Cricket, Lovely Cricket

Best way to get a suntan in May is to spend seven hours at the Rose Bowl near Southampton watching the fourth of four days in a County Championship match, Hampshire v Sussex. The match was destined to be a draw after all of Thursday's play was lost to rain but I was there for the photographic experience as much as the cricket, it was my first time out with the new 70-300 mm lens I took delivery of on Thursday. For anybody with the remotest interest in photography that's equivalent to a 140-600 mm lens on the 'old' 35mm scale of things.

Anyway I was very pleased with the majority of the photographs I took, the one above is of England wicket keeper Matt Prior losing his wicket to James Tomlinson after scoring 140. The pleasing thing, for me at any rate about this shot is that I actually captured the moment the ball took off Matt Prior's bails - although the definition on this blog reproduction isn't brilliant you can still see the bails in mid air - one is falling down between off and middle stump, the other is in the air and can be seen above the first 'R' in Barracuda.

Dominic Cork bowling from the 'Pavilion End'