Thursday, September 30, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Chutney Tuesday
Apples, tomatoes, red onions, gherkins, garlic, malt vinegar, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, mustard seeds, sultanas, olive oil, lemon juice.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Shrub Mail
The postie brought three tiny evergreen shrubs :
Ceanothus Repen
Euonymus Emerald 'n' Gold
Lonicera Lemon Beauty
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Listening List
Playing at Green Lung Towers this month :
African Head Charge - Songs of Praise
African Head Charge - Off The Beaten Track
African Head Charge - Drastic Season
Balam Acab - See Birds
Bill Evans - Alone (again)
Cluster - Sowiesoso
Compost Ambient Selection
Eardrum - Last Light
Ian Simmonds - Last States Of Nature
Jon Hassell - Sulla Strada
Lalo Schifrin - Gone With The Wave
Marc Codsi - Faded Postcards
Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis
Pantha du Prince - Black Noise
Peter Brîtzmann and Bill Laswell - Low Life
Peverelist - Live Mix
Raleigh Moncrief - Combed Over Chrome EP
The Bees - Sunshine Hit Me
Tobacco - Mystic Thickness
Tycho - Past is Prologue
VA - Le Cafe Abstrait Vol 6
Vulcan Freedom Fighters - Stardate Unknown
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Monday, September 06, 2010
Last Of The Summer Vine
'But it's not supposed to be like this,' bleated a few of us who'd spent the morning perusing all the available weather forecasts, as we sat under the porch at Frenchay listening to the rain drumming on the roof. The sight of some of the opposing Lansdown team turning up with a rugby ball got a few hot under the collar, but for a while it looked like the more appropriate sport.
Eventually, the drizzle eased a bit and the covers were rolled off to reveal a reasonable, if sticky playing surface. Bolts won the toss and dithered little in his decision to have a bowl, electing Harry and Dave L to take the new ball. The young Lansdown openers started very slowly, thanks to some thumbscrew-tight bowling from Dave but it was Harry who made the breakthrough when Bolts pouched the first of his three catches.
Justin was on duty behind the stumps again and made Martin a happy man when he came on to bowl and provoked an edge that Justin eagerly snaffled. Sadat generated some pace from the other end and eventually bowled the other stubborn opener to leave Lansdown on 69-3 some time after the 20 overs drinks break.
The rain had continued to fall on and off but mercifully the ball hadn't degenerated into a sodden sponge, although it did get a bit scuffed after being deposited for several straight boundaries off Martin, who was somewhat reluctant to let your correspondent have the ball when given the nod from the skip. Hidayat came on at the other end and broke the middle order partnership that had been steadily threatening to crescendo to a competitive final total and justice was achieved not long after, when Martin caught out his earlier tormentor.
The novice Sunday 1st XI bowler had further success when Justin took a fine, low, leg-side catch and then again, off his worst ball, to Bolt's finest catch. He was then somewhat perplexed to discover that it was a 35 overs match and that the innings was at an end with Lansdown on 151-7.
A few sandwiches later, Justin and Bolts were off to navigate the way to the target. The first three balls hit Justin uncomfortably, the fourth he prodded behind for a catch. After the jittery start, Wilko proceeded to compile a fifty run partnership with Bolts, playing his deft, trademark, late dabs until Bolts was lbw for 20 and he was joined by Duncan. The score cruised up at a good rate to 81 before the pair went in quick succession, Duncan to a catch, Wilko stumped smartly for 33. A few runs later, Harry was adjudged lbw for a duck, leaving the Cowboys on a still healthy, but possibly crumbly underneath 86-5.
Contrary to appearances, the next man in wasn't hiding, but sheltering amongst the conifers from the wind as the chilly autumnal evening descended. He waited and waited, as Hidayat and Dave L progressed with just the right blend of care and aggression, taking the total towards and past 100. The fielding side displayed a mixture of superlative throwing and slapstick as they tried in vain to break the partnership. Spectators arrived from the friendly match on the other pitch (big up Nelly's 50) as the pair at the wicket calmly overhauled their target with an unbroken 69 run partnership in the 32nd over.
The pink champagne flowed, followed by a pint served for the last time by Chris and Ian, who are retiring from their voluntary running of the bar and will be hard to replace.
Man of the Match was shared between Hidayat, Dave L and Tim and the Cider Moment split between Dave being bowled off a no ball and the third of Bolt's catches.
Scorecard
League Table
Eventually, the drizzle eased a bit and the covers were rolled off to reveal a reasonable, if sticky playing surface. Bolts won the toss and dithered little in his decision to have a bowl, electing Harry and Dave L to take the new ball. The young Lansdown openers started very slowly, thanks to some thumbscrew-tight bowling from Dave but it was Harry who made the breakthrough when Bolts pouched the first of his three catches.
Justin was on duty behind the stumps again and made Martin a happy man when he came on to bowl and provoked an edge that Justin eagerly snaffled. Sadat generated some pace from the other end and eventually bowled the other stubborn opener to leave Lansdown on 69-3 some time after the 20 overs drinks break.
The rain had continued to fall on and off but mercifully the ball hadn't degenerated into a sodden sponge, although it did get a bit scuffed after being deposited for several straight boundaries off Martin, who was somewhat reluctant to let your correspondent have the ball when given the nod from the skip. Hidayat came on at the other end and broke the middle order partnership that had been steadily threatening to crescendo to a competitive final total and justice was achieved not long after, when Martin caught out his earlier tormentor.
The novice Sunday 1st XI bowler had further success when Justin took a fine, low, leg-side catch and then again, off his worst ball, to Bolt's finest catch. He was then somewhat perplexed to discover that it was a 35 overs match and that the innings was at an end with Lansdown on 151-7.
A few sandwiches later, Justin and Bolts were off to navigate the way to the target. The first three balls hit Justin uncomfortably, the fourth he prodded behind for a catch. After the jittery start, Wilko proceeded to compile a fifty run partnership with Bolts, playing his deft, trademark, late dabs until Bolts was lbw for 20 and he was joined by Duncan. The score cruised up at a good rate to 81 before the pair went in quick succession, Duncan to a catch, Wilko stumped smartly for 33. A few runs later, Harry was adjudged lbw for a duck, leaving the Cowboys on a still healthy, but possibly crumbly underneath 86-5.
Contrary to appearances, the next man in wasn't hiding, but sheltering amongst the conifers from the wind as the chilly autumnal evening descended. He waited and waited, as Hidayat and Dave L progressed with just the right blend of care and aggression, taking the total towards and past 100. The fielding side displayed a mixture of superlative throwing and slapstick as they tried in vain to break the partnership. Spectators arrived from the friendly match on the other pitch (big up Nelly's 50) as the pair at the wicket calmly overhauled their target with an unbroken 69 run partnership in the 32nd over.
The pink champagne flowed, followed by a pint served for the last time by Chris and Ian, who are retiring from their voluntary running of the bar and will be hard to replace.
Man of the Match was shared between Hidayat, Dave L and Tim and the Cider Moment split between Dave being bowled off a no ball and the third of Bolt's catches.
Scorecard
League Table
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Up Up and Away
With a chance of promotion to Division 3 at stake in their home match against Lansdown's Sunday 2nd XI this week, it was a bit of a thrill to be embedded with the Sunday 1st XI at Frenchay.
Having eleven bowlers in the side seemed like an advantage and could perhaps have swayed the decision about what to do with a winning toss on a seaming, drying wicket. As it was, the opposition sent the Cowboys out to bat and goodness me, my dear old thing, it turned out that they had eleven batsmen too.
Justin and Bolts opened up, making steady progress with the slow bowlers of dubious action as some spectators reached for their 15° protractors and theodolites. Both made a score before succumbing to catches, Wilko hit a boundary then fell to another catch before Duncan and Hidayat steadied things and pushed on. Not that the Lansdown fielders took all their catches, but what they lacked in catching ability they made up for with good throwing arms, making the Cowboys' running between the wickets all the more commendable, yet at times a smidgen fraught.
Stereophonic sound is a wonderful thing, often not appreciated until your world goes mono. Rather alarmingly, one of the disadvantages of batting with temporary hearing loss in one ear, seems to be that calls of YES! NO! and WAIT! all sound like ARGH! No matter, there were no mid-pitch mix-ups as the middle order progressed.
Hidayat having fallen to the fourth catch of the innings, it would have been dull to have departed in the same manner and so with plenty of batting to come, the writer in residence drove at a straight yet bendy one and was bowled, making way for first Dave L and then Sadat to join Duncan and force the score on. Duncan fell to a catch on 38, Sadat smashed a couple of colossal sixes, pushing the run rate to more than four an over before he was bowled for 21 and then the tail mustered a supporting wag.
In the confusion following a run taken from a wide, Dean lost sight of the ball and ended up the wrong side of the crease when the ball eventually arrived. When Martin strode purposefully to the wicket to face the last ball of the innings the bowler obliged by putting it in the ideal position for Stratto's deft sweep to the leg side boundary for four. Not a duck in sight, the Cowboys had eeked out a good par score of 181 for 9.
TEA thanks to Wilko.
The aforementioned eleven bowlers gave rise to the question of who was going to keep wicket and after initial interest was shown by Duncan, the role was taken by Justin. Under clearing skies and sunshine Dave L and Sayed opened the bowling, the former being particularly tight and economical, the latter displaying customary hostility but unable to make the breakthrough.
Sadat restricted then bowled one of the openers, Duncan took a catch off Dave's bowling to remove the other but then a stubborn young left-hander came to the crease, building a partnership to keep Lansdown in contention. Martin bustled in for his first few overs without success and at the 20 overs drinks break, the opposition were still only two wickets down and in sight of the run rate.
Soon after, despite, or because of the tartrazine possibly present in the mid-innings tipple, long-on clung on to a well-judged catch off Martin, who soon had the new batsman bowled for a duck. For a long time afterwards, Lansdown remained only four wickets down.
A catch or two went down, fielding positions became increasingly questionable, hotly debated or ignored. Later, someone would comment on the Cowboys' "capacity for self-destructiveness during the 15-30 overs stage." Hidayat and Duncan were the fifth and sixth bowlers used, the other few not called upon and for a nerve-jangling time, nothing happened.
At some point, monophonic hearing and an uncharacteristic reluctance by Duncan and the audibly impaired close fielder to shout for a catch, somehow failed to result in a mid-air collision, although in taking last-minute evasive action the latter narrowly missed pulling off a smart catch, the former, possibly, a simpler one. Soon after it was all smiles as Duncan hit the stumps and broke a partnership, yet still those blighters came at us. A runner came out with the injured opposition skipper and confused things. Some people expressed their anxiety and there was much shouting about things.
Without the publication of a detailed order of service with regard to the fall of wickets and with worse than usual short-term memory, it's not possible to recall exactly how Lansdown performed from around the 30 over mark. Suffice to say, Duncan continued to bowl his spinners and snared more victims in his web of 4 for 22, Sayed returned for another spell to grab the wickets he'd been missing and the opposition started to make a meal of a meagre last ten over chase.
The much appreciated home side supporters were starting to look like nervous spot-fixers. Everyone was. Panic turned to optimism, Dean clutched a catch to his chest, Sayed bowled a couple of pearlers and Lansdown had capitulated by the 37th over, 23 runs short of their target.
Crikey! That'll be promotion then. Back at the pub someone was overheard saying, "We've just got to make damned sure that the Home Office leave our Afghanis alone."
Duncan was unanimously nominated Man of the Match for his all round contributions, Cider Moment votes were received for Dean's run-out and other events recorded in the scorebook but not in these grey cells drizzled in olive oil.
Scorecard
League Table
Having eleven bowlers in the side seemed like an advantage and could perhaps have swayed the decision about what to do with a winning toss on a seaming, drying wicket. As it was, the opposition sent the Cowboys out to bat and goodness me, my dear old thing, it turned out that they had eleven batsmen too.
Justin and Bolts opened up, making steady progress with the slow bowlers of dubious action as some spectators reached for their 15° protractors and theodolites. Both made a score before succumbing to catches, Wilko hit a boundary then fell to another catch before Duncan and Hidayat steadied things and pushed on. Not that the Lansdown fielders took all their catches, but what they lacked in catching ability they made up for with good throwing arms, making the Cowboys' running between the wickets all the more commendable, yet at times a smidgen fraught.
Stereophonic sound is a wonderful thing, often not appreciated until your world goes mono. Rather alarmingly, one of the disadvantages of batting with temporary hearing loss in one ear, seems to be that calls of YES! NO! and WAIT! all sound like ARGH! No matter, there were no mid-pitch mix-ups as the middle order progressed.
Hidayat having fallen to the fourth catch of the innings, it would have been dull to have departed in the same manner and so with plenty of batting to come, the writer in residence drove at a straight yet bendy one and was bowled, making way for first Dave L and then Sadat to join Duncan and force the score on. Duncan fell to a catch on 38, Sadat smashed a couple of colossal sixes, pushing the run rate to more than four an over before he was bowled for 21 and then the tail mustered a supporting wag.
In the confusion following a run taken from a wide, Dean lost sight of the ball and ended up the wrong side of the crease when the ball eventually arrived. When Martin strode purposefully to the wicket to face the last ball of the innings the bowler obliged by putting it in the ideal position for Stratto's deft sweep to the leg side boundary for four. Not a duck in sight, the Cowboys had eeked out a good par score of 181 for 9.
TEA thanks to Wilko.
The aforementioned eleven bowlers gave rise to the question of who was going to keep wicket and after initial interest was shown by Duncan, the role was taken by Justin. Under clearing skies and sunshine Dave L and Sayed opened the bowling, the former being particularly tight and economical, the latter displaying customary hostility but unable to make the breakthrough.
Sadat restricted then bowled one of the openers, Duncan took a catch off Dave's bowling to remove the other but then a stubborn young left-hander came to the crease, building a partnership to keep Lansdown in contention. Martin bustled in for his first few overs without success and at the 20 overs drinks break, the opposition were still only two wickets down and in sight of the run rate.
Soon after, despite, or because of the tartrazine possibly present in the mid-innings tipple, long-on clung on to a well-judged catch off Martin, who soon had the new batsman bowled for a duck. For a long time afterwards, Lansdown remained only four wickets down.
A catch or two went down, fielding positions became increasingly questionable, hotly debated or ignored. Later, someone would comment on the Cowboys' "capacity for self-destructiveness during the 15-30 overs stage." Hidayat and Duncan were the fifth and sixth bowlers used, the other few not called upon and for a nerve-jangling time, nothing happened.
At some point, monophonic hearing and an uncharacteristic reluctance by Duncan and the audibly impaired close fielder to shout for a catch, somehow failed to result in a mid-air collision, although in taking last-minute evasive action the latter narrowly missed pulling off a smart catch, the former, possibly, a simpler one. Soon after it was all smiles as Duncan hit the stumps and broke a partnership, yet still those blighters came at us. A runner came out with the injured opposition skipper and confused things. Some people expressed their anxiety and there was much shouting about things.
Without the publication of a detailed order of service with regard to the fall of wickets and with worse than usual short-term memory, it's not possible to recall exactly how Lansdown performed from around the 30 over mark. Suffice to say, Duncan continued to bowl his spinners and snared more victims in his web of 4 for 22, Sayed returned for another spell to grab the wickets he'd been missing and the opposition started to make a meal of a meagre last ten over chase.
The much appreciated home side supporters were starting to look like nervous spot-fixers. Everyone was. Panic turned to optimism, Dean clutched a catch to his chest, Sayed bowled a couple of pearlers and Lansdown had capitulated by the 37th over, 23 runs short of their target.
Crikey! That'll be promotion then. Back at the pub someone was overheard saying, "We've just got to make damned sure that the Home Office leave our Afghanis alone."
Duncan was unanimously nominated Man of the Match for his all round contributions, Cider Moment votes were received for Dean's run-out and other events recorded in the scorebook but not in these grey cells drizzled in olive oil.
Scorecard
League Table
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
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