1st Test England v West Indies

Test match starts tomorrow. So, straight after work I'l be twiddling the old dial to catch the sound of leather on willow from Lord's.

Can't wait!


RP


Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

I've been pre-occupied...

I've been pre-occupied with my other blog; A Glastonbury Tale. To the detriment of cricket I hear you say? Well after the Test Series it all seemed to fall a bit flat - loosing an' all. I know it's the game that counts but when you're supporting, you like a positive result!

Of course, there have been the One Day Internationals. England won and Strauss was rightly lauded for his part but I can't get on with a 'One Dayer' as much as a Test Series. I mean, as soon as it is started, it's over! You miss a day and you've missed the series (albeit a very short series, in a one day kind of way). This all seems to be at odds with current wisdom (that's wisdom, not Wisden) as everyone is plugging 'One Day, maximum return, in a credit crunch environment, people don't have enough time for Test Series' cricket.

The next speight of activity for me will be the 1st Test - England v West Indies, at Lord's. Come Wednesday the 6th of May I'll be glued to my Pure Evoke flow (in a metaphysical sense you understand, I try to keep glue well away from any electrical equipment), shift pattern permitting. I do keep one eye on BBC SPORT ¦ Cricket & Crickinfo (is that two eyes?) though and do see that 'Flintoff wins Pietersen IPL duel' & 'Yorkshire beat Durham by 80 runs'.


RP


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Lord's - The Home of Cricket

Out of the blue we got invited to go to London for the weekend (a big thank you to my Sister-in-Law). What to do on Saturday? I know, go to Lord's - the home of cricket!

Lord's Sign

I took the District line to Edgeware Road and then the Circle line to Baker Street and then walked, trying to get a No 13 bus to St. John's Wood. However, it was not straight forward. First of all I nearly ended up going in the wrong direction, I was pointed 'across the road' but how far? Which road? I don't know what I'm doing! So I walked and then found that all the bus stops had been suspended. So I walked and a No 13 bus went straight past a bus stop that said a No 13 bus stops here! So I walked and then finally got to a stop and on to a No 13 bus. No sooner had the bus started when 'the next stop for Lord's cricket ground' was announced! And that was the shortest of the stops on the route! Typical!

NW8

I stepped off the bus and there it was. A large concrete wall inset into the ground perimeter wall, with large, over-sized cricket balls on top! Love it!

The Home of CKET!

Just beyond was a glimpse of the Media Centre.

Media Centre

I walked around the whole of the ground as close as I could. Houses dominate one end and at one point I even walked past the house where Billy Fury once lived!.

Just walking around the outside, there is plenty to keep the cricket fan (O.K. Geek/Anorak) entertained

Yet To Come

A Sign!

On to the Bicentenary Gate

Another Sign!

And here was the Gate

The Bicentenary Gate

MCC

Cricket Behind Bars

I saw some cricket being played!

Bowling Screen

Oh, it was just a photograph...

I saw Kevin Pieterson!

Kevin Pieterson

Sort of...

By the time I got the main entrance again Lords was closing - I asked if I could get in to see the ground briefly but he had just locked up! Ah well next time...
(He did tell me England's Test score though - only 4 wickets had fallen though.)

On my way back I got to see the famous Father Time weather vane

The Weather Vane

A final look at the Investec Media Centre

Media Centre 1

Media Centre 2

Media Centre 3

The centre was designed by the late Jan Kaplicky and Amanda Levete of Future Systems.

I got back home to hear the fall of the 5th wicket - Collingwood lbw, bowled by Baker for 161 partnering Prior after a referral which gave Geoffry Boycott something to comment about! Then it was time for tea.


RP


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The 4th Test Had Everything

I enjoyed the 4th Test, it had Strauss making a centaury, it had England declaring at 600 for 6, it had a bland surface, it had the West Indies making 749 for 9 and declaring, it had Cook making a centaury, it had everything.

Everything that is except and England win.


Ah, The 5th Test, now that is a different matter...


RP


Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

A PURE EVOKEd flow

I'm listening to the 4th Test against the West Indies in Barbados on a new radio. Not just any radio, this is a PURE EVOKE flow, Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB), internet-connected radio in piano black, with Snoozehandle. It is more than a radio though, it's expandable. I can add a speaker and turn it into stereo (mono is more than fine for listening to the cricket) and I can attach my iPod if I want to and it's got a USB port for updates - I do like a bit of room to breathe...

The black piano finish with burnished metal handle, speaker grill and ariel ooze a certain style which is complimented by the display. As well as showing the time it also has the match score update continuously scrolling up the OLED display. I'm never at a loss to know the score, which is really important when the commentators are off on some reverie, recounting some match from ten years ago and arguing about who caught who, when what you really need to know is the score! Well, there it is, in vibrant OLED green/yellow!

The sound quality is superb; a nice clear, warm sound from the 3" speaker. Tony Cozier's rich West Indian lilt emanates from the little black box in perfect contrast to the no-nonsense Yorkshire, drill of Jeff Boycott. It has touch sensitive controls which work really well. The whole thing exudes quality, it is a perfect blend of design and technology.

Oh, and when the cricket's finished, it has PURE sounds. These are atmospheric sounds of; birdsong, heartbeat, thunder etc... A sort of match comedown soundtrack depending upon how England have played. How cool is that?

Oh, and England are 221 for no loss!


RP


Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Another Draw!

England drew with BCA President's XI Tour match - I'm sensing a pattern!

[ BBC ] [ Crickinfo ]


RP


Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

The Nightwatchman

Ah, The Nightwatchman! That hunched figure in macintosh and flat cap, his right arm held aloft with lantern, flickering in the dark. He walks to the brazier, glowing orange, providing the only warmth to the chill of the night air. He places the lantern down on the floor then warms his hands and rubs them together to generate a little warmth into his old bones. The moon shines down as a mist starts to seep into the ground...

Oh, I've just found out that 'The Nightwatchman' is a lower order batsman, sent in to play in dimming light toward the end of the day, to protect a more valuable batsman for next day's play! That makes more sense. I did wonder at the brazier ruining the pitch...


RP


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Gardyloo!

I was bought a calendar of 'Forgotten English' for Christmas that details old, lost words day by day and yesterday's word was 'Gardyloo'. This was the call sign of medieval maids just as they emptied the contents of the chamber pot, out of the window, into the street below!

Sir Alan Stanford with his 'dealings' and the fallout for Giles Clarke and the ECB - Gardyloo!

Coincidence?

A fitting word of the day!


RP


Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Testing Times

I'm sat here waiting for the last day of the 3rd Test against the West Indies to start in anticipation. It has been an excellent few days with so much happening. England look in command but the West Indies give you the feeling that they won't collapse in a heap like England did in the 1st Test not so long ago! The Recreation Ground has proved to be a godsend, not least with the commentators who keep praising its 'atmosphere' and its 'history' and its 'location' and anything else they can think of (you'd think they had shares in it!). Strauss proved his captaincy by championing what became a 503 run lead, capturing 169 runs in the 1st innings himself. Collingwood pleased everyone with his eighth Test century. Owais Shah has fitted into the team well at the expense of Bell and Swann's bowling has pleased and impressed everyone. The worrying news is of Flintoff's hip injury and all the uncertainty that brings. England's bowling today to try and level the Test will be interesting to watch, not least to see if Flintoff plays.

So, just a mouseclick away, the pop-out player beckons, awaiting my command. The West Indies are 143 for 3 and rain has delayed play on the 5th day - it's all happening! Or not as the case may be!


RP


Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

That's better...

Ah, listening to the 3rd Test in Antigua on the radio yesterday at my parents-in-law, as England, led from the front by captain Strauss made amends for the collapse in Kingston last week. The sun must have been shining down on the Antigua Recreation Ground and you could have been forgiven for thinking I was in the Caribbean. The heating was on and there must have been some serious lagging in the loft because I was sweltering! I half expected to see palm trees, a beach and the blue of the Caribbean sea out of the French windows...

I listened, ball by ball as first of all England beat the dreaded 51 runs, then Strauss got his half century, England made a hundred and Strauss made his century and beyond. By the time we left, England were 168-1 and I needed IV fluids to restore my fluid balance in the balmy heat of Wiltshire in winter! England's reign continued whilst in the car home and then on the laptop into the evening. England finished on 301-3 and I re-hydrated myself back at the 'clubhouse' known as home.

A great day's listening but I must remember to take water rations next time...


RP


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ARGghhh!

Everyone to the A.R.G. on Sunday - O.K.?

BBC Sport Cricket - New WI venue in race against time

RP


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Life's a Beach - Sand Stopped Play!

I'd just sat down to listen to the 2nd Test match, the banter from TMS setting the scene.
West Indies won the toss and put England in to bat on what was reported to be more of a beach than a pitch. This suited England and is what they would have probably chosen if they had won the toss.
Shah in for Bell / Anderson in for Harmison / Panesar playing. The National selector put a positive spin on what he called 'Bell's blip' in form.
Strauss was off the mark with 2 runs.
The scoreboard wasn't working and lots of people were still outside trying to get into the ground. At 14:08 rain stopped play with England 6 for no wicket.
14:34 and Cook was facing his 1st ball after the stoppage and was off the mark, long leg for a single.
The bowlers however were increasingly stopping short of bowling after their runups due to not being able to get a grip on the surface of the outfield!

Then, MATCH ABANDONED FOR TODAY after 10 balls - England 7 for no wickets!

Confirmed by match referee - Alan Hurst.
Looking into options.

Best laid plans... and all that - Life's a beach!


RP


Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Anticipation and Patience

There is a time when anticipation starts. There is no big revelation, no cloudburst, fanfare or pyrotechnic display just a mild dawning. It is time, anticipation is there.

Anticipation around the 2nd Test in the West Indies starts around now; not too soon after the 1st Test, not too late before it all becomes too commonplace. It seems to me that everyone seems to have written off England, missing the point that this is a Test, it is carried out over several days and several matches. Patience is required as well as sweeping batting an fast bowling. This isn't a one day blast to see who can slam the most flamboyant runs for the cameras. It is an intricate game of stealth and patience, it is a mental game and above all, it is a team game.

I for one will be glued to my laptop screen (metaphorically speaking), listening to the 2nd Test in Antigua this coming Friday with anticipation (after all, it is Friday the 13th!). And a little patience.


RP


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3rd lowest total ever!

England all out for 51

Collapse, rout, disintegration - so, moving swiftly on to Antigua - 2nd Test.

(I mean, I went out for an hour and everything seemed OK. Not brilliant but OK, something to work with. The worst of it is I was really looking forward to listening to the cricket tomorrow as well!)


RP


Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

I mustn't mention the snow again

I mustn't mention the snow again, I mustn't mention the snow again, I mustn't mention the snow again. 'It's snowing again!' Owww!

Well the bowling didn't go as planned on day two - West Indies 160-1 in reply at close of play (I just love the language of cricket, don't you?). Hopefully a good night's sleep, a stiff talking to and a re-group will have done the trick. Yes, that's what it needs. Straussy and his gang can now get out there and take some wickets.

I'll be listening to it on the radio. I'd love to be watching it on TV but I haven't got Sky (damn you BBC for not bidding for TV rights for everything!). I'm not a 'Luddite', resisting the march of progress, hankering after a gentler age. No, I'm a 'Can't affordite'. Sky's core dump of everything you don't want mixed in with a little bit of what you do want (like Test cricket) doesn't speak to my credit crunch-strapped wallet.

So, it's internet-based 5Live Extra cricket with its scorecard visual or car-based Long Wave cricket with a little bit of static on top for me. If I place an exotic-looking drink with an umbrella in it on my desk, eat a banana and put a desert Island backdrop on my laptop I can almost believe I'm there - almost.

Oh, did I mention? It's snowing again.

Come on England!

RP


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All of a Twitter

This is more of a Twitter than a Post

Just logged on to BBC Video player for the Live video scorecard (audio only) and found out that Flintoff went for 43 - gutted. The're on their way to 300 now but still!


RP


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Link in Park

The snow has fallen again just to rub in, a little further how nice the weather must be in the West Indies at this time. As you look around at the impassable side roads and the whitened parks filled with people off work and off school, you see everyone unable to resist picking up snow, forming a ball and throwing it.

It's just a natural instinct and you are in the minority if you are not tempted. So, even in the grip of winter you can still feel a small link with the Caribbean sun that will be shining down on Sabina Park as England come out to finish their innings and then bowl, to hopefully turn around the game that started out yesterday as a struggle.

It's a pity I can't feel a link with the warmth though!


RP


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West Indies A V England

England's preface to what promises to be a year of fine cricket starts out as an as yet, unwritten book.

I do hope that the story of the West Indies 1st Test of 2009 isn't going to be entitled 'Something Wicket This Way Comes'

I say this because at the moment it all seems a little bit Agatha Christie: A Caribbean Mystery!


RP


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Ouch!

West Indies A V England: 3 Day in St. Kitts: Day 1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/7859652.stm

Like I said - Ouch!


RP


Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Credit Crunch Cricket

On a cold winter's morning where the nets hang with raindrops from the previous night's cold downpour, you could be forgiven for thinking that cricket is still some way off and reset the alarm, turn over and go back to sleep for a couple of months. However, there are stirrings. England are in the Caribbean hitting sixes, obtaining wickets and sustaining injuries. All this, in readiness for their 1st Test of the year which is; just over a week away! The papers are bristling with comment; will Lord Marland effectively challenge Giles Clarke for chairmanship of the ECB? What do we have to do to ensure Test cricket remains the 'pre-eminent' (thank you The Times, Monday 26 Jan 2009) form of the game? Will Flintoff's side injury be something or nothing? Yes, there are stirrings in the undergrowth, just off from the boundary. However, as the economy goes starts its free-fall swallow dive into the gaping maw of oblivion, it makes sense to me to look at how the cricket fan can make some economies.

Reading Material
Whilst waiting for tangible play, now is the perfect time for reading. Newspapers, as previously mentioned are bristling with news (which is just as well as it is what they are there to do!) but saving on buying 4 newspapers a day, which is costly to both the environment and the pocket is a reasonable economy to make. So, why not combine the need for news with that mainstay of the British economy (which, let's face it, you are never going to give up); the coffee. Most coffee places have newspapers available to read, for free! You are going to have that coffee, I mean, there are cost cutting-measures and there are cost-cutting measures, steady on, It's like breathing isn't it? So, combine! Just make sure that you get there early so you don't miss out upon the papers you want to read and end up with dog-eared old rags.
Books also fall under this category. We are coming to the end of the 'sale' period but charity shops are your friend. No honestly, they are. Although Oxfam are wise to anything remotely collectable and will be displaying prices that look like they have been appraised by the team from the Antiques Roadshow, other charity shops are less 'upmarket'. I got a copy of England's Ashes. The story of the greatest Test series of all time. 2005. Telegraph. London. Originally £17.99, saw it for £6.50, bought a copy for £1.75! Mint condition! One careful owner! Now that's what I call a recession-beater.

Clothing
Now I know 'technical' clothing is the way forward, with 'wickaway' materials such as ClimaCool and far be it from me to halt the march of progress. If it means more runs then I'm all for it but 'the Cricket Jumper'. There is something about 'the Cricket Jumper' that no other jumper can sartorially aspire to. Its replacement, the thin, scrawny 'techno-jumper', impostor that it is, means that a genuine, all-wool 'Cricket Jumper' is damned near impossible to get hold of and if you do happen to get within a sheep-hoof of, you need a mortgage to purchase it, which you can't get hold of because of the credit crunch! The England cricket team get theirs (used to get theirs?) from some expensive shop in London but you can't buy one unless you play for the team. Various cricket companies like Gray-Nicols and Gunn & Moore still produce jumpers but they are acrylic. If you want the sheep's best friend you have to go to Smart Turnout who provide old school (that's 'Old School', not 'oldschool' but then again, 'the Cricket Jumper' is so oldschool now) and old regimental (I refused to look at the American jumpers on offer, it's just not cricket is it?) cricket jumpers, in wool but they are expensive! And we are talking credit crunch here. So, as a last resort I found this from Crew Clothing Company. You cannot get them instore, I tried in both Bath and Bristol but online, half price! 100% wool, only a few left, then gone forever. The beauty of it is, I don't have to impersonate an old school attendee or bang on about my old regiment down the pub (not that I'm ever down the pub you understand). It is also a dark colour so I'm less out of place in the depths of winter. I may succumb to a cream acrylic one just for the summer but for now - credit is well and truly crunched!

Tickets
Now unfortunately, tickets do not fall into the same category as the above items. You can't purchase from a charity shop or get them at sale prices and there is none of this '3 for 2' malarkey. On websites such as Seatwave, the prices just go up. However, fear not, be judicious. Local cricket is cheapest, one of the non-19 county teams will enable a cheaper fix. ODI tickets are still available, claim one for a birthday or anniversary. I have, England v West Indies, Edgbaston. Visiting relatives? Then visit the nearest ground to imbibe the anima loci, it's free to look longingly though the gates (not too long though, you don't want to be had up for loitering now do you?). I'm hoping to get to Old Trafford and Headingley Carnegie in the not to distant future.

So, there you have it. Just a few ways to get 'cricketed' up without going bankrupt.

'Maximum Cricket - Minimum Outlay'

RP

Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.