Mark Goes To Lords' As Part Of OSCA Judging Panel
Article Date: 21st July 2005
England have made superb inroads into the Aussie batting line up at Lords on the first Ashes morning and the performance has set the Ashes battle up a treat.
A week ago Mark Reynolds went to Lords' after he was invited by the ECB to join the Judging Panel for the 2005 OSCAs (Outstanding Service to Cricket Awards). The awards are aimed at recognising those volunteers who give so much of their time to the game of cricket, of which we have many at CSCC.
The judging panel was made up of representatives from the ECB, sponsors Natwest, the RFU, National Volunteers Organisation, Government and little Mark.
Here's a brief account of the day
Having read Angus Fraser's column in The Independent whilst on the Tube, (a tube which was a bit eerie a week after the previous Thursday's bombings) I ventured to Lords'. Angus's mutterings were geared towards the day's major announcement, the selection of the England Squad for the first Ashes Test at Lords'. Would it be Thorpe or would it be Pietersen??
I headed into Lords', past security and on toward the ECB Headquarters. As I approached the entrance to the building a man propped up the door. That'll be Angus then. I was going to say something, but carried on my way. He was having a chat to Derek Pringle (let's see how much name dropping I can do).
Anyway I head into the judging meeting 30 minutes late, they had already started, pesky transport. 15 minutes later and Pietersen walks past the window with a smile on his face. "Looks like he's had some good news then" says one of the judging panel. The room next to ours was the press conference room where soon after Chair of Selectors David Graveney and Pietersen could be found.
At 11.57am we all had to stand on a bit of concrete outside the ECB's HQ. As a mark of respect to the people who died in the previous week's London bombings we stood for 2 minutes silence. Pietersen stood a couple of metres to my right, slightly weird looking and huge in the height stakes! Graveney, Aggers etc stood behind.
The 2 minutes silence ended and just as I was about to venture inside someone walks up to Pietersen and congratulates him on his selection. Kevin starts to walk off with Graveney and I take 2 steps towards him and bottle it and walk off. Never mind.
4 hours of judging later, I walk over to the side of the Lords' pitch and look at a ground which will showcase the first ball of the most widely anticipated English series ever. A nice sight.
A prediction for the series? Well McGrath said 5-0 and I tend to agree with him. A 5-0 win would knock Austalia off the top spot and England would be the best test team in the world! Bring it on!
