Tag: West Norfolk Autism Group

Dharamsala Debacle

A look back at the test match in Dharamsala and at the India v England series as a whole, and a composite XI for the series. Also a huge photo gallery.

The final test match of the India v England series at Dharamsala ended earlier today after barely half the allotted playing time, with India winning by an innings and 64 runs to take the series 4-1. This post looks back at the match (I missed two major chunks of play – on day one because it was a work day and on day two because the West Norfolk Autism Group had a committee meeting, but still got enough of the action to have a decent idea of what went on) and at the series, including naming a composite XI for the series.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Ollie Robinson’s injury forced one change on England, and they opted to recall Mark Wood rather than give Gus Atkinson a game, a mistake IMO, but one that had zero effect on the outcome. This meant that Jonathan Bairstow became without doubt the least deserving ever recipient of 100 test caps. India dropped Patidar (I choose to consider the official line about getting an ankle injury during training to be absolute BS) and brought in Devdutt Paddikal for a test debut, while Bumrah returned after a one match rest. England won the toss and opted to bat first on a flat looking pitch.

DAY ONE

England started well, with Crawley playing nicely and Duckett helping to push the score into the 60s before the first wicket fell. Pope never looked at home and was out to the daftest dismissal of the series, when he gave Kuldeep Yadav the charge, playing for spin that wasn’t there and walking straight past the ball to be stumped by a ridiculous margin. Root and Crawley took the score to 134 before Crawley’s innings ended for 79. Bairstow and Root had taken things to 175-3 but then came an epic collapse, and moments later the score read 183-8. Foakes, left for the second successive innings to attempt to shepherd Bashir and Anderson, did enough that England reached 218, still an obviously inadequate total. I missed most of the start of the Indian innings, but they ended day 1 on 135-1, Jaiswal having gone after taking his series aggregate to 712 runs.

DAY TWO

Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill batted superbly and India were in to the lead with only one wicket down. Both these batters notched centuries and got out shortly thereafter, but the debutant Paddikal and Sarfaraz Khan continued to good work and at one stage India looked set for a really mammoth total. However, they lost wickets while I was out, and by the end of the day were 473-8. Shoaib Bashir having conceded 100 in his first 20 overs had hauled things back and was on 4-170 by the close. Anderson had claimed his 699th test wicket.

THE FINAL HUMILIATION

Anderson got his 700th test wicket, and Bashir ended the Indian innings by claiming his fifth wicket, his second test five-for in his debut series. There was little else for England to enjoy. Duckett suffered a crazy bowled dismissal, trying to charge Ashwin who took the new ball alongside Bumrah. Crawley failed cheaply as well, turning one from Ashwin into the hands of Sarfaraz Khan, and Pope fell to catch by Jaiswal off Ashwin. That was 36-3. Bairstow flashed his way to 39 off 30 balls before falling LBW to Kuldeep Yadav and that was 92-4. Right on the stroke of lunch Stokes concluded a wretched series with the bat (and he only bowled at all in this match, taking a wicket with his first ball in nine months but otherwise doing nothing of note) by being bowled by Ashwin, against whom he seemed to have not a scooby, for 2. England at 103-5 needed 147 more just to avoid the innings defeat. Foakes fell for 8, also bowled by Ashwin and it was 113-6. Tom Hartley offered Root some support, but he and Wood were both pinned LBW by Bumrah in the space of three balls (and if Wood knew anything about the intermediate delivery I am a Dutchman) and that was 141-8. Shoaib Bashir offered Root support, and the prospect a century for the Yorkshireman appeared on the horizon. However with the partnership with 48 a delivery from Jadeja kept low and bowled Bashir to make it 189-9. With Anderson at the other end Root aimed a big shot against Kuldeep Yadav and succeeded only in picking out Jasprit Bumrah to fall for 84. England 195 all out, Root 84. Kuldeep Yadav was named Player of the Match for his seven wickets, five of them taken in the first innings, and Yashavsi Jaiswal was named Player of the Series.

ANALYSIS

This series was played on excellent cricket wickets – these were not at any stage of any match raging turners, and everyone had the chance to get in the game. India won 4-1, and are in truth not flattered by that margin, because they have the better cricketers, and they generally played somewhere close to their best. Crawley’s series was reminiscent of the one Shane Watson had in the 2010-11 Ashes – respectable aggregate and average, but no really major innings, and like Watson he was part of a well beaten side. Duckett had his moments, including a superb century, and he and Crawley usually have England a solid start, while not coming close to being a latter day Hobbs and Sutcliffe. Where England failed abysmally was in the number 3-6 positions in the order. The 40 innings played by those players across the series (four players, 10 innings each) yielded exactly three major innings – Pope’s 196 in the first match, Root 122* at Ranchi and Root 84 in the second innings at Dharamsala. When the engine room of the batting is failing to that extent one cannot really expect other than a hammering. In the 1924-5 Ashes Hobbs and Sutcliffe both had superb series, but were largely unsupported by the rest of the order and England lost 4-1. Here Crawley and Duckett were not as good as Hobbs and Sutcliffe had been 99 years ago, and the middle order failed even worse. Only Anderson, who became only the third ever bowler and first ever seamer to record 700 test scalps, was remotely effective among England’s pace bowlers, but India’s pacers were not brilliant either. Hartley and Bashir as front line spinners did more than anyone could have expected of them, and Bashir especially looks hugely promising, but they were unsurprisingly outclassed by their rather more experienced Indian counterparts. Foakes kept impeccably through the series, but Dhruv Jurel also did superbly once he replaced the underachieving Srikar Bharat, and Jurel was a clear cut matchwinner at Ranchi. Thus India were, thanks to Jaiswal, somewhat ahead when it came to openers, in a different league from England in slots 3-6, ahead on pace (Bumrah being better in the series than the veteran Anderson) and ahead on spin, though less one-sidedly so than might have been expected, equal on keeping, and probably equal on captaincy, though to make up for his shocking series as a player Stokes would have had to captain like peak Brearley, and he certainly did not do so. I do not think that either Wood (now 35 and unlike Anderson seriously injury prone) or Oliver Edward Robinson (too many fitness issues) should feature for England again, and it is long past time to confine Bairstow’s activities to white ball cricket. I also feel England need a genuine number three – barring his one great innings at Hyderabad Pope has looked further at sea than Captain Nemo and the Nautilus in this series. Josh Bohannon is the best number three currently playing county cricket, while Jamie Smith (Surrey) and James Rew (Somerset) must in the reckoning to replace Bairstow at number five. Bashir should keep his place as should Anderson for the present. Among younger pace options Matthew Potts, Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson and Tom Lawes should all be considered in the immediate term, and I would have half an eye on the progress of James T Langridge of Somerset who showed signs of promise when thrust into One Day Cup action as a 17 year old last season.

In terms of the team approach, I am all for attacking cricket, but what we saw far too much in this series was brainless batting – large numbers of wickets simply thrown away. Also some of the players public utterances (Duckett’s comments about Jaiswal learning from England’s approach being an example – almost as ridiculous in their way as was Pope’s first innings dismissal at Dharamsala in its way).

COMPOSITE XI FOR THE SERIES

  1. Yashavsi Jaiswal (India, left handed opening batter). Only one Asian opener has ever scored more in a series than his 712 in this one: Sunil Manohar Gavaskar against the West Indies in 1970.
  2. *Rohit Sharma (India, right handed opening batter, captain). His century in the final test and the fact that his rival skipper was effectively un-selectable on any honest reckoning get him in – I have commented on the efforts of Crawley and Duckett earlier in this post.
  3. Shubman Gill (India, right handed batter). He came good as this series progressed, and outside of his Hyderabad display Pope scraped up a mere 117 runs in nine innings.
  4. Joe Root (England, right handed batter, occasion off/ leg spinner). He did well in the fourth and fifth matches, and number four was a problem position for India. Paddikal made 65 in his debut innings, but that was the only innings he played, and Patidar was never remotely convincing. However, he needs to stop trying to play fancy, and settle, as he did in these last two matches, for using the traditional test match methods that have brought him 11,000 runs at 50.
  5. Sarfaraz Khan (India, right handed batter). Solid performances in all matches that he has played.
  6. Ravindra Jadeja (India, left handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner). The veteran Indian all rounder has had a fine series, while Stokes had a wretched one.
  7. +Dhruv Jurel (India, wicket keeper, right handed batter). Both he and Ben Foakes kept very well. The tiebreaker is Ranchi, where Jurel was India’s matchwinner.
  8. R Ashwin (India, off spinner, right handed batter). The veteran bowled better as the series progressed.
  9. Kuldeep Yadav (India, left arm wrist spinner, left handed batter). Has had a superb series with the ball since coming in for Axar Patel, and has played some useful supporting innings with the bat.
  10. Jasprit Bumrah (India, right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). The best quick bowler on display in this series.
  11. James Anderson (England, right arm fast medium bowler, left handed batter). Still fit and firing at the age of 41, though England struggled to find anyone to share the new ball with him – neither Robinson nor Wood distinguished themselves in this series. I reckon he would fare better in this XI, with Bumrah at the other end, than he had the opportunity to do for England in this series.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign off…

Pizza Making

An illustrated account of a pizza making event to remind folks of my existence, and of course a regular photo gallery. Everything should be back to normal email and internet wise from Monday afternoon.

My internet and email situation will be back to normal on Monday. This Sunday just gone I took part in a pizza making session for autistic adults at the King’s Lynn branch of Pizza Express. The body of this post describes the process.

FROM DOUGH TO PIZZA

Pizza making in these sessions does not start absolutely from scratch – we have preprepared dough to work with. When we get to it we have the following starting position…

an ellipsoid lump of very sticky dough surrounded by flour.

The first stage is to dust the dough (which would otherwise be too sticky to work with) with flour. Then one uses fingers to flatten out the edge of the dough, leaving a dome in the middle (at this stage the dough should be about the same size and shape as a fried egg). Next the dome has to be flattened with the palm of the hand, and then the now flat piece of dough needs to be worked on until it is roughly circular and not too different in size from the tray in which it will be cooked. It then needs to be inserted into the tray, and manipulated once in so that it covers the entire base, and there is a small rise up the side of the tray to keep all the toppings in…

The pizza base ready for the addition of the toppings.

The first addition to the base is a ladleful of tomato puree (Pizza Express do not allow for the making of ‘white pizzas’), which has to be spread out evenly using the back of a spoon…

Next come the optional toppings, the first two of which I accepted being mushrooms and olives…

Then came the meat toppings, of which I accepted pepperoni and passed on the rest…

The penultimate addition when all the optional toppings are in place is the cheese, without which of course it would not be a pizza…

Finally, for those who want it comes that classic Mediterranean flavour enhancer, oregano. For those who, like me, opted to accept this, you take it in your non-dominant hand so that you can sprinkle it evenly over your pizza with your dominant hand…

The pizza, now ready for cooking.

A few minutes later the pizza was ready for eating, and it was excellent.

The pizza, cooked and ready to be eaten.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

It is early in the year for hares to be out and about (the Lewis Carroll character is ‘The March Hare’ for a reason), but here are two in a single shot.

Australia v Pakistan

A look back at the Boxing Day test between Australia and Pakistan, a brief comment on the Lamichhane case (some may find this distressing), a mention of the Panto at the Corn Exchange and a photo gallery.

Early yesterday morning the the Boxing Day test match between Australia and Pakistan ended a day ahead of schedule. The main part of this post looks back at that match. There is then a second section that some readers may find distressing, covering a piece of news that should not be overlooked. I end with my usual photo gallery.

A HARD FOUGHT BATTLE

I posted about developments earlier in this match here. Pakistan ended up 61 behind on first innings. They began the Australian second innings breathing fire, reducing their hosts to 16-4 at one point. They had a chance to make it 46-5, but it went to ground as more than one other did in the course of the match. The reprieved batter, Mitchell Marsh, went on to top score with 96 and Australia had 316 to defend in the end. The biggest ever successful chase at The G is 332, by England in 1928-9 in the match that won them that Ashes series, while Pakistan have a horrible record down under – last time they won a test match anywhere in Australia the side was captained by Imran Khan.

However, Pakistan did not surrender meekly, as their subcontinental neighbours had at Centurion in the other Boxing Day test (India 245, South Africa 406, India 131 – South Africa won by an innings and 30 runs), they had a real go at the target.

The got to within 100 of the target with the sixth wicket pairing of Mohammad Rizwan and Agha Salman together and going nicely. Cummins appealed for a catch behind against Rizwan, given not out on the field, with the TMS commentary team also certain that it wasn’t out and Rizwan indicating that it had hit his forearm on the way through. Australia sent it upstairs, and after about five minutes of using every piece of technology available to him the third umpire Richard Illingworth found what he believed was evidence to overturn the decision and instructed Michael Gough, the on field umpire, to do so. My belief is that having studied replays for that long there is no way the evidence Illingworth had could have been convincing enough to warrant an overturn.

The controversial breakthrough thus achieved, Australia did not take long to do the rest of the job, Pakistan being all out for 237 to lose by 79 runs. Pat Cummins in addition to captaining his side took five wickets in each Pakistan innings (5-48 and 5-49 respectively), and there was thus only one candidate for Player of the Match. Nevertheless, for me, the circumstances of Rizwan’s dismissal in the final innings means that this victory by Australia is somewhat tainted. A full scorecard can be seen here.

THE LAMICHHANE CASE

Yesterday it was announced that the a Nepalese jury had found Sandeep Lamichhane, the Nepali leg spinner, guilty of raping a minor, an offence that under Nepali law carries a possible 12 year jail term. In my view the ICC, as cricket’s world governing body, have a duty to respond to this news: Lamichhane should forthwith be banned outright from ever having anything more to do with organized cricket – no playing, no umpiring, no commentary gigs, no coaching (especially this latter given what he has been found guilty of) etc.

THE CHRISTMAS PANTO

This year’s Christmas Panto at the Corn Exchange, King’s Lynn was Dick Whittington, and on Thursday night the West Norfolk Autism Group had block booked seats. The fact that we were buying in bulk got us a substantial discount on the regular price, and members were only asked to pay £5 per ticket by us. It was an excellent production, well worth the minor inconvenience of the timing (a scheduled 5:30PM start, which meant all I had time to do at home between work and the performance was get changed out of my work clothes, and supper had to wait until I got home again at the end of the evening).

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The Corn Exchange
Advertising in the foyer of the Corn Exchange.

Afghanistan Out

A look at developments in the cricket world cup, with a special focus on today’s match between Afghanistan and South Africa – a valedictory on Mohammad Nabi and an acknowledgement of a new star in cricket’s firmament, Azmatullah Omarzai. Also a prize winning photograph and one of my regular galleries.

The 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup is approaching its conclusion, with the final round of group fixtures being played. I did not witness a single ball of either Tuesday’s or Thursday’s games because of work commitments, and England’s performance on Wednesday while impressive in isolation merely applied an unwarranted late gloss to what has been an appalling tournament for them. Today’s match was between Afghanistan and South Africa. South Africa are already qualified for the semi-finals, where their opponents will be Australia. Afghanistan had the slenderest of chances of taking the fourth slot going into today (slenderer by far than the threads holding the mythical sword above Damocles).

THE AFGHANISTAN INNINGS

To overhaul current fourth placers New Zealand on net RR Afghanistan needed a record breaking win – they would have to bat first, and would need win by at least 438 runs. They won the toss and chose to bat (no one in their right minds puts this South Africa side into bat even if it is not absolutely mandated by the group situation, do they Jos?). Unfortunately, this was not a pitch for heavy scoring, and it was soon apparent that Afghanistan were not going to score enough to give themselves any chance of qualifying. In the end the main question as their innings headed to towards the end of the scheduled 50 overs was as to whether Azmatullah Omarzai, of whom more later, would manage to complete a century. When he found himself facing the bowling, on 97 not out with three balls to come it looked on, but it was not to be. He failed to score off any of the three deliveries, and the number 11 was run out of the final ball of the innings. Afghanistan had scored 244 from 50 overs, with Gerald Coetzee, a fiery and talented young fast bowler, taking 4-44, and Keshav Maharaj achieving a notably economical analysis with 2-25 from his full 10 overs of left arm spin.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPLY

There were times in the innings when it looked like Afghanistan might be signing off with a victory – South Africa never got right away from them. Rashid Khan had 2-37 from 10 overs of leg spin, the veteran Mohammad Nabi topped him with 2-35 from 10 overs of off spin in what may well be the last world cup innings in which he features as a player. Nabi has an extraordinary playing history, having been part of the Afghanistan men’s side for their entire history as a cricketing nation, and having played his part in victories over no fewer than 43 different opposing countries. The least impressive of Afghanistan’s four front line spinners was Mujeeb Ur Rahman, with 1-51 from his 10 overs. He seems to feel an obligation to showcase his variations by bowling six different types of delivery per over, a strategy that in T20s can work very well, but in longer formats he would be better served by bowling his stock ball four or five times in an over and slipping in the variations every so often as a surprise. Andile Phehlukwayo eventually finished things in the 48th over when he hit left arm seamer Naveen-ul-Haq for 6,4,6 in successive balls to get his side over the line. Afghanistan are thus sixth in the group, which is the lowest they can finish. Tomorrow sees Pakistan in action against England. If Pakistan can conjure a win by 287 or more runs they will pip New Zealand to the final qualifying slot, while if they suffer a heavy defeat in going for the huge win they need they might drop below Afghanistan in the standings. The scorecard of today’s match is available here.

Azmatullah Omarzai

The young Afghan all rounder (RHB, RMF) has had an excellent tournament, and I regretted that he missed out on his century today, though of course that particular tally only has significance because we use base 10. I am sufficiently convinced by what he has done this tournament that although I usually base my judgements for such things on long form cricket I am prepared to change my all time Os XI – he displaces Irish seam bowling all rounder of yesteryear Alec O’Riordan from the number six slot in that XI. He has been one of the finds of this tournament as an individual, just as teams wise his team have been THE find of the tournament.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The results of the West Norfolk Autism Group autumn photography competition are in, and I won a £10 Amazon gift voucher for this picture:

When I took this picture on October 10th this autumnal leaf on which you can see both a snail with a very dark shell and much lighter coloured slug was still attached to it’s branch, though clearly almost ready to fall. I got a second picture out of this shot, focussing more closely on the snail.

Now for my usual sign off – some photographs from the last few days (to view any of these at a larger size just click on them)…

Some pictures from Wednesday evening when WNAG had an adult’s meal at Knight’s Hill.
My parents are currently away travelling, and this postcard from Australia arrived yesterday.
This, the feature image for this post, and the one from which the next four pictures after this one were extracted may be the last hurrah of 2023 insects wise.

World Cup Developments

A look at developments in the world cup since England disgraced themselves on Saturday. A decent match between India and new Zealand yesterday, and today’s match between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Also a photo gallery.

This post looks at what has happened in the 2023 ODI World Cup since England’s humiliation on Saturday.

INDIA v NEW ZEALAND

This was a match between the only two teams to still be unbeaten. I missed a lot of it because I had to go through the annual torture known as a check for signs of Glaucoma (there is family history which makes this a necessity), and that knocked out most of the morning, since the appointment was at 10AM. I also had a commitment in the afternoon which took out a chunk of play – the West Norfolk Autism Group had a bowling session booked at Strikes for 4:00.

India won the toss and put New Zealand in. With ten overs to go a total of 300 looked on the cards for NZ, but some excellent Indian death bowling restricted them to 273. I only witnessed the start and end of the Indian innings. They eventually won by four wickets with two overs to spare, Kohli scoring 96 and getting out just before the end.

AFGHANISTAN V PAKISTAN

Pakistan won the toss and quite correctly chose to bat first. Afghanistan’s spinners bowled well, but a late flurry from Ifitkhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan, and a bizarre decision to trust the very ordinary medium pacer Azmatullah Omarzai over Mujeeb Ur Rahman at the death allowed Pakistan to get to 283, a formidable total on a slow surface. The Afghanistan is just underway, and I will be missing a lot of it, but the key will be Rahmanullah Gurbaz – to get anywhere close Afghanistan will need him to produce a major innings. So far all is progressing nicely for them – 25-0 in the fourth over.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Yesterday was sunny, and the walk back from my appointment (this location is borderline in terms of distance from my home, so I usually get the bus there and walk back, as I did yesterday) gave the photo gallery a welcome boost…

The pictures from the walk back from my appointment start here.
And end here.
This is the time when being an early riser and having an east facing front window enables one to capture the dawn (three pics)

County Championship Action Resumes

A brief look at the resumption of the county championship, an account of a ‘Make your own pizza’ session arranged by the West Norfolk Autism Group and a photo gallery.

After a break for The Hundred and The One Day Cup the County Championship has resumed. I am following developments at The Oval where Surrey host Warwickshire (although at the moment only by way of cricinfo – I am listening to commentary on the third T20I between England and New Zealand.

THREE HALF CENTURIES FOR SURREY

Surrey are batting first, and are faring reasonably well. Ben Foakes has just become the third Surrey batter to reach 50, after an aggressive innings by Jamie Smith and much less aggressive one from Sibley, although 65 off 174 is not slow by the opener’s regular standards. I missed the morning session due having a commitment elsewhere, though it is fairly clear from what the commentators have had to say that Ed Barnard has been the best of the Warwickshire bowlers so far. Tea is now being taken, with Surrey 224-4.

MAKE YOUR OWN PIZZA

This morning the West Norfolk Autism Group had a Make Your Own Pizza session for adults, hosted by Pizza Express in King’s Lynn town centre. We started with a lump of dough which had been turned into a pizza base. This process was quite tricky, but I managed to get it done. Once the base was in the baking tray in which it would be cooked the next step was to create a barrier by elevating the edge of the base (as close to the very edge as possible). Then came the application of tomato puree, which was the one element with which I required a little assistance. Then came the selection of ingredients – in my case I said yes to mushrooms, pepperoni and olives and no to the rest (ham, chicken, two types of pepper, both too hot for my tastes, spiced beef and goats cheese), after which it was time add the mozzarella, which needed to be distributed as evenly as possible. Before the cooking there was on e more thing to do – to name our pizzas. I was very pleased with my creation and ate every scrap of it.

The pizza, ready for cooking
The cooked pizza.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A cormorant swimming in the pond nearest my house – not a regular haunt of these birds.

All Time XIs: A Family Affair Part One

A brief account of Pride in the Park, and the first part of a two part All Time XIs post, plus my regular photo gallery.

Welcome to the first in a two part all time XIs post. Today I present the first of two XIs to do battle, each comprising four pairs and one trio of related cricketers. Today I start with an unrelated feature after which I will introduce the first of the two XIs to feature in this envisaged contest. Tomorrow will see the second XI make their appearance, followed by an honourable mentions section and a comparison between the two XIs.

PRIDE IN THE PARK

Yesterday was King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Pride. There were two elements to the day, a march from the Tuesday Market Place to the Recreation Field, part of The Walks, and the festivities at the Recreation Field. I was not involved with the march, but the West Norfolk Autism Group had a stall in the Recreation Field, and I was there from set up until about 3PM. We had a some information cards about our group, a display board, two stand up banners, one horizontal banner, one large pride flag and were running two activities for which we charged – a lucky dip at £1 per go and a “guess the teddy’s name”, also at £1 per go. Our little stall attracted a stream of visitors through the day, especially once the march arrived. The occasion benefitted from impeccable weather.

WG GRACE’S XI

We meet the first of our two XIs mentioned in the introduction, listed as usual in batting order.

  1. *WG Grace (right handed opening batter, bowler of various styles and captain). One of the greatest of all cricketers, and although he was already 32 by the time he played in the first test on English soil in 1880 he twice topped 150 at that level, 152 on debut in 1880 and 170 six years later.
  2. EM Grace (right handed opening batter, occasional lob bowler, daring close fielder). Until his brother overhauled him he was the greatest of all Victorian era cricketers. A one cap wonder at The Oval in 1880, but in the first innings there he shared an opening stand of 91 with his brother.
  3. Ian Chappell (right handed batter, occasional leg spinner, vice captain). A fine number three and a shrewd skipper, which latter I have acknowledged by naming him as WG’s vice captain in this side.
  4. Greg Chappell (right handed batter, occasional leg spinner, occasional medium pacer, brilliant slip fielder). One of Australia’s greatest ever batters.
  5. Eric Bedser (right handed batter, off spinner). One half of a pair of identical twins. They did not think that one county would sign two medium-fast bowlers at the same time, and not able to bear being separated tossed a coin for who would continue bowling medium-fast and who would switch to spin and develop their batting. Eric lost the toss and made the switch. He never quite gained an England cap, but was a crucial part of Stuart Surridge’s amazing tenure as Surrey skipper (five seasons as captain, five county championships won).
  6. Fred Grace (right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler, brilliant outfielder). In the 1870s his FC batting average of 25 was only exceeded on a consistent basis by his most famous brother, and he also took his wickets at 20 a piece. He only played one test, scoring a pair but taking a legendary catch to dismiss Aussie big hitter Bonnor (the batters were allegedly on their third run when he completed the catch). He died of a chill not long later, at the tender age of 29.
  7. +Don Tallon (wicket keeper, right handed batter). Selectorial horse trading cost him the opportunity to play for Australia in his absolute prime, but he had a fine career in the early post WWII era, and Don Bradman rated him the greatest keeper he ever saw in action.
  8. Maurice Tremlett (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). His career was ruined by well meaning coaches after a storybook start, but I am envisaging him as he might have been had he been left to develop as the cricketer he was rather than suffering attempts to turn him into the cricketer that England thought they needed.
  9. Alec Bedser (right arm medium fast bowler, right handed batter). The Bedser twin who won that famous coin toss, and went on to become one of England’s greats. He was the first England bowler to take 200 test wickets, and when his career ended his final tally of 236 was an all comers record at that level.
  10. Chris Tremlett (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). He was great in the 2010-11 Ashes.
  11. Bill Tallon (leg spinner, right handed batter). His career record makes poor reading, but it was a very brief career.

This XI has a good batting line up, a great range of bowling options and will be superbly led by WG Grace and his deputy, Chappelli.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Pensthorpe: Introduction

Introducing what will be a mini-series about the West Norfolk Autism Group visit to Pensthorpe Natural Park.

Yesterday saw a West Norfolk Autism Group excursion to Pensthorpe, a nature reserve combined with a working farm a few miles from Fakenham in Norfolk took place. This post introduces what will be a mini-series about the day as I experienced it. I will be doing specific posts about the varieties of ducks and geese on show, the flamingos and cranes, the discovery centre, the sculptures (probably these last two will share one post) and the Explorer trip. The gallery for this post will feature some introductory and general pictures.

OVERVIEW OF PENSTHORPE

Pensthorpe, which was a village until the 14th century when the black death accounted for so many of its inhabitants that the survivors had no option but to up sticks and move down the road to Fakenham, which was originally the smaller of the two places is now home to a nature reserve which is involved in a number of very important conservation efforts. There is also a working farm, and a lot of the electricity the site needs is generated by solar panels on the roofs of the farm buildings – for so big a site it has a tiny carbon footprint. I was booked on the 12:00 Explorer ride (and could also have had a place on the second ride an hour later, but the weather cool, though at least it stayed dry, so I settled for one trip. Otherwise between our arrival just before 10:30, and our departure, scheduled for 3:30PM it was entirely up to me how I spent the time.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here to complete this introductory post are some photographs…

Pensthorpe 3: The Pensthorpe Explorer

The final installment in my account of the West Norfolk Autism Group’s trip to Pensthorpe.

Welcome to the final post in my mini-series about the West Norfolk Autism Group‘s visit to Pensthorpe Natural Park (click here and here to visit the other posts in this series).

AN ENJOYABLE AND INFORMATIVE JOURNEY

The journey on the Pensthorpe Explorer was very scenic, and the guide provided excellent commentary. There was stuff about the area’s wildlife and things Pensthorpe do to encourage said wildlife, some local history and an explanation of the significance of the River Wensum which flows through Pensthorpe.

There were a couple of parts of the route that made use of an old railway line (aeons go part of the Midland & Great Northern, colloquially referred to as the Muddle & Go Nowhere – East Anglia was home at one time to a vast number of railway companies, with in addition to this one the five companies who ultimately amalgamated to form the Great Eastern Railway) which added to the interest of the experience.

The Wensum is of special significance because it is a chalk river, of which there only about 200 on the planet (although about 170 of those are right here in the UK, including another significant Norfolk river, The Gaywood). Unfortunately the bunch of clowns who are collectively known as Norfolk County Council are hellbent on building a new road through the Wensum valley which among other things will damage two important bat colonies (we are talking rare species of bat here). Also, as to the notion that building a new road will ease congestion, I give you one letter an two numbers appropriately arranged: M25. There is a campaign group doing their best to prevent this ghastly project from going ahead, and you can view their twitter page and also sign a petition they are running. The biggest problem that Norfolk has is not with its roads, but with the frankly scandalous state of public transport in the county, which causes people to feel compelled to drive, which in turn feeds into the county council’s ‘cars are everything’ agenda. Green Party representation is increasing in Norfolk, which provides grounds for hope that eventually the county council’s make up will change and it will move into the 21st century.

The trip on the Pensthorpe Explorer was a splendid end to a splendid day.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures from this section of the day:

If you look closely at this oak tree you will see a silver tube protruding from the trunk – this is for Little Owls to nest in.
The Pensthorpe Explorer

Pensthorpe 2: Up to Lunch

The second of my three part series about the West Norfolk Autism Group#s visit to Pensthorpe Natural Park.

Welcome to the second of my three posts about the West Norfolk Autism Group’s inaugural activity, a visit to Pensthorpe Natural Park (click here to see the first post).

MONET INSPIRED BRIDGE TO MAIN ENTRANCE

I followed the paths onward from the Monet inspired bridge, taking a few detours along the way, until I arrived back near the entrance. I had brought food and water with me, and I consumed them at this point, and finished my book while waiting for the next stage of the day, the ride on the Pensthorpe Explorer.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The same question/challenge that I introduced yesterday’s photo section with applies today…