England v South Africa, Fifth Test, Friday 5 September 2003
The Oval, London |
There was a first in the commentary box on the second morning of the Test.
"Never before have I seen a commentator do an encore," Bill Frindall quipped as Neil Manthorp got his timing confused.
Neil was up and out of the hot seat with the customary handover "a few words from Mike Selvey and then you'll be joined by Jonathan Agnew."
Selv was duly joined by a "strange looking Jonathan Agnew" as Neil was pointed back to the chair.
"What can I say. I had so much fun in 10 minutes it felt like 20," he said. Remedial classes in reading a clock will be when the small hand meets the big.
If the roles had been reversed and Aggers had got his knickers in a twist at least he would have had an excuse.
While Neil was strolling to the ground from his hotel around the corner, Jonathan had to contend with a trip across London with Mike Selvey behind the wheel.
"I thought he had a good knowledge of the back streets of London but then we hit the Edgware Road again."
Selv, while unhappy with the phrasing of his interest in the capital's less celebrated roads, put up a meek defence.
"I was thwarted by road works," he declared.
Something that not even Christopher Martin-Jenkins' in-car satellite navigation system could have foreseen.
"Satellite navigation so very nearly works," Selv mused.
"That says a lot about CMJ's life really," Aggers added, crossing off a potential option for a lift at the other end of the day.
Aggers was in rather less hostile mood towards Mark Benson.
"I'm very worried about him," he commented on the fourth umpire.
"For the second day in a row he has come out wearing a long-sleeve sweater.
"It's not a long-sleeve sweater day and nobody else on the field is wearing one.
"He seems happy enough but he may have a touch of the Hong Kong flu or whatever it is that is going around. It's the only thing that can explain it."
 |  A dissmal casse
of miss-sspelling |
It has been a quiet day on the Alec Stewart farewell front, although there has been fall out from his Thursday lunchtime presentation. Stewart received a bat that listed his Test and one-day figures, including "dissmissals".
"The bat arrived on Wednesday morning and we noticed the mistake immediately but it was too late to do anything," Surrey spokesman Jonny Grave explained.
Slazenger have agrred to make another at a cost in excess of �500.
Stewart was also the victim of a blunder when he became the most-capped Englishman last summer.
A miniature bat was inscribed with "Alec Stewart OBE" even though he was an MBE at the time.
When you think of The Oval and the neighbouring Harleyford Road, Henry Blofeld and buses invariably spring to mind.
Blowers loves to wax lyrical about the red buses he can see from the commentary box going down the Harleyford Road.
But something else caught his attention on Friday - a green taxi. "It was doing a U-turn. I know they can do anything in London but is that legal?" he asked.
"Cabs are tremendous and the drivers are all very good chaps.
"It's only when you go abroad and go to a foreign city that you realise how good London cabs are because they always know where to go."
MMIX
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