Long To Rain Over Us
Hat of The Day
By Dasher Denning
June 6 2012
Dasher Denning reports on what Little cricket was seen and dramas in the Harris Garden. Pictures are supplied by Hackneyshire.
To be honest, given the weather forecasts I’d seen over the previous few days it could have been a lot worse. The talk around the ground during the course of the day was that there was a band of rain arriving at some point in the afternoon that would wipe play out for the rest of the day. Some said 2pm, others 4pm. In the end, it arrived at around 3pm, by which point we’d got in 48.5 overs of what the term “attritional cricket” was invented for. If I’d been offered that a few days earlier, I’d have gladly taken it. At that point I thought the only thing on the Lord’s outfield on Tuesday morning would be the remnants of the Jubilee Flotilla.
I’d normally say that if there’s only going to be half a day’s play it’s best to get to the ground on time. However, from a Somerset perspective missing the first five overs of the day turned out to be very much a positive. As I was stood by the tills at the St. John’s Wood Tesco Express waiting for Barmy Kev to fill his bag full of cans of Gordon’s Gin & Tonic and miniature bottles of white wine, I was blissfully unaware of the fact that we’d slumped to 1-2 having been put in by Middlesex captain Chris Rogers. By the time we eventually got into the ground (there was a further delay as Barmy Kev got a daggers look from a particularly grunty steward for asking if he could get in free wearing a dress as it was Ladies’ Day), Meanwhile, Hackneyshire who was as a Lady entitled for free entry, had to queue for a ticket to get in free. On arrival, Somerset were positively cruising at 8-2.
We opted for a seat in the Tavern Stand, which felt at times as though you were fielding at deep backward point given how far the wicket was over on that side. For the next hour I watched nervously as Hildreth and Suppiah tried to steady the ship/launch a fightback in the face of some very tight bowling from Middlesex’s seamers. There was a fair bit of playing and missing but they dug in very well given the horror start.
After the first hour most of our party departed in search of the free champers that was on offer in the Harris Garden at midday as part of the Ladies’ Day/Jubilee celebrations. Myself and Barmy Kev refused to don a jacket and tie on a Bank Holiday just to get a free drink so remained in the Tavern Stand along with Mark (wsm_fan on Grockles) who’s still on crutches after a nasty ankle injury sustained while playing badminton (think those shuttlecocks must be heavy). Anyway, we watched another hour of tight seam bowling and rearguard actions – which included the dismissal of Arul Suppiah by one that apparently (well, according to a bloke on twitter) “nipped and clipped” – while the prawn sandwichers sipped fizz in the Harris Garden. Apparently there was controversy at the Garden Party as the offer of a refill to the first 200 people into the garden confused those who weren’t aware that it was limited; some who had not been lucky enough to get in early – not our party of course, they know how to get the maximum from a freebie – were seeking out spare glasses of fizz and when some sixty-something Aussie ladies were beaten to it there was some “robust discussion”. Disgraceful scenes.
Good bowler on hat Good hatrick
Lunch involved me perambulating around Lord’s looking for some grease to offset an ever worsening hangover following the previous day’s visit to Chelmsford to watch Essex v Glos. Sadly there was no dirt burger van of the type that you find at so many sporting venues, so it was back to the Tavern Stand/deep backward point to watch Kieswetter and Hildreth put on 80 for the fourth wicket before Hildreth was lulled into a false sense of security by Corey Collymore limping off after one ball of his twelfth over and having to be replaced by Berg. One of the remaining balls of that over saw Hildreth caught behind and Berg celebrating like a bit of a madman. Turned out it was his 100th first-class wicket so congratulations to the Ice Man.
To be honest, not a great deal happened after that. Some American woman near us who was quaffing white wine in quite considerable quantities kept shouting “Go Morgan!” at Eoin every time he fielded the ball. We concluded she was trying to wake him up as he clearly looked very tired after all his exertions in the IPL this year.
Go Eoin
Then it rained, so we retired to the Middlesex Room in the vain hope that the weather might relent. Somehow during this time (I’m not quite sure how) we managed to miss a Lancaster bomber flying over the ground as part of the Jubilee fly past. Our sartorial inelegance also meant that Kev and I missed most of the MTWD regulars, who had “gone posh” for the day and set up Vermin Corner in the Upper Tier of the Lord’s Pavilion. Sorry to have missed you people, will catch up at Cheltenham if not before. Meanwhile, I'm content having arrived at 8-2 , I saw Somerset achieve 122-2 which is reasonably good stuff.
For some reason Kev not allowed in Garden party
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:06:11:23:55:13 by BarmierKev.
Glad your enjoying our output though.
LP,as ever excellent work and thank you.
Barmy Kev
I'm only here for the tele