Match report - TGCC v. Churchill

Chasing a low score of 94 in 40 overs wasn't ever going to be a big challenge, even on the low, slow, green Fullers wicket. Nick H and Freddie opened the batting Nick pretty much went on a Sehwag style rampage with smashing nearly 7 runs an over for the first 6 overs. Freddie as usual was blocking the other end and scored about 1 run in the 60 run opening stand. Nick mixed some fantastic off drives and lofted pull shots and was particularly punishing of the bad bowling from the near end. Very soon, they switched to an off spinner and Nick using his feet really well to him lofted a couple of fours over mid-off. From the far end though, the other opening bowler, big lad over 6 feet 4 inches was generating a fair bit of pace, bounce and swing and was consistently beating both the opening batsmen outside the off stump. His hard work was finally rewarded when he Nick's off stump cartwheeling and TGCC were and 60/1 after 12 overs.

The Churchill captain made some quick bowling changes causing a bit of a middle order crash, TGCC were very soon 85/4. I came on to the crease at than point and 5 balls and a couple of boudaries later, TGCC had successfully won the third Sunday game in a row. Important to mention that Freddie carried his bat through the innings, scoring 3 runs out of the 96 scored by TGCC. Talk about blocking one end !

Earlier in the day, our opening bowlers, Charlie and DJ hit the perfect on and about the off stump line beating the opening batsmen consistantly. The best part was that both the bowlers were extremely disciplined and bowled no wides or no balls. DJ produced some good chances off his bowling with two catches just falling short of slips and one being dropped in covers. By the time the two opening bowlers had finished their spell Churchill were 14/0 off 10 overs.

The first change bowlers continued the good run and finally we had we got our first breakthrough when Sam Hall rattled the woodwok with a an inswinger to the right hander from left arm over the wicket. Churchill sent in a pinch hitter next who improved the runrate over the next few overs. By the time I came in to bowl, Churchill were about 44/1 in 20 overs.

My very first ball, pitching on the off stump and turning just enough, produced an edge that was dropped by the wicket keeper. Although there wasn't much purchase from the green & slow wicket, I was still able to turn the ball a fair bit. I was mixing up seam-up deliveries with flighted legspins. Four balls later, I induced another edge, this time of a ball pitching on middle and turning to a feet outside off stump, and the first slip diving to his left caught a tough one. The new batman coming in shuffled around the crease trying the follow the next few legspinners and I knew then that I will have another wicket soon. As expected, he tried to pull a flipper, surprised by the bounce he managed to edge a skier to midwicket. Beating the batsmen very often, I had another a few other near missed in the next couple of overs. A couple of full tosses and a bad over cost 8 runs with the pinch-hitter still trying to go after the bowling. The bowling at the other end was beginning to falter and give some runs away also.

My last over, I got the pinch hitter out. A flighted leg spin following a couple of quick straight ones and a googly made him play too soon and straight back into my waiting hands. Wo hoo!!! the third and most important wicket. The quickies came back and polished off the tail and 93 of 40 overs was never going to be a challenging target.

I finished with figured of 6-0-18-3 and scored 9 runs of 5 balls faced with two fours. All in all, not a bad day at all.

Lille-d

Lille wasn't particularly a choice destination. It was one borne out of necessity. We had to get a ticket to some place in France in order to get a visa and we chose Lille. We didn't know much about Lille or had had a chance to read up about it.

What we learnt about Lille was amazing. About a little over a 1000 years ago, Lille was probably an island and hence the name. It was not always French. It was Flemish and Spanish before it was French. Louis the IV fought for Lille around 1667AD and won it for the French. This is when Lille really started becoming the 4th largest metropolitan area in France. Traditional French character, values and architecture was introduced to Lille and most of the monuments we visited were created by the French after this time. The park in the picture is a good example of that: Used to be a downtrodden street and now has become a really nice park.

Once the French took this city over, this rapidly developed to be the Manchester of France, heavily industrialized with textile mills etc. These industries were put out of business by cheaper offshore products but resilient Lille reinvented itself. While re-modernizing itself with new town centre, fancy L shaped Euralille building [pic] and software and services industries, Lille rediscovered its culture and heritage and setup the old town as a perfect balance to the new hi-tech parts.

The Place du Général de Gaulle or the Grande Place [pic] is the centre of attaction. Right next to the The Palais Rihour [pic], a 16th century building that hosts the Tourist information centre, the Grand Place is at the cusp of the old city and the new shopping district. The new age shopping district houses all the big high street brands, specialized boutiques and cafe's and restaurants. Walking through to the city to the extremely well preserved old town, we came across a blend of modern and old. Most of the houses in the old town have been modified to be either very cool cafes or high end designer stores. It was quite an experience walking through the old town... and it is as far as old towns go.

All this was on north and north east of our hotel. Oh! by the way, we stayed at the Hotel L Hermitage Gantois. A 4* deluxe hotel which is a modified 16th century hospital. A fantastic historical building with a really cool setup.

Just on the south side of the hotel was the mini Arc de Triomphe. Smaller but not less significant for Lille than the Parisian counterpart is to Paris, this was once a gate of the old city. Adjacent to it is the Town Hall and its belfry.

A little further up were the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, the second largest museum in France after the Louvre, and the Republique building.

A walk further south revealed residential and industrial part of town. A nice walk through what seemed like the forgotten part of town. All in all, a restful Sunday in a very modern park watching people walk by ended a nice, relaxing weekend in a Lille that pleasantly surprised us.