Trips to London are less frequent than they used to be these days, but no less enjoyable. On Friday I had the opportunity to attend a lunch at Lord's cricket ground to celebrate the start of the 150th anniversary season of Middlesex county cricket club.
The room was littered with players from past years, many of whom I grew up watching from the stands as an impressionable schoolboy, and more recent players who are trying to emulate those true legends.
The afternoon was compere'd by Bob 'the cat' Bevan, an after dinner speaker of some note. He was joined on stage by Geoff Miller, a recent England selector, who told tales of Derbyshire cricket in his own inimitable style.
It was a very good way to welcome in the cricket season, even if the weather is still more suited to football. The World T20 competition does continue in Bangladesh but England have no further interest in that after the usual last few overs they bowled flew all over the field. Quite why England persist with Dernbach in those situations, I have no idea. He also dropped a 'dolly' in the match against Sri Lanka, using the new catching technique adopted by the modern players where the palms face away from the body.
We were always taught to have the fingers facing skywards and the palms towards the body. I did ask Angus Fraser at the dinner why the catching art had been tampered with, but he was a bit grumpy so did not give me any plausible explanation save that apparently the players can watch the ball straight into their hands, or in Dernbach's case onto the grass.
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