Reflections on a Year of Cricket

Well, there's no contest - or suspense - about my best cricket moment of 2011, but it has been a great cricket year for me and there are plenty of other great moments and memories - many of them "firsts" - that I am enjoying recalling and reliving.

1. England Retain the Ashes Down: 7 January 2011
Having won the Ashes in England in 2009, after losing them so comprehensively in Australia in 2006/7, I hardly dared imagine that we might retain them in 2010/11 but, for once, one of my dreams came true and there I found myself on 7 January 2011 leaping around and screaming with joy as England secured a 3-1 series victory. Oh, and did I mention, that the final wicket was taken by a (real) Surrey man?  Great work Mr Tremlett.  What a way to start the year.
2. First Day of Domestic Season: 8 April 2011
This year, the first day of the season was bright, dry, sunny and warm - and I was at The Oval for the first day of Surrey v Northamptonshire.  I found myself in sandals, shades and cropped trousers, rather than a fleece, gloves and boots, and eating my lunch sunbathing on the outfield.  Despite Surrey losing the first wicket of the season second ball, it was a fabulous day to start the season: one that I dared to dream would end in Surrey securing promotion to Division 1.  
3. Number One Test Team in the World: 13 August 2011
By beating India, by an innings and 242 runs, England claimed the accolade of Number One Test Team in the World.  According to my Facebook posts, it suddenly occurred to me that afternoon that I was watching England playing cricket and not feeling any nerves at all.  What an odd sensation!  A few minutes later, as the victory was secured, I was quoting Richard Thompson lyrics ("I feel so good I'm gonna break somebody's heart tonight") and completely forgetting all the pain, misery and despair of so many England collapse, thrashes and humiliations over the years.  And, just eight days later, there I was, on the top balcony of the Oval pavilion, as England secured a 4-0 series victory and were presented with the Number One Team mace.
4. Surrey Secures Successive Successes: 14 & 17 September 2011
Despite fizzling out somewhat in the Twenty20 competition, Surrey ended the season as CB40 champions and secured promotion to their rightful place in Division 1.  As part of my deal with the cricket gods, I was on holiday in Greece for both of these events and had to follow the progress of the matches through the BBC live website commentaries.  Felt all of the tension and the joy - but really missed celebrating with other cricket fans.  And, no big little bruv, despite growing up in Somerset, I did not feel conflicted for the CB40 final.  Of course, if the result had gone the other way, I might have taken some consolation in my second favourite team's success …
5. Watching at Other Grounds: 27 April, 19, 21 & 22 May, 26 June, 4 & 24 July 2011
As well as my beloved Oval, I watched Surrey play at Lord's, Beckenham, Whitgift and Guildford this season and had most enjoyable and different experiences at each.  Thanks to the marvellous weather that prevailed throughout most of the season, all offered great sunbathing opportunities as well.  And, on the first day of the Surrey v Middlesex match (the result of which (a) is best forgotten and (b) will not be repeated in 2012), we were allowed onto the hallowed turf at lunch and tea.  Food and drinks, however, were forbidden, so I wasn't able to indulge my picnicking on the outfield fetish.
6. Watching T20 from the OCS Stand: 8 & 14 July 2011
This was my first season as a Surrey member and so the first occasion that I was able to watch T20 cricket from the marvellous OCS Stand.  The views (across London as well as of the game) are fantastic, it's a great place to interact with other members and gave me ample opportunity to wave my Lions flag.  For a county match, I'd still rather watch from the Peter May but enjoying cricket from the dizzy heights of the OCS was a more than adequate substitute for T20.
7. Meeting Captain Fantastic: 4 May 2011
Thanks to a Simon Hughes competition on Twitter, I won two tickets (actually, won one and blagged the other) to an evening reliving the 2010/11 Ashes at a west London sports club.  Mr Strauss was very relaxed and entertaining as Simon Hughes quizzed him through the highs - and occasional lows: there was that third ball dismissal in Brisbane remember - of the series, while we ate Thai curry, drank wine and, it has to be said, shivered a bit: it was an early-May evening in a marquee in London after all.
8. Watching an Entire Championship Match: 10-13 July 2011
For the first time ever, I watched an entire Championship match, as Surrey played (and beat!) Kent at the Oval in early-July.  Zander de Bruyn scored an amazing 179 in the first innings, Rob Key fought back bravely with 162 batting fourth, the margin of victory (21 runs) was much tighter than my nerves would have liked, it was roasting hot on the early days and I was back to shivering, huddling in layers and clutching hot coffee for warmth through the tension of the fourth morning.  But I'd watched, followed and enjoyed an entire match live: the first time since England v Australia the SCG in January 2007.  Not much enjoyment in the latter, of course!
9. In the Lord's Pavilion: 7 July 2011
Surrey played Middlesex in a Twenty20 match at Lord's on a July evening and, courtesy of a cricket mate who is both a Surrey and a Middlesex member, I watched from the Members' Pavilion and saw Surrey achieve a 9-wicket victory.  It felt very different to being in the Oval Pavilion and not where I'd want to watch all my cricket but it was a great experience - and there was Sky TV evidence to reassure my mother than I'd worn a proper summer frock and so not given fuel to the press comments at the weekend that the overall standard of women's dress that evening left something to be desired.  I was a bit cooler than I'd have liked as a consequence though …
10. Riding the Zip-Line at The Oval: 9 October 2011
OK, strictly, this isn't a cricket highlight - but it did take place at a (should that be the?) cricket ground and I only found out about it through an email from Surrey.  Me and my girl pal rode the 500 ft zip-line from the top OCS balcony to the bottom of the Pavilion. Again, it should have been only once but we smiled sweetly and got a second go.  The only thing that could have improved the experience would've been if cricket had been being played at the same time.  Perhaps one for next year?

It's undoubtedly been very successful years for both Surrey and England, and I've enjoyed that muchly. But what's really made this my best ever season is how much of it I've been able to enjoy first-hand. My first year as a Surrey member has been a great experience. Thanks to everyone - players, stewards, other members and cricket Tweeters - who've contributed to that in so many ways. Here's to more of the same of in 2012!

Twelve Crafters Crafting (Part 2)

Having fairly quickly knocked off the first part of this month's Get Funky! challenge, set by Jackie of the marvellous Funky Hand design team, I struggled rather to complete the second part. My non-Christmas card was a birthday card for my friend Cilla, which was also my first waterfall card. At the time of making that, I had intended that my Christmas card for the second part of the challenge would be to my 2011 Christmas card design, using the required traditionally coloured papers from Funky Hand's new CD: Twelve Crafters Crafting. Much as I love the gorgeous design papers, I couldn't pick quite the right combination. After a few days, I decided that I'd utilise the same waterfall design but instead of using the "O Christmas Tree" collection, I'd use "Vintage Christmas".

I was able to make a couple of improvements to the construction of my second waterfall card: primarily, attaching the waterfall mechanism to the backing paper and card before fixing the whole thing to the card blank, which meant that the securing brads were more neatly hidden than on the first.  Otherwise, I used "gold" rather than "silver" accessories and made the mechanism slightly larger on the second card to accommodate the size of the star stamp.

I prefer the birthday card to the Christmas card, because the aqua and brown colours of the former are much more "me" than the traditional green and red of the latter. I don't really feel that either card is very much in the style of Funky Hand and I still think that I took the "easy option" with the birthday card by using the star design paper. However, I'm pretty hopeful that the Christmas card will be very much to my mother's taste and I'm glad that I didn't give up on what proved to be a much more challenging challenge than I'd originally anticipated.

Just a few more Christmas cards to finish and then my 2011 year of crafting will be done. It's been a year of great creativity. I've felt that I've developed my own style much more than before and have gained confidence and skill. Here's to more of the same in 2012! And that's about as close to a New Year resolution as I'm ever likely to get.

Twelve Crafters Crafting (Part 1)

OK, first of all, "thanks" (kind of …) to Jackie of the marvellous Funky Hand design team for this month's challenge. As if crafters didn't have enough to do at this time of year with making cards (due to some mid-winter festive event being just thirty four sleeps away … and, more pressingly, the last posting date for Australia only two weeks hence), this month's challenge wants us to present two projects. To be fair, I did make big early in-roads into my Christmas cards in January this year, when inspiration struck. Although they're not finished, I'm still happy with them and think (hope!) it shouldn't take too long to get them ready for posting. There are a few other designs that I'd like to try out … and I don't think I'll be able to resist and keep them for 2012! Must try harder to focus on the task in hand.

Speaking of which, back to this month's Get Funky! challenge, which is two projects (ie for me will be cards). One is to have a Christmas theme and use traditional Christmas colours (red, green, gold etc rather than the more contemporary pink, blue and purple - which I love) and the other is to be a non-Christmas project using Christmas papers. The challenge has been inspired by the recent release of Funky Hand's new CD: Twelve Crafters Crafting. Full of gorgeous design papers in a range of lovely colours … can easily see them gracing my cards.

As I might have mentioned once or twice, I've had a busy, and rewarding, autumn of card-marking and had just one more November birthday to go: my friend Cilla. I thought that I'd address this and combine the challenge with my long-standing wish to make a waterfall card from scratch. That's three birds with one stone, isn't it? And, so I did …

I've used three papers from the "O Christmas Tree" collection, which is a delightful combination of shades of jade, turquoise and brown. I love this mix of colours - and it's especially good at the moment as my printer's low on yellow ink due to all the autumnal papers I've printed and crafted with recently. I feel that I've cheated a bit - or at least taken the easy option - by using a star paper and one of the plain textured papers rather than anything more festively challenging. Apart from the stripes and spots, they are probably the least Christmassy of the collection. I have also used tiny bits of a third paper that has a snowflake background but have snipped carefully just to get the neutral dashed line. I'd usually have gone with some of the striped and spotted papers, which Anice always includes in her collections, but they are too busy for this waterfall design. Will use them on something else - especially the gorgeous striped one with hand doodles.

The waterfall mechanism is actually really simple: just a case of cutting a long enough strip, scoring accurately (2 cm gaps work well here with a 4 cm width), folding well, positioning the decorative elements carefully and fixing the whole thing securely to the card (belt and braces with brads as well as double sided tape). I've taken a bit of a risk using scalloped circles that are a tiny bit wider than the 4 cm squares on which they are mounted but they are moving well … so far. I'm pleased with how the holographic card and the silver embossed letters work with the browns and turquoises of the design papers. And am glad to have found scraps of matching ribbons in my stash to make the pull-tag. Another example of why crafters are right never to throw anything away! Embellishing with a few holographic stars added a little more to the Christmassy reference.

So, halfway there challenge-wise, and pretty happy so far … I think the Christmas card component will be to my 2011 design, but I haven't decided which papers to use yet. Happily, the closing date for the challenge is a week beyond the Australia posting date so I've got a bit of a breathing space there.

Amble into Autumn

This month's Get Funky! crafting challenge has the theme of "Autumn". This seemed perfectly appropriate and very appealing, as I've been enjoying the autumn this year so much. It feels that it's been one of the best autumns ever: fantastic colours lingering long and bright in the trees, mild, still, dry and warm weather, and plenty of time to amble around London and enjoy being surrounded by it.

Over recent weeks - as part of my response to so many of my friends and family having birthdays and other occasions to celebrate in October and November - I've made several cards with an autumnal feel but only one of them with the Funky Hand challenge in mind. In fact, I would have felt uncomfortable entering the others for this challenge, as they are variations on two card designs that I put in for challenges earlier in the year: more details towards the end of this blog post if you're interested …

As usual, the amazing Anice designed a special freebie paper for the challenge's theme. It has a terrific falling leaves design and, although there is no such obligation, I really wanted to use it in my challenge card. Unsurprisingly, it tones brilliantly with the design papers in the "Orange October" collection of the Funky Hand Papercraft Factory "Craft the Year Away" CD. I chose three of the plainer papers in the collection: the same design in toning autumnal shades of brown, orange and gold.

The main image on the card is "Copper", who is a lovely fairy designed by Lili of the Valley. As well as being a very suitable autumnal colour, something about her reminded me of my only female cousin Sue, who will receive this card for her fiftieth birthday. I didn't want to include a 50 on the card but felt that the autumnal colours and the gold mirror board hinted enough in that direction. I haven't been using mirror board in my cards recently and rarely use it with Funky Hand papers but this time the combination seemed right.

I had the idea for the design of the sentiment element of the card when thinking about a card that I am yet to make for the ninetieth birthday of a friend of my mother's and am pleased that it's come out so well in reality. (Hope it does again when I repeat it for the 90th card.) After printing the three coloured papers, I put the sheets back into the printer and printed a different colour on the reverse of each. I cut several 6 mm strips from each, inked the long edges (fiddly and messy) and then cut each of those strips into lengths of about 7 cm. After folding each at an angle, I stuck them randomly around the reverse of a circle of gold mirror card and then trimmed the ends of each at an angle. Inking the cut ends of these paper "ribbons" was fiddly but worth the effort, as it makes them look finished - and avoids those "nasty" white edges! I stamped the circular sentiment, added a small gold circle and two tiny gems. I was reasonably pleased with the effect but felt it wasn't quite finished. Nervous of doing too much, I put it to one side while I assembled the rest of the card.

I fixed three paper ribbons to the left of a square of the leaf backing paper, tucking the ends under for neatness. I punched away three corners of the square and matted it onto gold mirror card, with the narrowest border that I trust myself to achieve, and mounted it onto a cream 13.5 cm square card. The sentiment rosette was mounted over the ribbons with foam pads and a circle of the orange paper layered between two gold circles put flat at the bottom right corner of the card. Onto the layered circles, I attached Copper the fairy, whose edges I had inked (using a cotton bud for the most fiddly bits), with foam pads. A few touches of yellow Sakura gel glaze pen brought out the centres of Copper's flowers and I added a tiny gem to her necklace. I thought about using something glittery to emphasise her fairy-wings but felt that that was going to be a texture too far. Once again, following the crafter's golden "rule of three", I put three tiny gems into each of the three cutaway corners.

The card looked pretty good (IMHO) but didn't feel quite finished: there still seemed to be a gap in the centre of the sentiment and a bit too much backing paper showing. I recalled having some flowers left over from one of my other autumnal cards: coincidentally made for my aunt - my cousin's mother. Typical of a crafter, I had saved them and - amazingly - was able to find them. For my aunt's card, I had put tiny punched flowers in the centre of slightly larger ones and then heat embossed each several times. I had thought that all I had left was the punched flowers but was really pleased to find that there were four assembled and embossed. Perfect! One for the centre of the sentiment and the other three (that rule again) scattered over the background.

Then I felt that the card was finished and ready to make its way to Sue for her birthday next Thursday. Time to turn my hand to cards for two friends who also have birthdays that day: one of them lives in Luxembourg, so I probably ought to have posted a few days ago … oops!

As promised, here are the other autumnal cards that I have made. The butterfly one was for the one for my aunt - Sue's mum - that resulted in the leftover flowers. It is similar in design, albeit very different in colours, to the card that I made for my other aunt's birthday in April. Part of my inspiration for the original card was the Get Funky! "Zing into Spring" challenge. There is something very satisfyingly symmetrical for me in making similar cards for my two aunts, although it happened by coincidence rather than plan.

The other card is for a female friend's birthday (next Wednesday) and uses my modal design of the year, which was first made for the Get Funky! "Boys Boys Boys" challenge. She's a very sporty, outdoors kind of a woman, and the autumn colours remind me of that side of her character. It's also her fiftieth birthday and, as with Sue, I didn't want to emphasise that but also not to ignore it entirely. Thinking about it now, I suspect that neither woman is overly sensitive about her age (they are both practical, get on with it kinds) and it's how I feel about numbers on cards that has led me to leave them off. They're great at the bottom and top of the age range but don't work - at least for me - in the middle.

Pink and Green

Interesting colour combinations are one of the most enjoyable aspects of card-making for me. The inspiration for them comes from so many sources: the preferences of the person the card is for, the colours in a paper, image or embellishment or those suggested by a theme. Sometimes the combination is challenging, particularly those that I haven't used before or wouldn't usually think of putting together, and at other times they just seem natural and irresistible. This month's Crafter's Companion Challenge fell into the latter category: pink and green is one of my favourite combinations, due, I think, to its prevalence in nature.

I made this card for my niece's eighth birthday, which was earlier this week. It uses quite bold shades of lime green and a deep purply-pink. The combination of its design and theme (cats) is one that I've been evolving over about a year now. Although I was happy at the time with each of its first two incarnations, it was the third, which was a birthday card for a similar aged girl about a month ago, that I felt was when I got it just right. (The three previous cards are at the bottom of this post.) I only tweaked that third card slightly for this fourth card. I think this will be the last time that I use the design for a cat-based card, as I've run out of cat obsessed friends and family, but I can imagine revisiting the layout for a different theme. Not really sure why I've only used the layout for cat cards up to now ...

The cat embellishments are Papermania die-shapes, very aptly titled "Fun Cats", each of which I heat embossed three time to give them gloss and depth. It's quite a fiddly process for such small pieces but worth the effort and I find an emery board is very useful to smooth down any rough edges. As has become my habit for cards recently, I attached one of the circles (bottom left) to a 5 mm strip of acetate, and tucked the other end behind the backing card, to provide some additional dimension and movement.

These are the three earlier versions of this card theme and content, which have been made separately over the course of about a year. Seeing them together like this (for the first time), I find it interesting - and encouraging - how the layout and techniques have developed over time, but surprising that the colour combination has varied so little.

Number One Team Whitewash

Hard to feel able to do justice to the England cricket team's achievements during the recently concluded series of Tests against India. Perhaps a collection of a few of my best memories - in words and photographs - is the way to go.

Victory at Lord's in the First Test, by nearly 200 runs, was somewhat (bit of an understatement) marred by the inability of a "friend" to deliver on his promise to join the fifth day ticket queue at the crack of dawn. Thinking back now, he said that it was so that I needn't curtail my beauty sleep … surely a clue there to a flawed character? My wrath at finding that he'd been in the St John's Wood area since a fairly suitably early hour but hadn't actually felt the need to join the queue was amazingly quietly controlled. I walked the considerable, and twisty turny, distance from the East Gate to the end of the queue just for the hell of it and then turned on my (high) heel and when home to enjoy the play and the victory in the comfort, warmth and sunshine of my back garden with TMS and Tash as perfect company. Lessons learned: (a) if you want something done properly, do it yourself, and (b) never trust a Middlesex supporter (even if he claims to support Surrey too)!

The Second Test, at Trent Bridge, delivered victory well inside four days by 300+ runs, and with a hat-trick from Stuart Broad thrown in along the way. It seemed difficult to believe that England wasn't going to win all four and take the Number One status from India … but harder still for me to forget how many times in the past seemingly simple plans had gone so badly awry in the hands of England cricketers.

My best moment of the Third Test at Edgbaston - and possibly the whole series - came during the afternoon of the fourth day when I released that I was watching England play cricket without any fear that it would all go horribly wrong. An unusual, but very welcome, feeling. Long may it last. The pain, despair and misery of so many England collapses, thrashings and humiliations over the years were erased as England cruised to 710-7 and from there to a four-day victory by an innings and 200+ runs, picking up the status of Number One Test Team in the World in the process.

The Fourth (and last) Test was my "home" match at The Oval. I had tickets for the first, third and fifth days and was really looking forward to sharing the first two of those with my bestest cricket girl pal (and her brother-in-law on the Saturday).

Not the weather I ordered.

Bananas beat All-Comers

The weather gods, however, had completely different plans and conspired, with an elegance of timing, to deliver rain to SE11 on the stroke of lunch both days. On Thursday, we stuck it out while being entertained by an impromptu Bananas v All Comers match at the front of the Lock Stand, before admitting defeat and heading home, damp, cool and expecting much better on Saturday.

Somewhat churlishly, I admit, my best moments of the match probably occurred on Friday, when I was listening/watching at home. Both Bell and Pietersen had the decency to get their centuries, so I didn't have to stand and applaud my two least favourite current players (revisit the end of Mr Thorpe's international career to appreciate the reasons). Nuts, who I still can't recognise as a Surrey player, went one further and got out before the close of play so I didn't have to see him bat "in person" on Saturday.

Just a tad too wet and gloomy for play

Day 3 started off OK weather-wise but the rain again came at lunch and we gave in after a couple of hours and headed home. In what felt like a spirit of blind optimism, I got a re-admission stamp on my wrist (which took three days to wash off). This actually turned out to be shrewd fore-sight as by late-afternoon Kennington was basking in sunshine under clear blue skies and play resumed for a couple of hours. During which Tendulkar came in, was cheered almost constantly by the huge Indian contingent in the crowd and then got out, without achieving that hundredth hundred.

The 80th (& final) Indian
wicket of the summer falls

My heels and I enjoy the space
and view of the Pavilion Top

On Monday (Day 5), I started watching in the crowd-packed stands but soon defected and traded in my general public ticket for a Member's Pavilion Seat and watched the rest of the day's play and enjoyed the victory, by an innings and a handful of runs, from the lofty heights of the Pavilion Top, where I felt much more at home - and had much more room to stretch out my legs. Apart from the victory, my highlight of the day was waving my England flag and "singing" Jerusalem three times. Shame practically no-one else seemed to know the words and sincere apologies to all those in sufficient proximity to me to have to suffer so many off-key notes.

What a way to treat Veuve Clicquot!

The ground staff was not amused by
thecelebratory red & white streamers.

Despite the Indian cohort of the crowd hoping against hope for a Tendulkar miracle, in the end England took only slightly longer to get the last seven Indian wickets than they did to finish off, and casually discard, their celebratory bottles of Veuve Clicquot. Oh well, having completed the first series whitewash since 1959 (or some such date) and becoming the Number One Test Team in the World (did I mention that already?) perhaps they can be excused such a minor aberration.

So, that was it, the international summer finished - unless one counts ODIs and T20 matches, which I don't this time since I'm going to be out of the UK for almost all of them - and the usual feeling of missing it already descended. This time, of course, it was meeting the undiluted joy of such a marvellous all round performance, which I fully expect to be repeated throughout the forthcoming winter, just like the last one. Hmm, this winning thing is becoming something of a habit - and a very enjoyable one at that. And I feel that I've really earned if after so much suffering over the past 30-ish years!

Sweet as Sugar

This week's Docrafts Creativity challenge is an inspiration one, with a nostalgia-provoking photograph of some Love Hearts sweets. When making cards for challenges, it usually helps me to have a recipient in mind (and stops me accumulating even more cards waiting for just the right occasion …). For this challenge, the recipient will be my mother. Had my father been alive, it would have been my parents' Golden Wedding anniversary next week. I wanted to send my mum a card to let her know that I was thinking about her especially at what could be a sad time. "Love You" seemed just the right thing to say.

The colours in the photograph immediately reminded me of some paper that I had in my stash, so I was off to a speedy start. I thought I'd repeat the dangling of an element in front of the main card, which had worked well for my nephew's birthday card a couple of weeks ago. I'd tried to explain orally how this looked to my mother but didn't think I'd got it across all that well. Now I'd send her one of her own and hope that makes it clearer.

The background paper was quite busy so I didn't want to make things too complicated but the pair of "danglers" wasn't enough on its own. Also, I wanted to include something that represented the sweets. I punched about a dozen small hearts from various parts of a multi-patterned paper and intended to punch their circular backings - but my smallest circle punch was not quite big enough and the next smallest was too big. A kind of a Goldilocks moment. Nestability die cuts to the rescue. The smallest circle was just right and so I embarked upon repeatedly putting textured white card through my Cuttlebug. It was a great boon that the machine works in both directions, although re-assembling the plate sandwich for each pass was much more fiddly and time-consuming than using a punch would have been … but that wasn't an option.

I inked the edges of everything with a really old tired pastel pink inkpad that is always in my essentials box - such a useful colour. It has a bit of a chalky feel to it, which seemed to match that of the sweets - at least in my memory. Can't quite recall how they tasted: not getting further than sugary! Were the different colours differently flavoured?

The small hearts were stuck flat on the circles, which were then mounted, in as random a manner as I could manage, onto the background paper using 1 mm foam pads. The acetate strips for the "danglers" were sandwiched between two larger punched hearts and secured to the card behind the backing paper. A single small heart mounted with a foam pad on one heart and a rub-on sentiment on the other finished off the card.

Quite a simple, but effective, card, I feel. Odd not to have used any ribbon; I found some suitable colours but they seemed unnecessary with so much stripy paper. I'm very pleased with the colours: I like it when pastels are bright and vibrant rather than really pale. And - an unusual outcome for my cards - it should travel through the post really well. Think Mummy will have a smile when she sees it. She's doing the church flowers in Daddy's memory this week and, most appropriately, has chosen a gold colour theme. Think it would have been weird though - and not in keeping with the challenge inspiration photograph - to use gold for this card. I did love making all those men's cards recently but it is nice to be back to prettiness as well as style and design.