the keeper. Since lunch Surrey have moved on to 103-4, and although they were ahead of the action at lunch Middlesex’s advantage was not huge – three down would have been a minimum morning’s work after putting the opposition in, so they were only one wicket better than par.
ELSEWHERE
Scores and brief mentions of noteworthy elements from elsewhere:
Sussex v Yorkshire: Yorkshire are 125-5, with keeper Jonathan Tattersall and Dom Bess, apparently reinventing himself as a genuine all rounder, batting together. Left arm pacer George Garton, who may be an outside shot for an England place, has three wickets, while Hunt and Rawlins each have one. The only Yorkshire batter to have reached 20 thus far is Adam Lyth who made 42.
Worcestershire v Nottinghamshire: Worcestershire 131-0, Libby 63, Mitchell 53 and 15 extras. No signs here of Nottinghamshire ending their long winless streak.
Warwickshire v Essex: Essex are batting first and have reached 88-3. Nick Brown on 21 and Paul Walter on 11 are the not out batters, while Sir Alastair Cook hooked a six earlier today. Former Gloucestershire medium pacer Craig Miles has two of the wickets.
Northamptonshire v Glamorgan: Glamorgan are batting first and have reached 117-4. Chris Cooke and Kiran Carlson, who is coming off the back of twin tons, are the current batters. Parnell and Berg have two wickets a piece, while David Lloyd scored 65.
Durham v Derbyshire: Durham are 94-2, Bedingham 54 not out and Lees 37 not out. Samuel Conners has both the wickets.
Kent v Lancashire: Lancashire are batting first and have reached 80-2, Luke Wells on 45 and Josh Bohannon on 14. The wickets have been claimed by Matt Milnes and Darren Stevens. It is a very long shot even with Stokes and Woakes both absent, but if selected Stevens would be England’s second oldest ever debutant after Southerton who played the inaugural test match at the age of 49.
Hampshire v Gloucestershire: The two teams with 100% records. Hampshire are 79-1, with Ian Holland, born in the USA and raised in Australia, 43 not out. Ryan Higgins has been very economical, bowling eight overs for 11, while the wicket has been claimed by Dom Goodman.
Leicestershire v Somerset: The home side, who have twice conceded scores of over 600 this season are batting and are currently 83-5. Hassan Azad scored 36, and new overseas player Marcus Harris 19. Lewis Gregory, another England possible, has two of the wickets, while Overton, de Lange and skipper Abell each have one. Azad’s 36 was enough to keep his average above 46 – his FC stats are now 2083 runs at 46.29, and in view of the lack of scoring by other contenders for an England opener’s slot he must be considered as well and truly in the frame.
While I was putting the above together Surrey have lost two further wickets, Smith and the adhesive Stoneman, one each to Murtagh and Roland-Jones, giving those worthies three scalps a piece in a score of 107-6. Jordan Clark has just gone to make it 107-7, and Murtagh has a fourth wicket. Rikki Clarke is the not out batter, and Reece Topley has just joined him.
A look at goings on in the County Championship, with particular reference to Somerset and Gloucestershire.
This post looks at the action in the County Championship with particular reference to the game I am following, but a brief mention of some significant events in one of the other matches.
SOMERSET’S SECOND INNINGS WOES
Somerset took a slender first innings lead (three runs), as they took the last two Gloucetsershire wickets early this morning. However, they quickly lost nos 1,2,3 and 5 in the order to plummet to 37-4 in their second innings. The two most experienced members of the line up, James Hildreth and Steven Davies are currently together and have advanced the score to 55-4 as I write. Ryan Higgins, a crafty right arm medium pacer who is also a good middle order batter has 2-13 from seven overs in this innings. He currently has 1802 FC runs at 34.00 and 133 wickets at 21.37, from 39 matches, and though there are valid concerns about his pace at international level he may yet get his England chance. If Woakes’ IPL commitments prevent a return to England for the NZ test series then Higgins might be an option at no7 if England want to play five front line bowlers.
For Somerset’s top order there are several issues: Tom Banton is not looking, or at present scoring, like a natural opening batter and Tom Lammonby who started this season with 459 FC runs at 51.00 and three centuries has amassed five runs in four innings (including a pair in this game), meaning that his record now stands at 464 runs at an average of 35.69. It would be as premature to rule him out of future England consideration as it was premature of those who advocated his elevation on the strength of a good showing in six first class matches, but he has work to do to convince people that his good start at FC level wasn’t a flash in the pan. Only Abell of the three Toms at the top of the Somerset order has any current form to talk about. As I typed this last section Steven Davies has gone to make it 68-5, with Overton joining Hildreth.
NEWS FROM LONDON
Down at The Oval Surrey are in a commanding position against Leicestershire. Leicestershire scored 375 first up, but Surrey in reply are 391-4. Ollie Pope, looking to shore up his claim to a middle order slot in the England line up, is 172 not out, Ben Foakes has also made good runs, sharing a stand of 229 with Pope, and Jamie Smith who will don the gauntlets for Surrey if the England selectors do the right thing and select Foakes as their keeper is 32 not out.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Surrey have moved on past 400, and in the game I am listening to, that man Higgins has snagged a third wicket by clean bowling Overton to make it 71-6 and bring Gregory to the crease, Higgins 3-18. Now it is time for my usual sign off…
This is neither bee nor wasp – it is a species of fly which has evolved to mimic wasps.
An ‘accepting extra walking’ post focussing on Hampton Court Palace, an answer to mathematical teaser I set on Saturday and lots of photographs.
Before I get into my latest ‘accepting extra walking’ post, I need to stress something. At the moment very few places are actually open, and travelling for leisure purposes is just not on. People wanting to put some of these ideas into action will need to keep an eye on the changing situation, and make sure that it is safe to do so before making the attempt.
HAMPTON COURT PALACE AS CENTRE OF A DAY OUT
Hampton Court Palace (I use the full designation because there is a Hampton Court in King’s Lynn and I also know of one in Worcestershire, and the palace, originally built for Cardinal Wolsey when he was at the zenith of his power is the parvenu of the three) is served by its own station, just across the river Thames from the palace itself, the terminus of a suburban railway that runs out from Waterloo via Wimbledon and Surbiton. Other stations within easy walking distance for starting your return journey are Teddington, Hampton Wick, Hampton and Kingston. More ambitious walkers might consider heading on through Richmond Park, aiming for Richmond, or even walking all the way to Putney or Wimbledon – all of these longer walks I have mentioned being scenic in nature. The Richmond Park route would also offer a diversion to have a quick look at Ham House.
This corner of Surrey/ south west London would well repay a visit so long as circumstances allow. There are many ways I could do from King’s Lynn assuming it was safe to do so. The quick route would be to change at King’s Cross to the Victoria line and change at again at Vauxhall to a train bound for Hampton Court. The journey back would be similar, though if I had gone for Richmond I might well rather than use mainline railways take the District to Hammersmith and then the Hammersmith & City to King’s Cross, while if I gone hyper ambitious and walked all the way to Wimbledon I might have got a Thameslink train to King’s Cross or extended that walk by a few more minutes to South Wimbledon and got on a Northern line Bank branch train, again going direct to King’s Cross.
I conclude this section of the post with some map pictures, from my battered old A-Z and from google maps…
Hampton Court Palace and Tagg’s Island.
Map showing the area between Hampton Court and Tooting/Streatham
Hampton Court Palace and immediate surrounds.
Hampton Court Palace, Surrey and south west London, A-Z map pages, google map and satellite views.
ANSWERS TO SATURDAY’S TEASER
On Saturday I posed the following, taken from brilliant.org:
I mentioned that there had been complaints and a change of wording and asked you not just to solve the problem, but identify the complaints and decide whether said complaints were justified.
Brilliant is a mathematics website, and the question should be viewed in that light. This means that the correct container to select is the one that has nine litres of water in it. You fill the 18 litre container, top up your chosen 15 litre container and because 15-9 = 6, you now have in the 18 litre container 18 – 6 = 12 litres and are done. The complaints were based on the fact that one can measure out 12 litres with the aid of any of the four containers you are asked to choose from, but every other method requires multi step processes and wastes lots of water. Since it was being posed as a purely mathematical question the clarification that was added, specifying that the process be completed in the fewest possible number of steps was not strictly necessary, since for a mathematical question that should have been taken as read. Yes, there may well be genuine grounds for choosing any of the other options, but those grounds are not mathematical, and in any case ethical considerations should lead one in the direction of conserving water.
In view of the news of John Edrich’s death, and his role in this, the first of the All-Time XIs that I created a few months back, I am repubishing this…
Since there will be no cricket, or any other sport come to that, for a while I am going to fill the void by playing selector for a few all-time squads. Since I grew up in south London I will start with Surrey.
MY SURREY XI EXPLAINED
Jack Hobbs – more first class runs and more first class hundreds than anyone else, also still has the England record for Ashes runs – 3,636 of them, including another record, 12 centuries in those matches. He was also a more than handy bowler of medium pace and a brilliant fielder at cover point. His claim to an opening slot is unanswerable.
John Edrich – the left hander was one of three strong contenders for this slot, and both of the other two, Andrew Sandhamand Tom Hayward, actually did open the innings with Hobbs, but although I see the value of…
The second round of the Bob Willis Trophy has by and large produced another fine set of games. In this post I look at developments in these matches.
THE BOB WILLIS TROPHY
The game between Northamptonshire and Somerset ended yesterday, with Northants subsiding to a heavy defeat. Jamie Overton collected four wickets in each innings for Somerset, while 35 of Northants’ first innings tally of 67 came from Ben Curran, youngest of the three Curran brothers. None of the other matches have ended yet, the situations being:
Worcestershire v Glamorgan – Worcs made 455-8 from the 120 overs that is the maximum length of time a first innings is allowed last in this competition. Glamorgan are 305-6 after 102 overs.
Yorkshire are 135-3 in their second innings against Nottinghamshire, which gives them a lead of 44 with seven wickets to fall.
Middlesex began their second innings against Hampshire with a deficit of 44 and are now 124-3.
Leicestershire are 85 behind Derbyshire with six second innings wickets standing.
Kent and Sussex are involved in an extraordinary game at Canterbury. Sussex made 335 in the first innings, to which Kent responded with 530-1 from 120 overs, a lead of 195. There were double centuries for Jordan Cox (238 not out) and Jack Leaning (220 not out), who shared a partnership of 423 unbroken for the second wicket. Sussex are now 18-1 in their second innings. Only three higher innings totals for only one wicket have ever been recorded at first class level – 561-1 declared for Karachi Whites v Quetta, 555-1 declared for Yorkshire v Essex and 549-1 declared for Rhodesia.
Gloucestershire are 59 runs ahead of Warwickshire with seven second innings wickets standing.
Durham conceded a first innings advantage of 128 against Lancashire and have only cleared half of that off while losing seven wickets.
A great combined bowling effort from Jamie Porter (right arm medium fast) and Simon Harmer (off spin) gave Essex a first innings lead of 75 over Surrey, and Essex are currently 165-4 in their second innings. Porter now has 335 first class wickets at 24 each. The only knight of the realm currently playing first class cricket scored 42 in each Essex innings. Varun Chopra has just tossed his wicket away for 39 to make it 167-5. This brings together the long and short of current Essex cricket – Paul Walter at 6’7″ is joined by Adam Wheater who is a full foot shorter – not the biggest difference in a partnership ever seen – I have seen a picture of a discussion between batting partners Joel Garner (6’8″) and Alvin Kallicharran (5’4″), while for the ultimate ‘long and short’ of top level cricket should it happen would be a partnership between Mohammad Irfan and Poonam Yadav!
In other cricket news Jimmy Anderson has indignantly denied claims that he is considering retirement, saying that he is still targeting another tilt at the old enemy in the 2021-2 series while also acknowledging that he did not bowl well in the recently concluded test match.
A first post on the Bob Willis Trophy, a bit of mathematics and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
This post looks at the start of the competition that has been devised to replace the county championship in this pandemic hit season, play in which got underway at 11AM this morning. The second ODI between England and Ireland gets underway at the Ageas Bowl shortly.
HONOURING A LEGEND
Bob Willis, the former fast bowler who was only the second England bowler to take as many as 300 test wickets, following in the footsteps of Fred Trueman, died on December 4th 2019. When it became apparent a normal county championship would be impossible to stage it was only natural that his name should be attached to the replacement competition. Willis’ finest hour came at Headingley in 1981. He he taken no wickets in either innings, when with Australia 56-1 in their second innings needing only a further 74 for victory he was given one last chance to save his test career. Just under an hour later Australia were 75-8 and Willis had taken six wickets in as many overs (the other, the adhesive Border, had fallen to Chris Old). Dennis Lillee and Ray Bright launched a counter attack that yielded 35 runs in four overs before Lillee mistimed a drive and Gatting ran in, dived and held the catch. Alderman was dropped twice of Botham, but the first ball of Willis’ 16th over of the innings and tenth off the reel uprooted Bright’s middle stump to give England victory by 18 runs, with Willis having figures of 8-43. Willis would play on another three years, captaining the side for a period.
AN EXPERIMENT BORN OF NECESSITY
The 18 First Class counties have been split into three regions, South, Central and North. Each region will be play five rounds of matches, so that each side plays each other side in their region twice. At the end of this the two teams with the most points will play a final at Lord’s, which will be contested over five days instead of the regular four for a county fixture. Certain other changes have been made to the normal format of county games: the number of points for a draw has been increased from five to eight so that teams who suffer a lot of adverse weather will not too badly affected, a new ball will only be available at 90 overs rather than 80, the first innings for each county cannot last beyond 120 overs, and the minimum lead to be able to enforce the follow-on will be 200 rather than 150 runs. One beneficial side effect of these arrangements should be that spinners come into the game more than at present (Surrey and Middlesex, whose game I have listened to some of, are each playing two spinners, in Surrey’s case first class debutant Daniel Moriarty and England hopeful Amar Virdi, who would be the most obvious replacement for Dom Bess in the off spinner;s role). England is somewhat overburdened with bowlers who move the ball around a bit at medium pace or fractionally above and short of both genuine pace and spin. Surrey and Warwickshire were going to be experimenting with letting in spectators, but that has been prevented by the fact that Covid-19 cases are spiking upward making caution once more the order of the day.
A MEASURE OF MATHEMATICS
I have solutions to provide to the two problems I posed in my previous post, and I also have a new problem to set. My first was this one:
This was a bit of trick question. The answer is the both final shapes have the same number of faces (14 as it happens). Here is a published solution from Mahdi Raza:
The second problem I posed was this one:
The fact that the result is not allowed to be negative at any stage means that only five square numbers need be considered as possible plays for Mei – 1, 4, 9, 16 and 25. 25 + 9 = 34, which means that if either of these numbers is chosen Yuri is left with a square number and reaches 0 at the first attempt, which leaves 1, 4 and 16 as options.
Case 1: Mei plays 16. This reduces the number to 18. Yuri’s choices are now 1, 4, 9 or 16, of which 9 is instantly ruled out since it gives the game to Mei. However a choice of 16 by Yuri reduces the number to 2. Mei’s next move is forced 0 she subtracts 1, leaving 1 remaining and a win for Yuri as he also subtracts 1.
Case 2: Mei plays 4. This reduces the number to 30. All Yuri now has to do is play 25, reducing the number to 5, and whether Mei subtracts 1 or 4 she leaves a square number which Yuri thus reduces to 0 winning the game.
Case 3: Mei plays 1 which reduces the number to 33. If Yuri plays 25 that reduces the number to 8. Mei has a choice between 1 and 4, and 4 reduces the total to 4 an a win for Yuri, so she has to play 1. If Yuri now plays 4 then Mei plays 1 and Yuri has to do likewise, giving the game to Mei. Thus Yuri plays 1 reducing the number to 6, and Mei can then win the game by playing 4 and making the number 2 with Yuri to play. Thus Yuri cannot play 25 as his first response. If he plays 16 that reduces the number to 17, from which Mei cannot play 1 as that gives Yuri the game. If she plays four that reduces the number to 13, and Yuri’s forced moved of 1 reduces the number to 12, from which Mei cannot play one or nine as they immediately allow winning moves for Yuri. So she plays four, making the number now eight, and Yuri counters with a one which makes the number seven, and whether Mei plays one or four Yuri is in control because his own next move makes the number two. If she plays a nine instantly from 17 that reduces the number to eight and again Yuri is in control. Similarly 16 hands the game straight to Yuri. Thus whatever number Mei starts with Yuri has a winning response. THus, if both players play optimally Mei cannot win.
The London Cup, England’s 3rd test squad, links, a teaser and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
Just before starting work on this post I spotted that the England squad for the third test match has been selected. Therefore I will start with a look at that, before moving on to main subject.
A DISAPPOINTING SELECTION
The squad for tomorrow’s 3rd test match against the West Indies contains 14 names, as follows (see here for full details):
Joe Root (Yorkshire) Captain, James Anderson (Lancashire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Dominic Bess (Somerset), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Rory Burns (Surrey), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Zak Crawley (Kent), Sam Curran (Surrey), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Dom Sibley (Warwickshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham).
Ben Foakes, James Bracey and Dan Lawrence have all been overlooked. My choice of 11 from this 14 (like the Irishman who was asked for directions ‘Oi wouldn’t start from here’) would be in batting order: Burns, Sibley, Crawley, *Root, Stokes, +Pope, Curran, Bess, Archer, Broad, Anderson. I refuse ever to name Buttler in a suggested test XI, which from this 14 means I have to give the gloves to Pope. I think England need both their veterans Broad and Anderson, and I also want the spinner, the out and out speedster and with due respect to Woakes I opt for the extra variation provided by Curran’s left arm, gambling on him at number seven. Although I would like to accommodate both speedsters, it would mean either one of the veterans missing out or Bess coming in at number seven which is a trifle too much of a gamble on the batting even for me.
THE LONDON CUP
Surrey and Middlesex women’s sides convened at The Oval to play a T20 match for The London Cup yesterday evening, starting at 6PM. The game was available on livestream courtesy of http://www.kiaoval.com. Surrey had lost all of the previous five runnings of this event, and were without Nat Sciver, Sophia Dunkley and Bryony Smith, all up at Derby with the national squad.
Surrey bowled first, and opened with medium pace from Amy Gordon and spin purveyed by Claudie Cooper. Middlesex were saved from complete disaster by a robust innings from Cordelia Griffith who made 30, the highest individual score the game. Gayatri Gole came in at 60-5 and reached 28 not out, as Middlesex ended up recovering somewhat to 108-7 from their 20 overs.
Beth Kerins had a spell which started dreadfully – four of the six balls of her first over were rank full tosses but recovered well.
Dani Gregory, a young leg spinner with a very rapid arm action, bowled a spell in which she sent down a number of wides, but also some very good stuff, including this beauty (click link below to view), probably the best single delivery of the match.
Surrey themselves struggled with the bat, especially against Katie Wolfe, the quickest bowler on either side, and Emily Thorpe, another young spinner who looks a real prospect (she got two wickets, both clear cut LBWs, one of them Aylish Cranstone just as she was beginning to like dangerous). They too were 60-5 at low water mark, and their number 7, wicket keeper Kira Chathli, played a fine innings to rescue them. In the 18th over Chathli twice flipped deliveries over the keeper’s head for fours to get Surrey back almost up with the rate. The 19th over was bowled by Katie Wolfe, and until near the end looked like settling it for Middlesex, but then the irrepressible Chathli hit another four and six were needed off the final over. The number nine for Surrey got Chathli back on strike early in the over, and with two balls left three were required for victory. Chathli, cool as a cucumber, slotted one final boundary to take her own score to 28 not out and her side to victory with one ball remaining. Bhavika Gajipra also bowled well for Middlesex.
This was offered with multiple choice answers, but I am not going to be that generous. I will however give one hint: this is a problem about pattern recognition, not calculation.
Now it is time for my usual sign off…
This panel is on Railway Road.
A swan reflected in the water…
…and reversing it, Escher style, so that the reflected swan looks like it is the original.
My all-time Surrey XI, as I find ways to make up for the absence of live cricket.
INTRODUCTION
Since there will be no cricket, or any other sport come to that, for a while I am going to fill the void by playing selector for a few all-time squads. Since I grew up in south London I will start with Surrey.
MY SURREY XI EXPLAINED
Jack Hobbs – more first class runs and more first class hundreds than anyone else, also still has the England record for Ashes runs – 3,636 of them, including another record, 12 centuries in those matches. He was also a more than handy bowler of medium pace and a brilliant fielder at cover point. His claim to an opening slot is unanswerable.
John Edrich – the left hander was one of three strong contenders for this slot, and both of the other two, Andrew Sandhamand Tom Hayward, actually did open the innings with Hobbs, but although I see the value of picking an existing partnership, Edrich’s left handedness creates an extra problem for the fielding side to contend with, and for me that is the crucial factor.
Ken Barrington – finding big run scorers associated with Surrey is not difficult, but what sets Barrington apart (and no 3 is has natural position) is that he was even more of a heavy scorer at test level (average 58.67).
Graham Thorpe – that rara avis an English middle order batter from the 1990s with a record to boast about. A century on debut against Australia and an average in the mid 40s maintained through precisely 100 test caps tells its own story about his consistency.
Peter May – In what was an overall low scoring decade (the 1950s) he maintained a test average of 46.77, and was also highly prolific for his county.
+Alec Stewart – in spite of the fact that doing so loses some of the brilliance of Stewart the batter I name him as keeper for the sake of the balance of the side. The leading scorer of test runs in the 1990s, and a very able keeper. Given the top five he would very likely be coming in with free rein to play his strokes.
*Percy Fender – a fine all-rounder, a highly respected captain who many felt should have had the England job and precisely the right kind of person to be batting no 7 in a strong team – he holds the record (35 minutes) for the fastest century against genuinely first class bowling.#
Alec Bedser– a man who in the period immediately after World War two was not just the spearhead, but pretty much the entire spear of England’s bowling attack, and the first to take 200 wickets for England.
Jim Laker – probably the finest of all orthodox offspinners, and for Surrey he was frequently more successful away than at home (in each of seasons 1955, 1956 and 1957 this applied to name but three).
Tony Lock – the other half of the great spin pairing of the 1950s, a slow left-armer.
Tom Richardson – a fast bowler who took more wickets for Surrey than any other bowler in their history. His 1,000th first class wicket came in his 134th first class match, and his 2,000th in his 327th.
This team consists of an awesome top five, a batter-keeper at six, an all-rounder and four frontline bowlers. There are two left handers among the top batters, and the bowling contains the new ball pair of Richardson and Bedser, an offspinner, a slow left armer and a leg spinner (Fender), plus Hobbs’ medium pace if required. I have not included an overseas player, but if mandated to do so I would bring in Waqar Younis in place of Richardson.
George Lohmann (definitely in an all-time Surrey tour party as cover for Bedser), Martin Bicknell, Bill Lockwood and Alf Gover all merit consideration as bowlers, while other than the openers I could not accommodate Douglas Jardine andEric Bedser were two of the better batters to miss out. Mark Ramprakash did not come into my calculations because his record at the highest level was ordinary, and the bulk of his runs for Surrey came while they were in division 2 and not up against the strongest bowling attacks.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I am rationoing my photographs at the moment because I cannot be sure of getting opportunities to take more in the immediate future.
A quick report on an extraordinary series of happenings at Taunton, which ended with one of the rarest of all sporting results – a tied cricket match.
INTRODUCTION
Today’s extraordinary events in Taunton have almost certainly sealed the 2018 County Championship for Surrey, who already have a substantial lead at the top and are in complete command of their own match against Essex.
TWISTS AND TURNS IN TAUNTON
Lancashire were skittled for 99 in the first innings, to which Somerset replied with 192. In their second innings Lancashire reached 170, leaving Somerset an apparently straightforward task of scoring 78 to win the game. Then Somerset started losing wickets, and at 23-5 Lancashire looked favourites. A bit of a recovery followed, spearheaded by some sensible batting by Dominic Bess. Ay 75-8, needing three to win, it looked like Somerset were sneaking it, but then a ninth wicket fell. At 77 Jamie Overton played out a maiden to Graham Onions. Jack Leach then gave a catch off Keshav Maharaj, giving the South African spinner final innings figures of 7-37 (11-102 in the match) and ending the match in a tie. Genuine ties are very rare birds indeed – this is the first I have personally either heard or seen, and the last county championship game to end thus was in 2003, while only two test matches ever have, Australia v West Indies at Brisbane in 1960 and India versus Australia at Madras (now Chennai) in 1986. This was compulsive listening – I hope the US Open tennis coverage which gets underway shortly matches it for drama.
Somerset and Lancashire I salure for you for providing this spectacle, genuine commiserations to Somerset on the almost certain ending of their championship hopes for this season. Also congratulations to Surrey who have scarcely put a foot wrong in the four-day stuff all season and will deserve to see the championship pennant fluttering over The Oval next season. Vic Marks if you are due to be summarising in the test match it might be advisable to have something come up that prevents you from being there – certain of your colleagues, notably Mr Norcross, are likely to be unbearable.
aspiblog 