Yorkshire Tea Jazz All Stars entertain the crowds at Old Trafford Test Match

Yorkshire Tea Jazz All Stars. Heard of ’em? I hadn’t either but I have now. In fact I don’t think they are called the Yorkshire Tea Jazz All Stars but I wasn’t concentrating when they made the announcement at the cricket but it was something along those lines, probably, ish.

It was apparently a beautifully sunny day at Old Trafford. I say apparently. I could see the sun coming out during the sunny spells but we were sat in the shade in the family stand with the full force of the advanced party for Hurricane Bertha constantly in our faces. Not complaining, apart from the fact that I’d told the kids not to bother bringing a jumper because it was going to be warm. We weren’t. Manchester remember.

Fortunately the action on the pitch more than compensated. A terrific day’s cricket, as long as you were supporting the England and Wales cricket XI. I was. We won, by a country mile. Look it up. England v India, 4th Test, Old Trafford.

We had decided to book tickets on the morning of the first day. A genius of an idea of Kid 4’s when considering what to do on the spare Saturday of our visit to the Wirral, en route to the Isle of Man. On the day we had a full English in the nearby Tesco before we went in to the ground. It was packed with cricket-goers all with the same idea.  One does have to laugh at the thought of the restaurant manager getting a load of sausages and bacon in ready for the five day test match only to find that the bloomin’ game finished after three days leaving him with a load of stock! I expect they have a big fridge and the food will keep.

So there we have it. I’d like to say that the Yorkshire Tea Jazz All Stars were the highlight of the day but they weren’t. That was the cricket, and the excellent takeaway curry we had when we got home (Wirral Tandoori, Bromborough). They were good though and did a job. That teatime interval went like a shot.

I have a great cricketing story from my yout hwhich I’ll relate some day. In the meantime read up about the technology of the school cricket match here.