Alas there is going to no me and family at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. For the past ten days I have checked the credit card account on line for an amount of up to £1000 to be deducted. I had made application for the maximum possible number of events in this first trance of applications but applying for the lowest price tickets available. Three days ago the amount appeared under transactions pending which if confirmed revealed that I had only been successful in one pair of £16 tickets or two single tickets for this amount. This could mean a visit to the Olympic stadium complex or to Wembley for the football or to the tennis at Wimbledon or two of the three venues.
I suppose that on the bright side I have managed to get tickets as 250000 applicants have not successful I gaining a single ticket but they will be given first opportunity to apply for tickets for events where there are seats available. After this any remaining seats will be made available to those like me who did not get all their first preferences and only then to the general public. One has to take account that a substantial number of the tickets for the events go for allocation to the countries participating and to the families of the participating athletes. There are also those which form part of hospitality packages as well as kept for dignitaries. As with last night’s European Cup final at Wembley it was possible to officially secure a good seat for £4000 and there was market for seats at several times their face value.
Yesterday and today 1st and 2nd of June the papers were full the story of the application situation with some of the 250000 who were unsuccessful in all aspects of their applications complaining about the disappointment while officials emphasised they would get priority for the second ballot for the remaining tickets.
I have heard of two accounts of those who have been successful with one individual applying for £30000 worth of tickets and getting 11000 while one radio broadcaster applied for £3000 and gained 600 but one suspects that in both these instances tickets for more than the minimum prices were applied for. As I shall recount when writing about the Take That concert in Sunderland, the world of concert and sporting event tickets is not for the feint hearted or impecunious.
The extraordinary Sporting achievement of the past week has been the victory by England over Sri Lanka in the significantly rain affected First Test Match at Cardiff. Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat commencing in the afternoon because of the weather, if I remember accurately, and putting on 93 for the first wicket with the openers getting 66 and 50, and with the middle order contributing 58 and 111 they reach a good total of 400 towards the end of the third day such had been the amount of play stoppages because of the conditions. A draw appeared inevitable unless the national side collapsed. With Strauss out for 20 at 46, Andersen who had been injured and unable to bowl for part of the innings came in as the night watchman and was quickly out the following morning with total 46.2. It was then Jonathan Trott and Alistair Cook came together and added 251 runs before Cook was caught for 133 from 274 balls. Kevin Petersen came in and departed quickly for 3 and I am not alone in questioning his right to a place in the team if he fails in the next two Tests.
Ian Bell another like Cook whose place has been in question not only continued where Cook had left off but commenced to score more freely so that at the close of play early in the following afternoon after another lost morning because of the rain, he had scored 103 runs out of 159 and England declared 496 for 5, Trott having departed earlier for a magnificent 203 from 409 balls. With some 50 overs left in the day and a lead of only 96 a draw still seemed the only outcome. It was an excellent decision to allow Bell the opportunity to reach his 100 runs as doing so only reduced the chance of getting the visitors out by a few overs. What followed is unique in the history of Tests played in England
In only the second over Tremlett had one of the openers caught by Captain Strauss at first slip. In his following over with the score at 10 Tremlett dismissed the opposing captain who questioned the judgement of the umpire that he had been caught of his glove, The review confirmed the appeal and decision had been justified. The tourists scored slowly until tea time when the extraordinary collapse occurred with wickets falling at 33 36 43 43 43 52 and then after a brief rally at 82 and 82. Tremlett getting four of the first six batsmen for only 40 runs in ten overs while Graham Swann had even better figures with 4 wickets for 16 runs off 7. Broad also joined in the party with 2 for 21 from 7.4 overs thus the opponents were dismissed for 82 using only three main bowlers and the fourth sidelined. No one anticipated this would happen and everyone was happily shocked that it had.
Manchester United in contrast were well beaten in the game 3.1 by the super team Barcelona who have become precision ball players with exquisite passing and a lethal ability to score goals as well as prevent goals defensively. Last night there was a ray of hope when Rooney equalised after Barcelona had opening their account midway during the first half. In the second half Manchester United were out classed and the score could well have been greater. It merits noting that while many Spanish footballers play in the Premier League no British player presently performs in any of the major Spanish sides. Having said that even in Spain while it is possible to win games against Barcelona they have a rare mixture of brilliant individualists who play according to a crafted and tested system which is superior to everyone else.
Warrington Rugby League team also displayed moments of brilliance which suggests they could walk away with the Championship although in terms of wins and points there are three other team competing for the top honours. Warrington has recently overwhelmed lesser teams in the division accumulating a massive match point’s total, 150 more than their nearest rivals. However Huddersfield has the same number of League points while Wigan with two gamed in hand could join them if they win their game tomorrow. St Helens are fourth just 2 match points behind.
There is a similar situation emerging in division one of the County Cricket Championships with Durham having an excellent win against Warwickshire at Edgbaston on Friday in a rain affected game which prevented all but a handful of overs being bowled on the Thursday. Warwickshire have been deducted 8 championship points, half those awarded for a win, because of the fiery nature of the pitch which resulted in two of the opposition players being injured. The consequence was that the pitch was treated in such a way as to make it flat, that is to say that the fast bowlers were unable to get the ball to bounce high with any speed and more importantly in played true with balls either shooting low or higher than would normally be anticipated.
Fortunately Durham won the toss and chose to bat and there was the spectacle of three Durham batsmen again having major innings. The most satisfying was former captain Will Smith with 179, his first century for two years and the indefatigable former captain Benkenstein making 129 and present Championship captain “Colonel” Mustard one short if his century. Durham ended their innings 602 for 6 and set about Warwickshire in such a manner that by the end of the second they had lost 9 wickets with just 180 runs on the board. Young Stokes with 4 for 48 caused the most damage but Thorp with 3 for 35 and Steve Harmison 2 for 41 shared the honours. Stoke getting Miller out with one of the few balls bowled during the day. Late on Durham were able to bowl another few balls and had Warwickshire reeling with the overnight score 23 for 3.
With a weather uninterrupted day forecast for the Friday victory seemed certain but the lower order batsmen put up a great fight especially with a stand of over 100 runs for the eight wicket but as the end of the match approached and an unexpected draw seemed likely Durham were able to take the last wickets and won the game by an innings and 103 runs. Stokes took 3 more wickets finishing the match 7 wickets for 137 runs and Thorp 5 for 105. Harmison who strained his back after taking 1 for 18 was the only downside.
Durham was then second to Lancashire who they played at the Riverside Emirates Durham International over the previous four days from Sunday May 29th. Lancs have a game in hand so a win could make both Durham and Lancs the potential champions. Warwickshire who had commenced to have hopes are now third having playing the same number of games and 23 points behind Durham, similar Somerset. Notts who have played a game less having lost twice recently so even if they win their game in hand as Somerset and Sussex they will remain a score of points behind Durham. The teams will begin playing the 20 20 competitions games over the next six weeks. Hampshire and Worcestershire look the doomed championship teams with only 33 and 28 points compared to 118 and115 for the top two. Yorks with 57 are struggling.
The club has invited members to apply for tickets for the England Australia One day game next year on July 7th just before the Olympic Games commences and more speculative the England Australian ashes games in July of the following year but without the dates yet determined. I have applied for tickets for the one day game next July but not the Test Match where the day/ match can prove a major disappointment disrupted by rain and a boring draw the best outcome. This appears to be the situation with the first Test against Sri Lanka at Cardiff.
There has been no further reference 20 20 finals days, to the ground completion other than money available for the hotel or to the court case involving the builders of three quarters completed stand. I will leave reports on the Test Match and Durham’s game against Lancashire as well as the first 20 20 on Thursday to late in the week late in the week.
I had intended to completed this piece and leave Durham’s game against Lancs until after completing a piece on the Game of Thrones and the Take That concert but past four days have proved hectic, exhilarating and full that I will make this a writing only about sport, Take that and then on other TV and the Game of Thrones. Or the latter two vice versa!
Durham have beaten Lancs by an innings and 125 runs with yet another grand collapse by the opponents. There was a cold blustery wind on the first day which I attended in full, sitting in the Member’s balcony at one end. There was a good contingent of Lancs supporters on the balcony, including one man wearing a hat made of Red Roses. He explained that the reason home matches are being played in Liverpool for this season is not a dispute with ground developers but the decision that to turn the pitch around, but give they have been winning their games at Merseyside the inclination is to stay which in one sense would be more rational than the present situation given that Old Trafford is now a long way from the County Council boundary and is like Durham County being located in Newcastle rather than Durham.
Durham won the toss and for the second time this season asked the visitors to bat, a decision which did not please members given that the earlier decision did not go well and the game had to be saved as a draw and a similar decision the previous season led to the match being lost.
This occasion the decision appeared to have been a good one when two of the three openers were out with the score 9, one to Thorp and the other to Onions. Horton the other opener did exceptionally well but was eventually out to Ben Stoke who bowled him when six short of his century. With the third wicket going at 186 and the fourth at 148 whether the decision to put Lancs in to bat was in the balance. At 225 for seven it looked to have been a good one. The new batsmen appeared to be struggling against the spin of Borthwick who had taken a wicket bowling 4 overs for only 6 runs and Blackwell who had then taken two wickets. However the decision was made to take the new Ball and Proctor 45 and Chapple 46 held out adding 90 runs before Chapple went with the total 312. The remaining two wickets went cheaply and the innings closed at 313.
Durham needed to bat for the greater part of two days given and given that no play was not immediately possible on the second morning a draw looked the most likely result, This also seemed the position when Smith and Muchall were both out with the total 90 and then 94 after Di Venuto had gone for only 6 runs. It was then that Ben Stokes and former captain Benkenstein came together and added 331 runs, a record partnership. Ben obtain his second century of the season and his third overall making 185 before being bowled and with a total over 650 first class runs this season, an average of 65 plus taking a good number of wickets, he has attracted the eye of the selectors once more. Sadly he has broken a finger and damaged ligaments which will keep him out of the side for up to eight weeks. Benkenstein who has also been in the runs made 137 and Mustard 61 also in the runs helped the innings to close at 586, the third time in succession the team had achieved a large first innings score. Given that Lancs has won their previous five games a capitulation was not expected but Graham Onions and Thorpe achieved early success at 19, 30 and 69 before the fourth day of play ended. The following morning Chilton and Keedy batted defensively to a tight Durham attack which yielded few runs but the two were unable to keep up the rear guard action for the rest of the day and shortly after lunch they both went with the total only 94 after which there was no further resistance with the remaining five wickets falling at 106 109 116 139 and 148.
Ian Blackwell taking 7 wickets for 91 runs in the game with Claydon 4 for 82 and Onions 4 for 111. Young Borthwick had a match figure of 5 overs 3 maidens 1 wicket for 6 runs and continues to show great promise.
With getting maximum points for the last three games Durham are now 17 points ahead of Lancs which means that Lancs have to win their extra game to regain the leading position. The big surprise is that 2010 Champions Notts lost to struggling Worcester who won their first Division one game for many years.
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