I have enjoyed the past weekend. Disappointed with the play and result of Durham’s first game in the cricket Championship first division I had high hopes of the second game against Hampshire which commenced on Wednesday and end well after normal time on a sunlit evening at the Riverside on Saturday with the result always in question. There was one of the most engaging and memorable programmes in the second series of the original Swedish police detective Wallander and excellent end to the three film series of Foyle’s War with the hint that this is not the end despite his official retirement from the force. There was the furore about the joke memo circulating the Foreign Office about the visit to England of Pope Benedict. I completed the garage patio area in an imaginative way and continued the study of the Conservative Party 2010 Election Manifesto.
As a creative I have a Goon show sense of humour but can also laugh at tasteless jokes along with most people, although then feel guilty when I consider the implications, Although raised a Catholic and hold many of the values of a faith I no longer share I did find the circulated memo about the visit of the Pope very funny, with the suggestion that he launched the Benedict condoms, opened an abortion clinic and celebrated a mass for gay couples and spent an evening answering hotline calls from former children abused by priests. I suspect the young author of the memo is one of the bright stars of the latest generation of brilliant minds recruited to prevent politicians taken themselves too seriously and working all the possible unintended consequences of their ideas and Party prejudices, until they become statesmen and women and understand the realities of a national government in international contemporary capitalism.
I am not suggesting that the unconditional apology was not called for or that how the memo came to be circulated and leaked does not merit serious consideration. As Michael Portillo astutely commented on the Late Politics show on Friday the action of sections of the British press to resort to the politics of the gutter to try and halt the Clegg inspired Lib Dem surge was that it kept the issue on the front page when by now in the campaign finding worthwhile election stories is usually a problem. The best way to help Cameron, if this is their aim, is to down play the surge and give prominence to other issues. A reverse anti Catholic story would enable the incongruities of a visit from a recognised religious leader whose views are rejected by the majority of the population no less vehemently than those of Jewish and Muslim religions. This is not surprising considering that the Church of England was created by a murdering fornicating polygamist
The Conservatives under David Cameron claim that society is broken which begs the question of how does he define society, and irrespective of this important point, the Manifesto omits to point out that the great feature of the Thatcher rule was her denial of the existence of society in political terms and her rolling out of measures which created greater division rather than unity. It is however also fact that the extent of inequality under Labour has risen and we do have one of the highest level’s of family breakdowns and teenage single parenthood in the world. While blaming Thatcher for the fuelling personal greed and laying the foundations for greater financial inequality and power and on Blairism and Chancellor Brown for then building on her platform, family breakdown and teenage single parenthood has other causes which I suggest arises from a combination of factors built up since the 1960’s and which reversing could take as long if not longer.
The manifesto makes the point that society is not just the politicians and those who work for central and local government, I have to ask does anyone not appreciate the difference?
For me the first step is defining more clearly the limits of central and local government, including the judicial system. National and local government, including the judiciary, should keep out of moral issues as well as religious ones except for ensuring the right to follow religions as long as doing do so not impinge on the rights of other religions and those without religion, and to leave moral issues to religions and moral philosophers. Politicians and lawyers should stick to deciding what a citizen can do and cannot if they wish to benefit from the protection and privileges of being within the state. This is an important issue within the context of being a member of the EEC, for example, where one can now live in any of the participating states if one wishes without taking any interest or activity in the state, its judicial system.
However once one has made the broad distinction, less clear is the role of the apparatus of the state and what should not. It is Ok for the state to decide that it wants to promote people living together, or in close proximity in relation to the care of young people, the disabled, the sick and the elderly. There are problems and long term implications for children brought up in substitute care and which has a social as well as a financial cost, and similarly for all those where the alternative is institutional care because of mental or physical disabilities and because of old age which often embraces both. However this is not to pass a moral judgement that people who live together, as part of extended families and provide care in the community, are morally better than those who do not.
My concerns are that once the state starts making moral judgements it is a short road to accepting that one political or religious ideology is superior to others and therefore everything which the state does should be governed by one and not any other.
My concern is also that because the life of politicians and governments are comparatively short they should not embark on tackling social problems where solutions are long term unless there is genuine political consensus.
Take the issue of good parenting and child care, my professional and managerial experience is that many children are damaged in the sense of adversely affecting their adults live whether they are brought up by one, both or neither biological parents and where one or both parents or substitute parents not only have good intentions but always try and to the right things in the right circumstances. The state therefore should only intervene with the child if there is evidence of the carers causing immediate harm and provide help and support. Once there is acceptable evidence for formal intervention then any intervention should apply to carer as well as to the cared.
I do support measures which will make people feel more in control of their lives than many do at the moment but the priority remains of good education and paid occupational activity, access to shelter unaffordable energy, clothing, food and some leisure as well as freedom from murder, physical and other forms of violence, and theft.
As I previously stated I am not convinced that most people want to be involved in politics and running services for others or trying to dictate how the majority should live. The Manifesto argues that there should be a transfer back of power from central to local government and then to individual communities. Yet the opposite of this occurred under Thatcher and was then further exploited by Labour with financial politicians and their officers becomes more skilled but just as ruthless as Stalin‘s Commissars. The reality of the contemporary society is that if you want to set and enforce minimum standards and widen choice and opportunity you have to centrally direct and then ensure what you want is put into practice and maintained by an effective system of local monitoring, inspection and evaluation. Otherwise the Con in Conservatism stands for confidence and not for conservation and protection for all that is good and valuable to the welfare of human kind.
You cannot legislate or provide short life measures to make individuals more responsible and appreciative. This change will only come about through better parenting and education and a leadership from politicians that is not based on personal greed and hypocrisy, the feature of the last and previous decades of government.
One proposal for a national Citizen service is pointless. When I hear people argue for national service they mean compulsory nationals service to address juvenile crime and yob culture but the very youngsters covered their concerns will not participate in conventional activities willingly and those likely to be interested in the scheme are already in involved in Scouts and Guides, voluntary organisations, the Prince’s Trust the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. Others are already committed as carers or raising large sums for charities through fun runs, fun events village fetes, school bring and buy sales and such like.
I was pleased to see the commitment to retaining the fringe benefits for the elderly something which past Tory politicians have argue strongly against. Mr Cameron added free eye sight tests and passports to this list during the second Leader’s debate. It is proposed re-examine Family Law to enable greater use of mediation which lawyers representing couples in divorce proceedings cannot presently engage in and to enable grand parents and partners to have contact with children of marriages and partnerships if a permanent separation occurs.
I was also very pleased by a section on Protecting childhood which included greater controls on advertising and marketing aimed at children. There is concern at the proposed refocusing of the Sure Start programme which has been a proved benefit to young children and their families. Obviously more needs to be done to protecting children in situations where the patents and other relatives are feckless, anti social and dysfunctional and where there is need at time to in effect take the whole family into care on a voluntary basis. My first experience of social work was with the Family Service Unit and a year later I spent a short period of weeks working at a residential centre where a group of families occupied flatlets provided by a non statutory body. The provision of skilled intervention and support as well as coordination of statutory services requires a considerable investment of time and money over a prolonged period if some progress is made.
Before turning to the NHS and education and the sections on crime. I want to reflecting further on the Wallander episode 5 of the original second series of new stories called The Cellist. As a young man I purchased a large printed canvas of a Jacqueline Du Pre type of young girl playing the Cello sometime after hearing the Elgar Piano Concerto which she made famous in the 1960’s and which is admired to this day. Her interesting but short and tragic life is subject of the film Hilary and Jackie. I therefore immediately became engaged with the episode which features a young cellist who is nearly assassinated after a concert attend by Wallander. He discovers that she is the key witness to the murder of a conductor friend and lover who in turn we find smuggled drugs for the Russian Mafia and had a bisexual relationship with the son of the mafia boss. The motive for the killing is revenge because the young conductor is believed to have infected the son with HIV and which at the time the story first appeared was expected to lead to AIDS and premature death.
In addition to some beautiful music the episode is excellent because of the relationships developed during the investigation, the level of tension and menace created by the gang and the final exciting climax although the outcome was never in much doubt although the writers usually manager a twist or two.
This reminds that I enjoyed the second String final in the 2010 Young Musician of the year and where the young trombonist brass band player winner of the 2009 contest has recently been in the recording studio as the soloist with a full orchestra for a major label. In the instrument section final there were two outstanding young performers, a harp player who demonstrated that is already an artist performer and whose intensity was impressive to watch as well as to hear. I suspect she was narrowly beaten by an outstanding young violinist Callum Smart who is the front runner so far as none of woodwind players, including the winner appeared to me to approach his X factor performance. We are unrelated.
The third and final two hour film in the series of Foyle’s War was the best of the three to date although aspects of the story were predictable. The programme begins with the retirement of Foyle and on his way to the USA after securing a place on a transatlantic liner. He appeared to be going on some mission which I hope will be revealed in a future series. It was not made clear why he became interested in the situation of a young British ex prisoner of war who was found to have been a member of the a Nazi propaganda force drawn from British POW‘s in the latter stages of the war. He admitted to the treasonable offence punishable by death, refusing to say anything in his defence to his appointed lawyer or to Foyle who takes an interest as part of a study of the unit, although why he is so interested is not made clear. We learn the learn that the boy is the child of the first marriage of a former High Tory politician who is a member of an ancient English family.
There are two developments which turn his interest into a major investigation. The first his the murder of the secretary to the former Member of Parliament who lives in area now covered by his former Sergeant, and then the circumstances of the departure of the subject’s former music teacher, who died in prison following a conviction for theft of jewels from his mother whop then died in a horrible and alleged tragic accident.
Despite the continuing resistance of the young man to defend himself and who is duly sentenced to death for the treason, Foyle uncovers that in fact he was an undercover agent sent to disrupt the Nazi unit and report on its activities. The murder was committed by another POW who joined the unit to get better conditions and who needed to silence the girl who knew of the role of the young man whose POW letters she passed onto intelligence. On reading of the arrest of young man for treason come he came forward pretending to be the agent who had passed on information via the girl friend who he then murders to ensure there was no one who could reveal the truth. Before finding this out Foyle had taken an interest in the conviction and imprisonment of the former music teacher and discovers that although the musician had been of previously excellent character he had been sent to prison by a judge who was a friend of the former Member of Parliament.
The news of the death of the former girlfriend and the role of the POW who stole his actual identity, provoked the sentenced young man to reveal what had happened in the past and what happened when he became an undercover member of the Nazi unit. They had been sent on a propaganda visit to Dresden on the night the city was reduced to rubble with tens of thousands of deaths which had broken his heart and conviction in the rightness of the war. He had felt no inclination to defend himself, especially when he realised that his disgrace would deeply wound his father who as a child he had witnesses killing his after she decided she could not longer stand his cruelty anymore and said she was leaving, the catalyst being that her friend, the music teacher, had been farmed by her husband and sent to prison.
As light relief Sam continued to help out at the Hastings guest house which had the skids put under it by the bank manger who instead of giving a further overdraft called the existing debt in. The situation suddenly looked brighter when the Council advised it was going to build housing and a shopping centre on the ancient green next to the guest house which would have to be demolished for a new road. Instead of saying Eureka the guest house owner sets up as a protest group which discovers the green an ancient burial ground and that ends the Council’s steam rolling ambitions. He proposes marriage and Sam accepts and then the guest house blows up from an unexploded bomb. Foyle is be back from his mysterious trip in time for the wedding. The young man is discharged with his conviction quashed in time to attend the trial of his father for murdering his mother.
The disappointment of Durham’s first match in the championship reverberated around the Member’s lounge on another cold start to the second game against Hampshire on Wednesday morning. I became so irritated by the voices of doom that I drew attention that had Durham held catches and dismissed the two openers, he rest only managed one hundred and fifty runs, it could have been Durham in the driving seat on the final day.
My forecast that a poor game did not turn Durham overnight the top side into a no hope side appeared a little thin as Hampshire batted with ease after a defensive start and the runs commenced to mount up. The weather turned glorious and I basked in hot afternoon sunshine getting an early sun tan bordering on sub burn.
It looked as if Hants would fail to reach 300 but then a sparkling slog by the 9th man took the total to just under 350. Durham had a mixture of an innings but managed to gain a modest first innings lead of some 40 runs. Hampshire again demonstrated that the team this year is of stronger stuff and held out until early afternoon on the fourth day, with Durham facing a total of 260 runs to win at a rate of just under five runs an over.
The total was achieved with only and handful of overs to go and with five wickets in hand. In fairness the result remained uncertain until the last hour and could have been achieved earlier if a couple of the big hitters had not tried one too many slogging strokes. I am impressed by young former Academy player Ben Stokes, an all rounder who reminds of a confident young Paul Collingwood. Luke Evans on loan to Northants for April has participated in both their opening winning games but Sussex are the immediate leaders with 3 out of 3 in division two. For the game with Hampshire another Academy fast bowlers was standing by, Master Rushworth, who was to get his opportunity on Sunday in the first of the new 40 overs single innings game which Durham won impressively scoring over 260 runs and then dismissing Hampshire for just over 100 in quick time. Not that I saw Sunday’s game, deciding to stay and finish the outside and commence preparations for next week’s trip to Headingley.
As a creative I have a Goon show sense of humour but can also laugh at tasteless jokes along with most people, although then feel guilty when I consider the implications, Although raised a Catholic and hold many of the values of a faith I no longer share I did find the circulated memo about the visit of the Pope very funny, with the suggestion that he launched the Benedict condoms, opened an abortion clinic and celebrated a mass for gay couples and spent an evening answering hotline calls from former children abused by priests. I suspect the young author of the memo is one of the bright stars of the latest generation of brilliant minds recruited to prevent politicians taken themselves too seriously and working all the possible unintended consequences of their ideas and Party prejudices, until they become statesmen and women and understand the realities of a national government in international contemporary capitalism.
I am not suggesting that the unconditional apology was not called for or that how the memo came to be circulated and leaked does not merit serious consideration. As Michael Portillo astutely commented on the Late Politics show on Friday the action of sections of the British press to resort to the politics of the gutter to try and halt the Clegg inspired Lib Dem surge was that it kept the issue on the front page when by now in the campaign finding worthwhile election stories is usually a problem. The best way to help Cameron, if this is their aim, is to down play the surge and give prominence to other issues. A reverse anti Catholic story would enable the incongruities of a visit from a recognised religious leader whose views are rejected by the majority of the population no less vehemently than those of Jewish and Muslim religions. This is not surprising considering that the Church of England was created by a murdering fornicating polygamist
The Conservatives under David Cameron claim that society is broken which begs the question of how does he define society, and irrespective of this important point, the Manifesto omits to point out that the great feature of the Thatcher rule was her denial of the existence of society in political terms and her rolling out of measures which created greater division rather than unity. It is however also fact that the extent of inequality under Labour has risen and we do have one of the highest level’s of family breakdowns and teenage single parenthood in the world. While blaming Thatcher for the fuelling personal greed and laying the foundations for greater financial inequality and power and on Blairism and Chancellor Brown for then building on her platform, family breakdown and teenage single parenthood has other causes which I suggest arises from a combination of factors built up since the 1960’s and which reversing could take as long if not longer.
The manifesto makes the point that society is not just the politicians and those who work for central and local government, I have to ask does anyone not appreciate the difference?
For me the first step is defining more clearly the limits of central and local government, including the judicial system. National and local government, including the judiciary, should keep out of moral issues as well as religious ones except for ensuring the right to follow religions as long as doing do so not impinge on the rights of other religions and those without religion, and to leave moral issues to religions and moral philosophers. Politicians and lawyers should stick to deciding what a citizen can do and cannot if they wish to benefit from the protection and privileges of being within the state. This is an important issue within the context of being a member of the EEC, for example, where one can now live in any of the participating states if one wishes without taking any interest or activity in the state, its judicial system.
However once one has made the broad distinction, less clear is the role of the apparatus of the state and what should not. It is Ok for the state to decide that it wants to promote people living together, or in close proximity in relation to the care of young people, the disabled, the sick and the elderly. There are problems and long term implications for children brought up in substitute care and which has a social as well as a financial cost, and similarly for all those where the alternative is institutional care because of mental or physical disabilities and because of old age which often embraces both. However this is not to pass a moral judgement that people who live together, as part of extended families and provide care in the community, are morally better than those who do not.
My concerns are that once the state starts making moral judgements it is a short road to accepting that one political or religious ideology is superior to others and therefore everything which the state does should be governed by one and not any other.
My concern is also that because the life of politicians and governments are comparatively short they should not embark on tackling social problems where solutions are long term unless there is genuine political consensus.
Take the issue of good parenting and child care, my professional and managerial experience is that many children are damaged in the sense of adversely affecting their adults live whether they are brought up by one, both or neither biological parents and where one or both parents or substitute parents not only have good intentions but always try and to the right things in the right circumstances. The state therefore should only intervene with the child if there is evidence of the carers causing immediate harm and provide help and support. Once there is acceptable evidence for formal intervention then any intervention should apply to carer as well as to the cared.
I do support measures which will make people feel more in control of their lives than many do at the moment but the priority remains of good education and paid occupational activity, access to shelter unaffordable energy, clothing, food and some leisure as well as freedom from murder, physical and other forms of violence, and theft.
As I previously stated I am not convinced that most people want to be involved in politics and running services for others or trying to dictate how the majority should live. The Manifesto argues that there should be a transfer back of power from central to local government and then to individual communities. Yet the opposite of this occurred under Thatcher and was then further exploited by Labour with financial politicians and their officers becomes more skilled but just as ruthless as Stalin‘s Commissars. The reality of the contemporary society is that if you want to set and enforce minimum standards and widen choice and opportunity you have to centrally direct and then ensure what you want is put into practice and maintained by an effective system of local monitoring, inspection and evaluation. Otherwise the Con in Conservatism stands for confidence and not for conservation and protection for all that is good and valuable to the welfare of human kind.
You cannot legislate or provide short life measures to make individuals more responsible and appreciative. This change will only come about through better parenting and education and a leadership from politicians that is not based on personal greed and hypocrisy, the feature of the last and previous decades of government.
One proposal for a national Citizen service is pointless. When I hear people argue for national service they mean compulsory nationals service to address juvenile crime and yob culture but the very youngsters covered their concerns will not participate in conventional activities willingly and those likely to be interested in the scheme are already in involved in Scouts and Guides, voluntary organisations, the Prince’s Trust the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. Others are already committed as carers or raising large sums for charities through fun runs, fun events village fetes, school bring and buy sales and such like.
I was pleased to see the commitment to retaining the fringe benefits for the elderly something which past Tory politicians have argue strongly against. Mr Cameron added free eye sight tests and passports to this list during the second Leader’s debate. It is proposed re-examine Family Law to enable greater use of mediation which lawyers representing couples in divorce proceedings cannot presently engage in and to enable grand parents and partners to have contact with children of marriages and partnerships if a permanent separation occurs.
I was also very pleased by a section on Protecting childhood which included greater controls on advertising and marketing aimed at children. There is concern at the proposed refocusing of the Sure Start programme which has been a proved benefit to young children and their families. Obviously more needs to be done to protecting children in situations where the patents and other relatives are feckless, anti social and dysfunctional and where there is need at time to in effect take the whole family into care on a voluntary basis. My first experience of social work was with the Family Service Unit and a year later I spent a short period of weeks working at a residential centre where a group of families occupied flatlets provided by a non statutory body. The provision of skilled intervention and support as well as coordination of statutory services requires a considerable investment of time and money over a prolonged period if some progress is made.
Before turning to the NHS and education and the sections on crime. I want to reflecting further on the Wallander episode 5 of the original second series of new stories called The Cellist. As a young man I purchased a large printed canvas of a Jacqueline Du Pre type of young girl playing the Cello sometime after hearing the Elgar Piano Concerto which she made famous in the 1960’s and which is admired to this day. Her interesting but short and tragic life is subject of the film Hilary and Jackie. I therefore immediately became engaged with the episode which features a young cellist who is nearly assassinated after a concert attend by Wallander. He discovers that she is the key witness to the murder of a conductor friend and lover who in turn we find smuggled drugs for the Russian Mafia and had a bisexual relationship with the son of the mafia boss. The motive for the killing is revenge because the young conductor is believed to have infected the son with HIV and which at the time the story first appeared was expected to lead to AIDS and premature death.
In addition to some beautiful music the episode is excellent because of the relationships developed during the investigation, the level of tension and menace created by the gang and the final exciting climax although the outcome was never in much doubt although the writers usually manager a twist or two.
This reminds that I enjoyed the second String final in the 2010 Young Musician of the year and where the young trombonist brass band player winner of the 2009 contest has recently been in the recording studio as the soloist with a full orchestra for a major label. In the instrument section final there were two outstanding young performers, a harp player who demonstrated that is already an artist performer and whose intensity was impressive to watch as well as to hear. I suspect she was narrowly beaten by an outstanding young violinist Callum Smart who is the front runner so far as none of woodwind players, including the winner appeared to me to approach his X factor performance. We are unrelated.
The third and final two hour film in the series of Foyle’s War was the best of the three to date although aspects of the story were predictable. The programme begins with the retirement of Foyle and on his way to the USA after securing a place on a transatlantic liner. He appeared to be going on some mission which I hope will be revealed in a future series. It was not made clear why he became interested in the situation of a young British ex prisoner of war who was found to have been a member of the a Nazi propaganda force drawn from British POW‘s in the latter stages of the war. He admitted to the treasonable offence punishable by death, refusing to say anything in his defence to his appointed lawyer or to Foyle who takes an interest as part of a study of the unit, although why he is so interested is not made clear. We learn the learn that the boy is the child of the first marriage of a former High Tory politician who is a member of an ancient English family.
There are two developments which turn his interest into a major investigation. The first his the murder of the secretary to the former Member of Parliament who lives in area now covered by his former Sergeant, and then the circumstances of the departure of the subject’s former music teacher, who died in prison following a conviction for theft of jewels from his mother whop then died in a horrible and alleged tragic accident.
Despite the continuing resistance of the young man to defend himself and who is duly sentenced to death for the treason, Foyle uncovers that in fact he was an undercover agent sent to disrupt the Nazi unit and report on its activities. The murder was committed by another POW who joined the unit to get better conditions and who needed to silence the girl who knew of the role of the young man whose POW letters she passed onto intelligence. On reading of the arrest of young man for treason come he came forward pretending to be the agent who had passed on information via the girl friend who he then murders to ensure there was no one who could reveal the truth. Before finding this out Foyle had taken an interest in the conviction and imprisonment of the former music teacher and discovers that although the musician had been of previously excellent character he had been sent to prison by a judge who was a friend of the former Member of Parliament.
The news of the death of the former girlfriend and the role of the POW who stole his actual identity, provoked the sentenced young man to reveal what had happened in the past and what happened when he became an undercover member of the Nazi unit. They had been sent on a propaganda visit to Dresden on the night the city was reduced to rubble with tens of thousands of deaths which had broken his heart and conviction in the rightness of the war. He had felt no inclination to defend himself, especially when he realised that his disgrace would deeply wound his father who as a child he had witnesses killing his after she decided she could not longer stand his cruelty anymore and said she was leaving, the catalyst being that her friend, the music teacher, had been farmed by her husband and sent to prison.
As light relief Sam continued to help out at the Hastings guest house which had the skids put under it by the bank manger who instead of giving a further overdraft called the existing debt in. The situation suddenly looked brighter when the Council advised it was going to build housing and a shopping centre on the ancient green next to the guest house which would have to be demolished for a new road. Instead of saying Eureka the guest house owner sets up as a protest group which discovers the green an ancient burial ground and that ends the Council’s steam rolling ambitions. He proposes marriage and Sam accepts and then the guest house blows up from an unexploded bomb. Foyle is be back from his mysterious trip in time for the wedding. The young man is discharged with his conviction quashed in time to attend the trial of his father for murdering his mother.
The disappointment of Durham’s first match in the championship reverberated around the Member’s lounge on another cold start to the second game against Hampshire on Wednesday morning. I became so irritated by the voices of doom that I drew attention that had Durham held catches and dismissed the two openers, he rest only managed one hundred and fifty runs, it could have been Durham in the driving seat on the final day.
My forecast that a poor game did not turn Durham overnight the top side into a no hope side appeared a little thin as Hampshire batted with ease after a defensive start and the runs commenced to mount up. The weather turned glorious and I basked in hot afternoon sunshine getting an early sun tan bordering on sub burn.
It looked as if Hants would fail to reach 300 but then a sparkling slog by the 9th man took the total to just under 350. Durham had a mixture of an innings but managed to gain a modest first innings lead of some 40 runs. Hampshire again demonstrated that the team this year is of stronger stuff and held out until early afternoon on the fourth day, with Durham facing a total of 260 runs to win at a rate of just under five runs an over.
The total was achieved with only and handful of overs to go and with five wickets in hand. In fairness the result remained uncertain until the last hour and could have been achieved earlier if a couple of the big hitters had not tried one too many slogging strokes. I am impressed by young former Academy player Ben Stokes, an all rounder who reminds of a confident young Paul Collingwood. Luke Evans on loan to Northants for April has participated in both their opening winning games but Sussex are the immediate leaders with 3 out of 3 in division two. For the game with Hampshire another Academy fast bowlers was standing by, Master Rushworth, who was to get his opportunity on Sunday in the first of the new 40 overs single innings game which Durham won impressively scoring over 260 runs and then dismissing Hampshire for just over 100 in quick time. Not that I saw Sunday’s game, deciding to stay and finish the outside and commence preparations for next week’s trip to Headingley.
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