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You could tell it was going to be a S Ldn SCORCHER with the appearance of the ice cream van outside the Hobbs Gates at 11am.

There was a lovely relaxed Sunday morning feel inside the old ground. Jamie Smith wasted no time in knocking up a most majestic 150 for the ‘rrey.

Some ads popped up on the big screen in-between play. You can get a group booking discount for the t20 for 50 people or more.

I don’t know 50 people.

Plus imagine the complications in trying to settle who owes who in the aftermath.

Long Live Loners.

I listened to the latest Forest Focus podcast during luncheon. There was talk about the unparalleled atmosphere inside The World Famous City Ground. Much was made of the history of this.

tbh, it was pretty crappy in the late 80’s. Yeah, we might have been winning Cups all over the place, but it was never the white noise that greets KO in 2024.

The afternoon session started. I surprised myself in staying BOOZE free. I couldn’t be arsed today.

I headed up to the top tier of the Galadari. There was a pleasing breeze blowing across S Ldn to match the stunning views.

I could see into some of the flats at the back of the ground. One of them had the window open on the 5th floor. cat was leaning out. I felt most nervous.

And then a pigeon flew right in front of the window and landed about a metre above the cat on the roof. The cat made an attempt to jump up, before remembering the laws of gravity.

Phew. That was a close one.

It was a late, late finish at The Oval. King Kemar took a standing ovation having seen off a lame Warwickshire second innings.

I hung around until the close of play shortly before 7pm. I’ll be back in the morning for half an hour or so to see Surrey polish off another Championship win.

C’MON THE ‘RREY!

There was a full turn out at the cricket: T, M, S and even A who rocked up from the bloody Estuary Wilds.

My Big Bag of Cricket Goodies was well stocked from Lidl. There’s still a smoothie shortage. My morning drink was a spinach smoothie. It tasted rank.

We all headed up to the top of the Galadari at Luncheon to take in the S Ldn views. It was stunning in the early spring sun.

Some shade was needed for the afternoon session. We retreated to the covered section of the Peter May. Surrey were making slow progress in chasing down the Warwickshire first innings score.

My attention turned to football. I listened to the Luton commentary whilst demolishing the Big Bag of Lidl BOOZE.

I made my excuses at around 5pm and headed back to the flat to watch Forest.

Come mid-morning and out went the shout of: To The Oval! for the first of four days on the piss in the Peter May!

It’s thirsty work this cricket nonsense.

The walk through the back streets of SW8 was glorious. A fella was sitting by the Albert Square parklet [URGH] having a bit of a nature shit moment. It was really rather sweet.

There was an ecargo bike conference taking place at one end of the old ground. Talk about two worlds colliding. My focus was purely on cricketing matters today.

T rocked up just after the start of play. What followed was a VERY boozy day as we caught up over the space of seven hours or so,

Chin chin.

Surrey LEGEND Lobby made a return. I heard him before I saw him. I’ve not seen the old fella at The Oval since pre-Covid. I had feared the worse. He appeared as tired and emotional as ever.

Same again tomorrow.

On my radar this evening was the Secret Garden. My plans were to snap away at the hidden delight whilst it is in full bloom. I was a couple of weeks early. There was a lush green, but little other colour.

Mad parakeets were fighting to be heard over a bloke walking around playing some FILTHY D ‘n’ B out of a speaker balanced on a scooter.

A couple were walking a cat on a lead.

It was all VERY Brockwell.

Some fella saw me snapping away with the f717. It’s hardly a discreet model. He showed some interest. We had a decent five minute chat about my fave camera.

The photo shoot was completed and I had a little more work back at base. I headed back down to the Lido bicycle racks.

To The Oval!

The beastly morning Transpontine weather looked like it had blown over. The players were back out in the middle, looking to wrap up Day 4 of the Championship match.

There was a ‘less than enthusiastic crowd’ compared to the decent turnout over the weekend. I had room to breathe around the old ground. I actually had a whole block to myself.

Surrey were making hard work of closing down the final three Somerset wickets. The visitors were resolute, doing some damage to the run chase rate at the same time.

Jamie Overton bowling against his twin brother Craig was the last throw of the dice for the ‘rrey. There was no love lost with some of the bouncers that were thrown up.

OUCH.

The tea interval came. Still the ‘rrey needed three more wickets.

I took some time to look around the Museum and Library. There’s some fantastic old artefacts in there.

The players came out to little applause. Even the Peter May Boys had given up and buggered off home.

Part timers.

The Umps called for the covers to come on – in bright bloody sunshine. They soon hastily came off once again and play resumed.

Surrey took the three wickets.

Hang on. There’s a chance that we might actually win this. The game now became a t20 slog with Surrey chasing down a total of just over 200 in 20 overs.

News soon spread around S Ldn. A slurry of the post-work crowd rocked up. Surely Surrey can’t do this, right?

They made a good hash of it. Losing Ollie Pope was the last stand. There was now the very real danger that Somerset might actually bowl Surrey out and win.

Surrey started to block. The game entered stale mate. There was a very weird ending with both sides still in with a chance of victory.

Hands were shaken, the draw was settled for.

Long Live County Cricket.

To Clap’ham! On a photo walk!

I thought I would make the most of the spare time waiting for the cricket to start with a quick hack around SW4. The sub-plot was that charity shops would be involved.

Claph’ham’s Crown for the Charity Shop Capital of S Ldn has long since slipped. The power struggle has headed back up towards Streatham in recent years.

I knew that SW4 had become a parody of itself when I clocked the £70 price tag for a pair of second hands jeans in the Oasis charity shop.

My Wivenhoe Town season ticket for the whole season cost less than that.

I did get lucky with three Dicky Thommo CD’s. I was only listening to a Word In Your Ear podcast with the great English guitarist last night.

It looked like someone had done a Dicky CD dump in the MIND shop along the Wandsworth Road. £3 all in. Ta.

I reached Old Town. This is SW4 Instagram territory, aka #wankerville. The wisteria were out in full bloom. Strangely this isn’t the case in SW8, or even CO7…

I double-backed along Clap’ham Road, stopping off to buy a window cleaning pole.

#OddJase

It was Day 3 for Surrey at home against Somerset. There was a lovely relaxed Sunday morning vibe inside the old ground.

I watched the first session in the Peter May Sun Terrace. I headed up to the top of the Galadari during luncheon to take in the view. It’s most spectacular.

It got a little windy in the exposed terrace. My vertigo was telling me to GTFO.

I started to drift off slightly during the afternoon session. I took the strategic decision to lay off the BOOZE after caning in yesterday.

Surrey were also taking it a little slow, making hard work of skittling out Somerset. I felt a little chilled.

I decided to cut my losses at the tea interval. I had gardening chores back at the flat. The weather forecast doesn’t look favourable for Monday.

To The Oval!

Yep, we’re back in full on cricket season mode.

Boy, I’ve bloody missed this.

I approached the Harleyford Road. My phone pinged straight away, automatically remembering the Surrey WiFi login details from last season. It felt like I’d never been away.

My first task was to source a Surrey Yearbook. We’ve got a proud run of these dating back to 2008. The club use to send these out by default to all Members. With the membership now at 18,000, you have to request a copy at Reception.

I made my way up to the Peter May Sun Terrace. The outfield looked LUSH for April.

The Vicar of Sib and the Skipper were art the crease. All was well in my world. There was a great weekend crowd throughout the ground.

Long Live County Cricket.

I soon found my bearings on the photo front. I’ve been capturing this club and this ground for over twenty years now. Slight architectural changes might appear each season. But I know what works, and when it works.

SNAP SNAP SNAP.

The game progressed. Surrey Boy Pope appeared out of The Pavilion. I had Forest Vs Wolves in the AirPods. Plus I made a start on the big bag of cheapo Lidl BOOZE.

These are GOLDEN DAYS, I tell you.

Make hay Jase.

The first bare chest of the season soon appeared in the Peter May. Put it away, fella.

Forest raised the hopes, but once again left me feeling disappointed. A chill appeared around The Oval. I decided to call it quits with half an hours play left in the day.

Another year, another #WierdWiv bluebell stroll. These seem to take place earlier with each year. Climate emergency shit, innit.

I attempted a slight change of routine as we scaled the heights of Wivenhoe Wood for the 2024 expedition.

Hey! Let’s try a new route!

We ended up looking down what appeared to be a cliff face.

It wasn’t. It was a mud bank about 10 feet in length, with an incline of around 45%.

“We can have that”

…said A.

The 30-something me might have been able to take it, but not the 54 year-old.

I wimped out and took the long route round.

This involved trudging through the Dog Shit Field, and then around the back of some rather dull housing. I didn’t feel at one with Mother Nature.

When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of FUCK OFF bluebells.

Blimey.

They looked particularly spectacular this year. I wasted no time in snapping away with the f717.

Calling this one #peakbluebells