GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 90
June 2010
Caption Competition
Andrew Flintoff: How did you get on in the World T20 lads?
Paul Collingwood: We won!
Andrew Flintoff: Pull the other one.
Craig Kieswetter: Who is this guy?
Andrew Flintoff: I am Freddie Pedalo Flintoff who single handedly won two Ashes series.
Michael Lumb: No, sorry that doesn’t ring any bells. What part of the Cape are you from?
Andrew Flintoff: Very funny. I am planning to be back soon. Who will be making way for me?
Tim Bresnan: Have a word with Peg Leg he might be able to get you a job with TMS.
Out and About with the Professor
Lords on the first day of a Test is always special. I know it was “only” Bangladesh but Headquarters is Headquarters and there is, I fancy, more than a little of the patronising in some of the press comment I have seen about the Bangladesh team. In any event, I was excited, in my seat nice and early, and anticipating a good day’s play…which indeed it turned out to be.
Also I was looking forward to seeing our heroic lads (or at least those who were not “rested”) back from their triumph in the Caribbean. There has been a rather muted reaction to the Twenty/20 World Cup win – even less than in the case of the Ashes win. Compare that with the reaction that there might be to a football World Cup win. Of course, we all know why. The lack of exposure on free-to-air TV meant that not many people saw it. Again, the comparison with the football event is compelling. I read that the moneybags in the counties are terrified that Test cricket might be given the protected status of free-to-air viewing and they would lose the £2 million each they currently get from the ECB. Presumably, if a sponsor could be found that would offer three times as much as Sky on the proviso that no TV coverage of any sort took place, the counties would grab it the loot with both hands. Where on earth do they think the future enthusiasts for the game are going to come from? Who do they think will turn up to watch county cricket when the current generation has gone?
Happily there is still a decent crowd for Test cricket in this country and so I was able to settle down with the 10,000 or so other spectators to see Trott play an ideal test innings, Strauss get some useful runs, Morgan play his reverse sweep and Pietersen play the sort of shot which has evoked some criticism, as I recall, in the pages of this journal. It may not stand up to closer analysis, but Trott seems to be two different batsmen – the “playing the quicks batter” (aggression, courage, attack) and the “playing the spinners batter” (frozen to the spot). He certainly went through a very quiet period after he had got his hundred when you would have thought he was seeing the ball well enough to belt it to all parts. But that is a quibble; he played an excellent innings even if the bowling wasn’t too special (it was only Bangladesh after all).
Strauss took a long time to get going but then looked to have a hundred for the asking before a slight misjudgement saw him off. Cook, for all that the replay showed the ball missing, didn’t play much of a shot. And then came Morgan. I don’t know if the possession of that surname requires eccentricity or whether it is just an optional extra, but I can’t recall ever seeing anyone batting the way he does. I hope he remains in the side just for the enjoyment of seeing what he’s going to do next. He is clearly a great talent – the question is…talent for what?
I had hoped to see Finn as well but clearly on the first day you would not expect to see both teams bat. But he does look the part and it is interesting to see how someone who comparatively recently was playing in Hertfordshire club cricket could perform at this level. It is good of course that a young fast bowler can break through into the national side – I was pondering, when watching Somerset earlier in the season, how it must feel to be a promising quick bowler for them and trying to get into the county side past Charl Willoughby, Alfonso Thomas, and Damien Wright. One or two do, of course, get through, but just think of the dozens and dozens who get disheartened and give up. What possible sense can there be in counties spending part of their £2 million hand-outs on players who, while very useful cricketers, aren’t going to make their own national sides and aren’t qualified for ours?
Yorkshire are still, of course, basking in the smug glory of playing 10 home-grown players and are…just…still top of the table – not that that is of interest to more than a few score people who, like us, populate the terraces for a county match.
I fancy that Bangladesh might do better than everyone suggests and, as reported in last months’ issue, it doesn’t do too well to assume natural superiority – we did that the India and Sri Lanka not too long ago and look what happened there.
England Matters
I have occasionally been a mild critic of England in these columns and it was, therefore, extraordinary to find almost nothing to criticise about England’s progress through the Twenty 20 World Cup. For the first time in such matches England seemed to know how to win and relentlessly outplayed the opposition. I include in this the game they would surely have won if the D/L method had not made the West Indies task ridiculously easy after rain reduced their target.
It is hard to single out particular areas of improvement since they were excellent in all areas. It was most pleasing to find that they have eventually smelled the coffee and realised that the first six overs are not for playing yourself in and, indeed, represent the best chance of scoring quickly with the field in and the ball still hard. Lumb and Kieswetter showed serious intent from the outset and Kieswetter is a revelation with his uninhibited aerial hitting. KP hit the ball ferociously hard in the latter stages and Morgan confirmed his status as a world class performer at this level.
I find bowling harder and harder to fathom but the experts tell me that England’s performance was state of the art and magnificent. This translates to meaning that they can bowl slow bouncers (which used to be called long hops or buffet balls) successfully and know when to bowl Yorkers regardless of whether the batsmen are stepping back into the crease to play them on the up. Swann seems to mesmerise the opposition. He has developed into a fine international bowler but does little apart from flight to trick the batsmen.
This was international cricket of the highest order. They outplayed all opposition from start to finish in each game. It seems really odd to be acknowledging this.
Middlesex Matters-1
The Great Jack Morgan updates us on Middlesex developments
The Championship match against Gloucestershire was very similar to the Glamorgan match. Though the pitch was neither as green nor as bouncy, Middlesex again failed to take advantage of friendly seam bowling conditions on day one, though Iain O'Brien (7-48) is exempt from criticism. Jon Batty made 49 in 49 overs, Hamish Marshall a rather more entertaining 72 and James Franklin (44*) took the total up to a very respectable 268. Middlesex never looked like equalling Gloucestershire's total and, despite the efforts of John Simpson (43) and Shaun Udal (55), they subsided for a disappointing 203, with the bowling honours going to the experienced (but still hostile) Steve Kirby and the inexperienced (but very promising) Gemaal Hussain (born in East London, but educated in Nottingham and at Leeds/ Bradford UCCE).
When Gloucestershire batted again only 19 year old Chris Dent (42) looked comfortable and Middlesex were back in the game at 123 for 7, but Chris Taylor (61) was still at the crease and, finding a useful ally in Jon Lewis (43), they put on 70 for the eighth wicket and managed to nudge the target up to 289 in 170 overs. The wicket never quite flattened out the way that the track for the Glamorgan game had done and with the weather deteriorating and Strauss and Shah falling early, there was only ever going to be one result. Newman (42) and Malan (60) applied themselves better than the rest, but the game would have been over in 3 days if bad light had not intervened after tea on day 3. Newcomer Hussain (8 for 96 in the match) and Kirby (7 for 86 in the match) were again the stars for Gloucestershire. Middlesex did not bat well enough: only Malan (85) and Udal (67) contributed more than 50 runs in the match; and though the match figures of O'Brien (8 for 105), Gareth Berg (4 for 121) and Danny Evans (4 for 67) do not look too bad, this was a helpful surface for seamers and, collectively, the pace attack was not good enough. By the end of the Gloucestershire second innings, Danny Evans was injured again and off the field.
Middlesex have played four ordinary sides in the championship so far and have lost to all of them. It is Middlesex's worst ever start to a season and it is quite likely to continue. Sack the manager! Morgan, Dexter and Collins have yet to appear in the team, but it will be a huge task to lift this squad out of the mire. The only batsman with anything to be proud of is Malan (average 44), while the leading bowlers are Finn, 21 wickets at 18, Berg, 15 wickets at 30 and O'Brien, 13 wickets at 21. Middlesex found it necessary to use four twelfth men (Toby Roland-Jones, Neil Dexter, Dan Housego and Kabir Toor) for fielding duties, while a fifth (Steve Finn) strolled round the boundary with the players' drinks (strongly rumoured to be a bottle of Smirnoff for Scott Newman and a six-pack of extra strong lager for Danny Evans). Unbalanced Teams (Part 127): astonishingly, Gloucestershire took the field with a side containing 6 seamers, 3 wicket-keepers and no spinners. In addition to first choice keeper Batty, second choice keeper, Steve Snell, played as a batsman and England U-19 batter, Chris Dent, is also a keeper. Their attack was based on their four front-line seamers: Lewis, Franklin, Kirby and Hussain, but their best two back-up bowlers, Marshall and Alex Gidman, are also seamers. Bob Proctor would doubtless argue that the twelfth man should be counted as one of the team and if that is the case, the seamer count goes up to 7 as twelfth man Anthony Ireland was yet another seamer! Anyone suggesting that the occasional off-spin of Chris Taylor (career record: 24 wickets in 11 seasons at an average of 53) constitutes a spin attack, has a very flimsy basis for an argument and Chris bowled one over in the match. Unbalanced or not, they were a better team than Middlesex.
Carlin Matters
Paddy Carlin just missed the last edition when he sent me these notes that he made on an early appearance at Lords
I went to the first and third days of Middlesex v Gloucestershire. It was a lovely day but almost no one was there. Clearly no early season enthusiasm here. Middlesex had no players born in the county and five overseas players excluding Strauss and Shah but including Malan. On the other hand Gloucestershire had two born in their county and three born overseas.
Strauss is a concern as he looks as though his feet are in a bucket of cement. Is he always as immobile? He made no runs as didn’t Shah who unfortunately never makes runs when I see him. Newman scored 90% of his runs to third man including four boundaries until Gloucestershire unsportingly changed the field. The best batsmen on show were Malan who plays and misses a lot but at least has a go and Taylor from Gloucestershire who is a brilliant fielder as well. The worst batting moment was Simpson’s gloves which were a lurid luminescent B&Q orange. Will these last the season or was a just for a bet?
Murtagh is a fine and clever bowler and of military medium pace but he generates this from a thirty five yard run. This is surely about six yards too long and if he bowls around five hundred overs in the season it represents nearly twenty miles of unnecessary running. All the bowlers were largely on top of the batting and Gloucestershire’s attack looked better than the Middlesex equivalent. If Middlesex can’t beat Gloucestershire, who can they beat?
As a League umpire I naturally have defective eyesight but I was not aware of bad hearing. However, I had extreme difficulty in understanding the carefully enunciated words of the Lord’s “plumy” announcer when he surprised me with two announcements. The first invited members to what promised to be a most interesting talk on “Pork Pie technology” by a Mr Hawkins. It took further hearings for me to decipher that it was in fact Hawkeye technology. The second announcement was when, I swear, he announced a clothing change at the Nursery End when Gidman came on to bowl. Can anyone corroborate this or am I going mad?
I shared a couple of rants with some Middlesex members. The first was about why bowlers don’t bowl at the stumps more and use a five-four field instead of using six-three and bowling a yard outside the off stump. The second involved the paucity of county cricket at Lord’s with one match in September clashing with Surrey at the Oval. General dissatisfaction all round.
Blame Matters
Regular readers will know that I am all in favour of finding people to blame. The Great Jack Morgan finds excellent examples
Will Smith has been replaced as Durham captain by Phil Mustard on May 14th! This is ludicrous: he was good enough to lead them to the Championship last season, but now, after four matches, their poor start to the season is all his fault! It is clear to all except ridiculous chairman Clive Leach that the reason for their poor form is that all their bowlers have been out injured: is this Will's fault? I suppose that if the bowlers regain fitness under Mustard's leadership, he will be hailed as a great skipper? Nonsense.
More nonsense: R Key is blaming Kent's poor start on the absence of J Tredwell in the Caribbean, but most counties have someone missing at present and the absence of a spinner is hardly noticeable because there have been seamers' tracks all over the country and some counties are not even bothering to play a spinner at all!
Strange Elevens
I responded to The Great Jack Morgan’s poser in the last issue as follows
“I suspect that your team has all played for both Surrey and Middlesex. I didn’t know that Smith was in that category. My Who’s Who has arrived today but I am far too lazy to look him up.”
He replied
“Tom Smith was on loan at Surrey last season and played in two 40 over games and that is good enough for me!”
Exhaustion Matters
Stuart Broad has been rested from the test series against Bangladesh. He has just returned from a two week holiday in the Caribbean, in which he bowled a total of thirteen overs and as far as I can recall didn’t get to bat at all. He is twenty two years old and gym fit. Why on earth does he need a rest?
Middlesex Matters-2
The Great Jack Morgan continues his review of the opening matches of the season
What a team those Middlesex chaps are! They did well to build a first innings lead of 79 at Hove (Dexy and Bergy were the stars of this effort), but then looked to have blown it by firstly allowing Sussex to recover from 118 for 5 to 321 a/o in their second innings and secondly collapsing to 78 for 5 in their own second innings. Fortunately, Dawid (100*) was able to steer Middlesex back onto a winning course with assistance from Bergy, while Murts (8 for 123 in the match) enjoyed a much improved game with the ball. Sussex have now joined the ranks of those seeing the benefits of the two-keeper strategy and both Priory and Hoddy scored centuries in the match. The humiliation for Middlesex, however, was in allowing Monty "Sir Donald" Panesar to reach a career best of 46* and help Hoddy to set Middlesex a challenging 243 to win, which almost allowed RSCMJ to pull off a win for the leaders. Haters of skipper Shaun Udal (there are a few around) will no doubt have noted that the worst ever start of four consecutive defeats, was immediately halted when Shaun was unfit. Credit must go to his deputy Straussy, but his own form with the bat has been pretty dire, only made to look tolerable by the even worse form of Newman and Shah in a badly underperforming top three. The win has lifted us off the bottom, but we have played more games than most. Will this be the start of a winning run? We have Derbyshire at Lord's next week and they are a decent side... but we have just defeated the leaders, so why should we worry? The main problem could be the weather, which sounds absolutely dreadful, not all that wet, but the temperatures are scarcely going to reach double figures. Finny is back in the squad for the Derbyshire game.
The Middlesex versus Derbyshire game was played in ferociously low temperatures and yet another greenish seamers' track was presented to the captains (surprising as it has hardly rained since March) and this was a wicket that produced an unacceptable number of shooters. Visiting skipper Chris Rogers chose to bat as others have done, but I do not understand why captains do not choose to field under such bowler friendly conditions. The home seamers made better use of the helpful wicket than they had done against either Glamorgan or Gloucestershire and had Derbyshire out for 196 in 87 overs. Life was a struggle for the batsmen and only Paul Borrington (46) and Chesney Hughes (41) made more than 29 as the five Middlesex pace bowlers shared the wickets between them. When Middlesex batted, there was the usual disaster as the top three had gone with only 56 on the board, but this brought Neil Dexter to the wicket and he immediately started playing some immaculate drives as if it were a perfect surface, but no one else found it easy until Dexter was joined by Gareth Berg at 126 for 5. Bergy was relatively circumspect to start with, but soon he was matching Dexy's scoring rate and then exceeding it as the pair put on a wonderful 202 in 39 overs for the sixth wicket. Well as Neil played for his 112 (with 14 fours off 180 balls), he only just managed to reach his ton before the rampaging Gareth recorded his maiden first class century and went on to an outstanding 125 from the same number of deliveries with 3 sixes and 14 fours. It was a splendid effort from the pair of them and took Middlesex to a total of 374 and a lead of 178. Tim Groenewald took the bowling honours for the visitors with 4 for 62. Most of us were expecting an improved performance from Derbyshire in the second innings, but this was not to be the case as they rapidly declined to 71 for 8 with all the main batsmen out and the Middlesex seamers apparently in total control. However, 19 year old Chesney Hughes (who is an Anguillan with a British passport and was deputising for left arm spinner Robin Peterson) refused to give the home bowlers the respect they felt they deserved and hit out for an impressive 59* off 55 balls with one six and 9 fours. To me, he looked as if he should be in this side as a batsman (he made an excellent 100 runs in the match for once out while none of his colleagues made more than 46) with his bowling as an optional extra (7-0-56-0). Chesney found a helpful partner in no 10 Tim Groenewald (with a career average of 21, what is he doing at no 10?), who had impressed some of us at Uxbridge last season, and the pair more than doubled the score and forced skipper Shaun Udal to bring himself on to take the only wicket to fall to a spinner in the match as he snared Groenewald for 27. Derbyshire succumbed for 143 and lost by an innings and 35 runs, the match taking only two and a half days and 221 overs. The seamers shared the other wickets, but Steve Finn emerged as the bowler of the match with 4 for 19 in the second innings to give him impressive match figures of 7 for 64. I do not think that Middlesex will find many other matches as easy as this one, but that is two wins on the trot and as Derbyshire were second in the table, they must now be thinking that it is not too late to get involved in the promotion race. They are right to have that ambition, of course, but I believe that there are still problems to solve with the weak top three, the back up bowling and the keeping (Simpson had a poor match here, but luckily, his errors were inexpensive). Dawid Malan was awarded his cap before the start of play on day 2. The lads go to the Oval next week to face struggling Surrey. It will be very interesting to see how the two sides fare in this one and Surrey (who have two matches in hand) will now be as desperate as Middlesex were to get away from the bottom of the table.
Creeping elimination
It suddenly occurred to me that we were a quarter of the way through the County Championship season by the end of April. It used to be the case that hardly any county championship cricket was played in April at all. The weather enabled much of it to be played but had it been adverse a large chunk of the season could have been washed out. This is becoming the thin end of the wedge. Proper cricket is not being dropped but simply squeezed to the periphery of the season. Soon it will be played in March and October only.
All of this is a direct result of the IPL phenomenon. ITV’s foray into broadcast cricket facilitated an inspection of this circus. Whatever one’s views of this form of cricket as a media event it is staggeringly successful. The grounds are large and from what I saw are always full. This is not QPR or Lords type full but 55000. The only premiership clubs getting bigger crowds are Manchester United and Arsenal. Whether the spectators know or care anything about cricket is largely irrelevant to the celebratory nature of the events themselves.
All of the sideshow elements of the original Twenty20 in England have gone. There is no speed dating in the marquee, no bouncy castles, no blooding of youngsters. Established international cricketers are kept out of the final sides as the seven Indian players requirement bites. The rest breaks are probably there primarily to facilitate advertising on the television. The cheerleaders are an import from the NFL and by the look of them the girls, who are blond and very white, are probably imported too( there is a whole PhD thesis begging to be written on the psychology of this). The games all appear to be played in the evenings under floodlights.
It is no small wonder that the ECB and the English counties want a slice of this cornucopia. So what is stopping them getting it? They have not got the razzmatazz feature yet. In India it has become a cultural activity including everybody who is anybody. And they all go along to be seen. The cameras are constantly picking out celebrities in the crowds. If they want to expand the concept in England they will have to get the wealthy involved in the ownership of the teams or as sponsors in some way of the matches. The cosmopolitan nature of the teams needs to expand. The answer may well be to have franchised teams playing in this tournament rather than the counties. I suppose that the Hants link with the Rajasthan Royals is the beginning of this. The grounds need to be more stadium like to accommodate seriously big crowds. Oh and it would help if the weather were kinder that it was last year. It needs warm evenings not cold, wet and windy conditions. All of this bodes badly for county championship cricket. Or does it? If franchised teams played the 20/20 stuff then county cricket could be played alongside it and not relegated to spring and autumn dates.
Middlesex Matters-3
The Great Jack Morgan has yet more to tell us
The pitch for the Championship match between Surrey and Middlesex looked (unlike the Lord's tracks) like a typical straw coloured belter on which it would be difficult to bowl sides out and that (apart from a strange spell on day 3) was how it turned out. Surrey won the toss and batted for most of the first two days in compiling 490. Opener Arun Harinath made a very dull 39 in 42 overs, skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown made an excellent 55 off 60 balls, while Northern Irish wicket keeper Gary Wilson also batted well for 62... oh... and I almost forgot, Mark Ramprakash got a few... er... 223 I think it was. The Middlesex pace attack was having little joy, so skipper Shaun Udal did much of the bowling, picking up 5 for 128. After tea on day 2, Middlesex got off to a rare good start, which made Surrey's rate of progress look pedestrian and Middlesex closed the day on 148-0 at better than four runs per over. Things changed quickly on day 3 however and it was hard to put one's finger on the reasons: from 168 for no wicket, the visitors slumped to 324 all out with unsung, but useful, seamer Jade Dernbach claiming 5 for 68. Openers Andy Strauss (92) and Scott Newman (91) enjoyed their best partnership of the season, but after that only Gareth Berg (45*) looked at ease. But why was Jade so successful when no other seamer made any impression, both sides pressed three spinners (and should probably have chosen a second specialist spinner) into service and both bowled a total of 80 overs of spin in the match? There was relief in the Middlesex camp when Rory decided against enforcing the follow on as they would have to bat for less than a day to save the match instead of the day and a half that they were expecting. When Surrey batted again, Harinath made a much more enterprising 63 and Ramps made yet another century (103*) as they set Middlesex a theoretical 374 to win in 85 overs. Mark has now made 111 first class hundreds and 16 double hundreds, a good proportion of these were scored for Middlesex, of course, but it seems like most of the rest of them have been made against us! Strauss (61), Newman (43) and Owais Shah (40*) ensured that there was no danger of Middlesex losing what had frankly been a pretty dull match. Fox sightings in the match were far too numerous to count (perhaps their numbers have been increased by refugees from Hove where they now shoot their foxes?), but the ground staff have now started to keep the foxes off the pitch as they had begun to disrupt play, but the problem with this is that the absence of foxes has encouraged the vast flocks of pigeons to return and they were disrupting the match far more than the foxes had done.
Second Eleven matters
The Great Jack Morgan can always find a venue
50 over cricket is alive and well in the 2s, so I went to the Oval to see Surrey 2s take on a weak looking Somerset team, of whom only Mark Turner, Max Waller and Mark Nelson (ex-Northants) were familiar. Surrey's decision to put in Somerset was soon justified as they had 4 bunnies back in the hutch with only 38 on the board (and it could have been even worse for Somerset as Surrey put down 3 slip catches in the first 20 overs), but sound opener Alex Barrow (57) found good support from newcomer AJ Tye (43) in a useful stand of 79 for the fifth wicket. The next best partnership was 49 for the eighth wicket by pace bowlers Turner (29) and Adam Dibble (31), but Somerset were dismissed for a below par 213. Seamer Tim Linley (3-40) and skipper Matt Spriegel with his off-breaks (3-39) were the best of the Surrey bowlers. Ex-Middlesex man Dave Burton opened the bowling with Linley and took the wicket of Nelson. Surrey were favourites to win from this position and duly did so by four wickets, though they made slightly heavy weather of it. Left-hander Tom Lancefield was the top Surrey batter with 51, while Spriegel completed a successful all-round match with 43 not out. Fox count: 8.
Circulation Matters
I received the following from Gemma
“My Grandad, Wally Walton, played for Wembley Park Cricket Club in the fifties with Roy Dodson, Rob and Geoff Cleaver and also Vic Duncombe. He has kept in touch with Roy through cricket and now through bowls and has always seen his copy of "Googlies and Chinamen". Roy thinks it might be more convenient for me to print off copies since my Grandad is not into modern technology! Would you be able to let me know how I can be added to the list of people who can get a copy please?”
I was delighted to comply with this request and duly added Gemma to the email circulation. On the rare occasions that I meet readers I am sometimes asked how many receive Googlies. The last issue was emailed to 850 recipients and a further 18 receive a hard copy through the mail. How many read it is a different matter...
Old Danes Matters
Shepherds Bush CC has again kindly agreed to host an Old Danes Gathering on Friday 30th July 2010. All Old Danes from any generation will be welcome and in the past three years there have been representatives from the forties, fifties, sixties and seventies. It is appreciated that some attendees have to travel considerable distances and wives, partners and non OD friends will also be made welcome. The event will start around 2pm and will continue into the evening so it is possible to join the event at any stage during the afternoon. The bar is open all afternoon and food will be available. Would Old Danes please reply whether or not you plan to attend so that I can start to circulate a list of planned attendees to encourage others to join us?
Football Matters-1
Don Shearwood sent me this
A refinement of the offside law for women (which you printed in G&C) as sent to me by an Alexandra Park vet. I accused him of thinking like a woman - he hasn't spoken to me since.
“Another ploy would be for her friend to make her way to the front of the shop, adjacent with the till. She could then push in front of the other shopper, receive the purse, buy the shoes, safe in the knowledge that the purse had been passed backwards, rendering her onside.
Or, she could take advantage of the ambiguity surrounding the modern interpretation of the law:-
She moves towards the cashier, pretending to ask her a question. At this point she is offside, but passive. The other person in the queue becomes agitated and suspects she is seeking to gain an advantage. As she is at the till, and it could be said she is interfering with pay. Once she has engaged and distracted the others, she deftly adjusts her position so that she becomes active but able to receive the purse in the space she created.”
Football Matters-2
Don Shearwood updates us on Ellerslie Road alumni
I was disappointed that no mention was made of Mark Lazarus when pondering the 1967 QPR "double" side. Mark is still alive, and the guv'nor, though probably retired, of Mark Lazarus & Son, a removals company operating in the Romford area. Thought you and your devoted readers might be interested
Football Matters-3
Since taking over as manager of his Ladies football team Andrew Baker has been indebted to the tireless efforts of Kelvin West who has always been on hand to assist in any way. Kelvin sent me this photo of the team in the plunge bath taken recently. He tells me that whenever possible he selflessly joins the Ladies in the bath to assist in the bonding process.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 90
June 2010
Caption Competition
Andrew Flintoff: How did you get on in the World T20 lads?
Paul Collingwood: We won!
Andrew Flintoff: Pull the other one.
Craig Kieswetter: Who is this guy?
Andrew Flintoff: I am Freddie Pedalo Flintoff who single handedly won two Ashes series.
Michael Lumb: No, sorry that doesn’t ring any bells. What part of the Cape are you from?
Andrew Flintoff: Very funny. I am planning to be back soon. Who will be making way for me?
Tim Bresnan: Have a word with Peg Leg he might be able to get you a job with TMS.
Out and About with the Professor
Lords on the first day of a Test is always special. I know it was “only” Bangladesh but Headquarters is Headquarters and there is, I fancy, more than a little of the patronising in some of the press comment I have seen about the Bangladesh team. In any event, I was excited, in my seat nice and early, and anticipating a good day’s play…which indeed it turned out to be.
Also I was looking forward to seeing our heroic lads (or at least those who were not “rested”) back from their triumph in the Caribbean. There has been a rather muted reaction to the Twenty/20 World Cup win – even less than in the case of the Ashes win. Compare that with the reaction that there might be to a football World Cup win. Of course, we all know why. The lack of exposure on free-to-air TV meant that not many people saw it. Again, the comparison with the football event is compelling. I read that the moneybags in the counties are terrified that Test cricket might be given the protected status of free-to-air viewing and they would lose the £2 million each they currently get from the ECB. Presumably, if a sponsor could be found that would offer three times as much as Sky on the proviso that no TV coverage of any sort took place, the counties would grab it the loot with both hands. Where on earth do they think the future enthusiasts for the game are going to come from? Who do they think will turn up to watch county cricket when the current generation has gone?
Happily there is still a decent crowd for Test cricket in this country and so I was able to settle down with the 10,000 or so other spectators to see Trott play an ideal test innings, Strauss get some useful runs, Morgan play his reverse sweep and Pietersen play the sort of shot which has evoked some criticism, as I recall, in the pages of this journal. It may not stand up to closer analysis, but Trott seems to be two different batsmen – the “playing the quicks batter” (aggression, courage, attack) and the “playing the spinners batter” (frozen to the spot). He certainly went through a very quiet period after he had got his hundred when you would have thought he was seeing the ball well enough to belt it to all parts. But that is a quibble; he played an excellent innings even if the bowling wasn’t too special (it was only Bangladesh after all).
Strauss took a long time to get going but then looked to have a hundred for the asking before a slight misjudgement saw him off. Cook, for all that the replay showed the ball missing, didn’t play much of a shot. And then came Morgan. I don’t know if the possession of that surname requires eccentricity or whether it is just an optional extra, but I can’t recall ever seeing anyone batting the way he does. I hope he remains in the side just for the enjoyment of seeing what he’s going to do next. He is clearly a great talent – the question is…talent for what?
I had hoped to see Finn as well but clearly on the first day you would not expect to see both teams bat. But he does look the part and it is interesting to see how someone who comparatively recently was playing in Hertfordshire club cricket could perform at this level. It is good of course that a young fast bowler can break through into the national side – I was pondering, when watching Somerset earlier in the season, how it must feel to be a promising quick bowler for them and trying to get into the county side past Charl Willoughby, Alfonso Thomas, and Damien Wright. One or two do, of course, get through, but just think of the dozens and dozens who get disheartened and give up. What possible sense can there be in counties spending part of their £2 million hand-outs on players who, while very useful cricketers, aren’t going to make their own national sides and aren’t qualified for ours?
Yorkshire are still, of course, basking in the smug glory of playing 10 home-grown players and are…just…still top of the table – not that that is of interest to more than a few score people who, like us, populate the terraces for a county match.
I fancy that Bangladesh might do better than everyone suggests and, as reported in last months’ issue, it doesn’t do too well to assume natural superiority – we did that the India and Sri Lanka not too long ago and look what happened there.
England Matters
I have occasionally been a mild critic of England in these columns and it was, therefore, extraordinary to find almost nothing to criticise about England’s progress through the Twenty 20 World Cup. For the first time in such matches England seemed to know how to win and relentlessly outplayed the opposition. I include in this the game they would surely have won if the D/L method had not made the West Indies task ridiculously easy after rain reduced their target.
It is hard to single out particular areas of improvement since they were excellent in all areas. It was most pleasing to find that they have eventually smelled the coffee and realised that the first six overs are not for playing yourself in and, indeed, represent the best chance of scoring quickly with the field in and the ball still hard. Lumb and Kieswetter showed serious intent from the outset and Kieswetter is a revelation with his uninhibited aerial hitting. KP hit the ball ferociously hard in the latter stages and Morgan confirmed his status as a world class performer at this level.
I find bowling harder and harder to fathom but the experts tell me that England’s performance was state of the art and magnificent. This translates to meaning that they can bowl slow bouncers (which used to be called long hops or buffet balls) successfully and know when to bowl Yorkers regardless of whether the batsmen are stepping back into the crease to play them on the up. Swann seems to mesmerise the opposition. He has developed into a fine international bowler but does little apart from flight to trick the batsmen.
This was international cricket of the highest order. They outplayed all opposition from start to finish in each game. It seems really odd to be acknowledging this.
Middlesex Matters-1
The Great Jack Morgan updates us on Middlesex developments
The Championship match against Gloucestershire was very similar to the Glamorgan match. Though the pitch was neither as green nor as bouncy, Middlesex again failed to take advantage of friendly seam bowling conditions on day one, though Iain O'Brien (7-48) is exempt from criticism. Jon Batty made 49 in 49 overs, Hamish Marshall a rather more entertaining 72 and James Franklin (44*) took the total up to a very respectable 268. Middlesex never looked like equalling Gloucestershire's total and, despite the efforts of John Simpson (43) and Shaun Udal (55), they subsided for a disappointing 203, with the bowling honours going to the experienced (but still hostile) Steve Kirby and the inexperienced (but very promising) Gemaal Hussain (born in East London, but educated in Nottingham and at Leeds/ Bradford UCCE).
When Gloucestershire batted again only 19 year old Chris Dent (42) looked comfortable and Middlesex were back in the game at 123 for 7, but Chris Taylor (61) was still at the crease and, finding a useful ally in Jon Lewis (43), they put on 70 for the eighth wicket and managed to nudge the target up to 289 in 170 overs. The wicket never quite flattened out the way that the track for the Glamorgan game had done and with the weather deteriorating and Strauss and Shah falling early, there was only ever going to be one result. Newman (42) and Malan (60) applied themselves better than the rest, but the game would have been over in 3 days if bad light had not intervened after tea on day 3. Newcomer Hussain (8 for 96 in the match) and Kirby (7 for 86 in the match) were again the stars for Gloucestershire. Middlesex did not bat well enough: only Malan (85) and Udal (67) contributed more than 50 runs in the match; and though the match figures of O'Brien (8 for 105), Gareth Berg (4 for 121) and Danny Evans (4 for 67) do not look too bad, this was a helpful surface for seamers and, collectively, the pace attack was not good enough. By the end of the Gloucestershire second innings, Danny Evans was injured again and off the field.
Middlesex have played four ordinary sides in the championship so far and have lost to all of them. It is Middlesex's worst ever start to a season and it is quite likely to continue. Sack the manager! Morgan, Dexter and Collins have yet to appear in the team, but it will be a huge task to lift this squad out of the mire. The only batsman with anything to be proud of is Malan (average 44), while the leading bowlers are Finn, 21 wickets at 18, Berg, 15 wickets at 30 and O'Brien, 13 wickets at 21. Middlesex found it necessary to use four twelfth men (Toby Roland-Jones, Neil Dexter, Dan Housego and Kabir Toor) for fielding duties, while a fifth (Steve Finn) strolled round the boundary with the players' drinks (strongly rumoured to be a bottle of Smirnoff for Scott Newman and a six-pack of extra strong lager for Danny Evans). Unbalanced Teams (Part 127): astonishingly, Gloucestershire took the field with a side containing 6 seamers, 3 wicket-keepers and no spinners. In addition to first choice keeper Batty, second choice keeper, Steve Snell, played as a batsman and England U-19 batter, Chris Dent, is also a keeper. Their attack was based on their four front-line seamers: Lewis, Franklin, Kirby and Hussain, but their best two back-up bowlers, Marshall and Alex Gidman, are also seamers. Bob Proctor would doubtless argue that the twelfth man should be counted as one of the team and if that is the case, the seamer count goes up to 7 as twelfth man Anthony Ireland was yet another seamer! Anyone suggesting that the occasional off-spin of Chris Taylor (career record: 24 wickets in 11 seasons at an average of 53) constitutes a spin attack, has a very flimsy basis for an argument and Chris bowled one over in the match. Unbalanced or not, they were a better team than Middlesex.
Carlin Matters
Paddy Carlin just missed the last edition when he sent me these notes that he made on an early appearance at Lords
I went to the first and third days of Middlesex v Gloucestershire. It was a lovely day but almost no one was there. Clearly no early season enthusiasm here. Middlesex had no players born in the county and five overseas players excluding Strauss and Shah but including Malan. On the other hand Gloucestershire had two born in their county and three born overseas.
Strauss is a concern as he looks as though his feet are in a bucket of cement. Is he always as immobile? He made no runs as didn’t Shah who unfortunately never makes runs when I see him. Newman scored 90% of his runs to third man including four boundaries until Gloucestershire unsportingly changed the field. The best batsmen on show were Malan who plays and misses a lot but at least has a go and Taylor from Gloucestershire who is a brilliant fielder as well. The worst batting moment was Simpson’s gloves which were a lurid luminescent B&Q orange. Will these last the season or was a just for a bet?
Murtagh is a fine and clever bowler and of military medium pace but he generates this from a thirty five yard run. This is surely about six yards too long and if he bowls around five hundred overs in the season it represents nearly twenty miles of unnecessary running. All the bowlers were largely on top of the batting and Gloucestershire’s attack looked better than the Middlesex equivalent. If Middlesex can’t beat Gloucestershire, who can they beat?
As a League umpire I naturally have defective eyesight but I was not aware of bad hearing. However, I had extreme difficulty in understanding the carefully enunciated words of the Lord’s “plumy” announcer when he surprised me with two announcements. The first invited members to what promised to be a most interesting talk on “Pork Pie technology” by a Mr Hawkins. It took further hearings for me to decipher that it was in fact Hawkeye technology. The second announcement was when, I swear, he announced a clothing change at the Nursery End when Gidman came on to bowl. Can anyone corroborate this or am I going mad?
I shared a couple of rants with some Middlesex members. The first was about why bowlers don’t bowl at the stumps more and use a five-four field instead of using six-three and bowling a yard outside the off stump. The second involved the paucity of county cricket at Lord’s with one match in September clashing with Surrey at the Oval. General dissatisfaction all round.
Blame Matters
Regular readers will know that I am all in favour of finding people to blame. The Great Jack Morgan finds excellent examples
Will Smith has been replaced as Durham captain by Phil Mustard on May 14th! This is ludicrous: he was good enough to lead them to the Championship last season, but now, after four matches, their poor start to the season is all his fault! It is clear to all except ridiculous chairman Clive Leach that the reason for their poor form is that all their bowlers have been out injured: is this Will's fault? I suppose that if the bowlers regain fitness under Mustard's leadership, he will be hailed as a great skipper? Nonsense.
More nonsense: R Key is blaming Kent's poor start on the absence of J Tredwell in the Caribbean, but most counties have someone missing at present and the absence of a spinner is hardly noticeable because there have been seamers' tracks all over the country and some counties are not even bothering to play a spinner at all!
Strange Elevens
I responded to The Great Jack Morgan’s poser in the last issue as follows
“I suspect that your team has all played for both Surrey and Middlesex. I didn’t know that Smith was in that category. My Who’s Who has arrived today but I am far too lazy to look him up.”
He replied
“Tom Smith was on loan at Surrey last season and played in two 40 over games and that is good enough for me!”
Exhaustion Matters
Stuart Broad has been rested from the test series against Bangladesh. He has just returned from a two week holiday in the Caribbean, in which he bowled a total of thirteen overs and as far as I can recall didn’t get to bat at all. He is twenty two years old and gym fit. Why on earth does he need a rest?
Middlesex Matters-2
The Great Jack Morgan continues his review of the opening matches of the season
What a team those Middlesex chaps are! They did well to build a first innings lead of 79 at Hove (Dexy and Bergy were the stars of this effort), but then looked to have blown it by firstly allowing Sussex to recover from 118 for 5 to 321 a/o in their second innings and secondly collapsing to 78 for 5 in their own second innings. Fortunately, Dawid (100*) was able to steer Middlesex back onto a winning course with assistance from Bergy, while Murts (8 for 123 in the match) enjoyed a much improved game with the ball. Sussex have now joined the ranks of those seeing the benefits of the two-keeper strategy and both Priory and Hoddy scored centuries in the match. The humiliation for Middlesex, however, was in allowing Monty "Sir Donald" Panesar to reach a career best of 46* and help Hoddy to set Middlesex a challenging 243 to win, which almost allowed RSCMJ to pull off a win for the leaders. Haters of skipper Shaun Udal (there are a few around) will no doubt have noted that the worst ever start of four consecutive defeats, was immediately halted when Shaun was unfit. Credit must go to his deputy Straussy, but his own form with the bat has been pretty dire, only made to look tolerable by the even worse form of Newman and Shah in a badly underperforming top three. The win has lifted us off the bottom, but we have played more games than most. Will this be the start of a winning run? We have Derbyshire at Lord's next week and they are a decent side... but we have just defeated the leaders, so why should we worry? The main problem could be the weather, which sounds absolutely dreadful, not all that wet, but the temperatures are scarcely going to reach double figures. Finny is back in the squad for the Derbyshire game.
The Middlesex versus Derbyshire game was played in ferociously low temperatures and yet another greenish seamers' track was presented to the captains (surprising as it has hardly rained since March) and this was a wicket that produced an unacceptable number of shooters. Visiting skipper Chris Rogers chose to bat as others have done, but I do not understand why captains do not choose to field under such bowler friendly conditions. The home seamers made better use of the helpful wicket than they had done against either Glamorgan or Gloucestershire and had Derbyshire out for 196 in 87 overs. Life was a struggle for the batsmen and only Paul Borrington (46) and Chesney Hughes (41) made more than 29 as the five Middlesex pace bowlers shared the wickets between them. When Middlesex batted, there was the usual disaster as the top three had gone with only 56 on the board, but this brought Neil Dexter to the wicket and he immediately started playing some immaculate drives as if it were a perfect surface, but no one else found it easy until Dexter was joined by Gareth Berg at 126 for 5. Bergy was relatively circumspect to start with, but soon he was matching Dexy's scoring rate and then exceeding it as the pair put on a wonderful 202 in 39 overs for the sixth wicket. Well as Neil played for his 112 (with 14 fours off 180 balls), he only just managed to reach his ton before the rampaging Gareth recorded his maiden first class century and went on to an outstanding 125 from the same number of deliveries with 3 sixes and 14 fours. It was a splendid effort from the pair of them and took Middlesex to a total of 374 and a lead of 178. Tim Groenewald took the bowling honours for the visitors with 4 for 62. Most of us were expecting an improved performance from Derbyshire in the second innings, but this was not to be the case as they rapidly declined to 71 for 8 with all the main batsmen out and the Middlesex seamers apparently in total control. However, 19 year old Chesney Hughes (who is an Anguillan with a British passport and was deputising for left arm spinner Robin Peterson) refused to give the home bowlers the respect they felt they deserved and hit out for an impressive 59* off 55 balls with one six and 9 fours. To me, he looked as if he should be in this side as a batsman (he made an excellent 100 runs in the match for once out while none of his colleagues made more than 46) with his bowling as an optional extra (7-0-56-0). Chesney found a helpful partner in no 10 Tim Groenewald (with a career average of 21, what is he doing at no 10?), who had impressed some of us at Uxbridge last season, and the pair more than doubled the score and forced skipper Shaun Udal to bring himself on to take the only wicket to fall to a spinner in the match as he snared Groenewald for 27. Derbyshire succumbed for 143 and lost by an innings and 35 runs, the match taking only two and a half days and 221 overs. The seamers shared the other wickets, but Steve Finn emerged as the bowler of the match with 4 for 19 in the second innings to give him impressive match figures of 7 for 64. I do not think that Middlesex will find many other matches as easy as this one, but that is two wins on the trot and as Derbyshire were second in the table, they must now be thinking that it is not too late to get involved in the promotion race. They are right to have that ambition, of course, but I believe that there are still problems to solve with the weak top three, the back up bowling and the keeping (Simpson had a poor match here, but luckily, his errors were inexpensive). Dawid Malan was awarded his cap before the start of play on day 2. The lads go to the Oval next week to face struggling Surrey. It will be very interesting to see how the two sides fare in this one and Surrey (who have two matches in hand) will now be as desperate as Middlesex were to get away from the bottom of the table.
Creeping elimination
It suddenly occurred to me that we were a quarter of the way through the County Championship season by the end of April. It used to be the case that hardly any county championship cricket was played in April at all. The weather enabled much of it to be played but had it been adverse a large chunk of the season could have been washed out. This is becoming the thin end of the wedge. Proper cricket is not being dropped but simply squeezed to the periphery of the season. Soon it will be played in March and October only.
All of this is a direct result of the IPL phenomenon. ITV’s foray into broadcast cricket facilitated an inspection of this circus. Whatever one’s views of this form of cricket as a media event it is staggeringly successful. The grounds are large and from what I saw are always full. This is not QPR or Lords type full but 55000. The only premiership clubs getting bigger crowds are Manchester United and Arsenal. Whether the spectators know or care anything about cricket is largely irrelevant to the celebratory nature of the events themselves.
All of the sideshow elements of the original Twenty20 in England have gone. There is no speed dating in the marquee, no bouncy castles, no blooding of youngsters. Established international cricketers are kept out of the final sides as the seven Indian players requirement bites. The rest breaks are probably there primarily to facilitate advertising on the television. The cheerleaders are an import from the NFL and by the look of them the girls, who are blond and very white, are probably imported too( there is a whole PhD thesis begging to be written on the psychology of this). The games all appear to be played in the evenings under floodlights.
It is no small wonder that the ECB and the English counties want a slice of this cornucopia. So what is stopping them getting it? They have not got the razzmatazz feature yet. In India it has become a cultural activity including everybody who is anybody. And they all go along to be seen. The cameras are constantly picking out celebrities in the crowds. If they want to expand the concept in England they will have to get the wealthy involved in the ownership of the teams or as sponsors in some way of the matches. The cosmopolitan nature of the teams needs to expand. The answer may well be to have franchised teams playing in this tournament rather than the counties. I suppose that the Hants link with the Rajasthan Royals is the beginning of this. The grounds need to be more stadium like to accommodate seriously big crowds. Oh and it would help if the weather were kinder that it was last year. It needs warm evenings not cold, wet and windy conditions. All of this bodes badly for county championship cricket. Or does it? If franchised teams played the 20/20 stuff then county cricket could be played alongside it and not relegated to spring and autumn dates.
Middlesex Matters-3
The Great Jack Morgan has yet more to tell us
The pitch for the Championship match between Surrey and Middlesex looked (unlike the Lord's tracks) like a typical straw coloured belter on which it would be difficult to bowl sides out and that (apart from a strange spell on day 3) was how it turned out. Surrey won the toss and batted for most of the first two days in compiling 490. Opener Arun Harinath made a very dull 39 in 42 overs, skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown made an excellent 55 off 60 balls, while Northern Irish wicket keeper Gary Wilson also batted well for 62... oh... and I almost forgot, Mark Ramprakash got a few... er... 223 I think it was. The Middlesex pace attack was having little joy, so skipper Shaun Udal did much of the bowling, picking up 5 for 128. After tea on day 2, Middlesex got off to a rare good start, which made Surrey's rate of progress look pedestrian and Middlesex closed the day on 148-0 at better than four runs per over. Things changed quickly on day 3 however and it was hard to put one's finger on the reasons: from 168 for no wicket, the visitors slumped to 324 all out with unsung, but useful, seamer Jade Dernbach claiming 5 for 68. Openers Andy Strauss (92) and Scott Newman (91) enjoyed their best partnership of the season, but after that only Gareth Berg (45*) looked at ease. But why was Jade so successful when no other seamer made any impression, both sides pressed three spinners (and should probably have chosen a second specialist spinner) into service and both bowled a total of 80 overs of spin in the match? There was relief in the Middlesex camp when Rory decided against enforcing the follow on as they would have to bat for less than a day to save the match instead of the day and a half that they were expecting. When Surrey batted again, Harinath made a much more enterprising 63 and Ramps made yet another century (103*) as they set Middlesex a theoretical 374 to win in 85 overs. Mark has now made 111 first class hundreds and 16 double hundreds, a good proportion of these were scored for Middlesex, of course, but it seems like most of the rest of them have been made against us! Strauss (61), Newman (43) and Owais Shah (40*) ensured that there was no danger of Middlesex losing what had frankly been a pretty dull match. Fox sightings in the match were far too numerous to count (perhaps their numbers have been increased by refugees from Hove where they now shoot their foxes?), but the ground staff have now started to keep the foxes off the pitch as they had begun to disrupt play, but the problem with this is that the absence of foxes has encouraged the vast flocks of pigeons to return and they were disrupting the match far more than the foxes had done.
Second Eleven matters
The Great Jack Morgan can always find a venue
50 over cricket is alive and well in the 2s, so I went to the Oval to see Surrey 2s take on a weak looking Somerset team, of whom only Mark Turner, Max Waller and Mark Nelson (ex-Northants) were familiar. Surrey's decision to put in Somerset was soon justified as they had 4 bunnies back in the hutch with only 38 on the board (and it could have been even worse for Somerset as Surrey put down 3 slip catches in the first 20 overs), but sound opener Alex Barrow (57) found good support from newcomer AJ Tye (43) in a useful stand of 79 for the fifth wicket. The next best partnership was 49 for the eighth wicket by pace bowlers Turner (29) and Adam Dibble (31), but Somerset were dismissed for a below par 213. Seamer Tim Linley (3-40) and skipper Matt Spriegel with his off-breaks (3-39) were the best of the Surrey bowlers. Ex-Middlesex man Dave Burton opened the bowling with Linley and took the wicket of Nelson. Surrey were favourites to win from this position and duly did so by four wickets, though they made slightly heavy weather of it. Left-hander Tom Lancefield was the top Surrey batter with 51, while Spriegel completed a successful all-round match with 43 not out. Fox count: 8.
Circulation Matters
I received the following from Gemma
“My Grandad, Wally Walton, played for Wembley Park Cricket Club in the fifties with Roy Dodson, Rob and Geoff Cleaver and also Vic Duncombe. He has kept in touch with Roy through cricket and now through bowls and has always seen his copy of "Googlies and Chinamen". Roy thinks it might be more convenient for me to print off copies since my Grandad is not into modern technology! Would you be able to let me know how I can be added to the list of people who can get a copy please?”
I was delighted to comply with this request and duly added Gemma to the email circulation. On the rare occasions that I meet readers I am sometimes asked how many receive Googlies. The last issue was emailed to 850 recipients and a further 18 receive a hard copy through the mail. How many read it is a different matter...
Old Danes Matters
Shepherds Bush CC has again kindly agreed to host an Old Danes Gathering on Friday 30th July 2010. All Old Danes from any generation will be welcome and in the past three years there have been representatives from the forties, fifties, sixties and seventies. It is appreciated that some attendees have to travel considerable distances and wives, partners and non OD friends will also be made welcome. The event will start around 2pm and will continue into the evening so it is possible to join the event at any stage during the afternoon. The bar is open all afternoon and food will be available. Would Old Danes please reply whether or not you plan to attend so that I can start to circulate a list of planned attendees to encourage others to join us?
Football Matters-1
Don Shearwood sent me this
A refinement of the offside law for women (which you printed in G&C) as sent to me by an Alexandra Park vet. I accused him of thinking like a woman - he hasn't spoken to me since.
“Another ploy would be for her friend to make her way to the front of the shop, adjacent with the till. She could then push in front of the other shopper, receive the purse, buy the shoes, safe in the knowledge that the purse had been passed backwards, rendering her onside.
Or, she could take advantage of the ambiguity surrounding the modern interpretation of the law:-
She moves towards the cashier, pretending to ask her a question. At this point she is offside, but passive. The other person in the queue becomes agitated and suspects she is seeking to gain an advantage. As she is at the till, and it could be said she is interfering with pay. Once she has engaged and distracted the others, she deftly adjusts her position so that she becomes active but able to receive the purse in the space she created.”
Football Matters-2
Don Shearwood updates us on Ellerslie Road alumni
I was disappointed that no mention was made of Mark Lazarus when pondering the 1967 QPR "double" side. Mark is still alive, and the guv'nor, though probably retired, of Mark Lazarus & Son, a removals company operating in the Romford area. Thought you and your devoted readers might be interested
Football Matters-3
Since taking over as manager of his Ladies football team Andrew Baker has been indebted to the tireless efforts of Kelvin West who has always been on hand to assist in any way. Kelvin sent me this photo of the team in the plunge bath taken recently. He tells me that whenever possible he selflessly joins the Ladies in the bath to assist in the bonding process.
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