All’s Well That Ends Well-ish (Leicestershire v Northants)

Leicestershire v Northants, County Championship, Grace Road, Day 4, 12th May 2012 There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face … The classic shot  of two batsmen leaving the pitch at the end of a game, being applauded off by the opposition and (though you can’t see this) getting a standing ovation [...]

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A Cautious Welcome To The New Season At Grace Road

Leicestershire v Glamorgan, Grace Road, County Championship, 7th April 2012 “Of course it can feel like an exercise in futility, especially when the weather is cold and bleak … The fact remains, however, that even at Grace Road it is still possible to find that enduring bliss, a day at the cricket.” - Colin Shindler in The [...]

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Christmas With The Stars … Of Leicestershire C.C.C.

As I think I’ve mentioned before, I don’t do Twitter, but I am intrigued by the notion of having access to the workings of the minds of today’s sportsmen, unvarnished by the gloss of media training.  I thought I’d have a look at Cricket Tweets, a site which aggregates the Twitter streams of those cricketers who [...]

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Hat Trick for Hoggard as Taylor’s Helmet Shines

Leicestershire v Glamorgan, Grace Road, County Championship, 8 & 9 April 2011 Well, here we are again.  This blog will soon be entering its third year, and this will be the third season I have tried to record for posterity, from the point of view of the man in the crowd with the Thermos and [...]

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Postcards From My Own Side : a Reminder From Matthew Hoggard

A card in the post from Matthew Hoggard – It reads – “Look Mate Me and the lads are wondering when you’re going to start writing about the cricket again.  We’ve had enough of the bird-based whimsy and the old postcards.  The season’s starting in two weeks and you haven’t renewed your membership yet.  Get a [...]

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Storm Clouds gather over Grace Road as Hoggard Strikes

Leicestershire v Surrey, Grace Road, County Championship, day 1 (24 August) Storm clouds gathering –  as Hoggard strikes (to remove one of the Surrey openers) – According to most sources – the Guardian, for instance - Chairman Must Go Says Hoggard – and Cricinfo, which suggested that Red Hoggo was planning a sitdown protest on the [...]

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Anti-climax at Grace Road, as Leicestershire win by ten wickets

Leicestershire v Derbyshire, Grace Road, County Championship, 6th August (day 4)   I suppose I should have learnt by now that booking a day off work to watch the fourth day of a County Championship match is fraught with peril, but I fancied a long weekend, so decided to take a risk with this one.  Throughout [...]

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Gorgeous places! : Grace Road in May

Leicestershire v Durham, Clydesdale 40 overs, Grace Road, Monday 3rd May   Leicestershire v Worcestershire, County Championship, Grace Road, Tuesday 4th May  Back in the days of the last Government (last Monday) I was back at Grace Road, to see another Clydesdale 40 over match.  Leicestershire were playing Durham,and it was being televised for Sky.  I suppose [...]

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Honeymoon ends for Hoggard

15 October 2009 : I suggest in this post that Leicestershire should try to lure Matthew Hoggard to play for us with “a year’s supply of dog biscuits and a couple of casks of Marston’s”. Last week: Leicestershire announce a major sponsorship deal with Marston\’s Brewery. From this morning’s Guardian : ‘Matthew Hoggard’s honeymoon as the [...]

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Foxes rampant

Leicestershire v Northants : Grace Road, 11 April 2010 Blimey.  In the last game of last season, Northants beat Leicestershire within three days.  Today Leicestershire very narrowly failed to return the favour, but – assuming half an hour’s play is possible tomorrow – they are almost certain to win.  And they were lacking their new Aussie [...]

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