Checkpoint Char - Middx v Derby Day 2
By Auntie Janet
July 9 2007
Auntie Janet reports on Day 2 at Southgate. Those of you desperate to learn the health of Janet's cats and the state of her chocolate biscuits - remain in suspenders no longer. All is revealed below. Many thanks to Janet once again for one of her inimitable pieces.
Check Point Char
The Day Starts
Feline alarm clock starts yowling; I look at the clock, and see its 5.30am (an improvement on 2.30am!) I shooed her away, and finally got up at 7.00am. You’ll be glad to hear there were no mishaps preparing my food.
My shoulder bag did my shoulders in yesterday, so it was back to the reliable wheelie bag. Managed to get the same seat as yesterday. The gap between my seat and the next was labelled ‘Check Point Char’ by our own Phil (yes he really was at Southgate yesterday!) as everyone who went through that gap had to take Frank a cup of tea!
We had a slow start and Billy finally got off the mark with a tickle down to fine leg for 4. Strauss hooked a fine 6 towards the short boundary, tennis court side. My friend, another religious Jew, Steve joined me and we caught up with things. He told me that his son Alex was at school. I gave him a bar of kosher chocolate for Alex as when I see Alex I always give him nosh, and he expects it now. So far so good 44 without loss.
Billy then gets adjudged lbw for 11 and we are 44/1. By this time Strauss was seeing the ball really well when he pulled a ball Steve and I clapped for what we thought was a 4 to see Wagg dive and take a spectacular catch at midwicket (51/2).
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed but the scoreboard is really inaccurate this year, and the P/A system not much better. Both Joyce and Shah are on 0 and we are scoring at 2 an over. I thought Southgate was a good batting track. However I did hear that the pitch that they wanted to use was unfit for use yesterday and they had to use another pitch. The 100 came up in the 37th over (also the 50 partnership).Shah was bowled by Smith for 24 (105/3) soon after.
Are two ‘Ed’s better than one
During the lunch hour Mr Shah snr. turned up with his daughter and grandchildren. The children were a bit shy with me. However they did accept a chocolate bar each off me. I feel all virtuous now having given my supply of chocolate away.
Entrance Ed S complete with a new helmet. We now have the two Ed’s at the crease. They put on 61 before Ed S gives Dighton a tame catch at midwicket. Not quite the Ed start we were looking for!
What can I say Jamie is lbw again! And Scottie gives another tame catch. At tea we are 229/6 after 83 overs with 29 left to bowl.
Those benches are real b*m- numbers so I get up to take a stroll and bump into a posse of our young seamers, Chris Wright, Chris Whelan, Danny Evans, Robbie Williams and Steve Finn (all 6’ 7’’ + of him). The only one missing was Marc Jackson!
My biscuits look like the chocolate has melted and look a bit messy. I’ll pop them in the freezer when I get home.
Lungley strikes again, again and again
Derbyshire take the new ball immediately after tea, and Lungley gets Joyce lbw for 81 and we are still 111 behind. With the 4th ball of the over Kartik is adjudged lbw for 0 (229/8). In Lungley’s next over Silvers is caught behind for 2 (231/9).
Thanks to Murts we get a second batting point, however soon after Murts is bowled by Lungley for 35. We are 82 behind.
Another disappointing batting display. Many got in and then got out playing stupid shots. When are we going to get a reasonable amount of batting points.
We need to bowl them out quickly tomorrow and bat decidedly better second time round .Just a minute isn’t that our speciality?
They were left with 20 overs to negotiate tonight, however after 3.4 overs the heavens opened and it rained really hard. Derby were 7/0 with Silvers having bowled two maidens. The rain eased off at 6.00pm. As it had been such heavy rain I made the right call by leaving (I checked on my mobile while on the bus and found that stumps had been called).
I have just taken the biscuits out of the freezer and they were delicious frozen!