When it got down to 20 (runs needed to win), I started thinking I could rein it in a little bit, but when it was 70s, 60s, 50s, I thought I had to really try and go. I was so in the zone as to what I had to do. —England’s cricket hero, Ben Stokes

England win against the odds

By Roger Childs

Coming into the third test, England were one down in the series against Australia. It seemed very likely it would become two down when the English were out for a paltry 67 in reply to  the visitors first inning of 179 at Leeds.

The Australians made 246 in their second turn at bat, leaving England 359 to win – a total they had never made in the final innings of test between the two sides. All seemed lost when the ninth wicket fell with their score at 286. However, New Zealand born Ben Stokes, virtually single-handedly pulled off a remarkable victory with the help of the stubborn number eleven batsman, Jack Leach, at the other end.

So it is now one-all in the Ashes series.

The Ashes — establishing the legend

The 1882 cricket victory to Australia at The Oval in London, was regarded as a national disaster in the old country. 

England should have won the game as they needed only 85 runs in the second innings. But fast bowler F.W. Spofforth (right), who had taken 7 wickets in the first innings, took another seven second time around to leave the English 8 runs short.

The Sporting Times declared judgment. It regarded the defeat by the colonials as the death of English cricket and young journalist Reginald Brooks wrote a mock obituary with the punch line that “The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.” 

The image captured the public imagination, and the English team under Ivo Bligh (later Lord Darnley), went to Australia later in the year to “recover the ashes”. After their 2-1 victory in the series a group of Melbourne women presented Captain Bligh with an urn containing ashes.

After Lord Darnley’s death in 1927, his Australian-born widow, Florence gave the urn to the MCC to put in their museum at the Lords cricket ground.

Stokes to the rescue

So 137 years later, test cricket’s most famous rivals still play for the Ashes. Having lost the first test and drawn the second, England had to win at Headingley in Leeds to keep their hope alive.

Three wickets down for 156 starting the last day, the English needed a further 203. Captain Joe Root was quickly out, but Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow took the score through to 245 in an 86 run partnership. But then the wickets tumbled and needing 73 for the last wicket it seemed almost certain that Australia would win.

Stokes decided to throw caution to the wind and his next four scoring shots were sixes. At the other end Jack Leach kept the ball out when facing his 17 deliveries and scored just the one run. It was vital that he keep his wicket intact if England was to win the match.

The sell-out crowd couldn’t believe what was happening as Stokes battered the ball all round the ground and scored his last 74 runs off 42 balls. He had his share of luck when he was dropped in the deep with 17 runs still needed, and also when Aussie spinner Nathan Lyon dropped the ball 15 runs later when a run out seemed certain.

With one run needed, Stokes hit a four through cover and England had pulled off one of the most remarkable victories in the long history of cricket. In one of the great test innings Ben Stokes had scored 135 not out ensuring that England kept its Ashes hopes alive.

by Margaret Stevenson-Wright

On Friday as I walked through Mahara Place, a concerned resident drew my attention to a hazard within the update of Mahara Place — and in doing so asked that I photograph her at her point of identified hazard.  Having done so, I urged her to act upon her concern.

Troubled by what this resident had drawn attention to, I returned on Saturday capture a progression of images that illustrate the hazard — a description of which (backed by these images) follows:

Immediately outside the 123 Mart shop an attractive wooden slatted path at ground level invites one to walk towards the Book and Post Shop and Westbury pharmacy and in doing so follow the gentle incline of the slatted path to these businesses.

The reality is that this attractive low gradient wooden slatted path ends abruptly at a height of 0.6 metres above concrete below.  While double this height is often taken as a threshold for railing restraint, consideration of the public that are typically present, their frequently poor eyesight and the potential of wet wood for slips elevates this to a possible disastrous head injury fall (for young children particularly) onto the concrete, even if it occurred infrequently.

This is a group photo of the present cabinet of Egypt from June 2018.  There are 12 women out of the 32 — and how many hijabs are visible?  None.

But this is how Jacinda sees it should be, a photo taken at the Zayed College for Girls in Auckland’s Mangere:

A total of 10 hijabs out of 12 women — including Jacinda’s.

If she did this in Egypt, it would result in some trenchant criticism.  But NZers can’t express it now without being put on the radar of the Thought Police.  That doesn’t stop those in other countries from saying what they think:

“A Muslim women’s rights advocate in Malaysia told the Thompson Reuters Foundation: “I wish she hadn’t (wore it)”… She is not a Muslim and not from a Muslim majority country.”

“This is what women in the West call ‘empowering’ Our suffering, our oppression, our subjugation, our dehumanization, our misogyny…is not empowering.”  #FreeFromHijab #HijabIsRapeCulture

Tuesday 27 August at 7.30 pm

·      Kapiti Uniting Church Meeting Room (Enter via the main church door)

·      10 Weka Road, Raumati Beach

·      Gold coin koha, thanks. All welcome.

·      Supper follows talk.

Mike Alexander on

A History of Environmental Conservation in South Kapiti

Karina Gould — all we know is in the post, you should contact the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development directly.

Blanche Charles — editorial pieces are by an editor (Geoffrey/Eva Churchman), often in conjunction with a contributor. Not all contributors want to be identified for legitimate reasons.

A very recent relatively small house in the Waikanae North development which is owned by a Czech couple; the colour choice is common in parts of Europe, but less usual in NZ. On the roof above the garage is a solar water heater.

The budget for the 2019/20 year for the purchase of new books was cut from $402k to $211k. It was done through the Annual Plan process to reduce capital expenditure. —Mayor K Gurunathan

A decision they will regret?

By Roger Childs

Councillor Elliott and her fellow councillors  unanimously supported reducing the library book budget by 47.57%. For those who are up for re-election in October this could be a decision that comes back to bite them. 

There was no warning or consultation about slashing spending on books and magazines, and the 90% plus of voters who are library users may well punish the perpetrators at the ballot box.

The Mayor states above that the cut was to reduce capital expenditure. Clearly the library book budget was seen as a soft target – but the voters may not see it that way.

The Elliott theses

Councillor Elliott issued a press release justifying KCDC budget cuts for the purchase of new books on the following grounds: 

• Lack of shelf space.
• There has been a permanent loss of shelving space.

• There can be few new books because of lack of shelving.

• Most new book bought this year will have to be stored.

• There is a controlled atmosphere storage unit where 20,000 new books remain in their packaging as there is no room for displaying them.

• KCDC purchases its new books at an average price of $12.00 per book.

• KCDC has had to rent storage space to store all last year’s new books.

There was a footnote, but this basically repeated most of the above points. However, it did also refer to the aftermath of the Council’s Waikanae Library debacle. It states that books that can’t fit in the new pop-up library will go into storage. [The stock will, however, be rotated —Eds]

Unconvincing responses

The Councillor refers to a permanent loss of shelving space – is she saying that Waikanae will never get a new library? The Waikanae closure is surely a short term loss, however the situation in Otaki, Paraparaumu and Paekakariki remains unchanged. The biggest library at Paraparaumu has plenty of space for additional shelving, especially if room upstairs is taken into consideration.

There is also an assumption that any new books will just be added to the existing stock on the shelves. Surely the Council knows that every school and public library in the country has a regular culling process. Books and magazines which are old, damaged and past-their used-by date are removed from the shelves and library users can pick up bargains from the tables of culled volumes.

The statement about buying new books at an average price of $12 per book stretches credulity. You would be very hard pressed trying to buy a new book in Paper Plus or Whitcoulls for $12. Libraries may well get discounts when purchasing, but hard-backs in particular are often $30 — $50 and sometimes more.

What has happened as a result of the fiasco in Waikanae should not be factored into the slashing of expenditure on new books. Library users should not have to suffer because of Council negligence over more than a decade.

Christopher Ruthe sums up the overall impression of many to Cr Elliott’s theses: None of your comments address the central issue – the failure of KCDC Council to have an adequate book purchasing budget. Your smokescreen fails to convince.

Furthermore all the comments made by Cr Elliott, if true, would have been known when the original budget allocation of $402,500 was struck.

It is no wonder that a number of concerned citizens have recently established ROBB – Restore Our Book Budget.