Pictures from another visit to Leeds castle.
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Author: Michael James
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Week 75 – August 17th – Haysden Country Park part 2
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Week 75 – August 17th – Haysden Country Park part 1
With Claire being off and recovering from her operation and to help her sponsorship challenge, we went to Haysden Country Park for a walk around the lakes and woods. Enjoy the pictures.
Various wildlife on the lake. 
Wildlife and an island in the lake. 
Young swan by the edge of the lake 
Swans on the lake. -
Week 75 – August 16th – Meal with Jack
Today we had an afternoon meal with Claire’s godson Jack. First time we have seen him since the pandemic started last year.
He’s passed all his courses in his first year at university, so well done him.
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Week 74 – August 15th – Trip down memory lane
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Week 74 – August 14th – Manchester United v Leeds United
Saturday 14th August 2021 – PREMIER LEAGUE
Manchester United 5 Leeds United 1 1-0 HT
Bruno Fernandes (30’minutes, 54’minutes, 60’minutes), – Ayling (49’minutes)
Greenwood (52’minutes),
Fred (68’minutes)Assists – Pogba (30’minutes, 52’minutes, 54’minutes, 68’minutes), Lindelöf (60’minutes) – Dallas (49’minutes)
Can you believe the season is back and not the way we would have wanted to start, though you could say a slight improvement as we lost this fixture 6-2 last season.
Bruno Fernandes scored an opening-day hat-trick as Manchester United swept Leeds aside with a devastating second-half display.
The Portugal midfielder opened the scoring on the half-hour at a packed Old Trafford, but Luke Ayling’s thunderous strike drew Leeds level early in the second half.
Mason Greenwood restored the hosts’ lead with a crisp finish less than two minutes later, before Fernandes’ low shot was ruled to have crossed the line by referee Paul Tierney after a check of goal-line technology.
The 26-year-old quickly completed his hat-trick with a thumping finish from Victor Lindelof’s pass, before Fred added United’s fourth goal in 14 minutes from Paul Pogba’s cross – the Frenchman’s fourth assist of the afternoon.
For a team whose league record at Old Trafford is poor – Leeds have not won here since 1981.
League position 20th after 1 match.
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Week 74 – August 10th – Financial Review
Today I had my yearly financial review and considering what the world has been through the last year, my portfolio has done really well.
No one really knows what is going to happen after the pandeminc, so it will be interesting to see how the markets go.
But so far so good.
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Week 73 – August 8th – Kent v Hampshire Royal London Cup
Can you believe it? Another miserable day for cricket. We arrived at the ground (Beckenham) and sat in the car for at least 3 hours before stepping outside and finally taking our seats.
Play didn’t start until 14:30, should have started at 11:00. I said to Claire that if it rained again, we would go home.
Not surprisingly Hampshire won the toss and put Kent in, but openers Tawanda Muyeye and Ollie Robinson gave a good start against attack including former international bowler Kyle Abbott (bowled with some good pace), until Tawanda Muyeye was bowled by John Turner for 24.
Looking to our right, we could see a huge dark cloud moving in, so we moved to the car and just as we reached it, the rain poured down, so as agreed we left. With Kent 70 for 4 in 14.2 overs.
Amazingly the rain stopped and they went back out, but Kent were convincingly beaten by 6 wickets in reduced 24 over match.
This was after the Saturday match for Speldhurst II was cancelled, this summer is miserable. ?
Ollie Robinson taking guard. 
Ollie Robinson pushes forward. I like when you can see the ball in the picture. -
Week 72 – July 26th – Week 2 of lockdown ending
Video time.
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Week 72 – July 26th – Week 2 of lockdown ending
Speldhurst II 149-8 in 35 overs (James Flemington 51, Arthur Plunkett 45, Nicholas Scott 6-2-24-2, Scott Conway 3-0-15-2) drew with Penshurst Park II 40-1 in 10 overs
Another wet weekend was promised as the 2s hosted Penshurst – top of the league, and responsible for our infamous 29 all out earlier this season. With sweet revenge on our minds, and a shortened game of 35 overs per side agreed, our openers calmly negotiated the opening bowlers to leave us 63-0 from 18 overs – not many times this season has our number six batsman been able to umpire overs 10-20, without having already batted!
When wickets did fall, they fell in neat batches of three, but this did not distract from two classy knocks: 51 from James Flemington, which lifted him coolly to the summit of the 2s top run-scorers list, and a brutal 46 (26 balls) from Arthur Plunkett which saw him try to hit most deliveries into his own back garden!
I managed to make 3 not out at the end of the innings.
With 149 on the board, we knew we were in with a good shout. SCC newbie Gary Humble acquitted himself excellently in his first three overs for the club, conceding just four runs. His next four balls however, saw him pick up an arm injury and then go for 17! In the end just 10 overs of tight bowling and fielding were managed by a high-energy, high-quality Speldhurst side hell-bent on retribution!
