- Quizzers’ day out
Five predictions reported on here but only two sports, cricket and golf. The darts question is postponed till November. Not much movement on the leader board as the cricket winners were relative outsiders at the start of the season. Star pupil of the month is Richard Bains who got all three golf questions right and even picked Kent to win the T20.
34)Four quizzers met up in Birmingham for T20 Cricket Finals Day. Since fancy dress is almost compulsory, long distance biker Tom Melia chose to go in September shorts as an indefatigable Tour De France domestique. Neil Southwood went as a prisoner dragging a ball and chain with Sarah Lane, his partner in life and quiz, as his guard giving him an occasional thwack with a truncheon, just as she does every other day of the week. Likewise, I went as a grumpy old man, tutting as I was rapidly surrounded by huge beer cans. Those four cans turned out to be charming Sussex fans celebrating their return to university.
The interval cricket in the food courtyard was very competitive, though a tense game between the Roman legions and Where’s Wally was rudely interrupted by several matadors chasing a large bull. In the stands Batman chased the Joker. Sadly these two were about the only mask wearers in the crowd apart from the four quizzers. Public Health crisis? What public health crisis? Thanks Boris for giving us so much other chaos to distract us from the Omnishambles.
The four semi finalists, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Somerset all come from the Deep South, the most deprived area of the country. Sixes soared into the stands. There were astounding catches, controversial umpiring decisions. Games ebbed and flowed to a sound track of fireworks and multiple versions of Sweet Caroline. Somerset picked Hampshire pockets in the first semi final but the Grand Old Duke Of Kent ,Darren Stevens,45 years young, was not to be denied his third T 20 win. Darren’s runs and wickets saw KENT set totals that Sussex and the Somerset never looked like overtaking. Darren was Man of Neither Match but his legendary status is assured at Quiz HQ.
T20 Finals Day, a September tradition in the only month where night cricket is truly night, an ideal occasion for end of season parties; tickets sell out before anybody knows which teams will be there.
So naturally the ECB has decided to shift this hugely successful day to mid July so there is no danger of taking the spotlight off their pet project, the ludicrous Blundred. Cricket, that stick in the mud sport with two centuries of tradition, is in a constant state of revolution. What format for the 2022 Championship? Dunno. A 50 over competition to prepare a defence of the World Cup? Dunno. A chance for Test Cricketers to play with a red ball? Dunno. Perhaps Neil Southwood has answers in his review of the 2021 season.
33)Despite six weeks behind closed doors, constant questions about the future of all three county competitions and being dwarfed by the massive publicity for the new franchises, there has still been much to savour from the 2021 county season. Kent’s first trophy in 14 years, Glamorgan winning the 50 over competition in their centenary year and finally a nerve-wracking conclusion to the Championship where four teams stood a chance of silverware going into the final week.
Nottinghamshire fell out of the equation on day one but they will be encouraged by their most positive Championship season for years. Up until mid-May they had gone nearly three seasons without a four-day win so challenging for the title was a top effort for a big county finally investing in youth. Defeat at Hampshire in the penultimate week sadly proved crucial.
Lancashire and Hampshire could barely be separated going into their clash at Liverpool and it turned into a low-scoring classic where every run mattered. For much of the third afternoon Lancashire appeared in control chasing 196 to win but a late flurry of wickets kept Hampshire title hopes alive until the home captain Dane Vilas swept the winning runs with just one wicket remaining. This eliminated Hampshire from the race – one more wicket and they would have been champions!
Lancashire’s win took them to the top overnight but also opened for the door for Warwickshire, hosting Somerset at Edgbaston. This was a higher-scoring but equally close match until the final morning where Warwickshire accelerated quickly to set Somerset 273 to win. Their well-balanced attack was bolstered further by England all-rounder Chris Woakes for this match and it was the local hero who spearheaded the charge towards victory. Wickets fell regularly for the first time in the game and WARWICKSHIRE had time to spare when they sealed their triumph in front of thousands on a bright late-September afternoon.
Such an exciting conclusion showed there were still many positives in a county system regularly derided in the press, in a state of flux every year and increasingly undermined by the ECB. No answers yet, sadly John; just hope that those in control finally come to appreciate what a precious gift they already have.
BACK TO AUGUST FOR WOMEN’S OPEN GOLF
32)Carnoustie’s leader board on Sunday morning was crowded with twenty plus players within three shots of the lead. All set for a far more exciting final day than the procession of American men we’d seen at Sandwich. With no great weather issues and plenty of eagle/birdie chances, there was even time for someone from far back to play herself into contention.
First to set a clubhouse target was the Australian Min Jee Lee who had won the preceding major. An hour later, England’s Georgia Hall improved the target but still a trio of Scandinavians and a lone American prowled the course. If Georgia could hold on, her winner’s purse would be DOUBLE what she had won for her 2018 triumph, extraordinary progress to equality in women’s sport.
Georgia needed all three Scandinavians to drop shots. Madeline Sagstrom found the 18th hole bunker. One Swede down. The last two contenders arrived on the 18th tee, only needing a par to beat Georgia. Anybody remember Jean Van der Velde at a Carnoustie Open. All he needed was a bogey and he had to take his shoes off to paddle in Barry Burn. Carnoustie was the most chastening of the four Open Golf courses I played in my dingy golf career. Hour after seeming hour in deep bunkers with no sign of the sky. The Dane Nanna Madsen found a bunker too but for Georgia it was too much to hope that both would find trouble. The last Swede standing Anna Nordquist got her for her third major. The leader-board looked very promising for the imminent EUROPEAN journey to America for the Solheim Cup.
36/37)These European women went to America, without fans in support, outranked and won the Solheim Cup. The men never looked like following their example in the Ryder Cup which set several records. Sadly the most significant was that the UNITED STATES won by the widest margin since Europe joined the British forty years ago. In the last thirty years, we have often gleefully seen underdog Europe turn over an American team much higher ranked, packed with icons like the Tiger. So many wayward drives from the Europeans, so many cold putters.
Only the SPANISH pair of Garcia and Rahm, Europe’s top scorer, kept the contest alive in theory till the fifth singles match. Easy to pick holes in captain Padraig Harrington’s team selection and choice of pairings; the truth is that the 2021 American team played as their rankings suggested(ten of the world’s top thirteen)and that the Europeans played as their rankings suggested. Perhaps the Europeans will become gladiators again in Rome in 2023 and these brash young Americans will be helpless Christians fed to the lions in the baying Italian crowds. Maybe.
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