Can't complain about the British Summer

No, I can't complain, because having got back to the UK in mid May, it is true to say that the summer in England has been good with lots of sunshine.
I took a trip up to Lords to watch the Womens International match between the MCC Women and The Rest of the World Women.
It was a beautiful sunny day and Charlotte Edwards was interviewed on the field of play.

The ground was looking good

Suzie Bates won the toss and chose take her ROW team in to bat first.

There is nothing nicer than sitting in the sunshine and watching a quality game of cricket.

The ROW were batting well

At the end of 50 overs there was a healthy score on the board

MCC Women were scoring runs but not enough

Charlotte Edwards top scored as usual

However, the MCC Women could not reach the required total.

 The final scorecard shows a well earned win for the ROW women

Early in June I went on a steam train trip from Woking to Swanage.

At Swanage I made the mistake of having a largish pub lunch and then walking up the very steep climb to the Durlston County Park. The view from the castle made it worth it. I took the bus back down the hill to the station.

 Black 5 was ready to take us back up towards London

 One of the old semaphore signals at Swanage

Later in June there was cycle racing around the streets of Woking town centre.
Here are the pits.

Ride for the Elite Cycle Team and get a pink bike

A bit of a lead but still an hour of racing ahead

 

Hard work under sunny skies.

Eileen Roe won the ladies race and Tom Stewart won the men's.

 

In July I went to see my youngest daughter who lives in Malvern. We went for a walk across the Malvern Hills.

 

Malvern bloom

My eldest daughter has temporarily moved back to the UK from Sydney. Later in July I visited her new home near Much Hadham. We went for a walk through the local cornfields.

This Green Tye is a village and not a curry. It was a great place to stop for refreshment at the local pub.

 

In August I caught up with my daughter again and she works at a well known bank just across the road from the Royal Exchange.

  

I visited a museum and got to lift this gold bar weighing 28 lbs

 

 St Pauls was on my walk back towards Waterloo Station

 

I took this photo from the Wibbly Wobbly bridge.

 The South Bank featuring the recently opened Shard

Another trip to Malvern and here is the village of Powick in the distance. 

Ok, so the summer is over now and the weather in England is not so nice. The need to get back to sunshine has become overwhelming so in January I will be off to Adelaide for a month. It will probably be damn hot there, but I plan do some cycling, watch cricket and visit some of the Tour Down Under events. No doubt I will also be seeking out the source of most of the red wines that fill my local Woking supermarket shelves. ie McLaren Vale, Barossa, Adelaide Hills, etc.

Until the next time

Peewit

Cricket at Normandy CC

Yes, I know that this photo is not cricket, but last Saturday I watched the whole of the Olympic mens cycle road race on tv.
I took this photo of the race as it appeared on my tv.

 

Team GB were running plan A that was intended to deliver Mark Cavendish to the front of the race with 1 Km to go. However when it became clear that plan A was not working there did not seem to be a plan B. That was such a shame as the team had made a massive effort to get the wanted result. In the end they were out of the medals.


On Sunday I watched the women's cycle road race. The weather was awful and it contributed to a number of crashes. However the girls of the team did a good job especially Emma Pooley who was often at the front at crucial points on the Box Hill circuit. After a long run into London with heavy rain all the way, Lizzie Armitstead fought out the final sprint for gold with Marianne Vos of Holland. Vos got the gold and Armitstead got the silver and the first medal of the games for team GB.

On Monday I went to the Normandy Cricket Club to watch the first day of a womens T20 county tournament. The counties taking part were Kent, Surrey (where I am residing at the moment), Middlesex and Sussex.

Normandy is only a few miles from where I live and I love to watch cricket where a large number of the top English International players are taking part.

Here are Surrey batting and Sussex fielding at the second oval at Normandy.

Oh dear, Surrey do not seem to be doing too well here. 37 for 7 and only a few overs left.

 

It was time to go and look at the match between Kent and Middx. Kent were batting and a certain C Edwards was out first ball of the match. I was going to ask her for her autograph but decided against it.

 

In the end, Kent managed to win the match fairly easily as Middx struggled to score.

 

Sussex had won the other match with Surrey only managing to get 41 runs in their twenty overs.
So lunch was a bit early and we had only had had one short spell of rain. Most of the time it had been sunny spells and a cool wind that kept the spectactors well covered up. Maybe I was the only only spectator that was not a friend or family member of a player.

Here, Middlesex are batting and Sussex are in the field.

 

There was a lot of verbal encouragement from one player. As expected this was Aaron Brindle. Middlesex only managed to 61 runs in their innings.

 

I went back to the Kent v Surrey match. Surrey had won the toss and chose to bat first. They managed 62 for 9 from their twenty overs.

Now it was time for Kent to bat. This time Charlotte Edwards was back in form. The red cricket ball dipping in from the far right of the photo is about to get crashed into the woods.

 

Rhiannon Dick at the other end gets this ball just above her pads. I am sure it hurt but at least it was from a slow delivery.

 

Charlotte connecting with a ball that was coming in my direction for another four.

 

Charlotte got 31 before being caught out. However Kent soon chased down the required total in just six overs.

So Kent and Sussex won two games, while Surrey and Middlesex lost both of theirs.

Tomorrow the remaining games and final will be played but as the weather does not look good I will not be attending. The British summer strikes again.

Peewit

Sydney and WT20I

The weather has been a bit better in Sydney over the last week with some proper sunny days.
I was also able to watch on tv the first 3 Womens T20 matches between NZ and England. The England girls did very well and notched up a series winning 3-0. The last two T20's were not being televised and were coming from Invercargill which is at the very southern end of the south island. More on that later.

Earlier in the week I went on a ferry to Mosman and had a walk around the bay.

Near the ferry terminal

 

Mosman Bay

 

Sydney from Cremorne Point

 

In the botanical gardens

 

My dawn view this morning

 

Back to cricket. Well, when I was in Dunedin, NZ this time last year, this was what the weather was like

 

Invercargill is not that far away from Dunedin but the 4th NZ v Eng T20 was cancelled without a ball being bowled due to rain washing out the match. I understand that it was quite cold too.
However, today the rain relented and the last of the T20 matches took place. The England women secured a win to make it 4-0 for the series. They now head north to Christchurch for some ODI's against NZ. I hope they do well.

Peewit

1st NZ v Eng Women's T20

Although I could not be in Wellington to watch the first of the five T20's taking place between NZ and England, I had an alternative plan.
With the wonder of proxy servers, plus other gubbins, I was able to watch the match live on my tv.

England won the toss and chose to bowl first. Charlotte Edwards said that this was because her team had never played on this pitch before.
Anya Shrubsole bowled fantastically well for someone has been out of the side for most of the time. She notched up five wickets in her four overs and NZ scored only for 80 for 9 at the end of 20 overs.

On my way across the harbour today I saw that Aurora was in town

 

Wickets started to fall early in the NZ innings

 

Another one down

 

33 for 5 after 8.5 overs

 

Charlotte Edwards got off to a good start but was caught when on 19 runs

 

The England team certainly had a mid over wobble but were able to celebrate when they managed the required 81 runs for 4 wickets down.

 

Looking forward to the next match

Peewit