I watched the first hour of England's latest test match in New Zealand on Thursday evening and went to bed with England really struggling at something like 23-3. Woke up to check the score and I couldn't believe they had reached 315-3 without losing another wicket - incredible. The two Yorkshiremen Harry Brook and Joe Root have put on 294 runs - so far.
I have spoken about Harry Brook before but this young man seems to be driving English cricket to new heights. He is well on target to become the fastest England batsmen ever to reach 1,000 test runs and his current average as I write this is over 100.
One of my sporting heroes is Sir Don Bradman who ended up with an average of 99.94 which is way way way above anybody else - until now. The point is that Bradman had that average for over 50 tests whilst Brook has so far only played a handful but to have an Englishman with this ability is wonderful. It looks as if we now have two World class batsmen in the England team at the same time (Root being the other one).
People who like cricket will understand the above. Non cricket lovers won't have a clue what I'm on about. So apologies to them.
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I have been writing about parking charges that are about to be introduced in one of our Norwich parks. It now seems certain that these will go ahead despite 91% of people responding to a survey being against the charges. So I once again ask the question: "What is the point of public consultation if you are going to completely disregard it with a decision having already been made?"
his is purely a paper and tick box exercise with no meaning whatsoever. Good luck Norwich City Council with dealing with the fallout from this decision when all the streets around the park get chocked up with people parking on them rather than on the car park.
There is a website answering questions that might be asked about the new charges. It says (and I quote).
"The new pricing structure should encourage a more regular turnover of spaces, making it easier for people to find somewhere to park when they need to. In turn, we hope this will mean more people will visit Eaton Park as it will be easier to park. We encourage people to use the park nearest to their home or to travel to Eaton Park using sustainable transport, where possible."
This is nonsense. It will encourage less people to use the park, not more. The council says that it is facing significant financial challenges as if individuals aren't.
As to using my local park - well that doesn't have pitch and putt, crazy golf, a cafe or tennis courts.
I regularly use Eaton Park for tennis and the only times it is difficult to park is during school holidays. The rest of the time there is plenty of room.
All this will do is displace the parking from the park into the surrounding streets. This will lead to antagonism between park users and householders and how long will it be before the council realises that they can get rid of park using traffic and raise even more revenue by making the home owners pay for resident permits? I'm sure they have already thought of that and, of course, they will be holding a public consultation on the matter and then ignoring any comments made.
I promise not to bring up this matter again as I feel there is nothing more to say on the issue.
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I have been thinking a lot about radio comedy. It came after I saw a podcast on Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads and it reminded me about an evening party in the Midlands that we attended and were told that Rodney Bewes was going to be one of the guests. He was one of the so called Likely Lads. It was a wind-up as the guy who turned up had a vague resemblance to Bewes but nothing more. He certainly didn't speak like Mr Bewes who had a distinctive accent.
Now before you rush to point out my error. Yes I know Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads was a television programme but it still got me thinking about radio comedy - probably something to do with the fact that podcasts are aural.
I don't think I have ever listened to more than a handful of episodes of The Archers. It's not something that captivated me but I do remember radio shows like The Goons, Round the Horne, Beyond our Ken, Hancock's Half Hour (which apparently lasted 30 minutes), the Clitheroe Kid and the Navy Lark. It rather indicates that I must have listened to lots of radio comedy as I was growing up.
At Home With The Lyons - that must have been an American show I thought and in some ways it was because it followed the real life husband and wife partnership of Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels who were indeed American. But it was a British comedy about their life in London.
Writing about a few of these has whetted my appetite to listen to some of them again. I'm sure there are podcasts galore and stuff on You Tube. Gives me something to do in an idle moment (not that I have any of those. I'm far too busy criticising Norwich City Council).
Finally the name of Jack Jackson sprung to my mind. More about him tomorrow.
Speak to you all tomorrow.