Days in the sun

Day at Lords yesterday !

Believe this or not ... but the sun was out all day.

And not just clear skies, it was getting pretty warm in that sun too.

I spent one of the innings watching from the upper deck of one of the stands, looking at the Lords Pavillion over in the distance there. I posted a similar pic to this one on Facebook with the comment "Shoulda brought me helmet" because that spot was right in the firing line for straight hitting. Ok, it would be a big hit from a batsman at the other end but very possible.

There wasn't actually that much big straight hitting, most of the 4's and 6's were shots clobbered round the corner into the stand off to the left of this picture.

Bit like that.

At least I think that was a thump to the boundary.

As well as enjoying the cricket, I was enjoying playing with the camera. It's a Canon Ixus 265 and I haven't had that many chances to play with it so far. I kinda forgot that I got a 16GB memory card with it, I barely scratched the surface of that yesterday with 53 photos and an early play at taking a few videos. Not watched those yet, wonder how they turned out.

It's much better quality than the old iPhone camera but ...

iPhone camera - can talk directly to Facebook
Ixus - needs the pictures to go via Macbook
(and the Ixus refuses to talk to my Win7 desktop at all)

That's from the iPhone camera. Similar quality (except for that little spot upper right which won't budge) but there's no zoom, which makes a hell of a difference for getting right into the action. I was pleased with the speed of the Ixus too, pictures were taken pretty much on the click of the botton. With my last digital camera, the picture was taken over a second after the button click.

Enough about cameras !

Navy vs Army first. I missed most of the first half due to ... travel. The game started at 10am and I targeted getting to Hillingdon tube station at 9.30am to get an offpeak ticket (makes a clear different cashwise). Navy knocked up an under par 104 all out after losing too many wickets early on. An indisciplined, lacklustre and possibly even lazy performance in the field saw the Army clear that target with a couple of overs to spare. Extras very nearly ended up as top scorer, anything over 10 extras is inexcusable in these kinds of games, to give away over 30 ? Criminal.

I say lazy there ... when I fielded, I made a point to attack the ball. I would be anticipating where it was going to go, even before the batsman played his shot. I'd predict where I'd need to go from what shot they were looking to play. And I saved a lot of runs that way ... including running a lot more than I needed to. Hey ! I liked scampering around the cricket field like a mad thing ! Most of the fielders yesterday didn't seem to be doing much anticipation. 1's became 2's and so on. I like to think I saved maybe 20 runs each innings from my fielding, not from picking up the ball and pinging it in but from convincing batsmen that it would be a Very Bad Idea to attempt a run.

Cricket's a mind game ...

So - 1 win for the Army. Next up, RAF vs Navy. And RAF promptly bash more runs in their innings than both teams combined scored in the first. Navy come second again but at least they make a reasonable effort at it.

Last game, Army vs RAF. Cagey game. Tight bowling and wickets at good times* led to RAF getting just 119 in their 20 overs. The chase was fairly cagey too, although Army started bashing it more towards the end to take victory on the day with overs to spare.
*(RAF have a star player who dominates, he got out cheaply in this game after bashing a quick 50 against Navy. Army's team performance won them the game)

Handshakes to finish. Tea and medals for the victors and a Sleepy departing for home.

Not through those gates. Those are the Grace Gates at the Pavillion end of the ground. I legged it through the Nursery gates (closer to the Tube station).

I enjoyed the day out there. I didn't see anyone I know, the usual cluster of friends couldn't make it this year. It's always better watching events like this in company as you can talk about what's occurring. Maybe next year, or at one of the county T20 Blast games. That's a weird one though because I don't want to have anything to do with the local team. Perhaps Taunton for Somerset or Ageas Bowl for Hampshire.

Tired now. It was a 7.30am start, getting home at 11pm. I have the England vs New Zealand cricket on telly at the moment and England have made a promising start to a chase of 399. We shall see who wins ...