Somerset v Durham - Day 3

As previously mentioned, Thursday was the midway point of my sabbatical and I spent it watching others slog away at Taunton cricket ground.  The day started with Somerset pretty much on parity with Durham but they made the runs they needed for 400 and an extra batting point.

Trego got them the extra batting point before being bowled by debutant Harrison.  Was very pleased to get a shot of this because, like yesterday, only one wicket was taken bowled, and I was lucky enough to get it on 'film'.  If you look carefully it also has both bails and the ball in shot too. 

Was in the right place at the right time for Trego catching Will Smith too, off the bowling of Thomas. 

Nineteen year old George Dockrell took 6-29 as Durham collapsed from 69-1 to 167 all out in their second innings. 

Steve Harmison played his first game of the season for Durham.   

Needing 152, Somerset knocked them off in 33.4 overs, largely thanks to Suppiah's action packed innings.   

By the time Smith had trapped him LBW for 73 (and how short leg must have been pleased to see the back of him) Somerset were pretty much home and dry. 

Sabbath - the one commandment that's optional?

Halfway through sabbatical,  I now feel that I am now batting, rather than ducking for cover at short leg.  Suppiah hits a six against Durham.

With my job comes the great privilege of being on sabbatical for three months every seventh year.  And here I am, towards the end of my seventh year, and yesterday marked the halfway point in my three months.  How did I mark it?  I went to Taunton to watch cricket for the day and at around two o'clock I toasted my sabbatical with a pint of beer.  I took some reasonable pictures -  more to follow. 

I am becoming used to people in the congregation asking how my holiday is.  And I don't resent that at all.  While I am doing some study and reading and visiting other churches and ministers to try and pick up some fresh ideas, I have also taken it easy too.  I am walking the Cotswold Way, have watched two games of cricket in a row, I've taken hundreds and hundreds of photographs, tried to get the garden in some sort of order, and had the luxury of not being on duty on a Sunday or at a single meeting in the evening.  My Dad thinks I've retired early.  It's been great.   

In truth it took me about five weeks to fully unwind.  That sounds ridiculous but I offer it for the benefit of any ministers who might stumble across this.  Mine was a tiredness that wasn't going to be remedied by two weeks in the sun.  In fact it took five weeks in the rain. It might take others longer.  

I started off feeling guilty about being off and disorientated by living without deadlines.  That has gone and now that I have the ability and opportunity to relax I am doing so - without shame or guilt.  I'm still doing the study and reading etc, but I'm also having a great time too, making the most of this gift of time.  

Ministers are often pretty poor at taking their days off.  I am actually very good at it - religious even - and I was still exhausted by the time sabbatical came around.  A friend who is a minister has been wise enough to take a month out to recharge and their church were happy for this, recognising the need.  Another minister friend is just back after a sabbatical that became ten months away because they were so burnt out.  It's hard for others to get their heads around but being a minister is tough.  Exhilarating, frustrating, wonderful, funny, desperately sad, unpredictable, privileged, and sometimes it just breaks your heart - assuming it hasn't become hard.  Sabbatical is a good time to restore your factory settings and go again.  

Trego launches one; one bounce into the boundary boards.

If you are reading this as the member of a congregation, and your minister hasn't had a sabbatical, or they aren't good at taking days off, ask them why.  They probably need someone in their corner to push them a bit on this.  He or she almost certainly gets more criticism than encouragement each week, and that wears down anyone after a while.  Encourage them to take time out, they'll love you for it. 

Meanwhile, I have got to go.  The Test match isn't going to watch itself. 

Somerset v Durham

Wonderful hot day, the first of the season, and I was lent a wonderful Canon 100-400L series lens. 

It's been a good day! 

Shot of the day, mine at least.

Hildreth bowled for 53.  Was pleased to get this as he was the only person to be bowled all day. 

  

Cotswold Way - Day 2 - Stanton to Winchcombe

The night before I set out I have a great steak at the Mount Inn at Stanton, washed down with a couple of pints.  On the table next to me I get talking to a couple of Canadians, mother and daughter and it turns out that despite not seeing one another, yesterday we set out about five minutes apart and finished within about half an hour of each other.  But then they didn't get lost.

At breakfast the only other guest is a recently retired woman who is starting her retirement walking the Cotswold Way in the opposite direction (South to North).  Which means that this morning will be her final leg.  She notes that because everyone else is walking it the 'right' way, she gets to meet other walkers about every hour and has had good chats along the way.  And it's the people that she remembers most about the walk, not the scenery - which is probably quietly profound.  Even more amazing that this is the first thing she talks about before telling me of the time she came face to face with a deer as she lingered in a wood, they just gazed at one another for ten minutes before the deer got bored and wandered off.  

Today the walking is a much easier 7.5 miles and it's made easier by the fact that my friend Nigel joins me.  Walking with someone is definitely a plus, especially when they bring you sandwiches and buy you tea and cake later as well.      

The first village that we come across is Stanway, and this is a picture of their cricket pavilion, set on saddle stones and with thatched roof.  It was a gift from JM Barrie, he of Peter Pan fame, who was a cricket fan and local to the area at one time.  It's a beautiful setting to play cricket in, set in a private estate and surrounded as it is with sheep grazing.  

After that there is some steeper climbing to be done and it's pretty thick with wet mud too.  For the only time over the two days I take off a layer of clothing, though this is down to the effort of the climb rather than any sunshine.    

Again the view from the top is reputed to be great and although visibility is better than yesterday, the mist is still rolling in.  This picture is quite nice though because it shows the medieval ploughing humps which are a feature of the area.  I have little idea what these are and will need to Google them.    

  

Nigel photographs a sheep, who was looking none too impressed throughout the experience. 

Our arrival at Hailes Abbey is the highlight of the walk for me today.  It's very quiet and still and we are the only visitors in the time we are there, which is probably why the woman running the centre is so keen to talk.  She is very entertaining and we have an interesting conversation on the similarities between Benedictine monks and Buddhists (her choice of topic).  It was brilliant to be able to photograph the Abbey with no-one else around.    

From there it is a pretty straight forward 2.5 mile walk into Winchcombe.  Even then though, my feet are feeling it a bit, so I am not unhappy to reach Winchcombe and be bought tea and cake.  We have some time before our bus arrives and so plan to check where the bus leaves from, finish the last few hundred yards and take a few pictures around the town.   However, the timetable at the bus stop doesn't match the information I have downloaded and it seems that the bus doesn't go back to Stanton as we wished. 

We are rescued by the friendliest butcher in the Cotswolds, who confirms our predicament and offers to ring for a taxi for us.  He explains that there used to be two taxi firms in the town and that when one of the men retired, young Steve took over and the butcher liked to put work his way.  Within about three minutes young Steve is outside the shop in his taxi, ready to go.  Young Steve is at least sixty but we are very grateful for his services. 

It is only later that I realise that I haven't actually finished the days walking.  I probably only have another five minutes walking to do to complete the second stage but I haven't done it yet.  I need to start at the butchers when I resume the walk in Winchcombe.  I'll probably be buying a pork pie or two as well, just to be friendly. 

Rain, rain, go away

 Here we are, officially in a drought and with a hosepipe ban looming and it's now the wettest April for something like 260 years. 

Back along, in March - yes March, I sat in shorts and tee shirt taking pictures of Somerset's warm up game against Surrey.  Today, the whole County Championship is washed out.  Seems a long time ago already.... 

Jonathan Lewis is a Surrey strip.  An odd things to see after so many years at Gloucestershire but good luck to him, he doesn't owe us anything.

Another small planet

This is a shot of Cheltenham Cricket Festival taken this summer.  Probably works better than most of my attempts at a small planet.

Depression and stress

My friendly local iron man is visiting us for the weekend to run a half-marathon here and so I have been reading Marcus Trescothick's autobiography in order to finish and return it as I have had it for about two years now. 

Found the battle of Marcus' depression especially interesting and these words which he paraphrases from something he read to make sense of his condition:

"Depressive illness, or at least the commonest form, which is caused by stress, nearly always happens to one type of person.  He or she will have the following characteristics; (moral) strength, reliability, diligence, strong conscience, strong sense of responsibility, a tendency to focus on the needs of others before one's own, sensitivity, vulnerability to criticism, self-esteem dependent on the evaluation of others. 

This person is the sort to whom you would turn if you had a problem to sort out  upon which your house depended, a safe pair of hands you can trust with your life, though often somewhat taken for granted.  People are usually very surprised when he gets ill, indeed he is the last person you would expect to have a breakdown. 

But it isn't so surprising when you consider that depressive illness is a physical condition.  Think about it; give a set of stresses to a person who is weak, cynical or lazy and he will quickly give up.  So he will never get stressed enough to become ill.  A strong person, on the other hand, will react to these pressures by trying to overcome them.  After all, he has overcome every challenge he has faced in the past through diligence and effort.  So he keeps going, absorbing more and more until, inevitably, symptoms emerge.  At this point most people will say, "Hang on this is ridiculous.  I'm doing too much."  So they pull back from the brink before it is too late.  But the sensitive person, without a very solid sense of self-esteem, can't stop struggling, because he fears other people being disappointed in him.  Even more than this he fears being disappointed in himself.  So he keeps on going, on and on and on, until suddenly: BANG!  the fuse blows"  (pages 253-4 in the hardback).

This rings true of my one (very old) experience of a moderate depression and is, I think, a clear warning to all of us.  I guess, reading it from the point of view of a pastor in a church, it is a reminder of how dangerous it is to our health if we think that we can fix everyone and forget that only God can, and how it is equally dangerous to look to other people for approval when it is actually only God's approval that truly matters.  And you don't earn that, it's a gift.  Sometimes we know that in our heads but it gets stuck before it hits our hearts. 

A lesson from a cricket batsman with a Test average just shy of 44.  I think it would be wise to take note.       

Shooting in the RAW

Not what you think, way too cold for that on Saturday. Basically (and I don't understand it in any more detail than this), RAW is a mode that proper photographers talk about the rest of us needing to shot pictures in rather than the JPEG format. RAW produces bigger files with less thrown away in the camera so the picture quality is better. Proper photographers could explain it better and in more detail.

So, anyway, I tried it for the first time on Saturday. I went along to a village game down the road and I think I can see what they mean. I think the quality is better in this, although I am aware that the boundary was a lot shorter here than at Taunton (itself one of the smaller grounds). You need to double click on the image to see it bigger.

Somerset v Yorkshire, May 2011

Had a great day out with my Dad watching cricket last week. We always try (weather permitting) to see a game or two each season, a good excuse to overeat and catch up on the latest news. Putting the world to rights a speciality!

This time I took my camera along and took way too many photgraphs. But you have to take a lot in the hope that something photo-worthy will take place!

We were there for the first day of four and were well entertained. The final day saw a thrilling finish and Somerset go marching on! Looking forward to our next fixture, which is at the Cheltenham festival as Gloucestershire host Kent.

Little things mean a lot

Lovely gesture on Saturday from a friend in the church who brought a meal round for us on the basis that my favourite parishoner had been off work ill and, to quote them, "I looked really tired last night".

A very simple and thoughtful gesture which was really appreciated and I was touched that they hadn't asked (which I would have inevitably politely declined) but had simply gone ahead and brought round the meal.

I did however feel a little guilty because a great deal of my tiredness was self-inflicted, what I like to refer to as "Ashes fatigue". A great 3-1 series win but I'm very glad that I can get back into some healthier sleep patterns now that the urn is coming home.

September

Enjoyed a hot day at the cricket today with my father and kids (an odd way for them to spend the last day of the holidays). Gloucestershire needed 125 in their second innings to win and fell 55 short, thus being in the unenviable position of bowling Derbyshire out for 44 in the first innings and still losing.

Enjoyed playing on the outfield at the lunch interval and as I walked off at the end of the day - well just before tea on the second day when it all finished - clutching an old Gray Nichols I felt like it was thirty years ago and nothing had changed. Gloucestershire weren't any good then either.

The future, not terribly orange. And yet...

The latest church predictions are in and, guess what, it isn't looking good.

A full report can be found on my 'bishop's' blog and can be accessed here:

http://nigcoles.blogspot.com/2010/05/10-years-time-2020-vision.html

In precis, the church is getting older and therefore getting smaller over time. No surprises there really, my generation onwards is largely missing. (I have often thought that two of my great loves, the church and cricket, are both aging and in danger of dying out. Perhaps we need to investigate some form of Twenty20 church?)

And yet...

Can't help thinking that there are rays of hope, thanks to the grace of God.

• In a national picture where 59% of churches have no kids between 15-19 we do (just) and a few 14 year olds who are keen enough to come to extra meetings. We also had 73 secondary school kids from 12-17 in youth club the other week. Most of them completely unchurched and yet not put off coming by the fact we insist on (lovingly) telling them about Jesus each week.


• Some pupils have set up a Christian Union in the local secondary school and they held the first meeting yesterday lunchtime. It was encouraging to see the ten of them having the courage to come and find out more, including four who don't go to a church.


• On Sunday we had a man make a commitment of faith in the service and two weeks before that a young teen prayed with a couple to do the same.


• We had four adult baptisms this month and more are lined up.

None of this is because any of us are much cop or because we are doing anything different. It's a God thing.

I guess whether the tide is in or out for the church at the moment, or in ten years time, it's clear what we have to do. Carry on regardless. Trust God. And see what happens.

The Golden Grahams

As the Women's Fellowship meeting was cancelled this afternoon I spent time with my favourite parishoner over a beer and a steak sandwich in the pub around the corner. Then watched the thrilling climax of the third test in South Africa and a new obdurance that I thought was foreign to us. A great result and a good day.

End of the Season

Last round of games and with the summer having officially ended earlier in the week, what better way to spend a day off than in the warm sunshine watching a county match? So, to Bristol to see Gloucestershire score 418 in the day for five wickets against a de-mob happy Kent.

I met up with Dad and we enjoyed a lovely day chewing the fat (and given what we ate that is about right). Always good to spend a day like this and the weather and the amount of runs scored was a bonus. It was a grand day out.

The picture is of James Franklin who scored a century to go with his five wickets of the day before.