3 July 2010

The day of the Great London Swim Event has arrived. Today Peter Beuchel, Clive Freedman and young Tom Osbourne are all valiantly going to swim a mile each, in the Royal Docks, on the Isle of Dogs, in their fundraising event, in aid of the MND Association –-Three Miles for Mark. Sadly, I shall not be there as I had bought tickets for the Lord’s before the boys offered to do the swim. In any event, they are all swimming at different times of the day and it would be virtually impossible for me to watch all three,  unless I was prepared to spend anything up to 12 hours by the waterside. I can do no more, therefore, than wish them all good luck.

A lovely day at Lord’s for the final match between England and Australia in the five match 50 overs, series. We lost, but the result was not significant as we had already won the first three encounters of the series.

It was a perfect summer’s day with a fully sold out Lord’s looking its finest. Barry picked me up at 8.30 and we were at the ground just before 10.00. Paul met us at Gate 6. and with a giant bear hug transferred effortlessly me from car to wheelchair, from thence I was pushed across the grass, passed the crowd in the Warner Stand to the place specially reserved for wheelchair. Patients… My guests were Monti and Karyl Nairn and they brought with them their dear little 10-month-old Baxter, who I must say is a very beautiful baby.

The day passed in the time honoured tradition with the first bottle of champagne  opened at 11.00 and then flowed liberally throughout the day, interspersed with various offerings of food. As always the days sped by, and before I knew it I was back in Barry’s car, homeward bound, weary but having a great day. The next  personal test will come later this month when I had booked to spend four days consecutive Lord’s for the England versus Pakistan test match. This will be a real endurance test even fully fit I used to find three days was about as much as I could cope with.