Sussex 219-9 v 221-4 Hampshire

Saturday 25th July 2009
Lord's Cricket Ground, London
Friends Provident Trophy Final
Admission: £28
Programme: £5 (£1 scorecard)

As a life-long passionate Sussex fan, it's always a great occasion when we qualify for a cup final and there was nothing going to stop me being present at this one. I made my way up to central London with considerable confidence that we would add to our proud recent successes, particularly as Sussex had won their last 8 one-day games, including against Hampshire less than a week ago down at Arundel (a thoroughly recommended venue to watch cricket, by the way). However, Hampshire are a strong outfit, particularly in the one-day version of the game.

Lord's is an impressive arena, which holds over 30,000 spectators and there always seems to be a terrific atmosphere for the big games there. I took my seat in the Lower Compton Stand, unfortunately having missed the first over, but Sussex having made a reasonable start. This soon changed however, with the openers playing and missing with alarming regularity, and Sussex were soon reduced to 39-3, with Dominic Cork rolling back the years, bowling excellently to take the first 3 wickets. The rest of the innings was a really scratchy affair, with Michael Yardy - tailor made for this kind of rescue act - scoring 92 not out to help Sussex reach 219-9.

This was never likely to be enough, and so it proved as Hampshire soon chased down the target, although Luke Wright took 3 wickets to put the game in a semblance of doubt. In the end though, Hampshire won with almost 10 overs to spare. It was mightily disappointing to watch Sussex underperform so badly on the big day, but fair play to Hampshire, they thoroughly deserved their triumph.

Highlights of the day were the Sussex support...vociferous right to the end, Lord's itself with its excellent modern facilities, the opportunity to have your photo taken with the trophy and Mike Gatting, and a brass brand proudly playing "Sussex by the Sea" at the break. All in all, a good day out overall despite the huge disappointment of Sussex's performance. That's the risk of going to a cup final and supporting one of the teams though...

Aldershot Town 0 v 0 Brentford

Saturday 18th July 2009
Pre-season friendly
Recreation Ground, Aldershot
Attendance: 859
Admission: £10
Programme: £1.50

I'm not usually too keen on pre-season friendlies, as they are usually such tepid, pedestrian encounters that I prefer to wait for the real thing to start up. However, I was tempted to this pre-season friendly as I have been particularly missing my Saturday afternoon excursions, and the Recreation Ground, Aldershot is a ground that I've been wanting to visit for some time.



Having paid my £10 for a seat in the north stand (standing was also £10, and I was to watch the second half from the covered terrace on the East Bank), I felt quite impressed with this ground. Not of its standard or quality...it's more non-league than league standard, with facilities very basic, and is only three sided, but it makes for a pleasant change these days to visit a ground with old fashioned grandstands and large banks of terracing. Give me a traditional stadium over one of the modern identikit stadia anyday. One negative point was a traditional gripe regarding pre-season programs. £1.50 for a programme containing a page of manager's notes, a couple describing the history of Brentford FC, a couple of pre-season training photos, a team sheet and fixture list...the rest just advertising..truly derisory. I don't have a problem with that per se, but to charge £1.50 for it is just not on in my opinion...

Both teams were mostly first teams with 3 or 4 triallists, and with Aldershot of League 2 and Brentford newly promoted to League 1, I was hoping for an entertaining game. I was wrong. This was a typical pre-season friendly, generally played at a very pedestrian pace and with precious few shots on goal and misplaced passes aplenty, although Brentford shaded the first half. In the second half, Aldershot were probably the better side and squandered some guilt edged chances. It was no surprise the game ended goalless on a cool, damp and cloudy day in northern Hampshire.

The crowd was a disappointing 880. I would certainly recommend a visit to this ground if you like to visit old-fashioned grounds with terracing and character, but not if you're wanting the creature comforts of a new stadium (apparently the food and drink was appalling...I didn't try it). The ground is also conveniently located less than 10 minutes walk from the train station.

Sussex 326-7 v 292ao Gloucestershire

Sunday 5th July 2009

County Ground Hove

Friends Provident Trophy Semi-Final

Admission: £15

Programme/Scorecard: £1

Cricket has always been, in different ways, as much of a passion for me as football, and with glorious summer weather and the county team I support, Sussex, playing at home in a cup semi-final, I headed down to Hove to take in this game. It promised to be an exciting and close encounter, with Sussex currently enjoying an unprecedented golden era for the last 6 years, and Gloucestershire always a strong one-day outfit.

Gloucestershire won the toss and inserted Sussex into bat. It soon become clear that the Hove pitch would be a batsman's paradise as Sussex soon racked up the runs, never letting the runrate fall much below 6 an over and for most of the innings looked set to post a score in excess of 350, but wickets started to fall during the end of the innings and Sussex only managed to score 57 runs off the last 10 overs.

A total of 326 still looked a formidable target, particularly when Gloucestershire lost their first wicket having scored just 8 runs. However, Gloucestershire then seemed to be batting their way into a very strong position thanks to a century from Alex Gidman and a half century from Hamish Marshall. However, the Sussex slow bowlers, Michael Yardy in particular, strangled the life out of the Gloucestershire innings and in the end Sussex won the game.

Hove is not the prettiest of cricket grounds, not even in Sussex when you can compare with the delightful, tranquil settings of Arundel and Horsham. But with 7,000 spectators almost filling the ground and a vociferous West Country following, the atmosphere for this game was tremendous, aided by a high scoring game that could have gone either way right up to the last few overs. And so Sussex move on to a final day at Lord's against their neighbours, Hampshire.

St Kiernans 2-10 v 3-03 Harlesden Harps

Saturday 27th June 2009,

Emerald GAA Grounds, Ruislip,

London GAA Intermediate Football Championship Group 1

My marathon day of Gaelic sports concluded with this game, which turned out to be a lot closer and more competitive than the previous one, and with the added atmosphere of thunder and lightening surrounding the ground...which was a bit of a worry watching the game from an exposed metal gantry, but at least there was no rain.

Unfortunately I had to leave about 5 minutes before the end of this game, which St Kiernans duly won, but this was a most enjoyable day out for just £5 in total, experiencing both of the major Gaelic games in one day.

Heston Gaels 1-14 v 0-03 Thomas McCurtains

Saturday 27th June 2009

London GAA Intermediate Football Championship Group 1

Emerald GAA Grounds, South Ruislip

After the London - Fingal hurling game, I stayed on to watch my first ever Gaelic football game, albeit of the rather low intermediate level of the London GAA leagues. This turned out to be a very one-sided game, with Heston soon building an unassailable lead, and the second half in particular was all Heston. An interesting point is that one of the players who played in the earlier hurling game was one of the star players in this, having just had about quarter of an hour between games.