On Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:36:16 +0100, peter clarke wrote:


That does surprise me given the warmth seems to have been restricted
to East Anglia and the SE, with other areas getting only seemingly
"average" temperatures. I guess that says something rather
unflattering about 1956-74: I wonder if people born in the 40s and
early 50s, say, expect less of our summers than those born before or
after then?

Possibly. I was born in 1948, and having an interest in both cricket and
the weather can remember plenty of summers in the 1960s and early 1970s
far worse than this one has been - at least where I live in Surrey. It
seemed common back then for Tests to lose a day or more's play. Now it's
a rarity. Of course improvements in coverage and drainage have something
to do with that.

As soon as the Met Office recanted on their "barbecue summer" forecast
the weather seemed to pick up, but even July wasn't that terrible here
compared with what I remember from forty years or so ago.
--
John Hall
"Home is heaven and orgies are vile,
But you *need* an orgy, once in a while."
Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

John, your comment about the Tests reminds me that in the ghastly summer of
1954,
I had tickets for the first 3 days of the first ever Test at Lord's between
England and Pakistan.
It was in the middle of June , and it was overcast and rained for the 3
days. The only action I saw was of some of the England players - Hutton,
Compton, Bedser etc- walking on the pitch with umbrellas to look at the
wicket. Play eventually started on the 4th day - when I was back at work!

Peter Clarke

We went to North Wales for our summer holiday that year and had two weeks
of what seemed to me at age 8 to be constant rain and wind. It has rather
put me off going back although since then I have had superb weather in
Pembrokeshire on several visits.




Alan Gardiner
Chiswell Green, St Albans
101m ASL
27/08/2009 23:06:03