By Seaxe Man
June 10 2006

Seaxe Man has finally resurfaced after pleasures undocumented. He presents his "from the ground" assessment of Day 3 at Southgate. His assessment is basically a good news story unless you favour Yorkshire in which case, frankly, it's pants. Weather report and travel
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After 2 days driving around the M25, opted for LUL today. Weather was as
predicted - very hot though there was a cooling breeze from time to time.


1st session
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Overnight 332-5 with Ed Joyce on 154 no with Nick Compton 32 no. So was
hoping for a big lead. Arrived in the 3rd over the new ball having been
taken, to see Ed Joyce edge one behind with only one added to his score. 3
balls later Scott was bowled by Kruis. Worse was to follow in the following
over, as Nick Compton in attempting a suicidal run, was run out by a direct
hit trying to regain his ground. Suddenly we were 335 for 8 and any sort of
lead was starting to look dicey. There followed however, a stand of 78
between Pepsi and Johan which ended at 413 but had by then restored some of
our advantage. Pepsi making 43 before being caught attempting another
reverse sweep. Silvers soon followed holing out at long off. The innings
closed at 415 a lead of 60 which had not seemed likely earlier. Yorks then
had to come out to face one over. Lunch Midd-x 415ao Yorks 2-0.


2nd session
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There followed a remarkable session - easily our best this year. 8 Yorkshire
wickets fell and they went in to tea at 97 for 8. The initial breach was
made with the new ball with Johan removing Vaughan for 4 caught by Ace in
the slips. Silvers then bowled Gale and had McGrath caught by Scott. 15 -3.
JD then replaced Silvers at the Adelaide end and shortly after Peps replaced
Louw at the Waterfall Road end. So the spin twins were in harness.They then
removed the next five batters in pretty quick time. Only Lehmann lasted
awhile before he was smartly taken by Styris off Dalrymple. Scott was by now
in his element standing up to the spinners and he made the smart stumping of
Bresnan, off Pepsi, when Bresnan charged down the wicket and missed.


3rd session
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Victory was now in sight. There were some heavy blows by Dizzie Gillespie
who finished on 34no before the Yorkshire innings closed at 130, after
Styris caught Dawson off Peploe and Scott finished the job, catching Kruis
also off Peploe. So 71 to win. This was finally achieved for the loss of 2
wickets with about 5 overs remaining - Ed Smith falling at leg slip with 4
required and Owais holing out attempting a six. Ed Joyce stroked the
required boundary. So a full hand of points which I believe takes us out of
the relegation slots above Notts and Yorkshire. [Editor's note: yes it does, as Notts have also fallen apart at the hands of Hants]. We need to keep this
momemtum going.


Summary
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The bowlers worked very hard in hot conditions. I was impressed with the
opening spell by Louw and Silverwood who made the initial breach with new
ball before handing over to the spinners. Both JD and Peploe bowled well.
The wicket had taken slow turn from the 1st morning but you still have to
use that. Peploe found his rythym in the second innings and should be
pleased with the result. I thought the overall performance was good, though
there were a couple of shaky spells.

MoM is a pretty hard call as this was a good team effort. But for giving us the platform - Ed's 155 would be my choice. Once again we continued our excellent recent record at Southgate.

Next one up is Notts and we will be without Ed and JD for the next 3 weeks
and it is rumoured that the ICC have said Morgan has to remain with Ireland.

NB- Travel Note - for those coming from the west on Sunday for the Brown
Caps game. The Piccadilly Line is truncated between Acton Town and Hyde Park
Corner. LUL say to get around this - take the Met to Kings Cross and rejoin
the Piccadilly there - for onward transportation to Southgate.

Seaxe Man