100 Cricketers – The Eighth XI Bowlers and Introducing the Ninth XI

The latest in my “100 cricketers” series, featuring the bowlers from the eighth XI and introducing the ninth XI in batting order. Also contains an important link and some photograp;hs.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest in my “100 cricketers” series. This post features the bowlers from my eighth XI and introduces the ninth XI in batting order. The introductory post to the series can be found here, the post in which I Introduce the eighth XI is here and the most recent post in the series is here. Before I get to the main meat of my post it is time for a quick…

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE

There has been play in all matches today, and the current situations as I type are:

Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire – Nottinghamshire 408 and 160-2, Yorkshire 291
Nottinghamshire are in the box seat in this one – their plan should be to score as many as they can in the final session of today and give themselves a full day to bowl Yorkshire out again. Chris Nash is current;ly 60 not out and Joe Clarke following his first innings ton has 28 not out, while Ben Coad and Duanne Olivier have a wicket a piece. Stuart Broad, Luke Fletcher and Samit Patel each bagged three Yorkshire wickets.
Hampshire v Essex – Hampshire 525-8 declared, Essex 164 and 15-1
Only bad weather (of which there has been some in this game) can now deny Hampshire, especially given that Adam Wheater did not bat in the Essex first dig, and woiuld presumably only do so in the second if there is a serious chance to save the match. Sir Alastair Cook made exactly 50 in the Essex first innings, but had little support. Nick Browne has already had his second failure of the match, and Cook and Tom Westley are currently batting together. West Indian quick Fidel Edwards picked up a five-wicket haul in the Essex first innings.
Somerset v Kent – Somerset 171 and 53-4, Kent 209
After a poor batting effort yesterday Somerset needed to bowl Kent out quickly today, and did a fairly decent job of doing so, Lewis Gregory and Craig Overton (who already has some England experience) each taking three wickets. However, they are struggling once again with the bat, with Tom Abell once again digging in but finding little support. Somerset somehow need to conjure up another 200 runs from somewhere to give themselves a serious chance.
Derbyshire v Durham – Derbyshire 197 and 308-8, Durham 171
Derbyshire have taken control of this one, with wicketkeeper-batter Hosein contributing his second fifty of the match, and Tom Lace scoring 62 as well. Matt Critchley, a bits and pieces player who would appear from his record to not be quite good enough in either department made 51. A 19 year old slow left arm orthodox bowler, Liam Trevaskis, has taken one of the wickets – and April is not usually a great month for slow bowlers, so I am going to take a punt and say “watch this space”.
Northamptonshire v Middlesex – Northamptonshire 445, Middlesex 271 and 45-2
My congratulations to Northamptonshire on enforcing the follow-on even though they only just had the requisite lead – many teams would have taken the cowards option of batting again, but as far I am concerned going for the quick kill is the right thing to do. They may yet be baulked by the weather, which his halted this game for the moment. Nathan Buck took five wickets in the first Middlesex innings, and also has both the second innings wicket to fall so far. James Harris with 61 not out was the only Middlesex batter to make a major contribution.
Sussex v Leicestershire – Sussex 173 and 308, Leicestershire 252 and 99-1
If the rain eases off (play is currently suspended there as well) it would seem that Leicestershire have a fairly straightforward route to victory – 131 with nine wickets in hand should not be too difficult. In the second Sussex innings Tom Taylor picked up four wickets, giving him ten in the match, while Colin Ackerman, a South African who is mainly a batter picked up five. Paul Horton has 53 not out for Leicestershire.

Now to the main business of the post, starting with…

THE FAST BOWLERS

In addition to Richard Hadlee, featured in my previous post in this series I have two other quicks, and of those I see one as third seamer, and one sharing the new ball with Hadlee. I will start with Hadlee’s new ball partner…

TERRY ALDERMAN

The only bowler to have taken 40 or more wickets in a test series on two separate occasions (both in England, 42 in 1981 in a losing cause and 41 in 1989 in a winning one). He is also unique in my 100 cricketers, in being the only one of my selections to have been on a rebel tour to South Africa. In general, since I reckon that players who participated in such tours should have been banned for life I have refused to include them, but Alderman would have been worth a pick purely for his 1981 efforts, so I have made am exception for him. He took a longish run-up, but was no more than medium-fast in pace. However, he was exceedingly accurate, and in English conditions he swung it significantly. Had he been available for the 1985 Ashes (he was banned for his South African excursion) it is likely that Shane Warne would not have been the first take 100 test wickets in a country other than his own, and that series would almost certainly have been much closer than it was.

STUART BROAD

The third seamer in this XI, he is second in the all-time list of England test wicket takers behind James Anderson. He, Alderman and Hadlee are three different types of pace bowler, which gives this XIs attack lots of variety, especially when one factors in…

THE SLOW BOWLERS

I have two of these in the XI, plus Chanderpaul’s occasional legspin (see this post for more details). I will start with the offspinner…

GRAEME SWANN

255 test wickets at 29.96 (he also averaged 22 with the bat by the way) from 60 matches is a fine record. Even on occasions when he did not take many wickets, such as Australia 2010-11, he bowled economically – and his 15 wickets at 39.80 in that series looks magnificent when put alongside the truly beastly combined analysis of 5-666 recorded in the same series by Australia’s spinners. Among England slow bowlers only Derek Underwood took more test wickets. Swann was a genuine spinner who gave the ball a real rip. We finish our eighth XI with a slow left-armer…

LINSEY SMITH

She has recently turned 24, and her international experience is limited to eight T20Is, but her record in those stands at 11 wickets at 15.09 a piece, with a best of 3-18. England Women are currently very well stocked with young spin bowlers (there are at least four aged 24 or younger who have shown signs of serious skill), but she should continue to get opportunities, and is definitely young enough to still be improving.

INTRODUCING THE NINTH XI

Here is my ninth XI in batting order:

I will be tackling this XI in a slightly different way from they way I have tackled previous XIs due to the nature of some of my picks. Also shrewd observers will have noted that 9 x 11 = 99, and I have called this series “100 cricketers”. I am not prone to basic mathematical howlers, and I will be finishing the series with a stand alone post about a cricketer who completed quite a few hundreds in their playing days – if you fancy a guessing game see if you can identify the mystery 100th player.

A LINK AND SOME PHOTOGRAPHS

Before my usual sign-off I include a link to a piece in whyevolutionistrue titled “A 43 million-year-old transitional form: an amphibious whale” – I have included a picture from the piece as an appetiser:

100 Cricketers – The Eighth XI Allrounders

The latest addition to my “100 cricketers” series, featuring the all-rounders in my eighth XI. Also includes some of my photographs.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my “100 cricketers” series, with the spotlight on the allrounders from the eighth XI. The introductory post to the whole series can be seen here, the post in which I introduce the eighth XI can be seen here and the most recent post in the series is here. Before I get into the main meat of the post it is time for…

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE

All matches are now underway, Somerset v Kent having finally started at 1:10PM today. Here is a match by match update:

Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire – Nottinghamshire 408, Yorkshire 136-2
Joe Clarke reached the first championship hundred of the new season yesterday, but not go on long today, being out for 112. Duanne Olivier, Yorkshire’s somewhat controversial new signing collected five wickets and Stephen Patterson four. Adam Lyth is on 70 not out for the tykes.
Hampshire v Essex – Hampshired 525-8 declared, Essex 24-1
Only bad light yesterday evening prevented Sam Northeast from being the first to three figures in this years championship, and today he went to 169. There were solid contributions all the way down the Hampshire order, and no Essex bowler distinguished themselves. For Essex Nick Browne is already out, but Sir Alastair Cook is still there, in the company of Tom Westley. The sole wicket has gone to West Indian fast bowler Fidel Edwards.
Somerset v Kent – Somerset 147-8
Somerset have struggled badly in this delayed match, with only Tom Abell (49) doing anything remotely significant with the bat. 24 year-old Matt Milnes who has struggled for first-team opportunities thus far in his career has 3-36 (prior to this match he was paying almost 43 a piece for his wickets) , while veteran ex-Yorkshire seamer Mitchell Claydon has 4-30.
Derbyshire v Durham – Derbyshire 197 and 45-2, Durham 171
Two promising young bowlers, Ben Raine and James Weighell took three wickets each in the Derbyshire first innings, a 28-year old who has played little first-class cricket by the name of Luis Reece bagged five in the Durham reply, and Raine and Matt Salisbury, a 25 year-old who has done little previously to suggest stellar quality have each picked up a wicket in the Derbyshire second innings.
Northampstonshire v Middlesex – Northamptonshire 445, Middlesex 79-3
No centuries in the big Northamptonshire total, just solid contributions all the way down the order. Ireland star Tim Murtagh took 6-80 for Middlesex, while former and possibly future England quick Steven Finn bagged three. The top three in the Middlesex order have been dislodged, two to West Indian all-rounder Jason Holder and one to Nathan Buck, a 27-year old seamer who has pulled up few trees in his career.
Sussex v Leicestershire – Sussex 173 and 140-2, Leciestershire 252
At one point it looked like Sussex may have a first innings lead, but stout lower-middle order resistance led by wicket-keeper Hill (67) and also featuring Harry Dearden (40) and Tom Taylor who had already taken six cheap wickets (33) reversed this. Ollie Robinson finished with 4-46. For Sussex in their second innings Philip Salt made 80, but has just recently lost his wicket. Maybe if he can go on and make some centuries he could claim on opening spot for England (there are vacancies at the top of the England order as I have pointed out in previous posts, including this one where I make a radical suggestion). Now to the main business of the post starting with…

+ANDREW FLOWER

63 Test matches for Zimbabwe brought him 4,794 runs at 51.94, with a best of 232 not out, and 151 catches and nine stumpings. For most of those 63 matches he was carrying a very weak batting line-up and captaining as well as keeping wicket. His international playing career ended when he joine Henry Olonga in a protest against ‘the death of democracy’ in Zimbabwe, the two players turning up in symbolic black armbands. He went on to become one of the world’s leading coaches, guiding England to number one in the world test rankings. He and his brother Grant hold the test record for the highest partnership between a pair of brothers.

He played county cricket for Essex, which is where he first encountered Alastair Cook who subsequently flourished when he was England coach.

RICHARD HADLEE

86 Test matches yielded him 3,124 runs at 27.16 and 431 wickets (all-time record back in the day) at 22.29. The West Indies lost one series in the whole decade of the 1980s – to New Zealand spearheaded by Hadlee. Hadlee also starred in New Zealand’s first series victories over England (in NZ in 1983-4 and in England in 1986), and took 34 wickets in the three match series that saw their first triumph over Australia. In 1984, for Nottinghamshire who her served as overseas player for many years, he achieved one of only two season doubles of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in English first-class cricket since the reduction of first-class cricket in 1969 (the other was by Franklyn Stephenson in 1990). With the season now reduced to a mere 14 games it will take someone extraordinary to achieve the feat now (although W G Grace scored over 1,000 runs and took over 100 wickets in his last 11 first-class fixtures of the 1874 season and George Hirst topped 2,000 runs and 200 wickets in 28 matches in 1906), although one should never be over-dogmatic about stating that something is impossible. The performance that made him favourite to complete his coveted double in 1984 was against Middlesex when he scored a career best 210 not out to take his season’s aggregate up to 880, and thereafter it was never in any great doubt. He subsequently wrote an account of that season titled “At The Double” (yes, I have read it, although I do not own a copy – I had it out of the library once).

Richard Hadlee was a quite magnificent bowler and a useful lower-middle order batter, and in this XI he is part of a varied and strong bowling attack. Next in this series the spotlight is on the specialist bowlers from this XI and the ninth XI is introduced in batting order.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I conclude this post in my usual fashion.

100 Cricketers – Eighth XI Numbers 3, 4 and 5

The latest in my “100 cricketers” series, also marking the start of the new County Championship season.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest in my “100 cricketers series“, featuring numbers 3,4 and 5 from the eighth XI. The introductory post to the series can be found here, the post in which I introduce the eighth XI can be seen here and the most recent post in the series here. Before I get to the main meat of the post there is something else to cover…

A NEW COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

Yes, today is the start of County Championship season 2019. The first day between Somerset and Kent has been abandoned without a ball being bowled. All the other scheduled matches are in progress. The situation as I start this post is as follows:

Yorkshire v Nottinghamshire – Nottinghamshire 204-3
Yorkshire paying more attention to the early April date than to the weather or the pitch took advantage of the playing condition allowing visiting sides to avoid the toss if they wanted to put their opponents in and so far it has not been working for them. Ben Slater made a fine 76 for Nottinghamshire, Ben Duckett played well for 43 but gave it away when well set and Joe Clarke is on 40 not out. Ben Coad, an England prospect as a bowler, has been economical but has yet to take a wicket.
Hampshire v Essex – Hampshire 192-3
Another uncontested toss not working very well for the fielding side. Ex-england batter James Vince made 40 at the top of the Hampshire order, South African Aidan Markram scored 63, while Sam Northeast and South African Kolpak player Rilee Rossouw are currently going well on 37 and 35 respectively. Kiwi Matthew Quinn had taken two of the wickets for Essex.
Derbyshire v Durham – Derbyshire 156-6
Derbyshire won the toss and chose to bat. Only wicket keeper Harvey Hosein, currently on 57 not out has fared well with the bat (England are so well stocked with keeper-batters at present that he would need to do something sensational to even enter the selectors thoughts), while Chris Rushworth and Ben Raine have taken two wickets each (at 32 the former is surely too old to be called up now, but Raine might be considered.
Northamptonshire v Middlesex — Northamptonshire 182-4
A third uncontested toss, and it looks suspiciously like 0 for 3 on automatically fielding first thus far. Alex Wakely made 76, wicketkeeper cum opening batter Ricardo Vasconcelos 38, and Rob Keogh is 37 not out. All four wickets have been claimed by Ireland’s Tim Murtagh.
Sussex v Leicestershire – Sussex 173 all out, Leicestershire 30-2
First up, a warning about reading too much in to seam bowler’s efforts in early April: most of the damage in the Sussex innings was done by Tom Taylor (6-47), who prior today had a very pedestrian looking record of 76 wickets at 32.80 from 27 matches. Three of the other four wickets went to 32 year-old journeyman Chris Wright. The two Leicestershire wickets have fallen to Ollie Robinson (who came into this match with 165 wickets at 23.92 in first-class cricket – stats that suggest a quality performer) and Mir Hamza, a Pakistani left-arm medium pacer who takes his first-class wickets at an eye-popping 18.34 a piece.

The other matches taking place at the moment involve university sides, and I question whether such games should be awarded first-class status and certainly pay them no attention when considering potential England picks. Now to the main business of the post, starting with…

*MICHAEL VAUGHAN

Vaughan the batter had his finest hours against India at home in 2002 and then against Australia away in 2002-3, scoring six centuries (three against each opponent) in that period, the lowest of which finished at 148. He only made one major batting contribution to his greatest captaincy triumph, the 2005 Ashes, 166 at Manchester in the third test match, which finished with Australia clinging on nine down in their second innings. For people who traditionally despised draws (to quote Australian born Somerset captain of yesteryear Sammy Woods “draws are for bathing in”) their celebrations at having escaped were something to behold, and a sure sign of the destiny of that series.

DILIP VENGSARKAR

At Lords in 1986 he scored 126 not out, his third century in successive Lord’s test matches. Then in a match at Headingley in which no other batter could manage even one fifty plus score, and England only just topped the 100 in both innings he contributed 61 and 102. Making runs in difficult conditions is particularly impressive, and especially given that Indian batters have by and large tended to struggle away from the subcontinent. These performances briefly had him rated the number one batter in the world.

SHIVNARINE CHANDERPAUL

164 test matches yielded him 11,867 runs at 43.11. His leg-spin bowling was hardly used (a grand total of nine wickets at that level). A wide-open stance and very ugly looking method did not stop him from making stacks of runs or from serious crease occupation – most of the current test records relating to long periods of survival stand to his credit. He spent a large part of his career as a cricketing equivalent of Casabianca, standing on the burning deck of the West Indies innings.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Tied in Taunton

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.

Cricket, Music and Local Elections

Some cricket, some music including references to the Classic FM Hall of Fame, some stuff about upcoming local elections and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

An odd combination of topics to appear in a title, but all will be made clear in the course of this post. There will of course be some of my photographs as well.

CRICKET

The English cricket season is well underway. Because of an alteration to the structure of the two divisions of first class counties last season to a first division of eight teams and a second division of ten teams, it is now possible for all 18 first class counties to be in action simultaneously, as was not the case when there were nine teams in each division. Over this Easter weekend, for the first time since 1999 (the last season of the single division championship) all 18 of said sides have been in action. Glamorgan lost heavily to Worcestershire before today was underway. Leicestershire had also suffered an innings defeat at the hands of Gloucestershire. Essex and Somerset also finished early, a century from Alastair Cook anchoring Essex in their fourth innings chase of 255. Warwickshire only kept their match against Yorkshire alive into the fourth day because of some assistance from the weather, and having started the season with back to back innings defeats, and three shocking batting performances out of four innings, they must be considered heavy favourites for one of the relegation spots from division 1. Of the five remaining matches, Nottinghamshire are nearly done and dusted against Durham (since I wrote this Nottinghamshire have completed the job as expected, with nine wickets in hand), and it would also seem to be only a matter of time before Kent finish the job against Sussex (this match has also subsequently reached its predicted conclusion). A draw looks the most likely result in the Surrey versus Lancashire, although Surrey are not out of the woods yet. Hampshire and Middlesex also looks like being a draw, although again the Londoners are not quite safe yet. That leaves only…

DERBYSHIRE VERSUS NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

Overnight this also looked like a draw was the most likely result, with Derbyshire 128 runs to the good with 10 second winnings standing. However, some behind the scenes discussions obviously took place, since Northamptonshire spent the morning session of today feeding Derbyshire easy runs, handing Reece (168) and Godleman (156 not out) a new record opening stand for Derbyshire. A declaration at 351-1 left Northamptonshire two sessions to score 326 for victory. Whatever happens in these two session neither team will emerge from this match with much credit in my book. While Northamptonshire’s motivation was obvious, Derbyshire could easily have declined the offer, backing their batsmen to score off proper bowling.

MUSIC

The long Easter weekend is when the Classic FM Hall of Fame is unveiled. It is assembled from listener votes. Each participant votes for their first, second and third favourite pieces of classical music, and the votes are all tallied up. The Hall of Fame comprises the top 300 pieces that emerge at the end of the process, and they are played counting down from 300 to 1 between 10AM and 10PM on each day of the weekend (it used when it first started to be 9AM to 9PM). This is the first occasion on which there has been a clash between the Hall of Fame and live cricket. I have resolved that clash by listening to the cricket when it has been on five live sports extra, and to the music at other times. The only exception to this was on Saturday afternoon, when it was time for…

MUSICAL KEYS

A shortage of available NAS West Norfolk Committee members meant that I was there for both sessions. The attendances were unsurprisingly low in both sessions. However, those who were able to make it had a good time. In the second session I renewed my acquaintanceship with Scratch 2, and next time I shall be moving on to another aspect of this program. Here are some pictures…

Kirsten, one of the two people from Musical Keys who run these sessions, at a very impressive looking keyboard.

MK8 — I shall be adding some mathematics to the mix in two weeks time.

LOCAL ELECTIONS

Various places in the UK will be going to the polls on May 4th. Last time I mentioned this subject I said that I was between Labour and Green, and leaning towards Green. Since then, although I have yet to receive anything from any candidates a search of the King’s Lynn & West Norfolk borough council website turned up the following information about who was standing:

In view of the fact that there are three candidates in this list of four for whom I am absolutely unwilling to vote and that I regard failing to vote as unacceptable my vote will therefore go to Mr Collis, and I urge others who are voting in this election to cast their votes for Mr Collis as well.

Moving on from my own area, there also elections taking place much more extensively in Wales and Scotland.

WALES

In Llanbadarn Fawr ward, Powys, the Labour Party candidate is none other than Mike Sivier of Vox Political, a fact which he announced in a post titled “Vote for Mike in the local elections!”

– Vox Political’s Mike Sivier is standing as a Labour Party candidate for Powys County Council’s Llanbadarn Fawr ward – and there’s more to him than a nice smile [Image: Mike Sivier].

Today, Mike has put up another post about his candidacy under the title “Shadow cabinet minister is right – local elections are about CANDIDATES, not Corbyn“.

SCOTLAND

The big debate in Scotland at the moment is over whether or not there should be a second independence referendum (#IndyRef2) following the UK’s decision to withdraw from the EU, when Scotland was strongly pro-remain. It is not for me as a Sassenach to comment on whether or not Scottish independence is desirable since the only people who should be making decisions about the future of Scotland are the Scots, but I do believe that brexit is a sufficiently major change in circumstances as justify #IndyRef2, especially since one of the main claims of the no camp in 2014 was that an independent Scotland would not be able to join the EU. It would appear, if the article to which I link at the end of this section is anything to go on that the Tories seek to make the local elections in Scotland a sort of ‘pre-referendum’. Anyway, here courtesy of the website indyref2.scot, is a post that goes into detail on the issue, titled “Sending a message“.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I posted some photographs in the music section of this post, and I finish the post with some pictures mainly from outside…

ENDNOTE – CRICKET REVISITED

During the time it took to put the above photos up both Middlesex & Hampshire and Surrey & Lancashire have shaken hands on the predicted draws. These means that only the ‘declaration bowling’ game between Derbyshire and Northamptonshire is still to be settled.

Championships and Contrivances

Some thoughts on the closing stages of this years County Championship, as it goes into its final day with three potential winners.

INTRODUCTION

Somerset are within touching distance of their first ever County Cricket Championship, but the situation is complicated by the fact that their only two rivals are in direct opposition.

THE CURRENT STATE OF PLAY

Courtesy of cricinfo, here is the situation in the key matches:

The situation is that a draw in the Middlesex v Yorkshire game is not enough for either side – the five points they would each gain from that would still leave them adrift of Somerset. Tomorrow is the last day of the match, which means that time constraints are well and truly in play. Clearly, with a draw rendered worthless by the situation both sides will do all in their power to win the game, which leads given time limitations to the question of just what would be acceptable in the way of a third innings declaration by Middlesex. It is possible that Yorkshire could win the match in the most satisfactory way, by taking the remaining eight Middlesex wickets early enough to give themselves an easy fourth innings target. For Middlesex the question would be how much risk could they take in setting a target bearing in mind that they have to have a legitimate chance of taking 10 wickets to do so?

ACCEPTABLE VS UNACCEPTABLE

Given that Middlesex are still 39 runs behind, unless Yorkshire deliberately concede runs to hasten a declaration (which would certainly cause raised eyebrows in Taunton) it is unlikely that Middlesex would be in a position to consider a declaration much before teatime. My own rough and ready view is that if come the tea break tomorrow Middlesex have a lead of somewhere in the region of 170 that in the circumstances would be an acceptable risk – Yorkshire would have to go for the target, and an asking rate of approximately 5.5 an over with no fielding restrictions would introduce enough risks that Middlesex could hope for the 10 wickets they need. A declaration giving Yorkshire 120 or so to chase in that final session would definitely (albeit actuated by very different motives) be verging on ‘Cronje’ territory, and almost regardless of when it was made, a declaration giving a target of under 100 should be considered as out and out match fixing.

Although I have indicated previously that as an underdog supporter I would like to see Somerset win, the key thing here is that any victory for Middlesex or Yorkshire should be seen to have been won out on the field, and not in the dressing rooms.

Side By Side

Some musings on the county championship (cricket), and an acknowledgement of King’s Lynn’s latest effort to advertise its heritage.

INTRODUCTION

I am posting about two unrelated matters, hence the title, which is borrowed from a series of Bridge Magazine articles written many years ago by Terence Reese. The firs topic of the day is…

CRICKET

As another English season draws to a close there are two topics to cover in this section, first of all…

A THREE WAY TUSSLE FOR THE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

Thanks to Somerset continuing their late charge with a 10 wicket victory over Yorkshire, and Lancashire earning a draw against leaders Middlesex the final round of games will commence with Middlesex, Somerset and Yorkshire in that order all in contention for the title. Owing to the fact that a decision to alter the structure of the two divisions has meant that there is only one promotion place up for grabs the second division is now settled, with Essex having secured the promotion.

In the final round of matches Middlesex will play Yorkshire at Lord’s, while Somerset face already relegated Nottinghamshire. While my chief emotion as a cricket fan is gratitude that the championship race is going down to the wire, I cannot claim complete impartiality – despite having grown up in London and possessing a Yorkshire surname, it is my support for the underdog that wins out in this contest – I will be rooting for Somerset. Somerset have never won the championship (Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire are also in this position, although the latter were named as champion county three times in the 1870s, before the official start of the county championship in 1890). Apart from being a historic first, a championship win for Somerset this year would also be a fitting reward for Marcus Trescothick as he approaches the end of a long and distinguished career with the county.

The change in the structure of the two divisions mentioned earlier, moving from nine teams in each to eight in first and ten in the second, is not the most significant one happening in English domestic cricket, that distinction going to…

THE INTRODUCTION OF CITY FRANCHISES

Yes, it has been decided by a vote of 16-3 in favour to augment the existing domestic T20 competition with an eight-team city based competition. I am not going to say either yea or nay at this stage, waiting to see how it works in practice before making a judgement. I mark the break between this section and the second section of the post with some recent photographs from King’s Lynn…

dscn5392 — This is the uncropped version of a butterfly picture

butterfly-close-up — And this is the cropped version.

A CODA TO HERITAGE OPEN DAY

Beales Department Store which is near thus bus station in King’s Lynn has recently closed down. Rather than leave the frontage as blank windows, it has been used as an opportunity to advertise our town’s heritage, as shown below…

	amsutcliffebtinterne… on All Time XIs – Detective…
	All Time XIs –… on The Museum Detectives
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on The Museum Detectives
	Thomas on England Just About Hanging…
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on England Just About Hanging…