Morning all
Welcome to the county cricket live blog for the latest round of Championship action. Our writers will be here with all the day's play shortly. Paul Weaver will be at Sussex v Surrey at Horsham, Richard Rae is at Nottinghamshire v Lancashire, while Mark Pennell is in Tunbridge Wells for Kent v Hampshire.
Your essential guide to the season
You can find full fixture lists for the season here and county-by-county previews here. You can follow the action throughout the season here. Watch video highlights here.
There's also county cricket commentaries on BBC local radio here.
There are a few shower clouds in the sky over Nottingham, but there's also plenty of blue and Richard Rae is anticipating a prompt start to the tasty-looking match match between table-topping Nottinghamshire and rejuvenated Lancashire at Trent Bridge.
Both sides come into the game on the back of away wins, Notts having beaten Sussex at Hove and Lancashire Durham at The Riverside, so there are no surprises in terms of selection: Notts bring in the veteran seamer Paul Franks for Ben Phillips, who picked up an injury at Hove, while Lancashire name the same eleven which won in the north-east.
The immediate news is that Notts won the toss and, with an eye to the weather forecast and on a pitch with a very definite tinge of green in it, have decided to have a bowl. Andre Adams, 35 wickets at 14.94, will surely move it around.
The Royal Spa Town of Tunbridge Wells was suitably hydrated this morning, writes Mark Pennell.
In fact, on closer inspection, the outfield at the pretty Kentish out-ground, The Nevill, may well have over-imbibed during heavy overnight rain.
The teams from Kent and Hampshire arrived at the ground to find conditions too wet for a prompt 11am start ensuring a disappointing first morning to what is Kent's 100th Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week.
Match umpires Richard Illingworth and Steve Gale held a cursory inspection at 10.30am and plan to take a further look at noon. Fearing the worst, however, Hampshire's players returned to the team hotel in search of their iPads and PlayStations.
The few punters who were at the ground for 10am at least received an unexpected cheery welcome from Kent's public address announcer and former DJ with local station Heart FM, Steve Watts.
Having informed the public where to buy their copies of Kent's excellent commemorative programme, Watts left his microphone switched on by mistake and, when listening to his former station, went on to grace the ground with his rendition of the Andy Williams classic 'You're Just to Good to be True'!
Festival grounds are not at their best in funereal weather like this and the attractive Sussex v Surrey fixture got under way in damp and blustery conditions, writes Paul Weaver.
There had been a lot of heavy overnight rain in Sussex but at least the ground at the Horsham Sports Club is good for drying and play did get under way on time, with Sussex winning the toss and putting Surrey in.
Both sides need something from this, having won just one game apiece. Surrey beat Sussex in their opening match of the season and Sussex beat Lancashire at Liverpool, but have lost the last two.
Sussex had the best of it, with Steve Magoffin dismissing both Jason Roy and Mark Ramprakash before the players came off for a shower at 22 for two.
Roy, driving with his head up, was caught by James Anyon, overhead at mid-off in the eighth over and two overs later Ramprakash was caught behind, pushing forward.
Anyon then struck with two wickets in two balls, having Zander de Bryn caught at slip before having Sussex old boy Rory Hamilton-Brown, the Surrey captain, caught behind first ball; 32 for four.
Plenty going on in an entertaining opening hour at Trent Bridge, reports Richard Rae. Notts made an early-ish breakthrough when Paul Horton pushed forward at an Andy Carter delivery and edged to Adam Voges at second slip for 3, but Stephen Moore and in particular Karl Brown then batted really positively in compiling a stand of 53 for the second wicket.
Both seized on anything over-pitched to drive and Andre Adams came in for some serious punishment, especially after Moore, flashing hard, was dropped by Voges at head height, slightly to his left. Brown hit Adams for three consecutive 4s, but the next ball was slightly shorter, found the edge, and was brilliantly caught one-handed by Samit Patel at third slip. Brown's 34 came off 24 balls, and Adams' figures now read 4-0-35-1. Lancashire 64-2.
Out of boredom and his impish sense of humour, Kent captain Rob Key has now taken over as ground DJ at The Nevill in Tunbridge Wells where the scheduled 11am start against Hampshire has been delayed by rain, writes Mark Pennell.
The former England bat regaled the county's supporters with a wide array in musical taste from Vivaldi, to Rumer and then 1970s supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, all while umpires Gale and Illingworth went out for their noon inspection. The upshot of which was that the players will take lunch at the usual time of 1pm with a fresh inspection planned for 1.40pm.
This is a sad time for Mark Ramprakash and Murray Goodwin, writes Paul Weaver at Horsham. They are two of the heaviest and most consistent county batsmen in recent years but now, at 41 and 39 respectively, are past their best.
Goodwin has been dropped for this match, and it is the first time that has happened to him since he joined the club in 2001. But after a poor start he was close to the axe before this.
Ramprakash, meanwhile, has returned for his first championship match in three weeks. He was chosen to open, but it wasn't a great success because he scored just eight and didn't look his old self. Is it a terminal decline for these two wonderful players? Bowlers are certainly hoping that is the case but there are probably a good few runs left in them yet.
Meanwhile the wickets continued to tumble here today as the ball continued to swing under the clouds. Steven Davies was fifth out and the third man to fall on 32 when he was well caught, low down, by the diving Luke Wells off Magoffin for six and Surrey were 52 for six when Tom Maynard, pushing forward, was caught at slip.
Choosing to bowl is always a fraught decision for captains but this has really paid off for Michael Yardy today. There were a few hefty blows from Gareth Batty and Jonathan Lewis in the final half hour before lunch but Surrey went into the break still struggling on 78 for six.
They may have lost three wickets, but I suspect Lancashire will not be displeased with their morning's work after being put in at Trent Bridge, reports Richard Rae.
They were 69-3 when Stephen Moore under-edged Andre Adams onto his middle stump, and had Steven Croft been dismissed soon afterwards when he edged consecutive deliveries from Adams into the slips, they might have felt differently. Both fell a couple of inches short of Samit Patel however, and since then Croft and Ashwell Prince have taken the score to 104, off 31 overs. Without Ben Phillips, and with Carter and Harry Gurney both very much works in progress, the Notts' seam attack looks over-reliant on Adams: Chris Read waited a long time before giving Paul Franks a bowl.
Unfortunately the dark clouds to the west — where the weather comes from — are thickening up too. More pleasingly, half-term means the outfield is currently populated by youngsters having an impromptu knock-up — many wearing Notts one-day shirts.
The two essentials required to nurture rhododendrons are a slightly acidic soil and plenty of water, writes Mark Pennell. Judging by the resplendent showing at The Nevill in Tunbridge Wells today, the bushes bounding the boundary here are being fed and watered incredibly well. Their brilliant, purple blooms provide an eye-catching backdrop, but sadly the action taking place out in the middle is not cricket.
The Kent players have warmed up with a few idle catches, while their Hampshire counterparts kicked a football around, but sadly we are no nearer to seeing any cricket on the scheduled opening day between Kent and Hampshire.
An umpires' inspection at 1.40pm offered little promise either when the officials announced they would look again in an hour's time. The pitch, having fallen foul to a flash flood that hit the Royal Spa Town in the early hours of Sunday morning, is still damp in places and, despite the best efforts of the groundstaff, still unfit for play.
Richard Illingworth and Steve Gould, the officials, have just summoned the captains to their room, possibly in order to ascertain if either man is prepared to start with conditions still not 100%ideal. The answer seems a foregone conclusion.
One of the few things to keep supporters hopeful is a proud Kent record, in that, the county has not had a home first-class match abandoned without a ball being bowled since they were scheduled to take on Sussex in 1908.
The only problem being, the venue back then was, of course, Tunbridge Wells.
In the excellent Horsham Festival official brochure there is one article giving 11 reasons why the event is better than the Olympics, writes Paul Weaver. There are a number of Sussex supporters who testify to that, especially after seeing Surrey put into bat and bowled out for 124 in just 40.2 overs.
It was damp and chilly at Cricketfield Road but the ball still swung and James Anyon and Steve Magoffin each took four wickets, with two more from Naved Arif towards the end.
"I always enjoyed bowling here," said a strolling boundary spectator named Jason Lewry, one of the finest swing bowlers never to play for England. "The ball always seemed to swing here but there has also been good value for the batsman prepared to put bat to ball. I like the look of Magoffin. He reminds me of the Sussex coach, Mark Robinson, when he played, accurate and with bounce, just short of a length."
There was some late order hitting from Gareth Batty, Jonathan Lewis and Murali Kartik, but it was too late to rescue a Surrey team for whom Tom Maynard, with 32, was the top scorer among their recognized batsmen. But Sussex are unlikely to find batting straightforward against Surrey's impressive seam attack.
Early tea at Trent Bridge and though it's currently raining, it seems to be getting lighter with every extra cover the groundstaff drag on, writes Richard Rae. Clearly they've been studying the forecast. Lancashire are on 185-5 - had they lost Ashwell Prince when he edged Andre Adams to Alex Hales at first slip when on 51, Notts would definitely be the happier of the sides.
The home team has looked almost as dependent on Adams for wickets as Lancashire are on Prince to shore up their batting - this is his seventh half-century of the season and he's now scored 639 championship runs at close to 50. More play is likely.
Sussex lost a second wicket, when Chris Nash was caught at point off the bowling of Murali Kartik, but then they trooped off because of rain, writes Paul Weaver. There may not be much more play tonight. The weather is setting in and a lot of spectators are already shuffling home.
If there is an early cut the one player will appreciate is Steven Davies, the Surrey wicketkeeper, who has been called up by England as cover for Matt Prior. Davies will journey up to Birmingham tonight but will make his way back to Horsham tomorrow if Prior, as expected, is passed fit.
Talking of players travelling to and fro at Horsham, that reminds me of the time Kevin Innes became the first 12th man in cricket history to score a first-class century. In 2004 - under the new ECB rules, as they then were - counties were allowed to nominate a replacement for England players and before James Kirtley, who had been released from the Test squad, rejoined the Sussex side, Innes scored his memorable hundred.
The wi-fi may not be working and the mobile broadband coverage is sketchy at best, but at least we have cricket at Tunbridge Wells where visitors Hampshire have limped through to 42 for two after 13 overs, writes Mark Pennell.
The umpires Richard Illingworth and Steve Gale finally decided conditions were fit for play at 4.10pm and within an hour Hampshire, having lost the toss, found themselves three down. Former Kent opening bat Michael Carberry followed one from Charlie Shreck to edge low to wicketkeeper Geraint Jones then, 10 runs on, Bilal Shafayat, pushed outside the line of a Mark Davies off-cutter to go leg before for nine.
To make matters worse for Hampshire, Jimmy Adams had reached eight when he too went lbw to Davies after pushing forward, only to miss an off-cutter that jagged back off the pitch to thud into the left-hander's right pad.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
London Olympics broadcast live on YouTube - WCSH
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) - The IOC will provide live coverage of the London Olympics to 64 countries in Asia and Africa on YouTube.
The International Olympic Committee says it will live stream 2,200 hours of coverage on its YouTube channel.
The free coverage will include live sports events and highlights and can be accessed online or on smartphones and devices.
The coverage is aimed at countries where digital broadcast rights have not been sold by the IOC.
The countries include Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand and Singapore in Asia, and Angola, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Zambia in Africa.
The live stream will consist of English language commentary. It will include 10 live feeds from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. London time and a 24-hour broadcast of the Olympic News Channel.
For more information: http://youtube.com/olympic
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Source: www.wcsh6.com
London 2012: torchbearers picked by sponsors keep flame of commerce alive - The Guardian
Throughout their descriptions of the 70-day Olympic torch relay, the London 2012 organisers talked of having tracked down "8,000 truly inspirational people from across the UK". But while most of the torchbearers were picked through this process, some people – including one of the world's richest men – managed to get on the torch relay by another means: working for, or being affiliated with, one of the London 2012 sponsors.
More than 1,200 spaces were allocated to the International Olympic Committee, the British Olympics Association, and to staff working for Games sponsors – whose picks included company directors, Russian newspaper editors, and even an official at the US's Food and Drug Administration.
Help Me Investigate the Olympics, a crowdsourced news coverage site dedicated to London 2012, looked into torchbearer slots handed out by one particular sponsor, Adidas.
While, generally, slots had been given to junior or mid-level employees, Adidas had also selected Christos Angelides, the £900,000-a-year senior director at Next, which has a retail partnership with Adidas covering the Olympics. Other Adidas slots went to people in the marketing team who had worked on the company's sponsorship.
The group's findings, posted by Paul Bradshaw, also noted descriptions of staff's work performance in their nominating stories, mentioning that one torchbearer had "made a fantastic contribution to the Adidas group business". Another "breathes Adidas … Her positive attitude and 'money in [the] till' approach is legendary" and a third mentioned "achieving my sales targets in every market I have worked in".
A spokesman for Adidas said the firm was restricted by Locog rules and could only offer its torchbearer slots to employees or those in its network. He added that owing to the low average age of the company's staff, not many of their children were old enough to carry the torch.
Other sponsors struck further afield for their choices: among Coca-Cola's selections were the Las Vegas resident Dr Debra Toney, who among other roles sits on a committee of the US's Food and Drug Administration.
Coca-Cola also selected Evgeny Faktorovich, the deputy editor-in-chief of a Russian paper that "supports all social initiative held by Coca-Cola" and Vonta Vontobel, the president of the Brazilian Bottlers Association of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola, as an official torchbearer partner, was able to allocate places to members of the public – it was responsible for allocating 1,350 slots.
"Over 90% of our allocation has gone to members of the public through our Future Flames campaign, which celebrates inspirational people by giving them the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to carry the Olympic flame," said a spokesman. "A small number of our allocation has been given to some of our employees through a nomination campaign, and to our campaign ambassadors who have helped to find our Future Flames. Our remaining places have been given to our partner organisations and their affiliates."
ArcelorMittal, another organisation supporting the Olympics, was given six torchbearer slots. Two of these went to the company's founder, Lakshmi Mittal, the world's 21st richest man according to Forbes magazine, and his son Aditya, the group's chief financial officer. Among the others, however, were the US technician Angel Alvarez, who donated his kidney to a fellow worker, and Polish employee Filip Kuzniak, who cycled 600km to raise money for a colleague's daughter.
Among 50 torchbearers selected by BP were Gillian James, a member of the company's North Sea leadership team, and Carl Halksworth, the creative director of Landor, BP's design agency partner for the Olympics. As BP sponsored a particular section of the route, near Aberdeen, the remainder of its picks were made up predominantly of "onshore and offshore BP staff, young relatives of staff, business partners, and nominees from local schools, universities and charities".
The electricity giant EDF, meanwhile, included the group's former director of HR and communications among the 71 staff members chosen to carry the torch on the company's behalf.
A London 2012 spokesman said: "Staging the Olympic Games is a huge undertaking and we couldn't do it without the support from our commercial partners. The rights packages for some partners include a small number of torchbearer places that had to be filled through internal campaigns.
"The same torchbearer selection criteria applied across the whole relay – ie personal bests and/or contribution to the community."
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Sussex Police introduces measures to curb crime during Euros - littlehamptongazette.co.uk
INCREASED patrols and dispersal orders are among the measures Sussex Police will be introducing to curb crime during the European Football Championships.
As well as increased patrols and dispersal orders, which give police powers to ban groups of people from areas for 24 hours, Sussex Police has been working with local authorities and licensees to “deter trouble before it starts”.
This includes licensed premises selling drinks in plastic cups and bringing trouble makers to the attention of the police.
“Our main aim is to make this a safe and trouble-free tournament,” said Superintendent Grenville Wilson.
“Our approach will be friendly, fair but firm. The vast majority of supporters are law-abiding and peaceful, but there are a few who use events like the championships as an excuse to cause trouble. We don’t want it and we won’t put up with it.
“In addition to extra police patrols, we have a wide variety of legal powers which can and will be used if necessary.
“We also have powers to stop individuals drinking in public, and powers to require people to disperse from specific areas, if we think they are likely to cause or are causing trouble. Arrest can follow if they fail to comply. Think of the dispersal order as the yellow and red card scheme. A yellow card means you must leave the area. If you don’t you get the red card – arrest.”
Those who are planning to watch matches in pubs, clubs or other venues in Sussex, are being told to be drink aware and watch their purses, wallets and phones and plan ahead.
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Print this pageSource: www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk
Pre-Globe Shakespeare theatre unearthed in London - The Independent
Pre-dating the riverside Globe, the Curtain theatre, north of the river Thames in Shoreditch, was home to Shakespeare's company - the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
Remains of walls forming the gallery and the yard within the venue have been discovered by archaeologists from Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).
"This is a fantastic site which gives us unique insight into early Shakespearean theatres," said Chris Thomas from MOLA, who is leading the archaeological work.
The theatre was immortalised as "this wooden O" in the prologue of Henry V with the lines: "Can this cock-pit hold within this wooden O, the very caskes that did affright the Ayre at Agincourt?"
The discovery will delight historians and Shakespeare fans as excavations offer a picture of where the writer's early productions were performed, although little further detail is known about the early playhouse.
"This is an outstanding site - and a fortuitous find in the year of the worldwide celebration of Shakespeare," said Kim Stabler, Archaeology Advisor at English Heritage.
London has been celebrating its cultural heritage with a world Shakespeare festival taking place at the Globe theatre and across the UK, as part of a festival to coincide with the Olympics this summer and will last to November.
"The find is another wonderful opportunity to further our understanding of Shakespeare's theatres," said Neil Constable, Chief Executive of Shakespeare's Globe.
The Curtain Theatre opened in 1577 close to London's first playhouse "The Theatre" and was one of a number of early theatres built outside the city's walls.
The venue took its name from nearby street Curtain Close.
It was the main arena for Shakespeare's plays between 1597 and 1599 until the Globe was completed in Southwark, but it is unclear what happened to the playhouse after that when it seemed to vanish from historic records after 1622.
Some experts say it may have remained in use until the Civil War in the 1640s.
Archaeologists stumbled upon the Curtain Theatre's remains on Hewett Street after work began on a regeneration project led by local developers last October.
Soon after the remains were found on an exploratory dig, architects began drawing up plans to preserve the remains while allowing the development to go ahead.
A spokesman for Plough Yard Developments, the company leading the regeneration project with the Estate Office Shoreditch, said the excavations could become a preserved centrepiece of a new housing and shopping area.
The plans are set to go on display on 8 and 9 June at the site.
"Although the Curtain was known to have been in the area, its exact location was a mystery," the Plough Yard spokesman said.
Reuters
Source: www.independent.co.uk
London Luxury-Home Price Gains Slow After Property-Tax Increase - Businessweek
Luxury-home prices in central London rose the least in nine months in May, after the British government increased a tax on purchases of 2 million pounds ($3.1 million) or more, Knight Frank LLP said.
Values of houses and apartments costing an average of 3.7 million pounds climbed 10.7 percent from a year earlier, the London-based broker said in a report today. That was the smallest gain since August 2011. Prices rose 0.7 percent from April, bolstered by buyers from mainland Europe.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne raised the tax, known as stamp duty, to 7 percent from 5 percent in March. The threshold for the new tax rate is now the average asking price of a home in Kensington and Chelsea, one of London’s most affluent neighborhoods, property-listings website Rightmove Plc said when the government announced the change.
“The market has absorbed the 7 percent duty rate fairly well,” Liam Bailey, head of residential research for Knight Frank, said in the report. Prices for homes valued at more than 2 million pounds rose 1.6 percent in the past two months, while those for all luxury properties gained 2.7 percent, he said.
Europe’s debt crisis has prompted overseas investors to acquire real estate in London to preserve their wealth. Luxury- property prices in the city have increased about 12 percent since the market’s peak in 2008, including 4.7 percent this year, as a scarcity of homes for sale drove up values.
German Buyers
“We are now seeing a noticeable uptick in interest from France, Italy, Spain and even German-based purchasers,” Bailey said in the report. That contributed to the 19th monthly price increase in a row.
The crisis, now in its third year, threatens to destroy Europe’s 17-nation currency union as Greece contemplates exiting the euro and Spain sees its bond yields rise and banking industry falter. The euro zone’s collapse could cause prime central London property values to fall as much as 50 percent, Development Securities Plc (DSC) said in a May 31 report, as capital flows out of the city to less expensive markets.
“The ‘safe-haven’ effect has clearly played its role in attracting foreign money into London’s most desirable post codes,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Marx said in the report. “However, the property industry knows -- perhaps better than most -- that nothing goes on forever.”
Foreign Residents
Foreign buyers accounted for about 60 percent of home purchases in London’s most expensive districts in the four years through 2011, according to London-based Development Securities. As a result, more than half of the residents of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster are from outside the U.K.
House prices across the country rose in May for the first time in three months as a lack of homes for sale supported values, Nationwide Building Society said May 31. Values gained 0.3 percent from April and fell an annual 0.7 percent to an average of 166,022 pounds.
Knight Frank compiles its luxury-homes index from its own appraisal values of a sample of the same properties in the 13 most expensive neighborhoods of central London, including Belgravia and Knightsbridge.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Spillane in London at cspillane3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at ablackman@bloomberg.net.
Source: www.businessweek.com
London's ugliest buildings: your choices - Daily Telegraph
The Queen Elizabeth conference centre offends my eyes and the Shell building on the South Bank is equally brutal.
Martin Bartlett, by email
I know most of the buildings featured: it appears that you have chosen the some of the largest projects in recent history? In terms of the Blue Fin, you should go and have a look at what used to be there. And UCL Hospital? Surely Guys Hospital should be there instead?
Martin Garthwaite, by email
The One New Change shopping centre in the City would be my choice for inclusion in London’s ugliest buildings. Not for nothing is it referred to as “the turd”.
Bob Thompson, by email
Most modern buildings are just meaningless, incongruous, dysfunctional shapes, which date with amazing rapidity. If it’s not going to look good still in 500 years; don’t build it.
John Armstrong, by email
The Shard without a doubt is one of the ugliest buildings in London. The first view I had of this monstrosity was crossing the Thames when coming from Gatwick Airport. To me it looked like a giant prophylactic.
Why do all these buildings have to stick out like a sore thumb? Isn't it about time there were height restrictions? There should also be rules about modern "architecture" (if that is what they want to call it) complementing the surroundings in which they are being built.
S Cook, by email
I would add Portcullis House. Dark brown is seldom a good colour for a building and this is no exception.
Robert Cook, by email
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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