Over and Out

Where to begin describing the weekend just gone. On a personal level, I should start with the death of my aunt. Having visited her last week, I can't say I was either shocked or surprised, but she was the oldest living member of my family at 93 years of age. Her final years have demonstrated to me that there comes a point where you cease to live and start to simply exist.

Anyway the next day or so will be busy arranging a funeral and dealing with her financial affairs.

On Friday night we made our annual pilgrimage to Chelmsford to watch Surrey take on Essex in T20. In the past we have not come close, but on Friday night we witnessed an amazing game of cricket which I still believed we would win till the final ball was bowled. Surrey batted first and behind an excellent innings from Steven Davies and decent knocks from Ramps and Jason Roy we reached 186. On most pitches a decent total and as events proved gettable at the County Ground.

Essex started slowly, Tremlett even bowled a maiden., and at the midstage they needed more than 13 runs an over. Scott Styris changed the game launching himself at Tremletts third over, and Essex needed 22 off the last over, surely this was routine. Andrew Symonds bowled it and Styris scored the runs in 5 balls. Its hard to explain the feeling of disbelieve as all around us celebrated.

The sell out crowd will surely come back for more, T20 cricket is probably being over egged this season but there is little doubt that Friday night games pack in a crowd across the country.

A quiet Saturday, breaking the back of my marking and the chance to spend a couple of hours watching Ingatestone and particularly Graham play cricket. On a summers day this is a great place to live. A hour spent watering the allotment and picking the blackcurrants from the bushes we have nurtured over the past year made a pleasant early evening.

Sunday meant just one thing the World Cup showdown between England and Germany. England's midweek 1-0 victory, had once again sowed seeds of hope in the media and amongst the population. Capello kept the same side, the weaknesses were only too obvious, a lack of pace both in the middle of the defence and in wide areas. A midfield without a truly creative player and an erratic keeper . The Germans exposed all these faults and were soon 2-0 ahead. Upson's excellent header from a free kick gave false hope. Although Lampard's long range shot cannoned off the cross bar and clearly crossed the line, none of the officials apparently saw it and so 2-1 was the half time score, a scoreline that probably flattered England on chances.

The second half went from bad to worse as Germany hit England twice on the break , defenders unable or unwilling to foul in order to prevent fast break play. 4-1 was England's worst World Cup result and our tournament was over.

In the days ahead what will the reaction be ? Will the media focus on the deficiencies in the squad, the picking of players on reputation rather than form, or as a suspect attention will focus on the lack of goal line technology that "cheated England out of an equaliser. It will be typical if we adopt at 2-2 we could have gone on to win the game approach rather than to consider our performances across all 4 games.

My mum went to tell the neighbours of my aunt's death shortly after the England game ended. She told them that my aunt had died just before 2pm, to which came the response "well at least she didn't have to suffer watching that." When Shankley said football wasn't a matter of life and death, it was more important than that, perhaps he had a point.