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The Last Overs of Summer

Posted in Biographical, Cricket with tags , , , on September 27, 2026 by telescoper

I’ve done quite a few posts recently about the ending of summer – the Autumnal Equinox and the start of a new Academic Year being two examples – but now we really have reached which I regard as the definite conclusion. Today was the last day of the last round of matches in the County Championship.

Here is the Table as it stands at the end of the last round of matches:

I haven’t followed county cricket all that closely since I moved to Ireland almost 9 years ago, but I do check the score now and then to see how Glamorgan are getting on, as I used to live quite close to the ground at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. Glamorgan were promoted last season, for the first time in 21 years but when I wrote about that at this time last year I said that

I wouldn’t bet against them being relegated straight away, though. Last time they got promoted (in 2004) they played just one season (2005) in the First Division, during which they lost 14 of their 16 matches, and dropped back down.

Happily, as you can see from the Table, that didn’t happen. They did have a poor run of games after the resumption of County Cricket after the dreaded Hundred, but won handsomely at the Oval last week and drew their final match in Cardiff against Essex today. They looked likely to win that game after scoring 505 in their first innings and bowling out Essex for 129. Following on, however, Essex batted with greater resilience and today the weather intervened. The whole morning was lost to rain, and when the players did take the field only 21 balls were bowled before it rained again. At that point, just after 1pm, the umpires abandoned the match as a draw with Essex on 351 for 6. That seemed a bit premature to me as the forecast for late afternoon wasn’t bad, Essex were still behind and, even if only 20 overs or so were possible, Glamorgan might well have forced a win. I assume the rain was so heavy and the ground already saturated that the umpires didn’t think a resumption was a realistic prospect, and it’s their decision not mine!

There’ll be big changes at Glamorgan next year with the retirements of three stalwarts: Billy Root (brother of the England captain), Colin Ingram, and Chris Cooke (wicketkeeper). The latter two are both in their forties, so their retirements were not unexpected, but Billy Root is only 34.

Somerset’s game against Surrey also ended in a draw today, with Somerset posting a mammoth 731 in their first innings in response to 422 by Surrey, but unable to force a win. Some of the matches finished yesterday, including Warwickshire’s innings victory against Leicestershire which made them well-deserved Champions. Last years Champions, Nottinghamshire, faded during the latter stages of the season and finished 4th.

Hapless Hampshire are relegated, but there is still an issue to be resolved about the remaining relegation place. Leicestershire were docked 27 points for a substandard pitch (in their game against Glamorgan). The 27 points comprise an 8-point penalty plus the removal of the points gained for winning that match (19). In fact the penalty for a pitch graded poor is 16 points, and the panel decided to defer 8 points to next season. Leicestershire have appealed that decision, and the points deduction is rescinded in full they will finish on 138 points so Essex will be relegated. It seems to me that the 8+8 point penalty is a direct application of the Pitch Regulations, so I’d be surprised if that part were rescinded, and even if Leicestershire get their other 19 points back they will still be relegated. We’ll have to wait and see.

Durham were runaway champions of Division 2, going the entire season unbeaten. Kent are promoted in second place.

In the end the final day was a bit of an anticlimax but since it’s now all over until next spring it seems appropriate to mark the end of the County Championship with a verse from one of the classic cricket poems, Close of Play, by Thomas Moult:

How shall we live, now that the summer’s ended,
And bat and ball (too soon!) are put aside,
And all our cricket deeds and dreams have blended —
The hit for six, the champion bowled for none,
The match we planned to win and never won? …
Only in Green-winged memory they abide.

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Degrees of Heat

Posted in Maynooth with tags , , , on June 23, 2026 by telescoper

Ireland is on the periphery of the “Heat Dome” which is bringing extremely high temperatures (over 40°C) to mainland Europe and parts of Britain. Temperatures on the Emerald Isle are somewhat lower, warm by Irish standards, but bearable (though it is quite humid).

To amuse my friends and colleagues sweltering under the Heat Dome, I thought I’d share this graphic from the Met Éireann weather app:

No doubt it will cause some amusement to see red for danger for temperatures of 25°C!

This type of weather reminds me of the hot summer of 1976, which I remember very well, not least because of the England versus West Indies Test Series that summer. I hadn’t realized until recently that the Windies played a match against Ireland that summer too, in Rathmines. Collis King was out for 24 in the WI first innings, off 6 balls (4 4 6 4 6 out)…

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Back to May(nooth)

Posted in Biographical, Cricket, Maynooth with tags , , on May 4, 2026 by telescoper
Not May Blossom (actually Common Pearlbrush)

So here I am, back home in Maynooth after a long weekend away in Not Maynooth. The weather forecast for Maynooth was typically dreadful for a Bank Holiday weekend but I have to say I can’t sign see much sign of the heavy rain that was predicted.

On the way back I checked the cricket scores and discovered that Glamorgan won their County Championship game against Hampshire by an innings and 69 runs. That’s worth marking on this blog because it is their first win in Division One since 2005. Historic. Their first three games this season ended in a defeat and two draws, so it was 4th time lucky. Well played to them!

Anyway the last four days of teaching term beckon, including a 9am lecture tomorrow morning, so I had better leave it at that and try to get into a work frame of mind.

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John Venn’s Bowling Machine

Posted in Cricket, mathematics with tags , , on April 14, 2026 by telescoper

Most readers of this blog will be aware of the existence of Venn Diagrams, but not a lot of people know that their creator, John Venn, invented a mechanical bowling machine for use by cricketers in batting practice. Recently some folks at Cambridge University built a replica of this machine, presumably with the aid of some sort of diagram, and here’s a fascinating video about it.

Modern bowling machines fire the ball at you like a cannon, but this machine has the virtue of the batter being able to see the arm coming over which must help a little. This creation is also able to impart quite a bit of spin, in either direction but it looks like it should be quite easy to pick. The examples shown in the video also demonstratte that batting is only partly about hand-eye coordination – a key element is how to move your feet!

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Cricket over Easter

Posted in Cardiff, Cricket with tags , , , , on April 6, 2026 by telescoper

The Easter long weekend (Good Friday to Easter Monday, April 3rd to 6th, inclusive) this year coincided with the first round of matches in the County Championship. It doesn’t seem very long since the last season finished! I haven’t followed cricket very closely since I moved to Ireland, but I do look on the internet from time to time to see how Glamorgan are getting on. I follow them because I live in Cardiff. Glamorgan were promoted from Division 2 to Division 1 last season and at the time I wrote that I wouldn’t bet against them getting relegated so it was with some trepidation that I checked the scores on the first day of their first match against Yorkshire at Sophia Gardens.

As it happened, the weather was very bad in Cardiff on Good Friday and play started very late. When it did get going (in the late afternoon), the playing conditions were evidently very helpful for the bowlers, and Glamorgan slumped to 28-4 with a batting disaster on the cards. After that. though, they recovered well, though slowly, amid various interruptions for rain and bad light, to reach a respectable score of 302. Things looked even better when they bowled out the opposition for 226 for a first-innings lead of 76. They had a chance of forcing a victory on the last day, after a bold declaration before lunch, but didn’t have enough overs to bowl Yorkshire out for the second time – I think the batting conditions had probably improved over the four days – and the match was drawn. I think this was not a bad outcome given the position they were in on Day 1.

Looking at the County Championship Table I realised that scoring system has changed. It is still 16 points for a win, but it used to be 8 points each for a tied match and only 5 each for a draw. Now it’s 8 points for either a draw or a tie, so it is back to being a zero-sum game (in some sense).  I see that change was made back in 2021!

I was also initially surprised to see Glamorgan given only 1 batting bonus point despite scoring 302, but then I remembered that bonus points are only given for the first 110 overs of the first innings and Glamorgan had not reached 300 after that number of overs. The same reasoning also denied Yorkshire a bowling point, actually.

I admit however that I haven’t figured the rules for adding on time at the end of a day when play has been lost to the weather. I thought only a maximum of 30 minutes could be added in the County Championship on the first 3 days: with a scheduled close of play at 6pm, that would mean delaying the close to 6.30pm. Last night – i.e the end of Day 3 – play went on until well past 7pm. I suppose the umpires have discretion to carry over more of the deficit if the 30 minutes per day is not sufficient. In all, 61 overs were lost in this match anyway, despite the time added.

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Ashes to Ashes…

Posted in Cricket with tags , , , , , , on January 8, 2026 by telescoper

I woke up this quite early this morning but when I checked the cricket scores I discovered that the Fifth Ashes Test between Australia and England at Sydney had already finished. Australia wobbled a bit chasing a modest target, but won in the end by 5 wickets and thereby won the series 4-1. I think that result is a fair reflection of the performance of the two teams and Australia thoroughly deserved to retain the Ashes. England’s victory in Melbourne, on a difficult batting surface, prevented a whitewash and gave them a Test win for the first time since 2010, but none of the other matches were particularly close run. In terms of attendances it was a very successful series – the five days at Sydney broke the record – but the quality of the cricket was very variable, and Australia taking a 3-0 lead after three games made the last two Tests feel rather irrelevant.

It was a particularly disappointing series for England, who must have thought they had a better chance of winning than for a long time. Australia were without key players, especially Josh Hazlewood and captain Pat Cummins (the latter only played one Test). On top of that, England captain Ben Stokes won four of the five tosses. Winning the toss at Sydney, as Stoke did, could have set up an interesting contest had England scored enough runs when they batted first (although they lacked a world-class spinner who could have won the match). Call me old-fashioned, but one of the things I enjoy best about cricket is seeing a high-quality spinner in action. Australia didn’t have one at Sydney either, Lyons having been injured.

England of course had their own injury difficulties during the tour, losing two fast bowlers in Mark Wood and Jofra Archer early in the tour. Of the replacement bowlers, Josh Tongue looked the best – and most likely to take wickets in Australian conditions – but Stokes seemed reluctant to let him open the bowling.

As it turned out, Mitchell Starc (Man of the Series) led the second-string of Austalian bowlers extremely well. It is also worth mentioning Michael Neser, a bowling all-rounder who has played for Glamorgan, who stepped into the breach and doing well with the ball. Other Glamorgan Australians Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja did not have such a successful series; the latter has now retired from Test cricket.

Jamie Smith playing an idiotic shot against the bowling of Marnus Labuschagne

I didn’t see much of the cricket – only highlights – but it seems to me there was a crucial difference in the fielding. England dropped far too many catches, including easy ones, while Australia held onto some stunners. England’s batters also had a tendency to play stupid shots at important times. I’m thinking primarly of Jamie Smith’s dismissal off the innocuous bowling of Marnus Labuschagne, which was calamitous, but there were others. Above all, though, I think the first few matches revealed England’s preparation to have been completely inadequate. Questions should be asked not only of the squad selection but also of the management of the tour, especially the lack of practice matches.

On the bright side (for England), Joe Root scored his first Test century in Australia and then scored his second. Jacob Bethell who is only 22, scored a fine century in the final Test at Sydney. I’ve read articles praising him, but didn’t see much evidence in the stats to justify their opinion. Now he’s shown what he can do in the Test arena, I wonder if he will turn out to be a successor to Root?

Anyway, that’s the Ashes done and dusted (so to speak). By the time of the next Ashes series Australia (2029/2030) I will have retired. Although I’ve been to Sydney, I’ve never visited Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide or Melbourne. Now there’s an idea…

P.S. I was slightly surprised that Mitchell Starc was Man of the Series. Travis Head scored 629 runs, which was to my mind even more impressive. Still, this award is ample compensation:

Travis Head named the Beard of the Ashes series

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Summer’s Over

Posted in Biographical, Cricket, Maynooth with tags , , , on September 28, 2025 by telescoper

I’ve done quite a few posts recently about the ending of summer – the Autumnal Equinox, the resumption of teaching, the start of a new season at the National Concert Hall are three indicators – but now we really have reached which I regard as the definite conclusion. Yesterday saw the last day of the last round of matches in cricket’s County Championship.

I haven’t followed cricket very closely since I moved to Ireland, but I do look and see how Glamorgan are getting on. The County Championship started very poorly for them, with a thrashing by Middlesex, but they improved substantially and went into the last round of matches secure in 2nd place of Division 2. They lost their last match in Cardiff against a team from the Midlands, by 7 wickets – a game that actually ended on Friday – but they still finished second. That means that they get promoted to Division 1 for the first time in 21 years.

I wouldn’t bet against them being relegated straight away, though. Last time they got promoted (in 2004) they played just one season (2005) in the First Division, during which they lost 14 of their 16 matches, and dropped back down. They almost got promoted in 2010 but were pipped for second place by Worchestershire, who were the beneficiaries of an exceedingly generous – let’s put it that way – declaration by Sussex that allowed them to win their last match. Anyway, to avoid the drop next season Glamorgan need to improve their pace attack considerably. I wonder who, if anyone, they’ll sign?

Glamorgan plays an important role in the international cricket ecosystem, especially with the Ashes coming up. Many of Australia’s star players – including Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, and Usman Khawaja – only came to prominence after stepping up to the big time to play for Glamorgan.

Knowing that the cricket season was almost over, on Friday I decided to give my front lawn one last mow too. The mower is now in the shed until next spring. Leaves have been falling for some time already, so I swept up what I could after cutting the grass. That reminds me to share this, which I found on Bluesky:

I really hate those things…

Anyway, we have completed one week of teaching at Maynooth University which passed off reasonably smoothly. I only had one timetabling glitch, but that was resolved trivially by just swapping two sessions. This year the Department of Physics has quite a lot of students in the final-year on the Physics with Astrophysics programme, run before the merger by the Department of Experimental Physics. Now we’re combined we can share the load and I’ll be supervising a couple of students on an astrophysics project, which will be a new experience. I haven’t really taught much astrophysics since coming here nearly eight years ago, so this will make a nice change.

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Cricket Limbo

Posted in Cricket, Music with tags , , , , , on August 5, 2025 by telescoper

Since moving to Ireland I haven’t seen much cricket, though I do follow some games on the internet and watch the highlights from time to time. Yesterday’s final-day victory by India over England by just six runs at the Oval brought to an end an excellent series of five Test matches, drawn 2-2 with one match drawn. Chris Woakes had to go into bat at Number 11 with an arm in a sling because of a dislocated shoulder. Shades of Colin Cowdrey going in to bat against the West Indies at Lord’s in 1963 with a broken arm. Neither Cowdrey nor Woakes faced a ball, actually. England drew in 1963, while still six runs behind with one wicket standing, while Woakes was not out as India won by six runs. A series draw just about seems a fair result to me.

Test cricket is something special and the 2025 England vs India series had more than the usual share of memorable moments. The two teams were evenly matched, tempers got a bit frayed from time to time, but both sides should be congratulated for providing such magnificent fare. A Test Match series is a cricket feast like no other.

As Keith Flett mentions in his blog, the Oval test has traditionally the last of the summer, usually taking place later in August, the lengthening shadows given that distinctive end-of-season feel. This year, however, the Oval test finished on 4th August (yesterday), and there’s no more Test cricket this summer. The schedule has been pushed forward to accommodate the gimmicky and unintestering competion called The Hundred, which starts today. The first of the last three County Championship fixtures don’t start until September 8th. It’s all a bit shit, really.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Monday: Test cricket finished for the summer; Tuesday: The Hundred starts

Anyway, just for nostalgia’s sake, I thought I’d post the old theme song from the BBC’s cricket coverage (when it used to be free on TV). It is Soul Limbo by Booker T. & the M.G.’s. We never got to hear the whole track, but as proper cricket is in Limbo for a month it seems appropriate to do so now.

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The Test Final and Final Examination Board

Posted in Cricket, Education, Maynooth with tags , , , , , , on June 12, 2025 by telescoper

Had I not been obliged to attend this morning’s final Examination Board for Theoretical Physics programmes at Maynooth University, I would have been at Lord’s today watching Day 2 of the World Test Cricket final between Australia and South Africam where it is now the Tea interval. There certainly wouldn’t have been any cricket in Maynooth this morning, as there has been torrential rain all day so far, but the Exam Board went ahead and finished even before South Africa were all out in their first innings for 138, after late-order collapse, in response to Australia’s first innings total of 212.

As I already mentioned, today’s Examination Board we went through the results in the presence of our External Examiner. Since this is the end of the academic year, we also looked at the final grades of those students who are completing their studies this year in order to consider the classification of their degrees. Another (pleasant) duty of our Examination Board was to award prizes for the best performance, not just for finalists but for students at every stage, including the first year. These will be announced in due course.

But that’s not quite the end of it – there is an overall University Examination Board that covers all courses in the University to formally bring an end to the examination process. It is not until after all the Boards have done their business that the students get their marks. If all goes to plan, students will receive their final marks on Friday 27th June.

Soon after that, on Tuesday 1st July, we have a Consultation Day, where

Staff will be available in all Departments to discuss results with students. Students are entitled to see their examination scripts if they wish, these will be generally available on this day or at another mutually convenient time.

If I had my way we would actually give all students their marked examination scripts back as a matter of routine. Obviously examination scripts have to go through a pretty strict quality assurance process involving the whole paraphernalia of examination boards (including External Examiners), so the scripts can’t be given back immediately but once that process is complete there doesn’t seem to me any reason why we shouldn’t give their work, together with any feedback written on it,  back to the students in its entirety. I have heard it argued that under the provisions of the Data Protection Act students have a legal right to see what’s written on the scripts – as that constitutes part of their student record – but I’m not making a legalistic point here. My point is purely educational, based on the benefit to the student’s learning experience.

That’s one set of examination duties done and dusted, but not everything. Next Tuesday I am Internal Examiner for a PhD at Maynooth and, about a month from now, I have to travel to a foreign land to be an External Examiner. It’s all go…

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Reaching Nelson

Posted in Cricket, History, OJAp Papers with tags , , , , , on December 9, 2024 by telescoper

This morning I published another paper at the Open Journal of Astrophysics and in the process I noticed that took us to a total 111 articles this year. I got to thinking about the significance of that number in cricket, where it goes by the name of Nelson…

In cricket – at least in England – Nelson is supposed to be an unlucky number. The reason for this could well be that the number 111 looks like a set of stumps without the bails (see left). (For those of you not up with the lingo, the bails are two smaller bits of wood that sit on top of the stumps. ) The absence of the bails could mean that they have been dislodged, signifying that a batter is out. Also umpires remove the bails at close of play, so it could indicate that the match is over.

What’s less clear is the connection with Horatio, Lord Nelson (right). The version I was told at school was that Nelson had “one eye, one arm, and one Trafalgar”. Some also say “Destiny” instead of “Trafalgar”. Those are polite versions. Others say the third one refers to a part of the male anatomy. Bill Frindall used to say “one eye, one arm, and one et cetera“. Who knows which, if any, of these is right?

In any case this does give me the chance to point out that, contrary to popular myth, Nelson didn’t lose an eye anyway. In 1794, Nelson was in action at the Siege of Calvi during the Invasion of Corsica when a cannonball struck a nearby sandbag and sprayed him with sand and gravel. Nelson’s right eye was damaged by this, but he didn’t lose it although he had little effective vision through it thereafter.

Meanwhile, I just saw this notification on LinkedIn about yesterday’s post:

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