Excellent piece, Loverboy. Many thanks for it.

I wonder if the giant seagulls hatched from thos enormous eggs they used to have scattered around the ground, presumably a sponsorship thing. I would have liked to have seen the impact of a direct hit upon one of those. Eggs or seagulls perhaps.


Adelaide

Seaxe Man has kindsly contributed a report too, as below.


Weather: Brilliant sunshine. The first day since 2006 when you could say that with any confidence. Factor 20 unused last year was required. Press the delete button for 2007.

Travel: Left Pinner at about 9.00 am and had a trouble and traffic free ride to Hove> Arrived just after 10.00am.

The Match: 1st Session. Middlesex won the toss and elected to bat on what looked to be a run laden track. Smith and Joyce opened and runs came pretty freely up to the 10th over when Smith departed caught in the gully region by Yardy off Kirtley. 58 for 1. Strauss then joined Ed Joyce and continued in the same mold with rotation of the strike interspersed with a reasonable quota of boundaries. At the 20 over mark, we were on 124 for 1. At this point, 300 plus looked to be on the cards. However, at the 21st over point: Adams introduced spin in the form of Yardy at the Sea End: followed shortly by Tom Smith at the Eaton Grove end. From this point, Sussex gained the upper hand which they never surrendered. Next to go was Strauss lbw to Yardy for 26. 125 for 2. The scoring rate slowed and led to the next wicket when Ed Joyce fell caught and bowled by Yardy for an excellent 80. 139 for 4. Morgan then joined Ace at the wicket and a cat and mouse game ensued with the Sussex spinners. As they were keeping us quiet, Adams shrewdly kept them in tandem and also called up Chris Nash's off breaks which led to the downfall of Eoin Morgan when we belatedly attempted to accelerate in the 43rd over. Caught at long off by Hopkinson off Nash for 34, 209 for 4. Vern then joined Ace for the last half a dozen overs but they were unable to successfully break Sussex's hold on the match. Ace finally went 1st ball of the last over for 68, exposing his leg stump to Kirtley. It remained only for Dial M to join Vern for the last few ball. Murts succeeded in hitting his 1st ball for 4 and Vern showing what he can do, smashed a six over the long, long on boundary to make it 14 off the last over and a total of 273. This looked a bit light, given our start, on a flattish track with a fast outfield. Par in these sort of conditions usually requires something over 300. Crucially after taking 124 off the 1st 20: we scored only 75 off the 2nd batch of 20.

Interval: sampled the Pavilion food and chatted to a Sussex member who mentioned that their literature specified a 10.45 start for FPT games. So I was not alone in thinking that at The Brit Oval. He did agree that their (Sussex) prospects were very much down to a quick return by Mushtaq. On the day's showing: we have to be relieved that he was'nt around. Note: Ed J's 80 contained 8 fours and came off 59 balls. Ace's 68 contained only 2 fours which showed the control of the Sussex spinners.

2nd session: Sussex opened with Nash and Prior. While Midd-x opened their attack with Dial M and Vern. At the 10 over mark we had things in hand restricting the oppo to 43. At the same point, we were on 58. This was due to some pacey and accurate bowling from Murts and Vern. At the end of the third powerplay (20 overs ), we were well placed at 124 versus their 89. In addition, the Iceman had removed Nash for 34 caught at the wicket with their score on 70. At this point however, we were unable to exert the same pressure over the next 20 overs which were bowled by Shaggy, Berg and a few by Ace. During this period, the oppo added 133 runs against our 75. Pretty much game over. Only one success came in this period when Shaggy turned one past Prior's bat. Fall at 151. The only other success was Goodwin falling to Murts at 266, which at that point, hardly mattered. The regular thorn in our side: C.J.Adams: had compliled a chanceless century to take Sussex over the line. It was a good knock though not violent as many singles and two's were readily available throughout his innings.


Summation: as remarked upon above. The game was decided by their spinners restricting our scoring rate in the 2nd batch of 20 overs.. We were unable to build any pressure with maidens during their 2nd batch of 20 overs.. The total had always looked 30 to 40 runs light, and so it proved. We did however have a small pyrrhic victory by taking the game into the 48th over.

Thought for yesterday: given the attempts to vary the play in 50/50 with the introduction of power plays and a 'new ball' at the 35 over mark. Are captains making the best use of their options? There appears to be a case to reserve the third powerplay to the 35 over mark. If one takes the Surrey game: they were on 67 for 0 at the 10 over mark. This contrasted with our 39 for 4 at the same point. Might have been worth considering, delaying the second power play and spreading the field, in an effort to slow down their pace of progress. Just a thought from the Mafia think tank.

Never saw you SM,probably lounging in a deckchair.
I'd agree about the inflexible approach to the powerplays,little imagination on show.I suspected last week that Ed Joyce was somewhat confused about the powerplay 2 and the powerplay 3 by the look of his fielding options.
I asked the captain on the balcony at the time if EJ knew the regulations,he somewhat unconvincingly assured me he did.
All I,ve seen so far is overs 10-20 used.

LoverBoy: an excellent nostalgic report. I did see you at a distance studying the sepia coloured pictures in the Pavilion. Could'nt stop though, as play was about to recommence, and I had reporting duties to do for Barmy Kev. Could'nt afford to miss any of the action. The other aspect of nostalgia: was the weather. That definitely reminded me of old times in these days of global warming.