StephenHarris
First Team Sub
May 3, 2011, 11:03 AM
Posts: 1003
Location: Leyton, London, England
Team(s): Leyton Orient, Hastings United, CA Huracan
Post #11 of 283
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Sunday 1 May 2011, 13:45am; Middlesex beat Holland by 1 run; 40-over League, Group A; att: 2,000 h/c ; Entry £17; programme issued.
With Leyton Orient’s season effectively over by Saturday evening, and the weather glorious, it felt like time to open my cricket season. And where better to begin than at the top and a visit to Lord’s. I’ve had my irritations with Lord’s in the past, but I do still believe that it is the finest cricket ground of those I’ve visited.
To my mind the 40 over or 50 over game is the best option for spectators. I can’t work up any enthusiasm for the 20:20 game and few of us have the time to follow a full championship or test match. But the 40 over game seems to be slipping down the priorities. Only the Grandstand and the Compton Stand were available to non-members for this game and I noticed that whilst there was much publicity outside the ground for forthcoming 20:20, Championship and International matches, the existence of this fixture was not mentioned at all. A hangover of the old pomposity surrounding Lord’s matches came in the announcements that not only was a scorecard available (for 60p), but an “illustrated programme” was also on sale, as if this was somehow rather distasteful. But the programme (£2) was a poor effort and not up to the standards of recent years. And of course the crowd was rather small. Middlesex have never attracted much of a following, but I’ve always found it hard to understand why so few neutrals are drawn to County matches at Lord’s. Amongst the scattered crowd I did spot bcleary1 of this message board, who I can now ‘out’ as a suit-wearing pavilion-dweller. And was that a copy of the Telegraph we spotted him reading, over in the posh seats?
In sunny but blustery conditions it was a day for the batsmen. Scott Newman slogged 73 for Middlesex early on, and we admired the rather more subtle batting of Paul Stirling. But it was the Dutch batting that really impressed. Tom Cooper hit a personal best one-day total of 126. He is more Australian than Dutch I believe, but his Dutch fans were optimistically calling him Tommy Kuipers. And Mudassar Bukhari hit a rapid 36 to bring the outcome down to the last ball where Netherlands needed three but could only manage a single. The crowd chant for Bukhari goes:
“Bukhari, Oh Oh Oh,
He comes from Calcutta,
He loves Lurpak Butter”.
I need help understanding that one please. I thought he was Pakistani? And Lurpak’s a Danish brand isn’t it, not a Dutch brand.
Overall this was good entertainment, if a little chilly by the end.
Last Match: Ide Hill v AFC Mottingham
Last New Ground: King George Playing Fields, Westerham, kent (Ground No. 1,064)
Planned vists to new grounds: AFC Wallingford
0-0s 12/13: 2 (21 games since) - Av. goals 12/13: 3.54 - Av. crowd 12/13: 4,223
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