This week, a van from Project Front Foot arrived in Caen and mes’ garage was filled by loads of cricket kit, equipment and clothing, for the refugee cricket teams in Caen and Avranches: bats, pads, gloves, helmets, boxes, lots of cricket clothing including cable-knit sweaters, all donated by various bodies and people in the UK. There are even some junior/Kwik Cricket bats and other bits and pieces.
It all arrived on Thursday and this morning mes and Julia, the social worker for the refugees, have gone through it all, making inventories and dividing it into two equal parts for the two groups.
They are keeping back some extra-warm stuff for refugees who arrive this coming winter and also a bag full of brand new tops which will be prizes in the cricket tournament they’re going to be organising this summer.
Today, the kit began to be distributed. If you want to see what a happy refugee looks like, see the next photograph.
With all the shit going on all over, and my faith in humanity being sorely tested, this story has kept me together in recent times and I have the utmost respect for everyone involved, from mes and Julia to the donors in the UK, the players in Normandy and elsewhere, but especially for Front Foot Forward, who have been doing this stuff for fifteen years.
They started off in the slums of Mumbai (or Bombay, as Ravi would have said) and this next picture is of them doing just that:
This is their website. Please do look at it:
You can also get more up to the minute news on their Facebook page (if you can face Facebook). It’s https://www.facebook.com/projectfrontfoot
I’ll either post more photos up here or below the line. I want to get this out now, so will not fiddle around any more.
romeoromeotango 
Here is the Project Front Foot spring newsletter, from mes. It’s his google drive so just click and you should be able to have a very good read.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c7PI6NoutM1M7UkVBYrAtROX4MSO99MQ/view?usp=sharing
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Many thanks, romeo
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It’s a wonderful read Mes, you have certainly run up a lot of miles in a very good cause.
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Just had a cursory look at my fantasy teams with a view to making some first pass changes. Although I do have some ‘null pointers’ they relate to the matches not played in round 1, and it seems harsh to wield the axe. So to date have only traded out Aaron Beard in one team, and traded in Calvin Harrison, on the basis that Essex did play, and it doesn’t look as though Aaron is getting a game just now. Perhaps I will be making more changes when the teams are announced tomorrow.
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Aaron’s currently playing for Essex 2s against Kent 2s, so looks very unlikely to play on Friday. And let’s face it, if you were Essex, you wouldn’t really be thinking of changing your team 🙂
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Many thanks for the information and great to see you commenting on here. I still wonder if some players might have picked up early season niggles after round 1, especially bowlers, which might force me to make more changes.
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I’ll just leave this here.
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Just to let everyone know, Maidstone United are now guaranteed a place in the promotion play-offs from National League South to the National League itself. This would be a yo-yo, as they were relegated last season.
There are two games to go for the all the teams around them, and they are in 3rd, level on points with Chelmsford City in 2nd and two points ahead of both Worthing and Braintree Town in 4th and 5th.
The play-offs go: 7th against 4th (winner plays 3rd) and 5th against 6th (winner plays 2nd). The winners of these ‘semi-finals’ then play each other at the home ground of whoever finished higher in the season table and the winner of that match goes up with Yeovil Town, who are already champions.
And Maidstone United also play Ebbsfleet United (currently 18th of 24 in the National League) in the Final of the Kent Cup next Wednesday.
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Yesterday in Caen, pictures and text from mes. He made the apple and yoghurt cake.
As I said over at The G, Dr Mrs Mes and myself were invited to a post Eid BBQ by some of the lads from the new Caen Cricket Club.
23 June *should* be a cricket day (it’s the week of the International Refugee Week) and we’re hoping to invite local bigwigs to explain why we need a cricket ground.
The plan is for teams, all to play 2 matches in a league format. T6, with 30 minutes per innings. Any time over that will give 5 penalty runs to the opposition. 4 matches in the morning from 8 to 14, we hope…). Then an hour for lunch, a kids match for an hour, a women’s match, and then a final between the top two teams from the league. If there is a tie in the league, NRR will be used… (I need a scorer!!)
Lovely lads, lovely lunch!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/eaCpKtKnPgZ6cDqR8 (Just click to open all the other photos.)
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On Saturday, Nepal played Qatar in the ACC Premier Cup, a T20 competition, and Nepal batted first.
In the 20th over, the one and only Dipendra Singh Airee hit six sixes, only the fifth ever to do so in an international.
Watch the video.
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Marathon runner and heroine of CCLive! Keeley Jones.
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I spoke to my colleague today for the first time since he ran the marathon on Sunday. He said that afterwards his legs weren’t too bad but his feet were badly bruised. and sore. He was certainly walking very gingerly when he came into work on Monday. I hope that Keeley has recovered better than he has!
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Don’t ever recall a round like that in the CC. So OK we did have some rain today but there was virtually uninterrupted play in every match for the first three days and not a single winner among them. I have also never seen an impact like that on my fantasy side. My lowest scoring team out of 4 sides (less than 1000 points) had three century makers out of the 4 players in its’ batting unit. The problem was the bowling unit. When I say that my most successful bowler was Sam Cook – but he didn’t play you say. Exactly he was the highest point scorer with 0 points, the rest of the unit were all negative. FFS – after 4 days of cricket and the bowling unit made a negative contribution!
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Rob Key apparently thinks it has all been a tremendous success, and that the reason Indian batters succeed in India is because of the Kookaburra ball. So much for analysing the results of the trial, and clearly a man (over?)confident in the soundness of his own judgements.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/apr/16/kookaburra-rob-key-england-cricket-county-championship
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To be fair to Key (perhaps the first and only time I write that) he doesn’t say it’s the Kookaburra ball that makes Indian batters succeed – because they use an SG ball in India.
With all due respect to him (and make of that phrase what you will) he talks a lot of bollocks, in my view.
“County cricket is meant to go four days.” It used to ‘be meant’ to go three days, of course. It will most likely fill the available space, in the same way as a gas does. CC matches rarely ended before lunch on day three last year, and often run four days minus the post-handshake hour.
“Watching medium pacers is a waste of time.” Tell that to WCOTY, or indeed Derek Underwood. Or Mohammad Abbas.
“Teams need to find quicker bowlers.” This has been the mantra (as I remember) for at least 55 years, when Alan Ward was touted as the saviour of England cricket. The number of untried young players since, supposed to be potentially faster/better than (or at least as fast as) Larwood or Tyson is a large one. Proper fast bowlers do not grow on trees: you don’t just go out and find them while foraging. You have to grow them yourself from seed, ideally in full sun. Create a programme where teenage cricketers can go to play in Australia or South Africa in winter.
The record number of 150+ scores tells its own story. Players making personal career bests all over the place. Matty Potts being declared on 149*. Middlesex scoring over 500.
Too easy for batters, too hard for bowlers to make a decent competitive exciting game of it. All draws. This is what happened in Test cricket in the 1960s and attendances waned.
I could go on but I’ve got beans boiling.
In other news, Rob Key’s Test average is still 31.
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You’re right romeo, he doesn’t mention the Kookaburra in relation to India – I was extrapolating, wrongly as it turns out – but he does say ‘The best bowlers come from the flattest pitches’, and I’d really love to see some actual evidence for that. For example, Australia have produced some pretty useful bowlers but they’re not famous for flat pitches. The inference I draw is that he sees cricket as a game in which you bat, which requires bowlers, but there is a strong sense of bowlers as being of lesser importance. There is something David Cameron-esque about him: plausible, confident and shallow.
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He shares another trait with Cameron, being a twat.
To adapt an expression, he’s all cable-knit sweater and no abdominal protector.
Shouldn’t even be on TV.
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Don’t know what Key is going on about but he is spouting a load of ‘horlicks’. Use of the Kookaburra ball may improve everyone’s batting averages but it will simply drive away spectators from county cricket. Cricket is a sport and people want to see a good contest between batsmen and bowlers.
As for his comments about fast bowlers, they are around, the likes of Joffra Archer, Olly Stone and Mark Wood to name just three – but unfortunately they have spent the majority of their respective careers being injured. This has nothing to do with the ball they are using just the inability of the human body to stand up to the levels of exertion required.
Thank god we are returning to the Duke’s ball this Friday. Again, Key’s comment that county games are meant to last 4 days is pathetic. Just take a look at both of Middlesex’s games to date – I reckon it would have taken best part of a week to get a result from those matches.
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Fastest bowler I ever saw in my life was Roy Gilchrist. Tyson’s stock ball was around 85mph and I saw him bowl several times for TMN. He was quick all right and built up his speed into the nineties. By the time I saw Gilchrist he had already been banned from professional cricket and was a guest player for Brondesbury CC. As a boy I was intrigued because his stock ball was around 95mph. So I went along. My first impression of him when he walked out of the Brondesbury Pavilion was that he wasn’t built like a typical fast bowler. He was thin and wiry and no more than medium height. His first ball I watched through the air and I remember gasping – I had never seen anybody bowl that quick. So, for his second ball I decided to watch his action to see how he generated that speed – it was quite simple his right arm came over like a whip – nothing to do with the pitch he was bowling on or the ball he was using.
I have often thought about Gilchrist and his action and wondered had he continued in professional cricket whether he would be prone to injury with an action like that. The vulnerable part of his body would have been his right arm socket where it joined his right shoulder. I have always come to the conclusion that his ban was not only lucky for the batsmen but also for himself in terms of his health in later life.
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Maidstone United won the Kent Cup last night for the 19th time, beating Ebbsfleet United (in the National League itself) 4-0 away.
They play Hampton & Richmond Borough in the last league game of the season on Saturday. Then it’s play-offs for promotion back to the National League.
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From mes. (I remember watching this.)
“Legend doing legendary things”
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Just 66? A very sad reminder of how young he was when he died. Possibly/probably the best fast bowler I ever saw. I went to the fourth day of the MCC Bicentennial Match in 1987, when the MCC batted most of the day in their second innings (Gordon Greenidge scored a hundred), and the Rest of the World came in to bat late in the day, with thunder and lightning rolling round Lords. Nowadays, quite rightly, the players would have been taken off because of the danger of lightning strikes.* Marshall opened the bowling for MCC with Richard Hadlee, with Gavaskar and Desmond Haynes opening for the RoW. Apparently Marshall disliked Sunny for some reason and he wasn’t holding back – cleaned bowled him for 0. Still vividly remember the scene. I was supposed to be going on the fifth day too, but sadly it was washed out.
*I also remember that Richie Benaud hated play continuing when there was lightning around, it clearly made him very nervous. Don’t know if he had any bad experiences back in Australia.
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Malcolm Marshall scored seven first-class centuries, 11,000 first-class runs.
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A further sadness for cricket lovers today. In updating my fantasy sides, hit with the news of the death of Subba Row. Lovely, graceful batsman for TMN. who went on to have an England career as well.
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Clash of The Titans tomorrow … Sam Cook back from thigh twang but Walter missing with toe knack.
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Titan noun: one that is gigantic in size or power : one that stands out for greatness of achievement
I thought Essex were playing Lancashire tomorrow. A team which aspires to mid-table mediocrity. But is currently falling some way short of that.
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I was in part influenced by the quality of their supporters!
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The quality is possibly questionable. The quantity isn’t in doubt (there are usually quite a lot of Lancashire supporters at the G). Although I won’t be one of them today as I’m off to Lancaster shortly for a guided tour around some of Lancaster’s local landmarks that have global significance.
There will undoubtedly be quite a lot of links drawn out with the slave trade, especially as Lancaster was an early importer of mahogany for making furniture (brought in originally as ballast on ships returning from the West Indies after transporting slaves from west Africa). So I’m sure that will be a feature.
Don’t tell anyone at the Daily Mail (“Outrage in Lancaster at ‘Woke‘ Guided Tours for People Who Aren’t Working Full-Time“). Or Kemi Badenoch, who doesn’t think that the £18tn that the UK is estimated to have made from exploiting its colonial past has anything to do with success of the Industrial Revolution.
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Excellent, have a good trip. My daughter was at Lancaster Uni studying politics and history and may well have been infected with the insidious ‘woke’ virus, as she has ended up caring about and working with people who come from other countries and/or aren’t as fortunate as her. We made several field trips to Lancaster and Morecambe (and the Babar Elephant restaurant en route between the two). I now realise I may have picked up second degree woke as I just occasionally donate money to such causes but don’t actually do anything practical?
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I spent 3 years at Lancaster. About half of which I only have the vaguest memories…
The campus has an excellent ‘golf’ course consisting of 9 bars. Par was a pint in each, with 2 on the turn. Birdie was à pint and à shot of whisky. The main problem being the time factor to get around before last orders, and to get enough time to eat chips in the fish n chip shop as you came up the back 9…
I never reached the 18th…
Also included a year living in Morecambe. Yes, I have walked back to Morecambe from campus. Superb way to sober up…
Definitely caught Woke at Lancaster. Frequently.
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That’s a very impressive sobering up stagger indeed, Mes! The furthest I ever had to go was only a couple of miles down the Iffley Road after the infamous JCR committee elections after-party, leaning over my bike the whole way (my one and only encounter with the disgraceful slop that is Mateus Rosé). However, the bracing ride to Oxford station at 7am the next morning, en route to Colchester, was the most excruciatingly eye stabbing life-affirming head pain I have ever known. What days. And to think I don’t even have a student loan to prove it …
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In fact, I think that was the occasion when I took the bike all the way to Colchester (interesting ride from Paddington to Liverpool Street) because I’d “woken up” too late to walk and/or bus it and presumably feared the bike would inevitably be nicked if I left it at Oxford station for the weekend. My wife, yes dear reader it was she waiting siren-like in at Essex Uni, remembers well my pitiful recounting of the journey from hell …
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One game, two perspectives:
https://deepextracover.com/2024/04/vitality-county-championship-match-preview-essex-v-lancashire/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
https://cricket.lancashirecricket.co.uk/news/2024-news/match-preview-essex-v-lancashire/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Let the countdown begin …
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Lunch today.
In the centre and centre top, fish soup. To the right moussaka, the first they’ve made this year. To the left, the glorious Cretan chips and a small jug of white wine. It was very very good.
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Before this arrived on the table, we had Vlita, which is as basic and good as it gets. Steamed or lightly boiled, with lemon juice and olive oil.
https://miakouppa.com/vlita-%CE%B2%CE%BB%CE%AE%CF%84%CE%B1-%CE%AE-%CE%B2%CE%BB%CE%AF%CF%84%CE%B1/
Other websites about vlita are available.
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Our go to supper these days is sea bass with Pak Choi and a little chilli soy or Thai fish sauce. (I will pass a discrete veil over the left over Chow-Mein it typically sits on …)
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Moussaka a seasonal dish in Crete? Soup too hot for first course, presumably? I’m just jealous btw …
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Seasonal as in Visitor season.
Soups and other foods are rarely/never served hot enough to burn you here.
Much more civilised (of course).
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A good day out in Lancaster, with the tour starting at the castle gates (opposite the home of a former slave trader) and ending in Dalton Square, where some of the land was bought by another former slave trader who was generously compensated in the 1830s when he was forced to set his slaves free. Some of you might remember that the loan that the government took out then was only finally repaid in 2015. It came out of everyone’s taxes over almost 170 years.
The weather was pretty good too – the sun shone and by the end I was too warm, having dressed for the arctic chill that greeted the morning. And – as ever when I visit Lancaster – I’m reminded that we planned to move there when we moved back from Scotland. Maybe one day soon.
The tour was led by two academics from Lancaster University – Dr Chris Donaldson who lectures in Cultural History, and Dr Sunita Abraham who lectures in Decolonisation. I’ve signed up Kemi Badenoch, Priti Patel and Suella Braverman for their next tour*.
Despite my partner and I now being in our sixties, we did lower the average age of the group we were in, although not by as much as was once the case.
*Not. However, I would pay to see them and their fellow-travelling culture warriors having their lazy opinions and assumptions dismantled by experts.
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I only got to spend one evening and a night in Lancaster in my life but it was truly memorable. In the evening I found a bar oevrlooking the banks of the Lune and watched a remarkable spectre of the jumping salmon returning up river after their hols on the Lancashire coast – at least I think it was the salmon and not what I was drinking.
For the night I stayed in a truckers hostel and my room was the top of the 4th floor stairwell and which housed the only communal bathroom for the hotel. I can recall vividly all these people wndering cross my room as they made their way to and from the bathroom.
So, what was I doing in Lancaster? It wasn’t planned but I had decided, in my late teens that it was time I made a hitch-hiking tour of Scotland. I packed my rucksack, took a 28 bus to Golders Green (Golders Green keeps coming up in the conversation in this column – I’m not surprised with it’s attributes such as the bus station, the Ionic cinema and the Hippodrome which put on such memorable pantomimes such as ‘Babes in the Wood’ with Frankie Vaughan singing ‘Green Door’). I walked north about 50 metres up the road from the bus station and hitched a lift which took me to Warrington. After lunch in Warrington I got a life with a family who seemed to be meandering around shops in many parts of Lancashire which eventually took me to Lancaster. Over breakfast in Lacaster I got talking to one of the truckers who was going to Glasgow and offered to take me. So in three lifts from Golders Green bus station I was in Scotland.
Now you are going to say that he wouldn’t have the nerve to publish ‘Green Door’ on here – well sorry, wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8t5lCMoY8o
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I think Lancashire’s innings yesterday was more Titanic than Titan-like. Having put them in to bat, obviously Essex thought there was something in the pitch for their bowlers. Nevertheless, that wasn’t pretty from a Lancashire point of view.
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There was at least some spirited defiance from the lower order – steerage passengers dancing along to the band as the ship went down?
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Down, down, deeper and down today, I think.
The bandleader on the Titanic, Wallace Hartley, was from Colne in Lancashire. His body is buried in the cemetery, and there’s rather an idealised memorial bust to him on the town’s main street.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Hartley#/media/File:Wallace_Hartley_memorial.jpg
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I like that. A bit like a young Hugh Grant from 112 years ago.
Any idea who the two sentry/guard figures represent?
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I didn’t but I found this on a website about the memorial:
‘The memorial is a bronze bust of Wallace Hartley, flanked by two smaller bronze female figurines holding a lyre representing music and a laurel wreath representing valour. The bust stands atop a tall, splayed stone plinth. The front face of the plinth carries a dedication, in raised metal serif-style lettering. The memorial stands on a wide, stepped square base of stone.’
I suppose the bust does look a bit like Hugh Grant. Wallace himself had a rather more gawky, and in many ways, typically Lancastrian face (so quite long and narrow).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Hartley#/media/File:Wallace_Hartley.gif
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Wonderful, fascinating stuff.
He did move to Yorkshire, though, which must have been his undoing.
Many thanks for all this.
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Last post about Wallace Hartley (pun sort of intended).
In 1997, I was involved in designing and producing an exhibition about Wallace Hartley and the Titanic which was mounted at Colne’s library. It was intended to tie in with the release date of the film starring Kate Winslett and Leonardo di Caprio. In view of what you said about Hartley moving to Yorkshire, Dewsbury was at the same time similarly trying to get its share of the limelight by claiming him as its own local lad.
In the course of doing bits of research in Colne Library’s archives, I found a press cutting which referred to a meeting of Colne’s Borough Council when they were planning on how the memorial to Wallace Hartley should look. One of the initial ideas had been to have a fountain linked to the memorial, but one of the councillors was reported as saying that given the circumstances of the tragedy, maybe a water feature wasn’t the most appropriate commemoration. As much as anything, it was the dry post-Edwardian way in which it was reported that made me laugh.
Unfortunately, all this time later, I can’t remember if we used that detail in the exhibition or not.
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I would like to be able to gloat, but our performance at Lord’s has been no better. It’s a big ask, but to stand a chance in our game against ‘Middle’ we are going to need at least another hour tomorrow morning of ‘judicious biffing’ from Ben Coad. I put the low scoring in this match not down to the change of balls but looking dow the scorecard there isn’t a Sam in either team.
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Might as well keep the conversation going on non-cricketing days. I see that our old friend ‘byes’ is back with us for the next round so this makes the choosing of fantasy sides a bit more spicy again.
Thinking of Lancaster and strange experiences at different places you visit in your life. Another place that will always stick in my mind is the Prospect of Whitby pub in Wapping. I sometimes used to go there on a Sunday evening to round off the weekend with a pint or two. Always recall that there was a notice on the wall saying the place was not licensed for music and everybody was singing at the top of their voices. Also if you arrived after 7 pm you were a long way from the bar and there were a multitude of people between you and it. So how did you get a drink? – simple you tapped the person on the shoulder in front of you, gave them your order and money and about 20 minutes later you got your beer and always the correct amount of change if you didn’t have the correct amount on ordering.
Something like this is so typical of the Cockney culture and about the only place on earth where this could happen. It also meant that when you got your last pint for the night you took it with you on the Northern Line and journeyed away from the uncivilised area of dockland? To areas much posher but where people would rob you as quick as look at you.
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This article from the Dhaka Tribune, written by someone who wasn’t born until much later, on certain aspects of the birth of Bangladesh as an independent state, is well worth reading.
Bear it in mind when thinking about their cricket teams.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/longform/194528/all-the-concert-s-for-bangladesh
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Perhaps another area I could mention which may provoke conversation is that I am in the early stage of research for a bio-diversity project where I live in Zipaquira. I want to start with a small pilot project to grow Apricots and Raspberries. At my age I think it is important to keep my mind active and to have objectives in life. I also have a number of fruit trees in the garden but this is fruit of ‘tierra frio’, so, pears, apples, plums, peaches etc.
My early research tells me that there is no biological reason why I cannot grow Apricots and Raspberries here., although nobody does in this area. A strain of raspberries called ‘Carolina’ is particularly recommended for Colombia, and I came across an institute on the web who planted an orchard of Apricots here about 50 years ago and it is thriving until this day. Clearly I would have some climatic issues to solve. We do get some frosts here because of the altitude, normally during January/February but these are very infrequent and while it is a small number of plants I could place these in an area I have which was formerly used for birds and cover this structure with a transparent plastic. Perhaps, a greater climatic issue here are the torrential rain storms that charecterise the tropics and which could simply beat such plants to a pulp – but having them in a covered area also solves this problem. Another problem that it solves are the attention from my dogs, who, being inquisitive might be tempted to dig up the plants and destroy them.
The greatest issue that I will have is how to acquire such plants, and for this I have it in mind to seek the advice of a good local (vivero) nursery to see if they can acquire them for me, or at least give me contacts that could help me. Another source would be the Botanical Gardens in Bogota, who themselves grow all sorts of unusual plant species, and although this is not the size of Kew, it does represent an area of serenity and beauty in the middle of Bogota.
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I don’t know about Colombia, but in my garden, raspberry plants are virtually indestructible and would grow everywhere if I let them.
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Yes. Sophie – Austria is a wonderful place for fruit growing and of course your apricots form the basis of that delicious drink Bailoni (have I spelt that correctly?) I feel extremely envious about your raspberry plants – but let’s wait and see – the fact that nobody grows these fruits in this area where I live doesn’t mean it can’t be done, in fact my research to date supports my point of view. Another interest I have in this project is whether it attracts other bird species to the one’s I normally have in the garden.
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I don’t follow the IPL but I just read this. It’s not in the Sport section of the BBC.
IPL: The batting blitz turning cricket into baseball
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-68872429
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I don’t follow the IPL either (or indeed any 20 over/100 ball cricket. That article didn’t make me any more likely to watch it.
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Albert King was born 101 years ago today.
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In a bit of curious coincidence, I heard on the radio this morning that Wallace Hartley’s violin case is going to be auctioned this weekend.
https://www.henryaldridge.com/about-us/news/leather-case-for-violin-used-on-the-titanic-to-reassure-passengers-as-the-ship-sank-is-set-to-sell-for-120-000-at-auction/
It’s strange where an offhand pun can lead.
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Excellent.
I was reminded about this the other night when the actor Adrian Dunbar drily repeated the old Belfast line about the ship that:
“… she was alright when she left here!”.
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Dreux celebrate their win.
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That *should* work…
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Unless you’re completely allergic to Facebook, do click on this to see what mes was trying to post:
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStaffordshireCricket%2Fposts%2Fpfbid031QwGMPnBN6gDSbg4u3BAy7Nm2joHpJRvcsKBR9u4s4wgpM45BQFKLXB9QNcjqeeUl&show_text=true&width=500&is_preview=true
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FFS Monty
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Went to look…
No, Monty. Not that.
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I do think he’s been duped in some way. GG is one of the worst people in British politics, and may even be the worst. Utterly untrustworthy.
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There are, of course, many precedents of former cricketers standing for parliament: indeed there’s one where an incumbent captain of England had a go.
Ted Dexter, at the age of 29, gave up the captaincy to stand against Jim Callaghan (who was shadow chancellor at the time and had been a Cardiff MP since 1945) in Cardiff in 1964. There were only the two candidates and Callaghan got 30,129 votes and Dexter 22,288. Callaghan became chancellor under Harold Wilson, put up income tax and created Capital Gains Tax, and Dexter gave up politics and went on the tour he’d pulled out of, as vice-captain to MJK Smith, to South Africa.
Some people just can’t help themselves.
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Not just cricketers allured by the world of politics but stars from other sports as well. It is a lot of years ago but I seem to recall that Chris Chatterway, the athlete, stood for the Tories, somewhere in Kent if I recall correctly. I also seem to think that he won and went into parliament for a while.
Lighter news. Have just watched part of a live concert by John Fogerty while eating lunch. Surely one of the best ever country rock guitarists of all time.
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If we’re going to mention athletics, then the obvious case is – and I’m aware I’ll need to sterilise my keyboard after typing this – Seb Coe.
I’m quite allergic to that whole Americana thing, but an exception is CCR. My father had a ‘best of’ LP, which I taped, and consequently I probably know the words to more CCR songs than any other group.
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Zimbabwe making a surprising go of this. Is there anywhere to watch a stream of the omen’s t20s?
If Thailand can beat the US this evening, it looks all set for a huge showdown on Friday to see who’ll get second place in the group… and as I’m currently Covided-off I would very much watch the whole thing if I could…
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There is indeed a way to watch all the Women’s T20 Qualifier matches.
They’re live on the ICC website. You have to register, but it’s al;l free. Coverage of some tournaments are more rudimentary than others but it’s always very watchable.
The post-match interviews of Sri Lanka- Uganda ( the Pearls, who I follow) are live now here, and there are links to future matches, including Thailand – USA:
https://www.icc-cricket.com/videos/sri-lanka-vs-uganda
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I clearly need to investigate further – I went to their site but only found highlights videos… I’ll try registering again!
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Okay: I was looking in the wrong place. <Sigh>. At least I can blame the covid addling my brain (but what’s my normal excuse?).
Even after only a minute or so, the ?American commentator is quite irritating.
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What are you watching????
This page should give you access to the two upcoming games:
https://www.icc-cricket.com/videos
Including Ireland v Vanuatu, for anyone interested in top stuff from Vanuatu.
Both matches start at 16.30 UK/Ireland.
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I scrolled back to watch the final overs!
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Good thinking, Batman.
You can only scroll back through the whole coverage for a few minutes, so you need to be quickish.
And get well soon. Those students won’t learn about Byzantium on their own (probably)…
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Thank you!
I have been very close to Batman, but never actually been there.
My former teammates would probably suggest I’ve never been that close to a Batsman (some are antedeluvian enough to prefer the term), despite my years as Occasional Sacrificial Opener.
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Thailand have reduced USA to 34 for 7 after 9.1 overs, Drinks break.
Follow here:
https://www.icc-cricket.com/videos/thailand-vs-usa
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USA all out for 54, after 17.5 overs, in the end.
The 10th-wicket stand was the highest of the innings, at 18 runs.
Can Thailand get there? Their opener Natthakan Chantham was taken off with what looked a very nasty injury in the field.
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Thailand win by nine wickets but it takes them 9.2 overs to do so, and thus are still well below Scotland’s NRR. They play each other on Friday in the last game, so it doesn’t matter that much as it’s not going to be deluvial (probably) in Abu Dhabi so whoever wins goes through.
The game starts at 12 noon UK/Scotland/Ireland/Wales.
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Clearly I’m biased in one direction – but conflicted: you’ve got to support the Thailand team, haven’t you?
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Although #IamScottish, err, yes.
Support the underdog and bemoan the plucky loss, etc., and dream of what might have been.
I’ll plague the Guardian CCLive! with updates on the score on Friday and piss a few people off, no doubt.
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Not pissing off, rather performing a vital service for those stuck in class / meetings.
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This is highly recommended (by me):
https://thecritic.co.uk/hobbs-recalled/
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I’m not *quite* sure there is anyone here with an (un)healthy interest in Lancashire and Yorkshire rivalry, coupled perhaps with some interest in student life.
On the off chance that you meet one, or both, or maybe even neither of those criteria, over the next few days, the annual Roses challenge between Lancaster and York Unis is taking place.
http://www.roseslive.co.uk/
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As a graduate of York, I do remember this, although it was less professionally covered by student media* and had fewer events (equestrianism??). I recall rugby, cricket, football, netball and hockey, but I could of course just be making it all up.
*Ed: MrLloyd left university more than 40 years ago
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Very pleased to see that I have misspelt my misspelt name. I am now stuck in a doom loop.
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