Welcome to an English Summer!
Oh the vagaries of an English Summer! Yesterday, the Great Fire God Sky of the Sky reigned supreme as we baked under a sweltering sun. Today, the cricket crazies amongst us willed the thunderstorms and rain away from The Ashes Test Match taking place in Yorkshire between England and Australia and as the darkness seemed unlikely to pass, I treated myself to an hour of play at my local club. Only an hour? Well in the beautiful language of the great game of cricket “Rain Stopped Play” or in the more frustrating language of life, and perhaps uniquely English in its phrasing, it pissed it down!
Before the rain came, I arrived to find my local club Wellington in more than a spot of bother with a total of 101–9, or for the uninitiated, a paltry 101 runs for the loss of 9 out of 10 wickets. Thankfully, a last wicket partnership of over 50 runs took their final innings total to 158 and with the small sections of blue sky slowly being overtaken by a vast array of dark black clouds, the visiting team from Chirk reached 18–0 (or 18 runs for the loss of no wickets) as the clouds opened and the rain arrived.
Thus is an English Summer, and here is a brief pictorial stroll around the boundary and a picture postcard representation of an hour and the beauty of amateur cricket.
Thanks for reading. Away from the grand old game of cricket, here are three of my most recently published articles amongst hundreds more than can be found within my library archives:
A stroll on the banks of the River Severn
Wednesday 5th July, 2023.medium.com
A return to beautiful Tyrley Locks
27th June 2023.medium.com
“Lucky Hank” (2023)
A quiet comedy that might tickle your fancy.medium.com