Friday, 16 September 2011

2129 The refrigerator breaks down and the cricket season ends

My plan was to complete preparations for a weekend in London and pop over to the Riverside for the last session of the county cricket season. It all changed when the refrigerator packed up last night,

Instead of getting into the usual panic and having a restless night I placed the food, drink and other fridge stuff in cool bags in the garage where the overnight forecast was near frost, turned off the alarm and had a reasonable night.

Waking around 7am the Mediterranean spirit of manjana ‘it will get sorted’ continued as I played chess reaching 50 games level one for about the tenth time in pursuit of achieving 100 games at a time without defeat in more than one level, and then played Spider Patience to bring the run to 75 games without a failure and some ten or more games of Hearts Patience to bring the latest run to 750 games won without giving up, in prolonged pursuit of the second 1000th run of the present series and 5000 games won overall at 99.9%.

In the first flurry of activity I packed the lap top and then later remembered I needed to turn off the sound if I wanted to use on the train, and went to the top of the house to bring down the little steps to read the gas and electricity meters and send off the readings on line, after making myself coffee and a cereal bowl as the milk was OK. There was washing clothes and ironing and packing in readiness and vacuuming and floor washing to do “cos if something happens when you are away you do not want relatives to find the house in its present mess, do you! Ok then get yourself going lad,”

I remembered to locate a computer mouse and remembered to charge up the phones as I take a spare in case I lose one! I then decided I wanted to finish some set work from the previous couple of days and tidy the work room as a consequence. It was nine am having risen around 7.

Nearly three hours later I am pleased with the progress. The washing of clothes has been completed and they are now in the tumble drier. The refrigerator has been given an all over great clean and changed the connection socket used. The motor appeared to start up but then quickly died. I am yet to investigate if I have repair replacement insurance.

I have sorted out the completed set work except for some printing related to the News of the World Scandal and the Riots although I await the verbatim reports of three meetings in relation to the riots which are yet to be published for some reason not yet explained. Going to check the situation I discover there is a further hearing of the Committee with Chief Constables from Greater Manchester, The West Midlands and Nottinghamshire. I watch the first half an hour or so and decide I have other priorities.

I have two direct debits listed in relation to the Curry’s repair and replace but only of these was enacted for the washing machine. I am yet to check for general household insurance. I forgot what I had planned to do in relation to the lunch and had an oven cook of a fishcake, some scampi, onion rings, button mushrooms and potato wedges.

The news proved interesting with the British and French Presidents visiting Libya. The drying of clothes was completed and I rested until 2 pm before vacuum and floor cleaning, then ironing and clothing preparation for packing in the morning.

15.30 pm Ironing completed and clothes ready for packing with attention increasingly direct to the cricket events of the day which I shall record later. I will vacuum and floor clean after a break. Moving the fridge I found the credit card which was “lost” and had to be replaced. Whew a nice sweat although cannot be described as a good sweat one as I continued to pace myself over the day.

The vacuuming and floor clean was accomplished so I can pay attention to the last hour of the last day of the championship cricket season before sorting out what I am taking with me and what I am going to do on the weekend away. I enjoyed a prawn pasta salad for the evening meal followed by grapes and charged up the Oyster card online which will save a fortunate in travel costs within greater London.

There was only a flimsy chance of Durham winning the County Chmartionship before their last game against Worcester as even if they obtained maximum points all Warwickshire and Lancs had to do was draw their games with a good set of bonus points they would still finish in first and second place and take one of the major money prizes of over half a million and a quarter of a million pounds. By the time of the fourth and final day it was evident that Durham would pay dearly for their failure to win again Hampshire or Nottingham and even drawing one of the games could have taken them into second place at one point. They did win against a Worcestershire side fighting to stay in Division one after gaining promotion last season having been relegated the season before when Durham has won the championship without losing a game. This season Durham could have won all three titles although their form was in the Championship early on but they found the switching from one type of game to another most difficult and proved their undoing.

The facts are as follows. Somerset entertained championship hopefuls Lancashire who in turn needed Warwickshire to fail to win their last game at the Rosebowl who had an outside chance of staying in the first division if they won well and Worcestershire lost badly. All three games ebbed and flowed although by the final morning it was evident that Durham was destined for third place, Worcestershire were safe and Hampshire would be relegated with Yorkshire. It was still possible that any two from Middlesex Northants and Surrey would replace them as first and second from Division Two.

It was Hampshire who was to dictate the outcome of the first division championship. The Warwickshire mistake was to win the toss and bat first when the wicket offered the bowlers the best opportunity to take wickets early on. In the event Hampshire failed to make best use of the opportunity by dropping several catches and the gamble appeared to have paid off as the visitors amassed 493 with the one speed Chanderpaul getting 171 and opener Westwood 109, but they taken the greater part of two days. Although Dawson made 152 runs in Hampshire’s first innings, the total of 324 still meant a follow on and the home side 169 runs adrift. With the total 28 for 3 overnight the odds were heavily in favour of Ashley Giles managed and Patrick Troughton captained Warwickshire winning another title.

The problem became Michael Carberry who made 111 and then Mckensie not out at the close with 115 and at 325 for 7 and with less than an hour to play the teams shook hands on a draw which in several scenarios would have meant Warwickshire still winning the title. They ended the season with 9 wins and 235 points, three points ahead of Durham.

Durham had also won the toss and elected to bat but failed to get the 400 runs needed for maximum bonus points and with 264 runs gained only two of the 5 required. At 175 for two wickets Worcestershire looked as if they were about to spring a surprise but at 255 for 3 they lost two wickets and then their last five wickets for 5 runs with Thorp 4 for 52 the most successful of the bowlers. As with the first innings several Durham batsman contributed good personal scores to the overall total. Di Venuto finishing with 88 runs for the game, Smith 103 Stoneman 90, Benkenstein 97 and Blackwell 81. The second innings total was 388 leaving Worcester to get 365 in just under 4 sessions. Solanki who had made 124 in their first innings was out without scoring after the departure of one of he openers and at 50 for 2 the only question was could they avoid defeat, The game was over early afternoon with the visitors all out for 213 and young Borthwick having good figures of 3 for 25 to celebrate his call up to England’s 20 20 squad, Claydon 2 for 27 also contributed, Durham finished the season with 235 pints so even if they had gained the extra 3 bonus points they would have still finished third having won only 8 matches compared to Warwickshire‘s nine.

The outcome of the championship therefore rested with what happened at Taunton which as with the Rosebowl had proved a good batting wicket throughout the season Somerset also decided to bat on winning the toss and even without the injured Trescothick they achieved 380 runs with Hildreth 186 and young wicket keeper Josh Butler 86 in a fourth wick stand which took the total from 89 to 259. Keedy 4 for 57 was the Lancashire success with Kerrigan after his heroic 9 wickets which led to the previous match being won taking only 1 wicket for 76 runs. Several Lancashire batsmen contributed to what was an excellent first innings score of 480 giving them an invaluable 100 run lead. However Somerset had no intention of laying down as they travel to London on Friday for the one day final at Lords on Saturday and then fly to India for the 20 20 international championship along with the winners Derbyshire on the Monday. A fine century by Trego of 120 took the total from 130 for 7 to 300 for 8 before 9th wicket fell as the Lancs supporters became more and more frustrated as a draw would keep them behind Warwickshire in the County table.

It was a wondrous and rare run out by Keedy which brought the Somerset innings to an end giving Lancashire a good chance of getting the required 210 odd runs for the win, although even a tie would see them win. They got an excellent start from openers Horton 55 and Moore 71 who both departed when the score was 131 and 135 respectively. Could they fail? It was then that Croft with 40 and Brown with 33 saw the visitors win their first championship in forty years and first time on their own in 70. During that time they have had many great players but have had to settle for wins against Yorkshire in the championship and one day titles. There was mounting excitement among the few hundred Lancs spectators who had made their way to Taunton. The radio/Internet commentators were breathless. The email read showed that half the population of Lancashire and former resident now around the world were gripped by the situation

There was some resentment against Somerset who had appeared to operate go slow tactics to cut down the number of overs to one every five minutes instead of the average of three and half and with leg side and high pitched balls bowled which would have been declared wides and no balls in the other competitions. But Lancs batsmen were bold and deserved to win. My complaint is the state of the wickets at Liverpool even though Durham won on my visit there. There is rumour that because of the continuing condition of the wicket at Old Trafford after turning the cricket square round they may continue to play their championship games at Liverpool and Blackpool next season. Hmm!

All three of the second division contenders won their games but because of bonus points Surrey ended the season with 227 points against Northants 226. The game can be cruel although Surrey did have the extra win. They only needed to bat once at the Oval making 468 with Maynard 123. They then bowled out Derbyshire, with their mind on the World 20 20 championships, out for 190 and 153, Ojhe 10 for 90 and Linley 3 for 46 match figures doing the damage.

Middlesex also had to win to confirm their place at the top and for most of the game looked as if this would be more of a problem. They elected to field and Leicestershire quickly showed they wanted to win as Smith with 108 runs and Eckelsey with 105 helped the home side to 319. Middlesex replied well but the problem was time at the visitors reached over 390 with Maian 97 and Berg not out at 130 both names are new to me. The home sided also did well in the second innings but which ended on 396 giving Middlesex plenty of time to get the 125 odd runs to secure victory, They commenced to wobble with wickets going at 57 67 72 81 and 90. They were not to be denied and finished top of the table with 240 points and also 8 wins the difference being a combination of 7 additional batting points and two fewer losses.

In the evening I enjoyed the prawn pasta salad and the two final episode of Torchwood which I enjoyed and thought more of as the series progressed.

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