Beating bowl cancer – charity cricket match last night

Lat night it was brilliant to play cricket over at Needingworth to raise awareness and some money for the “Beating Bowl Cancer”.

Paul Cox, a past Needingworth wicket keeper developed the disease and now fortunately has been scanned as clear. His efforts along with club captain Ian Armstrong raised over £2000.

Thanks to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire for giving it a plug on my behalf.

I last played for Needingworth in 1997. In the club house I spotted my name on some winners shields which took me down memory lane. The Needingworth of today play at a much higher standard than I remember so it was with some reputational trepidation that I went into bat. A four off the first ball steadied the nerves and I went on to make a reasonable score not out.

Playing in a team of youngsters, except for Ian of course, was a pleasant change. I managed to take a catch at point. I then took a wicket bowling although I felt sorry for the chap I got out given how my bowling was up to its usual rubbish standard.

Despite it getting chilly later on it was fun and for a good cause.

Well done to everyone.

Charity cricket match – Needingworth – Wednesday evening in aid of beating bowel cancer

I am playing in a charity cricket match Wednesday evening starting at 6pm, at the Needingworth cricket ground in aid of bowel cancer. The electioneering can wait for an evening

If you can help promote this event that would be great. Tweets and retweets especially welcome.

I used to play for Needingworth many years ago and am looking forward to a guest appearance for this excellent cause.

The easiest way to donateis to visit the website Beating Bowel Cancer on www.beatingbowelcancer.org and there is an easy online donation option or calling 0208 614 3853 for a verbal transaction.

Great day – sunshine, grandson and electioneering

I had a morning with my supporters discussing progress to date, shuffling yet more leaflets between ourselves and passing around war stories of the campaign so far. Lots of great feedback from all around my division. Two leaflets and lots of doors knocked on and momentum is rising.

Interesting comments from a number of people that the Lib Dem candidate has irritated them by trying to claim credit for the work of others, including the Parish Council. I tried to look surprised but ………….. it happens all the time. Still it is nice that it is being recognised.

This afternoon, in one of my villages, I was on the wrong end of a very cross lady, complaining about the council. It was only after about five minutes that I realised that is was the Parish Council she was cross with and not the county council. Phew. We ended up having a laugh and a joke. She felt she had got it off her chest and I felt relieved.

Lots of people wanting the old days of Mrs T to return. Immigration raised a couple of times but not as much as I expected. Most people know we are in difficult times and appreciate we are trying to stimulate the local economy and look after our vulnerable.

Electioneering in the sun is so much better.

Our lovely grandson Oliver came to stay the night. At two and a half years old he is a live wire. Playing hide and seek was great fun. I keep getting told, by his mum, that he doesn’t sleep that well. Not a bit of it. He was asleep in bed at 8 and I had to wake him up at 8 the next day. It must have been all the tales of electioneering that did it

Cricket – first game of the season

The first game of the season always feels tough on the legs. I was hoping that all the electioneering and my recent gym visits would have made up for being a year older. I was wrong.

Still, it was a lovely day, sunny, warm and no sign of rain. Very odd. Usually it only takes the sound of stumps being hammered into the ground to unsettle the weather.

Fielding for 40 overs was hard work. It seemed to go on for ever. I enjoyed diving around, stopping the ball for about 20 overs before it started to hurt.

It was good to meet up with friends who I have played against over the years. Lots of banter.

Playing against Granta is never easy. They had one new signing who will clearly make the first team. He put our bowling to the sword scoring an impressive 88. Chasing a big total is always a challenge and today the 257 seemed huge.

As I went out to open the batting I felt aching all over. Still, cricket is war and the battle needed to be won. After some dodgy shots I got into my stride and hit 85 before being caught. It should never have been that many as I was dropped three times, twice on the square leg boundary by the same person. Cheers Chris.

We eventually ran out a close second. The score was too much for us. A really great game of cricket.

Meeting Prince Philip at the Senate House

Today I had the pleasure of being presented to Prince Philip at the Senate House in Cambridge. He was visiting to celebrate the launch of the Conservation Campus in Cambridge. He looked extremely well for his age and was chatty.

The Cambridge Conservation cluster is the biggest in the world and has a great history. Darwin, a hero of mine, studied here and set the scene for things to come.

David Attenborough was the guest speaker. He took us back in time and painted a wonderful word picture about the importance of conservation. A very charismatic speaker, full of passion and a unique perspective on life.

We also heard some great speeches from four of the campus students who are studying for a masters degree.

Hmmmmm – who the devil is this?

Great to see our staff manning the phones in our call center for children in need. Most were dressed up and everyone was having a good time. Lots of cake and a raffle.

Great technology routing calls from all over the country.

As children who needed help or a celebrity was up to something on the TV you could see the calls flooding in. A lot of money was donated.

Many thanks to everyone who took part.

Hospitals and operations

Interesting to hear the difficulties faced by hospitals at this time of year.

I have personal family experienced of operations being cancelled, in December and January. The first operation was cancelled on the day of the operation and the second the night before.

Both cancellations caused a lot of upset and stress to say nothing of the huge impact on the logistics of rescheduling work commitments.

Reflecting on the hospital experience was interesting. The care was great but the systems are inefficient.

Two obvious changes could improve things. Firstly, elected surgery beds are often taken for emergencies, which prevents the consultants carrying out planned operations. This means that it is in the interest of elected surgery consultants not to discharge patients at night to protect that bed from being taken for an emergency. If the patient, who might not have needed to be in hospital overnight, is discharged in the morning the bed is free for that days elected surgery.

People staying in hospital unnecessarily can’t help. I don’t know how prevalent this practice is but it was raised with me by one of the consultants.

The second point is much simpler to solve. Before attending for elected surgery you attend a clinic appointment a few days earlier to sort out all the admin and have a quick check over to make sure you are fit enough.

One thing missing, at this stage, is an assessment of what time off work might be required post operation. It is obvious after certain invasive surgery, for people of working age and in employment, that some time off is inevitable. My experience shows that this admin process is carried out at the point of discharge, on the ward, in a clinical environment.

This is wasteful as it results in a nurse, having to try and find an on call doctor to sign the form which is not good use of either persons time on such an admin matter. Worse, the process took a couple of hours. Time when the bed was technically still being occupied that could be used by someone else.

iPads – make words up

Between word auto correction and fingers typing too fast it seems some of my blog entries may not be as accurate as they should be. Apologies to those affected.

Thomas Allen – my thoughts are with Tom’s family

My son attended CRC. During his time there he made some very good friends and I had the privilege to meet most of them.

They were all polite, engaging and always looked after each other. On Boxing Day, my son, who is 23 was in my arms crying.

One of his friends, Tom Allen, who is also 23, died on Christmas Day. What a terrible waste of a young life. My heart goes out to his family and his friends.

There is a report in the Wisbech Standard. http://bit.ly/WUciuJ

Hmmmmm

Earlier in the week I had an email from Apple telling me my hard drive in my Mac was one of a batch that can be replaced for free as they have been failing.

24 hours later my hard drive fails.