By Janet
July 1 2006

Our intrepid reporter Janet gives us chapter and verse on the Middlesex v Hants game at the Rose Bowl. Due to the limitations of the software available to me when staying at Daisy's house, you are spared the ball by ball tabulations, unlike Middlesex who were not spared the rod. I usually make one ‘pilgrimage’ a year to the Rose Bowl as I can combine it with a visit to my brothers in nearby Thruxton. After the CC match the opportunity arose to make a second trip for the 20/20. So far I have only witnessed one Middlesex win and that was the first trip to a NCL match in 2003. Since then I have been to the CC matches 2005, 2006 and the 20/20 in 2004. I suppose the moral of the story is for me to give the Rose Bowl a wide berth! Makes me wonder if I should bother next year.

Local rip-off!
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I took the train from Waterloo to Southampton Airport, and walked to the airport to get a taxi as I have found that at £9.00 the taxis are cheaper there than at the railway station. I was asked if I minded sharing my taxi and I said no. they reduced my fare to £6.75. The person that shared the cab with me payed £8.25. I didn’t say anything but I thought it was a bit of a rip-off and my brother agreed with me.


Deja-vu 1
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Another toss lost and Hants will bat first (surprise, surprise!). It looks like they’ve shortened the boundaries considerably. At least it was bright and sunny and batting second should not have made as much difference as on Tuesday night in the gloom. At 5.20pm spectators were still filing in but there were plenty of spare seats (I later read that there were 8000 spectators and in 2004 when I went there were 15,000 so that says it all about it losing some of its appeal).
P.A doing his best to drum up some enthusiasm, but it all seems a bit flat. However at least he could be heard, which is more than can be said for the P.A at Lord’s on Tuesday.


Who is Mitchell Stokes?
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Hants opened the batting with Carberry and Stokes, while Styris opened the bowling for us, and bowled a tidy containing over.

The carnage started with Keegan’s first over and by the 3rd ball of Keegan’s second over Scott was standing up to the wicket. Louw replaced Styris with Scott ‘standing up’ and bowled a good first over. Peploe then bowled from the end farthest from the pavilion (can’t remember which end is North and which end is South at that ground) and immediately that slowed the scoring rate. Weekes came on at the pavilion end when – was that a wicket? Not quite. Batsman had made his ground so not run out. At the halfway stage Hants were 89/0 so a good claw back from 75 after 7 overs. I noticed that their batmen always managed to turn ‘1’s’ into ‘2’s’ when we fumbled the ball. In the 12th over from Peploe, Stokes hit 6, 6, 4, 6 before he was bowled by Peploe. By then they were 122/1.

Apparently Mitchell Stokes is one of their 19 year olds. From his hard hitting I thought that he was an Aussie but he is ‘home grown’.
In the 17th over came the first boundary off Louw, and that only occurred because the ball went between Weekes’ legs. There was a drop by Keegan in the 18th over (bowled by Styris) and at this stage I despairingly thought oh no not another 200+ target for us. By then our boys body language said it all! But in spite of all that we got Carberry’s wicket with Keegan’s 3rd ball of the final over with Morgan taking a good catch on the boundary. They still ended up 225/2

I can let people know who bowled their overs when if they want. My feelings at the time were, why play Silverwood and let him only bowl one over. Keegan is definitely not fit (after the 20/20’s he’s having a groin operation and will be out 6 weeks) and should not be playing. The spinners initially did slow the scoring rate so why not let Shah or even Compton have a go. We could have played an extra batsman.


Lambs to the slaughter?
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We opened with Smith and Shah and Billy Taylor opened the bowling (maybe they thought that we were still ‘shell shocked from the CC match). His 1st ball went for 4 over Pothas’s head. 8/0 off the first over……… so far so good! In the 3rd over there was a bit of hesitation and Ace goes for a second run, and gets himself run out. Now we are 14/1. Absolute suicide. Compton then came to the crease and hit Taylor for two successive 4’s. This guy turned to me and said that he’d coached Compton in South Africa and that he was a ‘class act’. Taylor then bowled a no ball. Compton improvised a shot over the keepers head such that the free hit went for 4. Just when I thought Compton was getting into his stride, he gloves one which goes skyward, and falls safely into Benham’s hands. We are now 35/2.

Styris came in and went lbw to Mascaranhas for 4 making us 60/3. Thornley then comes on to bowl and Smith mis-cues and is caught by the sub (Adams) leaving us 70/4 (Just when I thought Smith was coming to the party and going to make a big score) Weekes was the next man in. At the halfway stage we were 85/4. in Udal’s first over Taylor drops a sitter (not sure which batsman) and he could not even use the sun as an excuse as he was not facing it. In Thornley’s next over Udal holds onto a catch on the boundary to dismiss Morgan 102/5. Keegan came and went for 2.

In Udal’s 3rd over Adams dropped another sitter. Weekes fell one short of his 50 this time Adams hung onto the catch giving Taylor his first wicket 143/7. Like Keegan before him Louw came and went but only scored 1, 148/8. Ben Scott scored 25 off 12 balls before being caught by Stokes in the 19th over. Why Peploe was no 11 I cannot fathom, but both him and Silverwood survived the last over, Silverwood hitting a ball from Tremlett straight down the ground almost beheading the umpire on the way (he did duck a bit sharpish). We ended up 166/9.

Another disappointing performance, and before the Kent match we need to rethink our tactics.


More minor irritations
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After staying overnight with my brother, he took me to the station in time for the 9.37am back to London. This train was cancelled due to a lorry hitting a bridge at Salisbury, and the next train (the slow one) scheduled for 10.04am turned up 5 mins. late due to a ‘faulty train’, and ended up 3 carriages only. I was lucky to get a seat. My daughter could not do her ‘cat-sitting duties this time, but my vet had advised I could leave my cats 24 hours. By this time I was getting worried about the cats. I got into Waterloo at 11.22am. I then proceeded to the final part of my journey by catching a bus home.

As an OAP I thought I had left my days of ‘living dangerously’ behind me, but hey whatever. The bus driver proceeded to drive and read a paper at the same time…………. Oy veh! I finally got home 1.00pm and I do not need to be reported to the RSPCA as both cats are well.