Kent Cricket Club

We enjoyed a great Sunday outing to County Kent to visit James and Soph and even the sun made an appearance for once and provided a bit of colour in my freckles. Fanks for having us folks: a shuper bbq and stroll in the country - so close and so far from London.

The BYC was superb but the fierce attack of Elliott and Bendall failed to penetrate Geekie's front pad. Geekie played without confidence and it's plain to see the mental scars are still there from the ten nil hallway cricket walloping Roberts and I gave him and Piripi 6 years ago!

And by the way, if you think you've seen this rump before, you have!

Radiohead live in Victoria Park

A far sunnier and happier evening for the Radiohead concert at our old stomping ground in the East end. The music quality was absolutely top notch - a great night after 15 years of faith, it was nice to finally see them, even if they were only specs in red pants.

A brief review from the local paper...

“Did the cat get your tongue…?” Seemingly not as Victoria Park erupts as one to the opening salvo of ‘15 Step’, an obvious (but not unwelcome) first offering given its lead position on the band’s latest LP, In Rainbows. The first three songs aired this evening – you can’t really say ‘tonight’ given the sun’s some time from setting – are taken from Radiohead’s pay-what-you-will seventh album, ‘Bodysnatchers’’ savage basslines and insistent percussion rightfully stealing away onlookers’ reservations, its players the puppet masters orchestrating an undulating sea of revelry beneath them (and from their lofty perch everyone is below them). ‘All I Need’ slows the pace marginally, and from here it’s evident those coming for ‘Creep’, for ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and ‘Paranoid Android’, are going to leave disappointed.

While it may seem churlish of a band to neglect their most-successful single to date – ‘Paranoid Android’ peaked at number three in 1997 – such omissions are meant as statements of intent. Radiohead have never stood still, never rested on their laurels; they’re the only band in the UK, maybe the world, playing shows of this scale but still absolutely of contemporary relevance in an artistic capacity. Bon Jovi, The Rolling Stones: they can play stadiums, but when was the last time a new record of theirs was worth your money over a greatest hits set? Muse? Come on – they’ve been riding Radiohead’s coattails ever since ‘Uno’ broke the 75 in ’99. Radiohead continue to inspire, and those seeing them for the first time here, now, will never forget the experience.

Eric Clapton visits Dublin

A wet weekend in Dublin for the Eric Clapton concert. We didn't quite have the rub of the green this weekend due to flight delays at both ends of the weekend, average weather and a failed speaker system in the instrumental of Layla.

That said, we had good accommodation and the trip to the Guinness factory was a real highlight - so all was not lost!

G modelling the latest in rubbish bag fashion:

Trinity College:

Twenty 20 cricket

Friday night and a sell out crowd at theTwenty-20 cricket game between Sussex and Hampshire at the quaint little ground at Hove.

Summer sunset in Clapham Junction

A couple of snaps of the mid summer sunset and the Heathrow jetstream from our flat.

Maybe not the Ashes but...

A couple of photos from the Mark Ramprakash testimonial corporate cricket 6 a side event at The Oval on Friday. The first, batting in front of the scoreboard with my score on 2 and about to become 6 and the second of the GLG team with our guest player, Will Carling.

Roland-Garros, Paris

We were fortunate enough to spend a day on Centre Court at Roland-Garros to see round 3 of the French open: a day which included the great Roger Federer and the sexy Maria Sharapova. Both no. 1 seeds dispensed with their opponents in a clinical and beautiful fashion. After spending 11 hours in the grounds soaking it up, I have a new found love for this tournament.

My favourite player's quote from the programme:

"I've always thought of the red clay at Roland Garros as a living thing, something that gets into you. A match there is a kind of immersion, heavy with symbolism: you arrive immaculate white and you end up blood red, battle scarred... Visually, it's very beautiful, but above all it's a surface that favours engagement. You can slide, get to impossible balls. You can play for a long time and reach out for unexpected limits on this clay. And for sure, you never know what might happen next, because the texture can often change depending on the humidity. It's a hard surface to tame."

One of the greatest athletes on the planet:

After the tennis, Frodo and Gandalf stopped by the Eiffel tower for a crepe.

After a long day on Saturday, Sunday was a nice relaxed day, revolving largely around sampling as much of the local tucker as possible. The other highlights were investigating Paris's new commuter bikes (c'mon London, get it sorted) and a French woman thinking I was French because "your Bonjour was so good".