first game of the cricket season at bristol…

I turned up at Bristol’s Seat Unique Stadium yesterday for Gloucestershire’s first home game of the cricket season. After Gloucestershire’s ‘very disappointing’ innings defeat by Middlesex earlier in the week, the signs weren’t good!
Anyway, a fresh start (I thought!). A chance to make amends(!?).
It didn’t start well.
Glos won the toss and put Durham in to bat (really?!).
The Durham openers made a nonsense of that decision by batting away untroubled in beautiful sunshine… and, at lunch, were 143-0 in 30 overs (at just a little under 5 runs/over!). By 2pm (170-0), Durham’s 21-year-old opener, McKinney, had scored his century. Just after 3pm (257-0), Durham’s other opener Lees had also become a centurion. Lees was eventually the first wicket to fall (305-1 in the 59^th over) – just after the floodlights had been switched on at 3.30pm!
It didn’t end well either (for Glos)!
The weather deteriorated somewhat (cold, blustery winds) and rain stopped play for a brief time. Play later resumed, but the day ended early when the players departed due to bad light – by which time, Durham’s score had advanced to 456-2 (with McKinney on 214 not out).
A really poor day for Gloucestershire (but a not altogether surprising one?)… and another defeat already beckons. I’m afraid they look like a very ‘ordinary’ team. The captain used eight (EIGHT!) bowlers yesterday and, frankly, none of them looked at all impressive or threatening. Last season, their batting was unreliable (to put it mildly) and I suspect it’ll be the same old story this season… and so the team will probably languish in the bottom half (or worse!) of the County Championship’s Division 2.
Frankly, I only go along to watch Gloucestershire because they’re my ‘local’ team and because I love watching ‘old fashioned’ cricket. Watching Somerset at Taunton (in Division one) would be a much better prospect – but involves a 30 minute+ train journey. Instead, I jump on no.75/76 bus and can be in the ground within 20 minutes.
So, I’ll no doubt continue to ‘enjoy’ watching my cricket in Bristol… sitting among tiny ‘crowds’ of under 100 people (and all of us old codgers)… and everyone talking about the ‘good old days’ and mis-remembering the cricketing days of their youth!!
Photo: This is McKinney hitting his second ‘six’ of the day – and the game is still only 55 minutes old!
Note: Sadly, yesterday, even though it’s the school holidays, I counted only half a dozen children in attendance.

and so another cricket season is about to end…

I went along to watch Gloucestershire play Northants today… I made it despite disruptions due to a bus strike (hey ho!).
Day 2 of 4 – although no play at all yesterday, due to rain and high winds(!) – and, sadly, from the weather forecasts I’ve seen, it looks as though there’ll be very little cricket played on Days 3+4.
Today’s weather was absolutely fine though and a pretty good day’s play too (although they had to stop play early due to bad light). Gloucester bowled out Northants for 206, but rather struggled to 65-3 at the close.
I know I say the same thing every year, but I do hate the fact that the County Championship (ok, Glos are in the second division!) comes to a climax at the very end of September – when the days are somewhat shorter and the weather is deteriorating.
I suspect that the entire competition will have folded within the next ten years – in favour of 100% bish-bash, limited over stuff (which obviously attracts the crowds and makes money). For many oldies like me, it’ll be the end of a golden era…
Who will last longest? County Championship cricket or me?
But, hey, today I just enjoyed watching the cricket and listening to the old codgers sitting near me recall their past sporting achievements… “Did I ever tell the time I scored my maiden century at the Oval?” (they talked such things non-stop for the entire day); fast bowlers bowling with three slips and a gully; batters (as they’re now referred to, not ‘batsmen’!) playing elegant shots through the covers; leisurely run-rates of some 3-4 runs per over (not 10-16!!); not to mention (but, of course, I will) the fact that matches can be played over 4-5 days and STILL end in a draw!
Cricket, lovely cricket.  
Photo: I thought this photograph (taken at today’s game) rather ‘said it all’: lots of empty seats (today’s attendance was in the order of perhaps just 120-150 in total!)… and, although, you might not see it clearly if you’re looking at the photograph on your phone, there are cobwebs between each pair of seats!

another cricket friday…

I went along to the Suite Unique Stadium in Bristol again today to watch the first day’s play of Gloucestershire v Kent… and the sun was shining (again!).
An interesting day! Glos won the toss and put Kent into bat. The decision seemed totally justified by lunchtime – Kent had struggled to 85-5. But Gloucestershire then really struggled for the remainder of the day; they took just ONE more wicket while Kent added a further 301 RUNS by the close!! Glos also managed to drop three catches in the process… (Kent ended the day on 386-6, with Grant Stewart 173 not out and Chris Benjamin 82no).
But, hey, it was a very enjoyable day nevertheless... even if you supported Gloucestershire.
Note: Much amusing banter from the not-so-old codgers (in their 60s?) standing nearby… well, at least it STARTED as amusing banter but, as the day wore on… and as more beer was consumed, the subject-matter degenerated from cricket memories of their youth to politics (and, in particular, immigration)… and, of course, as the hours passed, the volume increased! I ended up moving away.

cricket, lovely cricket…

I went to watch a day’s cricket in Bristol yesterday (Gloucestershire v league-leaders Surrey). It was the first county championship game I’d seen for two-and-a-half years (since September 2019, at Taunton) and I’ve really missed it. It’s a great shame, in my view, that season tickets aren’t available for people like me who enjoy watching just the county games (although the Twenty-20 and one-day games provide entertainment, I’m one of those old fogies who don’t think it’s ‘proper cricket’!).
Ridiculously, not bothering to purchase an online ticket in advance, I arrived 45 minutes before the start of play, proffered my bank card at the ‘gate’ for ‘swiping’, only to have to watch the attendant type lots of stuff into his laptop – including typing out my bank card details – before providing me with my ticket! He was very cheery about it all, but the whole process took some 3-4 minutes and so it was just as well there were only two people behind me!
As it happened, it was a somewhat bizarre day of few-and-far-between rewards for bowlers (just 6 wickets all day) and batsmen reaping the benefits of a good batting wicket (a double centurion, a centurion and a double-century stand). Surrey ended 603 all out and Gloucestershire 86-0*.
I love the rather pedestrian routine of cricket-watching… the almost exclusively ‘aged’ spectators – many no doubt sitting in the seat they always sit in and many of them apparently far more interested in reading their newspapers than watching the cricket! A couple of old blokes in front of me (the very talkative one announcing to all those within earshot that he was 76 years old and the other one occasionally correcting his friend’s memory!)(I changed position three times during the course of the day!) seemed to spend most of the time trying to recall various somewhat obscure sporting facts – mainly to do with football(!), such as: “Did you know that Spurs last got relegated to the second division in 1977?” or “What was the name of that Italian geezer who played for Middlesbrough in the mid-1990s?” (Ravanelli)… “and did you know he scored a hat-trick against Liverpool on his debut?”.
Oh what fun!
After lunch, one of the elderly committee members (I presumed he was ‘on the committee’ from his loud remarks about him having to “go to Lord’s next week for an important meeting”!) came to chat to a couple of nearby spectator friends of his. He was a very posh, know-it-all ‘gentleman’ who seemed to spend most of his time preparing agendas for various club-related matters (“never enough hours in the day” etc). During the course of their conversation, he described his experiences of undertaking zoom interviews with some prospective committee members (or whatever the vacancies were for): “A couple of the chaps we interviewed (note: they were ALL chaps!) were appropriately dressed in jackets and ties – they’d made an effort – but this other chap was there in his T-shirt for goodness sake!”.
How DARE he!
Obviously, I was concentrating on the cricket ALL the time.
Despite the occasional sunny intervals, it was pretty cold. I wore a thermal vest, shirt, jumper and a fleece – by mid-afternoon, a bloke sitting in the same row of seats wrapped himself in a blanket to keep warm. Hot toddies should probably have been the order of the day. In the morning, I scribbled a quick sketch of a group of nearby spectators – each of them wearing woolly hats and thick jackets… it definitely didn’t feel like cricket weather. There seems to be a huge irony for those of us who love watching county championship games that the powers-that-be have effectively relegated these fixtures to the coldest times of the season (ie. April+May and late August+September).
Who said cricket was “a summer game”!?  
PS: *I’m writing this post on the day following my cricket ‘trip’ and it seems that the bowlers continue to struggle for wickets… at lunch, Gloucestershire were 215-0!

last game of the cricket season (again)…

I’ve seen a reasonable number of cricket matches this season but, as always, I really did intend to watch far more games than I actually did. I’ve watched a number of Gloucestershire games at Bristol and Cheltenham; I’ve managed to see a couple of Bedminster CC’s matches; I’ve watched an evening Twenty20 game at Bristol; at long last (thanks to my lovely brother), I’ve seen my first Test Match (the first day of the Ashes series at Edgbaston). I TRIED to watch games at Taunton on two occasions but one day was rained off and, frustratingly, another finished a day (or was it two days?) early.

Over the years, I think I’ve blogged about the ‘last game of the cricket season’ a number of times. Well, this is another one! Today, I went to day one (of four) of the Somerset v Essex match at Taunton. As it happens, the first day was the only day I could get there… so, despite the weather forecast (cloudy morning, rain in the afternoon), I decided to go along. Sadly, the rain came a little earlier than forecast and so there was less than two hours play (in which, ridiculously, spinners were bowling from both ends after 70 minutes!). In the play that did take place, Somerset more or less blew their chances of the Championship (75-4 after winning the toss). Somerset’s veteran opening batsman (and local hero) Marcus Trescothick is retiring at the end of the season. He hasn’t been able to secure a place in the first team for most of the season, but I would have put money on him scoring more than Somerset’s openers today (Vijay 6, Davies 2).

It’s a CRUCIAL game. Somerset, who have never won the championship, are lying second place – just 12 points behind championship leaders Essex. A win for Somerset would win them the title but, sadly, the weather forecast for the next three days is: rain/some thunderstorms all day; cloudy with a chance of some drizzle; and rain all day… so it looks odds on ending up as a draw and with Essex being crowned County Champions.

Sadly, as I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions over the years(!), the County Championship game has been relegated to being played predominantly at the start (8 games April-June) or end (3 games September) of the cricket season – with only 3 games being played July-August. For goodness sake, it’s October next week! I thought cricket was our beloved ‘Summer Game’… but apparently not. I freely accept that the limited over games make for good entertainment – and that they’re money-makers as far as the clubs are concerned – but, grumpy old man that I am, I don’t really think they represent ‘proper cricket’.

Interestingly, at the end of an exciting England v Australia Ashes series - in which various ‘cricket experts’ have been rueing the poor batting by the England team (which most have put down to the concentration on one-day or twenty-over cricket) and their inability to adjust to Test Match cricket over 5 days – the BBC’s cricket correspondent, Jonathan Agnew, advocated scrapping the Championship’s current two division and, instead, forming a single division of 12 teams (at present, there are 18 teams in the two divisions). Well, whilst I agree with much of what he says, this raises a number of crucial questions, for example:

1.  If you have a single County Championship division of 12 teams, this would mean that space would need to be found to accommodate four extra 4-day games in each team’s fixture list. In a game which is dominated by one-day cricket and Twenty20 games these days, how would this be achieved? (Please don’t tell me that the powers-that-be would start the cricket season in March and end it in October!).
2.  Oh, and of course, the powers-that-be are going to introduce an “action-packed, unmissable new 100 ball cricket competition” next season featuring “8 brand new city-based teams” (don’t get me started!) at Middlesex (London), Surrey (London), Lancashire (Manchester), Yorkshire (Leeds), Warwickshire (Birmingham), Glamorgan (Cardiff), Nottinghamshire (Nottingham) and Hampshire (Southampton). How will they squeeze these in to the fixture list?
3.  Oh, and if you effectively eliminate six county sides from first class cricket (ie. reducing from 18 to 12 – see paragraph 1), which teams would you save and which would you cull? Assuming the ‘Hundred’ teams listed in paragraph 2 are ‘saved’, which of the following are you going to save (choose 4) and which are you going to cull (choose 6): Somerset? Gloucestershire? Durham? Sussex? Worcestershire? Kent? Essex? Leicestershire? Northamptonshire? Derbyshire? Are you going to contact unsuccessful clubs and tell them the good news? Are you going to speak to the new owners of a wonderful balconied apartment overlooking the cricket ground in Bristol (or Taunton or wherever) and tell them that they won’t be able to watch first-class cricket from their lofty towers in future?

Hey ho! Despite the limited period of play today due to the rain, I actually really enjoyed what I saw (and despite the Somerset wickets!). So that’s it for another season… it’ll be fascinating (and maybe somewhat depressing?) to see what the powers-that-be come up with in the way of fixture lists next year! 
Photo: James Hildreth (Somerset) batting with ex-England captain Alastair Cook (Essex) at first slip.

 

 

very first test match…

During the course of my life, I’ve watched an awful lot of cricket… BUT, ridiculously, I’d never ever been to a Test Match (I know).
This all changed on Thursday, when my wonderful brother treated me to a day at Edgbaston. And it wasn’t just any old Test Match – it was the first day of the first Ashes Test against Australia.
Very, very special.
We had a wonderful day. Alan lives just a short bus ride and 20 minute walk from the ground. We arrived there early “for the full experience” (even though, somewhat annoyingly, we and other early spectators were kept queuing outside the ground well beyond the advertised ‘gates open’ times). Alan provided the match tickets, all the food (prepared in advance, of course)… and I was left merely to buy the beer at the bar (and inadvertently bought two pints of cider for our ‘first round of the day’!! Duh). I think we each had four pints during the course of the day… which paled to insignificance compared with the group of Aussies seated alongside us – who were constantly passing us on their way to the bar for re-fills – and must have consumed much more than a dozen pints each!

Of course, as you might imagine, both Alan and I had spent the previous week or so checking out weather forecasts – as we know only too well, even the best laid plans can go horribly wrong. In my glass half-full way (and given the pretty gloomy advance weather predictions), part of me was convinced that the day would be a complete wash-out... and the forecast given out the day before the start pointed to a 50% chance of rain and some of it heavy (there were times that I’d have gladly accepted seeing ANY play, however brief).

In the event, we were incredibly lucky – a full day’s play (much of it in bright sunshine) with only 20 minutes lost to a brief light shower, which they were able to make up at the end of the day’s play.
There’s something quite magical about watching a sporting occasion when the ground is full to capacity… with expectations and emotions running high, people in fancy dress, the cricket pitch looking perfect, all the banter (most of it light-hearted), the noise and the entire ground feeling akin to an arena for gladiatorial combat.
In the event, it proved to be an absolutely fascinating day’s play. Australia won the toss and elected to bat – despite probably being very tempted to bowl first, given the cloudy conditions. England got off to a wonderful start and took three wickets before lunch and followed this up by reducing Australia to 122-8 (largely thanks to Stuart Broad’s 5-86 and despite bowler Anderson having to leave the field after only 4 overs due injury)… before a brilliant recovery, led by former captain Steve Smith (who ended up scoring a wonderful 144 runs), to finish on 284 all out.  The England openers survived the final two overs to finish the day 10-0.
It was a truly memorable, magical day.
We got home feeling physically drained after watching a compelling day’s play. We’d just WATCHED for goodness sake… we hadn’t bowled 37 overs or spent five-and-a-half hours scoring a century… but we were happy just to relax and reflect on the day. The players and, no doubt, some spectators would be up the following day to do it all over again!
Photo: “Brothers in Arms”: taken by one of our Aussie ‘friends’ before the start of play.
PS: My greatest cricket experience HAD been attending the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity match (perhaps more than 20 years ago) at Lord’s. I’d been guest of a friend who was a long-standing member of Middlesex CC (and someone who appeared to ‘know’ everyone associated with both the club and ground). At lunchtime, he took me into the Old Pavilion and into the ‘home’ (England!) dressing room… and, from there, we walked down the stairs, through the famous Long Room, down the pavilion steps, on to the green, green turf and up to the hallowed cricket square itself. BUT, this was nothing compared to witnessing the first day of the first Test Match against the Aussies!

diego maradona...

I went along to the Watershed this afternoon to see Asif Kapadia’s film “Diego Maradona”. It wasn’t that I was particularly motivated to see a film about a famous footballer, more about avoiding UK politics for a couple of hours…
Obviously, I knew the ‘story’ – brilliant, charismatic, star footballer (we’ll ignore the ‘Hand of God’!) emerging from background of poverty… goes on to captain the Argentine World Cup-winning team and also inspire an ailing Italian football team (Napoli) into becoming league champions (twice)… and, of course, in the process of his growing fame and fortune, he also developed a reputation for being a womaniser, for links with the local ‘mafia’ gang and for hard drugs (which, it seems, the club knew about but ridiculously managed to get other players to donate urine samples on his behalf)(the drug-monitoring rules were obviously pretty ‘basic’ in the 1980s!).
There’s absolutely no doubt that Maradona was an incredibly gifted footballer and much of the football footage shows him at his most mesmerising. He joined Naples football club in 1984; although they had fanatical support, they had massively underachieved and had never won a major trophy. Naples itself was an utterly dysfunctional city. Amazingly, Maradona quickly led the club to their first ever title. The man was duly hailed as a hero… there’s a wonderful clip in the film when Napoli won the league and the fans in the city went wild with delight: someone had hung a large banner outside one of cemeteries, saying (in Italian, obviously!): “You Don’t Know What You Missed!”. However, as the magic later faded, he became a virtual prisoner in the city as he lapsed into drug-taking and despair. His ultimate humiliation probably came when Argentina knocked Italy out of the 1990 World Cup (on penalties) in, of all places, Napoli – and, before the match, Maradona had pleaded with the Napoli supporters to back Argentina!
It felt a bit like watching a documentary about George Best – a hugely-gifted footballer who was readily knocked off the rails by the lure of money, sex, drugs and alcohol.
It was rather depressing to watch images of this footballing idol change from lithe athlete to an over-weight, bloated, incoherent has-been (ok, he’s endeavoured to ‘repair’ himself over recent years, but not altogether successfully).
If you have a fascination in football, I feel sure you’ll find this an interesting film (although I think the bloke sitting behind me actually fell asleep!).
Towards the end of the film, someone described Maradona thus:
“Rebel. Cheat. Hero. God.”
I can’t improve on that.

first day of the 2019 cricket season…

I had originally planned to travel down to Taunton today to watch Somerset play Kent, but the forecast was for light rain all day. I ended getting on the number 75 bus to the Brightside Ground here in Bristol (the forecast looked much more promising) to watch Gloucestershire against Oxford MCCU (a combined team formed from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University)… with the added bonus that entrance was free! The other attraction was that I could cart all my cricket books across town and donate them to the Club Shop’s secondhand bookstall.

Well, the day didn’t quite go as planned:
1. I set out from the house (suitably dressed for watching cricket - in several layers of clothing, including thermal underwear, fleece, waterproof, scarf and gloves… as you do) and, just as I was about to get on the bus, realised that I’d left my bus pass and bank cards at home. I duly retraced my steps, collected the aforementioned articles and eventually caught my bus.
2. The journey was fine and I arrived 25 minutes before start of play. I went straight to the Club Shop (I tell you, those books were bloomin’ heavy and I couldn’t wait to present them to the grateful shop manager!). Sadly, he told me that they weren’t ‘doing’ secondhand books this season… “Tony’s still going to persevere with the books off his own bat* (* that’s a cricket joke!), but he won’t be around until the Cheltenham Festival games later in the summer”. So I ended up having to lug all the books around with me… despite the temptation to leave individual books in secret places around the ground, just to lighten the load.
3. When I first arrived at the ground, the groundstaff were busy clearing away the cricket covers and huge tarpaulins ready for play to start at 11am… but then it started to rain. So the groundstaff had to reverse what they were doing and reinstate the covers/tarpaulins accordingly.
4. And so the crowd (numbering about six in total at that time?) sat around and waited for the shower to pass… which it did, eventually. In the meantime, there was an announcement that it had been decided that the players would be taking an ‘early lunch’ at 12.20pm, with a view to starting play some time around 1pm.
5. So, the ground staff recommenced their work… a tractor busied itself around the outfield clearing the surface rainwater, the senior groundsman started painting the white lines for the batting creases, the stumps were set up… everything was ready for the first ball of the season to be bowled.
6. Well (and you know what’s coming, don’t you?!), at around 12.40pm, it started to rain again (quite hard, steady sort of rain) and dark clouds surrounded the ground. I waited for a while in case there was an improvement…
7. By this time, I was feeling pretty cold and pretty miserable (yes, me!)… I’d been sitting out under cover reading for most of the time (NOT one of my cricket books!) and had also done a very quick stand-up sketch of one of the sightscreens (I know!). It was time to go to the bar, get myself a pint of beer and maybe a pasty… then I thought, do you know, I think I’ll just get on a bus home, get myself some lunch and settle down with my book in comfort!
In fact, play did start (just before 3pm). Gloucestershire batted and, it seems, made a terrible start (reduced to 17-3 at one stage) but slightly recovered to 51-3 before, you guessed it, it started to rain again! They restarted some time after 5.15pm and managed to play for another 40 minutes.
So, yes, I’ve attended my first game of the new cricket season… BUT I’ve still to see a ball being bowled in anger.
But, hey, it’s not ALL bad news. At least I was RIGHT in deciding not to go to Taunton… there was no play there at all due to rain.
Next time. Next time!
Photo: Being a member of the ground staff on a wet day is no fun!
PS: It’s feels somewhat ironic/nostalgic that Gloucestershire were playing Oxford University as, from the summer of 1968 until the mid-1970s, I used to go down to The Parks regularly to watch the cricket – featuring the likes of Imran Khan and Vic Marks.
PPS: Obviously, if you fancy giving some old cricket books a good home, please do let me know (seriously!)(I could let you have a list of titles).

 

last cricket match of the season…

Chris and I were due to go to Taunton on the final day of the three-day game between Somerset and Warwickshire (my home county of birth). Due to his other commitments, it was the only day Chris could make it. However, after a bizarre first day (when 21 wickets fell!!), it was pretty clear that there wouldn’t be much of the game left (if any) by the final day… and so Chris generously suggested that I might prefer to see Day two on my own… which I duly did.
Well, it proved to be another highly-eventful day’s cricket.
In the morning, Somerset had resumed on 41-1 in their second innings (leading by 13 runs (Somerset had been dismissed for just 95… and Warwickshire hadn’t fared much better in reaching 123). Although the pitch wasn’t “dangerous”, it was one that had previously been “used” (when I looked at it closely in the lunch break, it did look very badly worn to me – and I don’t really blame the batsman for treating it with great suspicion!!) and certainly offered help to both seam and spin bowlers.
In the end, Somerset made 211 – largely thanks to captain Chris Rogers (who made 58, after being dropped the night before) and Peter Trego (31, which included two sixes) and set Warwickshire 184 to win. It was a target that SHOULD have been well within their capabilities, but they started disastrously and were soon 34-5… and then 61-8 - largely thanks to some pretty awful Warwickshire batting and to some impressive spin bowling by Somerset’s Leach (5 wickets) and Bess (2 wickets).
But then (in my view – and I’m an expert, of course!), after failing to take a wicket for maybe three overs(?), the Somerset captain Rogers decided to replace the impressive debutant Bess with another spinner, van der Merwe. His five, fairly innocuous, overs went for more than four an over and seemed to give the Warwickshire batsmen Clarke and Wright a new-found confidence. By the time I left for home, Warwickshire had slightly recovered to 86-8, but were still clearly going to lose the match…
In the event, the two batsman – somewhat incredibly, given what had happened earlier - managed to stay at the crease until close of play… and had taken the score to 131-8 (Clarke 42, Wright 38)… leaving just 53 runs for an improbable victory.
Who knows what will happen today (Warwickshire will probably lose their last wickets in the first over!)… but today proved to be a highly-entertaining, absorbing day’s cricket (in that quiet, gentle way that cricket has of doing things!).
“England, Their England” indeed!
Photo: Patel appealing against Trescothick in Somerset’s second innings.

 

valentine’s day massacre…

Yesterday, for the first time for over 20 years (yes, I know, shameful!), I attended a Villa home game.The opponents were Liverpool and I sat alongside my great mates Steve and Dan Eyre (great mates – even if they’re also Liverpool supporters!)
Well, as anyone who has the remotest interest in football will know, things didn’t go too well for the Villa… This is a slight understatement.
They lost 0-6.
It was their worst ever home defeat in the Premier League.
Liverpool didn’t actually play brilliantly either... they really didn’t need to (they scored six goals from nine shots on target!).
Villa’s performance was extremely painful to watch… embarrassing for all concerned. Lack of skill; lack of passion; lack of leadership; lack of ideas; lack of organisation; lack of talent… and, perhaps not surprisingly, complete and utter lack of confidence.
Villa were pretty much clueless in defence (frequently statuesque). In their current plight, the manager must surely look to the senior players to use their experience and to help and encourage the younger players. In the event, Lescott and, in particular, Richards (both England internationals) had terrible games. Lescott’s positioning was dire throughout the afternoon and Richards just didn’t seem interested in playing at all (and he’s the team captain!)
Villa’s midfield was poor (they failed to support the attack in any numbers and left the defence wide open): Westwood was one of the few players who seemed prepared to battle (but I really question if he’s a premier league player – not for much longer anyway!); Bacuna had an awful game (riddled with errors); ironically, defensive midfielder Gana looked reasonable going forward, but lacked any the cutting edge to counter the opposition’s midfield; Veretout was largely anonymous and never really got involved.
All too often, when Villa DID attack, it involved just one isolated forward. Agbonlahor was ineffective and apparently went off with vertigo (yes!); although Gil was probably Villa’s most skilful player, he again lacked support; the “talented” Sinclair (he came on after 58 minutes) consistently fails to “produce the goods” (but he did hit the post and was Villa’s most effective player - not particularly high praise in the circumstances!).
Villa’s performance yesterday was abject.
They’re clearly going to be relegated this season – on paper, they COULD escape but, in reality, based on this performance, it’s just not going to happen… and, frankly, they don’t deserve to avoid relegation.
People talk of Villa being “too big a club for the Championship” and that they’ll have no problem bouncing straight back up to the Premier League the following season. Frankly, without a wholesale cull of the existing playing staff and new investment, this is just a fairytale.
I’m old enough to remember Villa dropping down from the old First Division to the old Third Division in four seasons (1967-1971)… and, believe me, it was a very tough job clawing their way back to Division One (which they did in 1975).
One might have imagined that the fans would have booed the team off the field at the end (yes, there were SOME boos, but not that many in the circumstances) or to have simply staged a mass walk-out 20 minutes before the end… but no. Instead, the wonderful Holte End supporters ended the game in full voice (constant chanting+clapping)… and bragging to the Liverpool supporters that THEY were making more noise at the end of the game!
Dan+Steve were very magnanimous at the end of the game – almost embarrassed by how easy it had been. In the meantime, I’m expecting a letter from Villa’s Board of Directors asking me not to attend another home game for at least another twenty years!
Photograph: the huge Villa banner being paraded at the Holte End before the game (the “exit” sign, top right, seems somewhat apt in the circumstances!).

golfing at studley wood again…

Pete, Ken, Steve and I used to play golf at Studley Wood EVERY Friday afternoon… and we kept this up for about three years.
Those Fridays hold very special memories for all of us.
Sometimes (in the winter, for instance), we only managed to squeeze in four holes before it got dark – ridiculous really, but we’d made a commitment to each other that, despite our incredibly busy working lives, long hours and hectic schedules, we’d try to keep our “golf dates” sacrosanct.
Well, today, for the first time in ages, our golfing fourball rode the fairways once again!!
As I mentioned on facebook this morning, it was going to be the first time I’d have swung a club since playing in France at the start of June… and I predicted that “it could be messy”.
Well, it was rather…
Actually, I should qualify that… yes, it was very messy for me (not my finest round of golf), but the other three played really well. Unfortunately, Pete drew the short straw and played with me and we ended up losing on the 17^th green.
But, hey, the score didn’t really matter (oh no?)!!
Actually, we had a BRILLIANT time – enjoying each other’s company, being on a golf course together again… and beautiful weather.
Very special people. Very happy times.
Photo: the inevitable selfie on the 18^th green (Steve, Pete, Ken and me).

whitewash

I posted this on my 7 January 2011 blog – immediately after England’s victory in the final Ashes Test match in Sydney: “I know that things will change and, in due course, England will be rubbish at cricket again but, in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the moment”.

And so it has proved…
Australia completely outclassed a desperately poor England side to win the series 5-0. I listened to quite a lot of overnight radio coverage of all five test matches and at the end of the third match (the Ashes having been lost), Geoff Boycott described the performance in that particular match along the following lines: “well, I thought the team’s performance in the first two matches was awful and didn’t think it could get any worse… but I was wrong”.
After the fourth Test, Michael Vaughan described the performance as “the worst yet”.
Sadly, after today’s debacle (England were bowled out in their second innings for just 166 in under 32 overs to lose the match by 281 runs), Jonathan Agnew reckoned that the fifth test had been the worst performance… “It's so disappointing to have witnessed that. The fight has gone”!  
I love sport.
I completely accept that there are winners and losers but, even listening to the games on the radio, it felt humiliating… it felt as though the England team (with the exception of perhaps a couple of players) had simply thrown in the towel. There was no fight, no spirit… and THAT was what made it all so depressing.
Photo: from England’s victory in Sydney three years ago!

dear olympic and paralympic athletes…

Just wanted to drop you a quick note to thank for all your efforts over the past six weeks or so (or a lifetime in many of your cases!) which provided us/the nation/the world with such wonderful, uplifting moments of a magical summer of sporting brilliance, endeavour and, in the words of my lovely mate Tony, “a humbling celebration of the human spirit”.

Yes, somewhat predictably, I cried on a number of occasions – sometimes in pure emotion at the end of a race/action; sometimes at the sheer “guts” of a performance; sometimes at the powerful, eloquent articulation by an individual athlete in a post-race interview; sometimes at something that just made me smile or laugh out loud…
I was particularly impressed by the Paralympics and truly believe that it has done much to change people’s attitudes (including mine) towards disability in general… and I just hope that it might make politicians wake up to the rights of disabled people and to the hugely-detrimental effects that welfare cuts are having/likely to have on the lives of SO many individuals and families.
Let us all hope that the Games are indeed a catalyst for positive change – they’ve certainly been inspirational.
Clearly (and you just knew this was going to be the case when you saw the number of people turning out to watch the Olympic Torch), the British public were completely captivated by the Games (despite the initial skepticism/cynicism from some people and some sections of the media), and by your achievements, and their support became a powerful endorsement of both the spirit and pride of the nation and the unique ability that sport has to unify and to empower.
Thank you… very, VERY much.
love+hugs
Steve
PS: Oh, and yes, dear BBC+Channel4… thank you so much for your brilliant television coverage (especially the BBC)(shame about all those adverts Channel4!)… and it would be very good if you could arrange for Clare Balding to become Prime Minister, please. Thank you.

olympic park

Thanks to our lovely friends Andy+Antonia, Moira+I DID manage to get to the Olympic Park yesterday – and it was just wonderful to be there and to experience something of the atmosphere and the enthusiasm of the spectators (including the huge roars from the Olympic Stadium). It was also great to be able to see the impressive architecture “close up” (albeit just the exterior views!) and the landscaped areas/meadow planting (and the impressive water installation below the pedestrian walkway from Stratford station – thanks to Helena for pointing this out to us in advance!). We arrived pretty early and it almost seemed that as if there were more volunteers than spectators… the transport system, the friendliness of the welcome and the efficient security arrangements were really impressive… as was the BEAUTIFUL sunny weather!
I’ve REALLY enjoyed the Olympic/Paralympic Games this summer. The sportsmen/women have been simply amazing and inspiration – as have the enthusiastic crowds… and it was brilliant that we were actually able to get there to “witness” just a little piece of it.  
Photo: Olympic Stadium (by Populous+Buro Happold).
PS:  I’ve been a complete failure when it came to trying to order Olympic tickets! Sadly, I did NOT get round to ordering any tickets all those months ago (pure laziness), but as soon as the Olympics started, I really regretted my lethargy and was DESPERATE to try and get my hands on some tickets.  I duly registered on the London 2012 website and then spent absolutely AGES (over the course of several days) trying to book tickets – for ANYTHING! Unfortunately, I was completely unsuccessful. It appeared that the ONLY tickets I was being offered were Paralympic opening or closing ceremonies at a cost of £300 plus (needless to say, I didn’t pursue these)!
Everybody else(?) eventually seemed to be able to get into see some sporting action, but I’m afraid I was simply useless – BUT nevermind… just getting into the Olympic Park was simply brilliant!
PPS: we also failed to get to see our doctor friend Steve, who was one of the volunteers on the medical team – which was a great shame (but we’ve enjoyed his FB updates through both the Olympic and Paralympic Games!).
PPPS: but we DID see double gold-medallist EllieSimmonds!

the frightening mr gove…

Yes, I know I keep on going on (and on) about Michael Gove…

I’m sorry. I promise to stop (eventually).
On Wednesday, I posted this on facebook:
“My friend Andrew has been at the Royal Courts of Justice over the past couple of days supporting his school’s claim for a judicial review over the forced Academy process. He reports that that it seems that the ONLY person qualified to make a decision over the future of a school is Michael Gove. NOT Local Authorities, NOT Governing Bodies, NOT staff, NOT the local community and NEVER Parents. Consultation can take place after an agreement has been made between Mr Gove and a Private Company and even then there is no obligation to meet and discuss alternatives.
As my friend Andrew says: “Education: the last Gold Mine”.
Yesterday on facebook, I shared a Guardian article about Gove overruling experts to allow the sale of school playing fields.
Somewhat scarily, I noticed this letter in today’s Guardian (from Nigel Gann of Somerset) which rather linked these two stories, entitled “Gove plays fast and loose on play space”:
“The Department for Education's ‘mistake’ over the extent of school sports fields sold and Michael Gove’s overruling of expert advice, need to be seen in the context of the academy conversion policy. As “The Land” magazine reports, over half of secondary school land in England has now been handed over to private trusts accountable only to the secretary of state. All of this land once belonged to the public through its local council. The DfE is unable to quantify this because it doesn't keep records, but in Somerset alone it amounts to around 100 hectares already. And, if the secretary of state agrees, it can be sold off. Some Olympic legacy”.
Indeed!
By the time people wake up to this (similar examples can be found in the realms of the NHS and other Public Services!), it’ll be too late!
Photo: I love this photo – many thanks to Emma N for spotting/sharing (and acknowledgements to arthitectural for their great image).

the party's over (my friend)...

Well, how was it for you?

I absolutely LOVED it! I’ve always loved the Olympics and have thoroughly enjoyed having the luxury (through retirement) of being able to watch an awful lot of London 2012 – albeit courtesy of BBC TV (whose coverage, I thought, was quite brilliant). 
No doubt, over the coming days, we’ll hear from some of the sceptics about all the things that didn’t go well, but surely even the most cynical Brit must admit to having been caught up in the spectacle.
I rather liked Charlie Brooker’s “take” on the Games in the Guardian (written at the end of the first week) when he commented: “Thanks, Olympics, for confounding my inner cynic. In the run up to the Games, I was expecting the whole thing to be little more than a festival of trademarks… I’m finding the Olympics hypnotically watchable, partly because the BBC's coverage is so crisp and comprehensive and informative and useable, and isn't jammed full of brand names and commercials. And it's partly because … well … look, I don't know”.

These were some of my favourite memorable moments: 
·      Danny Boyle’s amazing opening ceremony, which seemed to set the tone.
·      “Super Saturday” nights in the Olympic Stadium when GB won four gold medals (Mo Farah x2, Jess Ennis and Greg Rutherford).
·      ALL the rowing at Eton Dorney. Huge relief and rejoicing that Kath Grainger finally won her gold medal – but my favourite moment was Katherine Copeland’s post-race television interview when a bewildered Copeland looked towards her rowing partner Sophie Hosking and said “we won the Olympics!” (yes, and it did make me cry!).
·      The amazing cycling in the Velodrome – but especially the Women’s team pursuit (I just love Laura Trott!) and Chris Hoy’s final win. I think this BBC clip sums it up.
·      The sense that the volunteers were brilliant ambassadors.
·      I LOVED the regular (and often hilarious) facebook updates from lovely friend Isabelle.
·      It wasn’t all about winning… great to see people exceeding their individual expectations and produced personal best performances. For example: Lawrence Clarke’s fourth place in the 110m hurdles final (despite the fact that he was educated at Eton!) and the rower (“The Otter”) from Niger.
·      I loved the big screens and deckchairs in Bristol (in Millennium Square and Quakers Friars).
·      I also REALLY enjoyed David Rudisha’s world record run in the Men’s 800m.
·      Oh, and of course, there was always the AMAZING Usain Bolt!!

Would I have enjoyed it as much if Team GB hadn’t performed so brilliantly? I would love to say “of course I would”, but I know I’d be lying. Nevertheless, it would have been difficult NOT to have been impressed by the venues, the organisation, the enthusiastic crowds and the Olympic spirit portrayed by virtually all the participants. 
Overall though, I think the most impressive aspect of the past fortnight has been the reaction from members of the public… the support was simply wonderful – both in terms of enthusiasm and numbers (and grateful that this support wasn’t particularly jingoistic or blinkered either!). It seemed as if EVERYONE (if they lived within easy reach of London) wanted to be involved… and that people who had perhaps missed out on Olympic tickets were determined to turn out on the streets for the free events – culminating in the MASSIVE numbers that lined the streets for yesterday’s men’s marathon.  
The Olympic torch relay seemed to set the tone and, by the time of the Opening Ceremony, you just sensed that the support was going to be immense (despite those empty seats allocated to members of the “Olympic Family” in the early days!)… and so it proved!
I have to admit that I was a little concerned that the Closing Ceremony was simply going to be a big music gig-cum-party (actually, one of the best bits was watching it with lovely friends Sue+Si!). Fortunately, it was much more than that – although I did think it went on a little too long (did we really need two songs from George Michael?).  
Please note: I didn’t cry during the closing ceremony, but I DID cry at various times yesterday as the BBC played a series of video memories (with suitable musical accompaniment)! I can’t find the particular one that really got me going, so this one will have to do!  
I’m really going to miss my daily Olympic routine… and can’t wait for the Paralympics!
PS: Not only did GB finish third on the medal list (compared with 4^th in Beijing), but they won SO many more medals in London - 47 medals in Beijing (19G 13S 15B), but an astonishing 65 medals in 2012 (29G 17S 19B)… but who’s counting!
Photo: Bristol entered into the Olympic spirit in lots of small ways but, for me, the best one was the mini three-lane running track (lap distance 30m perhaps?!) plus medal podium next to M-Shed. Iris+Rosa made their own Olympic medals - which I subsequently awarded to them after some pretty frantic athletic activity (much to the amusement of some privileged spectators)…

let the games begin...

I thought last night's opening ceremony was simply spectacular... amazingly impressive and, at times, hugely moving (as far as I’m concerned, anyway – although I DIDN’T actually cry!).

So many “boxes” ticked quite brilliantly: national pride; celebrating diversity, character and achievement; breathtakingly different; quirky; funny; moving; technically wonderful; surprising; and magical; (and, probably, much of it only understandable to us Brits!). I think the BBC’s Chief Sports writer, Tom Fordyce, has described it perfectly here.  
And I thought the decision to use seven young athletes to light the cauldron (and WHAT a cauldron!) at the end of the opening ceremony was absolutely PERFECT… and quite inspirational. Just imagine if YOU had been one of those nominated young athletes – they must have been BURSTING with pride!
I have to admit to having some last-minute nerves about the ceremony(!)… I feared the organisers were going to get things embarrassingly “wrong”… perhaps be too jingoistic? Even amateurish or missing the point? Of course, I needn’t have worried – it was all just brilliant (except, perhaps, for the GB team outfits!?).
Magnificent!
As you might be aware, there’s been an awful lot of hype regarding how successful the GB Olympic team will be in 2012. Frankly, although it would be wonderful if the team DID win lots of medals, I’m not all that fussed about the team’s success rate (I accept I might feel a little different in a few days’ time!).
But, I have to say, I also really enjoyed the lead-up to the festival – the infectious excitement and the huge public support for the entire Olympic torch journey (which really surprised me).
So, feeling proud to be British feels pretty good!
PS: Perhaps, my one regret is that I wasn’t one of the thousands of Olympic volunteers (in London, Weymouth or wherever). I can partly excuse myself due to my recent voluntary work with the Iona Community – until January, I wasn’t sure if and when I would be working on the island. This meant that I couldn’t commit myself very far in advance. Perhaps I could and SHOULD have made further efforts…