Diamond and the Jubilee line

Fozzie reports on a day of no cricket put plenty of activity and excitement from the Middlesex Room.

MIDDLESEX v NETHERLANDS, 3 JUNE 2012

Hope springs eternal and all that, and despite being woken up early this morning by a heavy downpour I’m willing to clutch at the straw that apparently the rain is forecast to ease up this afternoon. So it’s off to Chesham station, to find to my surprise that there are actually queues for the 12.30 train. It’s just like my workday early morning commute, except that people look happy. I’m pleasantly surprised that the visit of the Netherlands has caught the public imagination to such an extent, only to find that I’m the only person getting off at Finchley Road to change for St John’s Wood.  There’s something else happening in London today, apparently.

 I get to Lord’s to find all the covers spread over the ground and play delayed due to rain and bad light. No surprise there, then.  In the Middlesex Room I find Spillage, Ken, Beefy and Diamond (whom I guess we should have dubbed “Jubilee” for the day), and we stare out at the ground and the grey skies, speculating sagely about prospects of play.  The umpires gingerly make their way out, an orange tractor (in tribute to our visitors?) whizzes around mopping up water, and a number of ground staff slowly remove the covers. Hurrah!  A few minutes later we look out again, only to find that the covers are back on. Sigh.  

 Then the highlight of the afternoon occurs – Kimmy rushes in, looking rather flustered and clutching a trophy which she holds up for our inspection. It’s a blue cricket shirt bearing the legends Federazione Cricket Italiana on the front and Berg 3 on the back – Gareth Berg’s Italian World Cup shirt!  All Kimmy’s cajoling over many weeks has paid off!  Diamond takes a sniff and pronounces that the shirt does indeed bear the authentic odour of perspiration, while Beefy throws a bit of a hissy fit that it hadn’t been offered to him despite his sponsoring the Iceman’s Middlesex shirt. Meanwhile Kimmy pulls out a list, ticks off Bergamo’s name and decides to focus next on getting Sterlo’s Ireland shirt.

Diamond shows his age by settling down in a corner for a quiet snooze, and Spillage thoughtfully wraps him in a coat.  Beefy obligingly takes a photo of some visitors (though Ken tuts disapprovingly over their suit jacket and jeans combo), while a number of Dutch supporters arrive, looking cheerful despite the inhospitable weather they’ve been served up in contrast to the bright sunshine we enjoyed there three weeks ago. We wave at Fletch, who we spot in the Pavilion and who’s obviously made a big sartorial effort after his shorts and flip-flops debacle from the previous day, and to be fair is looking quite dapper.

After another inspection it’s announced at 3 p.m. that play will start at 3.45, weather permitting.  The excitement is so great that we decide we need to sit down, so head off to wait in the Tavern. Ollie Rayner wanders in and then out again.  It’s getting darker and people outside are putting up umbrellas – obviously the weather is not permitting after all, and at 3.30 we decide to call it a day.

TS Eliot wrote in one of his poems “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons”.  Sometimes I feel that I have measured out mine in hanging around in bad weather waiting for cricket matches to get underway. But at least the hanging around took place in good company, and we’re still the only team not to lose to The Netherlands so far this season.