Sporty Saturday. And Thursday. And Sunday.

Le Mans today !

Actually been quite busy over this week, although busy actually means "busy recovering" for some of that.

Wednesday was a business trip, Thursday was Lords. Friday was recovering from Lords (left house at 7am, got back in at 1am, needed until about 3.30am until sleep would be reasonable). Saturday morning currently sees me watching the build up to Le Mans on the telly* and the cricket in another window on my desktop as I type. I also have the Idle Champions game running in yet another window. Having sport on my desktop means no gaming ... but that doesn't exclude the simple clicker game.

Cricket will continue until probably 7pm, at which point I'll head off to acquire pizza while I have Le Mans paused for catching up later in the myriad advert breaks. Le Mans racing will go from about 2.30pm to 2.30pm tomorrow.

*Cricket on desktop, Le Mans on telly ? Hopefully it has improved but in previous years it has proved a nightmare to watch the Eurosport on computer. You usually have to buy another subscription for something I already have a subscription to watch. Not doing that.

Lords ?

Was looking great as usual. There was a light drizzle as I arrived, heading through the back of the ground to the main stadium. Off to the left is the Nursery practice ground with that curiously modern Media Centre (wiki link) opened in 1999. Crikey, almost 20 years ago already.

Home of cricket putting its best sides forward, despite the drizzly start. They did very well to get play happening on time.

Army batting first against Navy bowling. It was a tight start but the Army batsmen broke out of the shackles later on to score 149.

As is usual for these, click for bigger. Most of the pictures are from my Canon Ixus 265 compact digital camera, which I love. A picture like the one above was taken at full optical zoom (16x) with it braced rather agriculturally on my knee. It's great for these long shots when it has that bracing, not so much for close shots where the focusing isn't quite quick enough to cut out any shake or motion blur. I do like it when I get the timing right to get the ball in shot though.

Navy celebrate the fall of another Army wicket.

A comfortable crowd providing a little bit of atmosphere. These games pull in a few people, both from Interservices support (like me!) and a few Lords regulars who want to watch the cricket in a great stadium. They open up the Mound and Tavern stands to the public but not the other stand on the other side. The Pavilion is for members only. Smart people. Not me !

We had drama throughout the day, including here where the fielder looks perplexed and more than a tad frustrated after his efforts to secure an excellent running in catch were wiped away by it being a no-ball for the bowler overstepping.

Half time and we're off to hunt down some tea.

Pitch must have been nicely lively.

Especially with the Army bowlers lobbing in grenades.

We had a minute of silence observed on Thursday for the Grenfell Tower Block disaster. The teams paused the game a few minutes early to line up in front of the Pavilion.

And the crowd stood in their own mark of respect. A wonderfully observed minute of silence and I'd particularly note how everyone anticipated it, like this picture being taken a couple of minutes before with everyone standing in respect already. It was more like a 5 minutes of silence.

Back to the cricket and the Army celebrate a steady fall of Navy wickets. This time a batsman looking rather perplexed at being given lbw.

An aggressive stride ! But I don't the ball has gone quite where he intended ... To steal a phrase from history, "What's wrong with our bats today ?" "Sir, I don't think they're using their bats." Navy come a distant third, losing by 42 runs.

The winners get a break in this tournament with the losers staying on for the second game, so next up was the Navy vs the RAF.

RAF started brighter but the wickets started coming again. This opener got a tickly one.

RAF get 149 again, time for the Navy to take their turn. They have an ok side but haven't been in the same league as RAF or Army for the last few years.

Lots of ambition though.

But they could never keep up with the rate as the wickets fell and were well short at the end. RAF win by 49.

There is no lonelier figure in cricket than the Number 11 batsman walking away from shattered stumps at the moment of defeat.

Time for another break and the best tea shop in Lords ! It's under the new Warner stand.

Game 3 ! Army vs RAF, winner gets the trophy. The RAF batted well here with power and occasional skill :

A subtle guiding of the ball and the RAF finish on 147. Time for the Army !

The Army walked into a bit of a stranglehold, struggling to get any runs away. This was representative of the energy shown by the RAF in the field, appealing vigorously for this lbw. His partner was out shortly after and the Army continually struggled to get up with the run rate.

More subtlety on show, this time from the Army batsmen guiding the ball down to the boundary.

And more lusty blows. Oh and look !!!! SHADOWS !!!!!!! The sun was hiding for most of the day but came out to play a bit later.

It was not to be for the Army though this year as wickets continued to fall, like the sharp stumping above. (I'm especially happy with this shot, the focus is decent, the centreing is reasonable and .... flying bails !)

At the conclusion of proceedings, handshakes all round. Recognition of great play and sportsmanship all round. RAF come out the winners with tea and medals following soon after.

The results weren't particularly close or tense like in previous years but it was a very enjoyable day at the cricket again. The old master can be proud again of what he overlooked :

I'll be back again to say hello to Lords and Old Father Time.