iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 12/09/2026

First day of "term". Back to Saturday morning #coaching, starting with a new intake of 5 & 6 year olds. Bright blue sky as I wait for the train. Even a little chill in the air...be Christmas, soon. #CricketCoaching #CoachingCricket #EarlyStarts

View along a long, straight, railway platform. Low early morning sun lights up a footbridge across the twin lines, but leaves the platform & tracks in shadow.
Beyond, a bright blue sky, with a few wispy white clouds & a decaying contrail.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 02/06/2026

Today would have been my first game of the summer. Last week, games were cancelled due to the (admittedly, very sensible) heat regulations in #SeniorsCricket. The week before that, cancelled or curtailed due to rain. I haven’t actually missed much cricket! 🌧️☀️⛈️

Email received 09:01

Fwd: Essex Seniors 60+5s OFF

60+ 5th team match v Sussex at South Weald is cancelled due to ground unfit for play.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 12/05/2026

Innings break The Oval. View from the outfield, and lunch...might need to do an extra lap to work off the mac'n'cheese...

The pavilion at The Oval.
Tall, Victorian brick building, liberally decorated with the logos of the ground sponsor, between two modern blocks with numerous hospitality suites.
Beneath a blue sky, half covered with bright, backlit, clouds.

Mac'n'cheese...you can barely see the"mac" for the red peppers, onion & bacon toppings!

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 12/05/2026

Not quite"working from The Oval"...but it's not a work day!

View of the Kia Oval cricket ground, Surrey Women vs Essex Women.
Bright green playing field with pale blue seating behind; beyond that a long, high arched stand with high floodlight pylons featuring the Surrey Prince of Wales feathers design; tall tower blocks behind against a bright blue sky.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 10/05/2026

Hmmm Bluesky on iPad knew it was bokmål, but directed me to “Apple Intelligence” for a translation. Then Google translate (again on iPad) suggested the text was in Afrikaans…

Screenshot of a post in bluesky, writtennin Norwegian, with a pop-up explaining that
Apple Intelligence Required.
Translating from Norwegian Bokmål to English (UK) requires Apple Intelligence.
Turn On in Settings

Screenshot from Google translate — in the upper screen, a text in Norwegian, but identified as Afrikaans; in the lower screen, a “translation” (some of which does appear reasonably accurate).

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 13/04/2026

Very nice! My minute and a bit on the station platform this morning. (MerlinBird ID is good, but...that "mallard" was the station announcer...! 🦆).

Screenshot from MerlinBirdID
Common chiffchaff
Eurasian wren
Eurasian blue tit
Mallard
European robin

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 24/02/2026

This, for me. (Even if it is a bit too long)

Screenshot from “A.I. Isn't People: How many Reddit posts does it take to learn to read?” by Rusty Foster on Today on Tabs, February 23, 2026

https://www.todayintabs.com/p/a-i-isn-t-people?_bhlid=e27ba0127cb6dedfeeaf31a6565fdc4109d6d47b

Highlighted text reads “Imagine you have two machines. One you can open up and examine all of its workings, and if you give it every picture of a cat on the whole internet, it can reliably distinguish cats from non-cats. The other is a black box and it can also reliably distinguish cats from non-cats if you give it half a dozen pictures of cats, some apple sauce, and a hug.”

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 09/12/2025

#PowerChords by @waltwriting.bsky.social purchased from @newhambookshop.bsky.social Dangerous places, bookshops...went in to collect two books I had on order, came away with three more! 📖📖📖📖📖

A copy of "Power Chords" by Rick Walton, with the shopfront of Newham Bookshop behind.

A copy of "Power Chords" by Rick Walton, with the Champions: World Cup Statue behind.
Junction of Barking Road/Green Street E13.
The statue depicts Bobby Moore holding aloft the Jules Rimet trophy, sat on the shoulders of Geoff Hurst & Ray Wilson, commemorating England winning the 1966 World Cup; the statue of Martin Peters, a West Ham Utd teammate of Moore & Hurst, is unfortunately obscured by the book.

https://philipjacksonsculptures.co.uk/public-commissions/the-champions-the-world-cup-sculpture/

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 20/11/2025

Oddly, appears to be from Amazon US?

Screen shot of Amazon book page for Power Chords by Rick Walton, showing “Dispatches from” & “Sold by” Amazon US

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 25/09/2025

btw - you can add the text from a screen shot as alt text (2,000 characters)...and bluesky has a trick to auto scan the content for you. Simply “add alt text”, then select from the image. It is fiddly, and doesn’t always seem to be available (perhaps the file format of the image?), but it does work.

It's been an unsettling season with a review of the county system being (quite rightly)
undertaken. I know that many of you will feel reassured & delighted that a decision in favour of keeping 14 games has been reached.
I want to say two things - firstly - those that suggested & fought for a 13 game championship did it with the survival of the tournament at heart. They truly believe that greater jeopardy will give the competition more relevance & help those that have been in the second division for years to have something more to fight for. They also - and this is really important - believe that it would ultimately maintain the survival of the championship. They are not enemies of the championship & should not be treated so.
Secondly, keeping the championship as it has been for the past few years does not address the issue of 10 of our clubs having only 4 days of cricket in August & the gulf that this exacerbates. We also do not know if some of the counties that voted against the 13 games did so because they actually want only 10 & feel this is the best way to achieve it.
People will say members have won at the detriment of players & the good of the county system. I don't think it's nearly as simple as that but nor do I think there is an obvious solution - which has been proved by the vote. Each county has its own reasons for their decision which have hopefully taken their players and their members wishes on board but also their survival chances.
Thank you to those that have worked so hard to find a solution.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 04/09/2025

No, not really ice cream weather...

Ice cream cone with chocolate flake, with cricket field beyond. Brifht green grass, bright blue sky with just a few high white clouds.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 04/09/2025

Blue sky blowing in from the west!

Bright clouds, with blue sky beyond, and a single floodlight at the County Ground, Chelmsford.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 04/09/2025

Loving the #HelpForHeroes shirts. Mine (not this shape!) is on pre-order. essexcricketshop.co.uk/help-for-her...

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 04/09/2025

Underway at Chelmsford. Essex Women Vs Hampshire. #cricket

View of a cricket field from the top deck of the stand.
Very green grass (after a week of rain) and sharp shadows beside the players.
Framed by the white fence of the stand, and a slightly ominous grey-cloud sky above.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 01/09/2025

My home ground for 3 years, back in the last millennium. And you can see the three “castles” in the badge from the ground!

The badge of Tattenhall Cricket Club.
On a white shield, bordered green, 3 crenellated towers set amidst green hills, also in green outline, beneath a line of crenellations.
Above the golden wheatsheaf of Cheshire. Beneath, the words TATTENHALL C.C. & the date 1889.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 16/08/2025

Views of Ullenwood cricket ground, August 2025. Idyllic, if you keep the A417/A435 junction (the Air Balloon) out of sight…

View of Ullenwood cricket ground, in Gloucs.
Sun-scorched grass outfield, gently sloping up towards the wooded slopes of Crickley Hill. Bright white clouds in a pale blue sky.

View from the north of Ullenwood cricket ground, in Gloucs.
Looking down from Crickley Hill across a sun-scorched grass outfield, gently sloping down towards the A417/A436 junction, currently being widened and protected by lines of red & white crash barriers,with a barren hill side beyond.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 02/08/2025

Quick look on Google Maps (“Printout” appears to be the site of the old Air Balloon?). Is Ullenwood the ground you remember? This appears to be the 2nd ground of Ullenwood Bharat CC - whose club badge includes an air balloon!

Aerial photograph of the area around the junction of the A417 & A436, known as the “Air Balloon Roundabout” after the (now demolished) Air Balloon pub.
Ullenwood Cricket Ground marked to the north of the road junction.

Club badge of Ullenwood Bharat Cricket Club.
A hot air balloon striped in cream & brown, with the Ashoka Chakra (wheel from the flat of India) superimposed on a set of cricket stumps; balloon basket striped blue & yellow; 2 brown lions as supporters.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 27/06/2025

An impassioned call to arms, from @drcrmatthews.bsky.social et al., for scholars — and coaches — to reconsider their role in the fetishisation of performance-oriented sport. Players should _play_! Hear, hear! to that! #SportsCoaching #Coaching #ChildrensRights 1/2

We compel you to reflect deeply on your place in the subcultures we have critiqued above, and if after doing so, you find yourself complicit in maintaining a world of sport that damages young people, contributes to them dropping out, and otherwise reduces the fun, enjoyment and positive development they gain from physical activity, we hope you will join us in being part of the solution by rejecting performance-orientated youth sport, rather than continuing to be central to the problem.

Matthews, C. R., Barker-Ruchti, N., Coates, E., Lang, M., & Hardwicke, J. (2024). Children’s rights, human development and play – rejecting performance-orientated youth sport. Sport, Education and Society, 1–12.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 17/06/2025

Lovely day at Potten End. Red kites circling & calling overhead (until it got too warm!). #SeniorsCricket

Cricket match beneath a bright blue sky.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 09/06/2025

I blog on Wordpress. Occasionally, I try out the AI- generated images…sometimes they are good, mostly puzzling, alarming, or plain weird… It did not seem fair to use the images in a post that mentions (respectfully) living people. #cricket

“4 men, in mixed cricket kit, stand around as an older man, in a suit, expounds.”
“Mixed” included sports-casual sweaters, batting pads & helmets (for some).
The players are paying rapt attention to the man in the suit, who perhaps looks more like an Italian football manager than a cricket coach…

Two men, apparently holding the same cricket bat, heads bent towards each other as if in deep conversation.
The younger man, perhaps modelled on Virat Kohli, wears cricket whites & a batting helmet.
The older, presumably the coach, wears a baseball cap fitted with the grill from a cricket helmet.
There appear to be too many fingers holding the bat, which protrudes from the hands of the two men at a slightly unconvincing angle.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 03/06/2025

#UKCoachingWeek #PassItOn #coaching #SportsCoaching @ukcoaching.bsky.social Effective Communication It has become a cliché, but "keep it simple, stupid!"

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 09/05/2025

In Chelmsford today with #RonsMarch for @prostatecanceruk.bsky.social , along with 90 fellow walkers from Chelmsford Walking Football Club & Essex #SeniorsCricket. Now at the @essexcricket.bsky.social County Ground for #ESSvYOR...but first, mass cricket on the outfield at lunch.

Long line of charity walkers, most wearing white t-shirts & bright blue caps, walking through leafy parkland in bright sunshine...not as warm as it looked, however!

Cricket on the outfield. Lots of school children playing cricket on the outfield at the County Ground, Chelmsford. Bright sunshine and a clear blue sky.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 07/05/2025

This is how it looks now. Clouds overhead, and the North Downs offering little shelter from the cold north easterly. Strained quad, aching back... #SeniorsCricket

Cricket ground under stormy grey clouds.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 29/04/2025

First run out of the year for #SeniorsCricket. Intra-club game, ahead of selection for 3s & 4s. 🏏🌞 And a fine tea!! 🥪🍰👍

Cricket game in progress. Green field surrounded by trees, long shadows reaching across the ground, beneath a bright blue aky with just a line of wispy, white, clouds.
In England. In April.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 28/04/2025

Little known fact. The punctuation mark is named for the comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album. The comma is notoriously difficult to photograph unless you speak continuously, fluttering on it’s slightly ragged wings and only pausing, momentarily, when your speech does. 1/2

A badly out of focus photograph of a comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album, against a mass of fallen red-brown bramble leaves & stems.
The comma’s wings, burnt-orange with dark brown & pale cream markings, have distinctive scalloped edges.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 26/04/2025

Wildflower meadow at the #cricket today. Is that why the outfield at Valentines hasn't been mown?

View through a fence of a cricket field with a game in progress. On the fence, a notice describing a wildflower meadow project.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 18/03/2025

This was written after a visit to Ilford back in 1921, but it stills feels apposite today! From “The Outer Circle — Rambles in Remote London” by Thomas Burke, 1921

At Ilford, in the early afternoon,
You see very few men in the street;
But numbers of sour-faced ladies with baskets,
Who exchange lugubrious gossip,
And stare at the stranger with the utmost hostility;
As who should say : where’s that ‘alf-brick?

From “The Outer Circle — Rambles in Remote London” by Thomas Burke, 1921

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 12/03/2025

3/3 From ACO Magazine Issue 27, Winter 2016. Reader’s question & reply from Simon Brown, Head of Regional Operations. Essex Met ACO voted against amalgamation with London. I never saw any evidence of the London Region working in Met Essex; I assume the project was quietly dropped.

Screen shot from ACO Magazine Issue 27, Winter 2016.

OCR of text

Thanks for another informative issue of be magazine - lots to think about!
Re: ECB Recreational Cricket (pages 10 and 11, Issue 26) and Cricket Unleashed
Is it really intended that the Essex clubs within the M25 (very nearly, although not quite equivalent to 'Essex [London
boroughs]') should be separated from the Essex County Board for 'participation'? The majority of the established clubs will find this quite a wrench, given that they currently play in Essex County Leagues and age-group competitions, and send players to the Essex representative squads.
I have never seen participation figures, but removing the Essex London boroughs (Waltham Forest, Newham, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering) from the Essex County Board could cut the population by as much as half.

Answered by Simon Brown, Head of Regional Operations
The new regional ECB structure has been created in collaboration with Essex and attempts to address the specific issues associated with both rural and urban cricket. Cricket, and other sports, within the M25 experience particular pressures on facilities associated with population growth and rapid urbanisation. To help address this we have invested in specific skills and resources in the London team, which include those areas of Essex most affected. In the more rural parts of the county, the East team is helping to build on some of the great work already undertaken to collaborate across the region and grow the game. I trust this helps add context to the thinking behind the structure and specific issues we are trying to address.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 12/03/2025

2/3 From ACO Magazine Issue 26, Summer 2016. A map showed the proposed Regions, with Met Essex (in area 21, which extends south of the Thames to include the London Boroughs formerly in the County of Kent) separated from the County and incorporated into the London Region.

Screen shot from ECB ACO Magazine, Summer 2016, showing new Regional boundaries, with Met Essex part of London Region and no longer part of East Region, with the rest of Essex.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 16/01/2025

Fun #CricketCoaching session last night. Broke out the hurling sticks for a fast-hands & hitting practice. Seemed to engage the u11 players. And I think they all managed a few solid hits against the bowling machine feed. Success! Now I have to come up with something new for next week’s session.

Camán or hurling stick. Pale wood with tight grain, black marks across the face.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 22/12/2024

I have been inside, but never on a tour. Maybe next time. On the previous visit, we were warned of falling window panels and ceiling panels - staff weren’t even allowed in to their offices at the time! Glad to hear that the building has been stabilised, and has a future.

Blue plaque from the pavilion at the Leyton County Ground (aka The Leyton Hub) in Leyton in the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

“Waltham Forest Heritage
Former Essex Cricket Ground
Essex County Cricket Club moved from Brentwood to Leyton in 1885 and remained here for nearly 50 years. The ground was the scene of the world record opening stand of 555 by Sutcliffe and Holmes in 1932”

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 15/12/2024

What have I been talking about on bluesky? This wordcloud, from blueskywordcloud.com, tells the story!

A word cloud from my posts on bluesky.
SportsCoaching, Cricket, Coaching & CricketCoaching are much the largest terms.

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 12/12/2024

Mementoes from a truncated #cricket season. A championship medal with Essex #SeniorsCricket 4th XI. And an “…oblique grade III tear in the posterior horn of the [left] medial meniscus extending to the inferior articular surface.” Speaking to GP next week, but (per Google AI) grade III needs an op…☹️

Gold-coloured medal, with “3 lions” crest & England Cricket Seniors, and
60+ 4th XI
WINNER
2024

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Andrew Beaven @theteesra.com · 20/11/2024

Interesting insight into the decline in the numbers of Indigenous players in Australian Football #AFL. I suspect similar cultural caveats could be applied to recruitment into #cricket pathways, in Australia & England. #TalentDevelopment #SportsCoaching