I win, at last. Southport and Liverpool Waterfront
So, further to my excursion up the West Lancashire Coast, rather a lot of pictures, as I'm still playing with the new camera.
I hadn't been to Southport before, as far as I remember, and certainly haven't seen cricket there. The club's in genteel Birkdale, so it's a bit of a disappointment that the pavilion isn't more elegant. Perhaps an old one burned down. Club pavilions seem to do that. I didn't bother with a close-up.
These are shots of tail-end batsman Matt Coles refusing to get out to Simon Kerrigan (back on form) during Hampshire's 191-run eighth-wicket partnership with Adam Wheater. They're not particularly interesting in themselves, but I was experimenting with the zoom.
I went for a walk round the ground, as that sometimes gets batsmen out, but it didn't work this time. Still, it meant I got shots from the other end. That's the press tent in the background.
Coles bats on; I think the bowler's Tom Smith.
The view from the pavilion is better than the view of the pavilion. The train on which I travelled to the ground ran along the railway between those trees and the houses.
But this was the view I came to see! Lancashire won just before three o' clock. Tom Smith shakes hands with Brad Taylor, the 16-year-old debutant who was last out for a very commendable 20.
Results elsewhere mean we need 20 points from three games to confirm promotion.
The other good news is that Durham won, and are now only 5.5 points behind Yorkshire at the head of the first division; they have four games to play, to Yorkshire's three.
I hurried to Birkdale station, and for once the trains ran in my favour; by half past four I was entering the Chagall exhibition at Tate Liverpool.
Obviously I couldn't use my camera in the exhibition. There was a spectacular view from the fourth floor, where it was being shown, but it wasn't permitted to take a photo from there; I was told, however, that it would be allowed from the first floor, and just managed to get one shot through a rather dirty window before the gallery shut at 17.50. I've put it in, as it's the one with the best view of the Liver Birds atop the towers of the Royal Liver Building, one of the Three Graces at the Pier Head.
Here's a less zoomy view of them from outside the Tate.
Here's a statue of Billy Fury. I managed to line him up right in front of the sun.
Then I did the same with a nearby lamp-post, to make it look extremely bright - I couldn't quite decide which shot I prefer, so here are both. The first has the full lamp-post, but I like the sky in the second.
They've built an awful lot of stuff along the waterfront since I was last there. Trying to think when that was... I think my mother and I were in Liverpool to see Nureyev's version of Romeo and Juliet, which would be late 1970s, and had time to kill beforehand. I've been to Liverpool since, but not this part! Anyway, this is the new Museum of Liverpool, which for some reason reminded me of Apalapucia in The Girl Who Waited.
Another statue, of Captain F. J. Walker, doing what it says on the pedestal in the Second World War.
And finally, the Three Graces - the Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
I hadn't been to Southport before, as far as I remember, and certainly haven't seen cricket there. The club's in genteel Birkdale, so it's a bit of a disappointment that the pavilion isn't more elegant. Perhaps an old one burned down. Club pavilions seem to do that. I didn't bother with a close-up.
These are shots of tail-end batsman Matt Coles refusing to get out to Simon Kerrigan (back on form) during Hampshire's 191-run eighth-wicket partnership with Adam Wheater. They're not particularly interesting in themselves, but I was experimenting with the zoom.
I went for a walk round the ground, as that sometimes gets batsmen out, but it didn't work this time. Still, it meant I got shots from the other end. That's the press tent in the background.
Coles bats on; I think the bowler's Tom Smith.
The view from the pavilion is better than the view of the pavilion. The train on which I travelled to the ground ran along the railway between those trees and the houses.
But this was the view I came to see! Lancashire won just before three o' clock. Tom Smith shakes hands with Brad Taylor, the 16-year-old debutant who was last out for a very commendable 20.
Results elsewhere mean we need 20 points from three games to confirm promotion.
The other good news is that Durham won, and are now only 5.5 points behind Yorkshire at the head of the first division; they have four games to play, to Yorkshire's three.
I hurried to Birkdale station, and for once the trains ran in my favour; by half past four I was entering the Chagall exhibition at Tate Liverpool.
Obviously I couldn't use my camera in the exhibition. There was a spectacular view from the fourth floor, where it was being shown, but it wasn't permitted to take a photo from there; I was told, however, that it would be allowed from the first floor, and just managed to get one shot through a rather dirty window before the gallery shut at 17.50. I've put it in, as it's the one with the best view of the Liver Birds atop the towers of the Royal Liver Building, one of the Three Graces at the Pier Head.
Here's a less zoomy view of them from outside the Tate.
Here's a statue of Billy Fury. I managed to line him up right in front of the sun.
Then I did the same with a nearby lamp-post, to make it look extremely bright - I couldn't quite decide which shot I prefer, so here are both. The first has the full lamp-post, but I like the sky in the second.
They've built an awful lot of stuff along the waterfront since I was last there. Trying to think when that was... I think my mother and I were in Liverpool to see Nureyev's version of Romeo and Juliet, which would be late 1970s, and had time to kill beforehand. I've been to Liverpool since, but not this part! Anyway, this is the new Museum of Liverpool, which for some reason reminded me of Apalapucia in The Girl Who Waited.
Another statue, of Captain F. J. Walker, doing what it says on the pedestal in the Second World War.
And finally, the Three Graces - the Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.