Are You Taking The Hiss?

It's often said (especially by me) that buses are for peasants, but the peasants for whom the interiors and seats on the 222 bus from West Drayton train station to Uxbridge were designed, must be physically a lot smaller and thinner than most of the inhabitants of outer London Suburbs. They must also have extremely short legs to be able to cope with such tight seat spacing and have extraordinarily low expectations when it comes to passenger comfort. Still, at least the 222 got me there on time and in one piece, I suppose.

Arriving at 1025, Beefy was already there, and the ground was bathed in the same bright sunshine that I'd experienced all the way from Bristol. The first thing I noticed was that the cross that had been present above the scoreboard during last week's T20 in order to give the ground some character it allegedly lacks when compared with Southgate was missing. I took this as a bad omen, and sure enough within a couple of minutes, those familiar with weather patterns in these parts were pointing grimly at the clouds bubbling up from the direction of Bucks and Berks.

Sure enough by 1030 it was hissing it down. I took shelter for a while under a giant Heineken umbrella that Beefy had commandeered, but when it was obvious that the rain was here to stay for a while, I headed for the Clubhouse.

It stopped raining about 12 o'clock, and shortly afterwards it was announced that lunch would be taken at 1230. We therefore assumed that it would be a 1310 start, but in fact it was 1320 before proceedings finally got underway. Just in time to coincide with the arrival of another very threatening-looking thunder cloud. Thankfully this one's bark was worse than its bite.

Sussex Bat On

Sussex of course were starting on 413-9 with yesterday's centurion Wright, and Corey Collymore at the crease.

Shaggy bowled the first over from the Town End (but was not persisted with), Roly bowled the second over, and Finny the third. Finny was unlucky to have inroads made into his bowling figures when A.C.'s fierce shy at the stumps attempting to run out Collymore while the latter stole a quick single resulted in 5 runs. He was doubly unlucky in his next over when The Iceman failed to sight a square cut from Wright hit straight to him which should have resulted in no more than a single, but instead became a boundary.

Wright was in no mood to sit back and wait for his partner to get out, and a six hit off Roly over the bowler's head just eluded The Captain on the boundary. Sussex passed 450 with another boundary, a Wright late cut off Finny.

Wright eventually succumbed when trying to steer a short ball from Finny down to third man, but only succeeding in edging it through to Bart behind the stumps. His 134 was a magnificently crafted innings according to those who saw the bulk of it yesterday.

Sussex's total of 452 included 131 from the last two wickets!

Brockett, Bart and Ace

Brockett opened Middlesex's first innings with Bart. Lower Pavilion commented that he was hopeful of a very good score by at least one of our top 6 batsmen on this pitch against this bowling attack.

Sussex keeper Matty Prior committed an embarrassing faux pas in front of England coach Andy Flower by getting Middlesex off the mark with 4 byes. Bart was quickly but sensibly into his stride, and had reached 12 in a quite short time before rain intervened again, this time only for 15 minutes (1415-1430). Some headed for the clubhouse, but some complained that the humidity made the atmosphere in there too stuffy for them.  Rather like the complaints made about the pavilion at Lord's, which is also sometimes considered to be a bit stuffy!

First ball back, Bart survived a huge shout for LBW off Hatchett, and then edged a flukey boundary along the ground between slips and gully to leave the bowler seething. Thereafter though, he looked in little trouble.

Middlesex Gloveman Bloodied at First, But Still there! 

In the next over my Blackberry went off, yielding a match report from Sri Lanka v India from my friend Danny who's currently in Galle. A shout went up, and I looked up just in time to see the umpire giving Brockett the finger. LBW off the bowling of Collymore for just 8 out of a total of 36 for 1. “Probably our best opening partnership of the season,” remarked one member sardonically.

Ace came in and looked in fabulous nick, opening his account with a powerful lofted straight drive off Collymore. A few overs later he played the shot of the day, a glorious cover drive off the same bowler that was unanimously agreed to have been worth the admission money on its own. The fact that we are all members and therefore hadn't actually paid any admission money was beside the point!

Suddenly jackets were coming off as a hot sun beat down. It wasn't only jackets that were coming off either. As if we hadn't had enough interruptions, Matty Prior left the field to get a helmet. Times must be really hard at Sussex if they can't afford a 12th man to sort out things like that.

Thereafter, just when both batsmen were getting into their rhythm and the crowd was getting engrossed, tea intervened.

After tea, obviously having noticed how comfortable both batsmen were looking against the seamers, Sussex immediately introduced spin at both ends, with Rayner at the Pavilion End and Monty Panesar at the Town End. Ace sweetly cover drove Rayner for 4 in his first over. In Rayner's second over he smashed a six over the sightscreen and hit two square cut fours, almost running out Bart in a horrendous mix-up in between!

Bart notched up his 50 with a straight driven 4 off Panesar, and with the alarming exception of their running between the wickets, the Middlesex batsmen were looking completely comfortable.

With Rayner hit out of the attack, Wright was introduced by Sussex. Maddeningly, Ace edged the final ball of his first over, a horrible leg side delivery through to the keeper. Ace sounded suitably maddened too on reaching the dressing room, having looked in far better form than his final total of 38 would suggest. I think such a dismissal is a slightly unlucky way to get out, unless it's part of a cunning plan, which I don't think this one was. Not everyone agreed with me about it being unlucky though.

Bart was joined by A.C. In the middle, and suddenly Sussex had a spring in their step. With Monty Panesar looking as threatening as the raging electrical storm that gave the end he was bowling from such a spectacular backdrop, it looked like only a matter of time before one or other of them struck, and so it turned out, with the weather beating Monty to the spoils. At 1707 the umpires brought the players off, due either to bad light or the risk of lightning, and a couple of minutes later came the deluge that resulted in play being abandoned for the day.

When Middlesex resume tomorrow on 127-2 with Bart on 58 and A.C. on 8, maybe someone could ensure the cross on top of the scoreboard is replaced. I wouldn't describe myself as religious, but today, someone upstairs clearly wasn't happy!

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