DENIED YET AGAIN
Yorkshire’s Tim Bresnan made a valiant 68 but can’t hide his disappointment after he was last man out to see rivals Surrey win by 19 runs in yesterday’s Royal London Cup semi-final – booking themselves a place in the 50-over final at Lord’s on September 17.
A BRIDGE TOO FAR?
It’s going to be a busy week, so hold onto your hats and, indeed, your television remotes. We begin with sour grapes, as Londoners prepare to welcome the opening of the first section of the new London Bridge Station concourse, which is part of the £6.5bn Thames Link project and will, apparently, bring “relief ” to commuters in our capital (lucky them) - something politicians from Yorkshire have been pressing to happen here for many years.
CARNIVAL TIME
It’s Europe’s biggest street carnival and as you read this will already be underway. The Notting Hill Carnival began yesterday and will continue today, with a parade through the streets of London, starting at 9am and concluding around 7pm.
WATER SPORTS
Today will also see the annual Bourton-on-the-Water Football in the River match at Windrush, Gloucestershire, which is right up there with bog snorkling (the world championships of which took place yesterday) and that other Gloucestershire annual abandoning of the senses, the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling contest. The football on water event, which is over a hundred years old, involves lots of men playing football in a river.
ANNIVERSARY
On a more sombre note, Wednesday will mark the anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
RISE OF THE MACHINES
The machines are coming, or will be, on Saturday at the IFA technology trade show in Berlin, which is attended by everyone in the ‘Big Brother’ business except Apple, who hold their own show around the same time, just to be different (and in a brazen attempt to steal the limelight).
With consumers already grown accustomed to smart watch technology, we can apparently expect the advent of ‘smart homes’, more ‘wearable tech’ and some really, really big ultra-high definition televisions
Meanwhile, tech giants Sony and Samsung, like well practiced magicians, will be pulling back the curtain to show us all what we’ll be buying this Christmas.
Likely that will be some kind of cable-free mobile phone charging kit which will probably require a phone upgrade and will be in a museum by the time today’s generation reach the age at which their forebears (us) used to buy newspapers to read about such developments.
There’s rumour Sony may unveil the latest iteration of its Playstation gaming console, dubbed the PS4.5 Neo but, again, Apple may try to steal the limelight by announcing the iPhone 7.
BACK TO SCHOOL
Parents everywhere will be all too aware that this week is the last before their little ones go back to school. Aside from serving to remind them of their own mortality, there will be a slew of jobs to do, most involving washing and ironing before everyone gets back into the rhythm. People without children will just notice more traffic on the road.
KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON - AND STRICTLY
Wednesday will also see the much anticipated launch of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, with the first episode due to air on Sunday. Meanwhile, Sunday will also see the return of Poldark, starring Aidan Turner, who was made famous last year for taking his shirt off, a dodgy Cornish accent and not using his scythe correctly, apparently. Hopefully, all of those little niggles will have been ironed out, along with a fresh shirt for the 33-year-old hearththrob.
Every Monday we raise our gaze to see what news monsters will be lumbering over the proverbial hill. Neil Hudson tries to guess what size and shape they will take on