eremony of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.At the closing ceremony of L

Earlier this season I was at Trent Bridge when the ample frame of Rory Kleinveldt sidled to the crease with his side 206 for 5 in response to Notts 445 in 50 overs of freewheeling, record-breaking carnage.The deep-blue afternoon sky had receded behind the floodlights, and with the sun firmly past the yardarm, a raucous crowd grew giddily sozzled at the home teams Test-ground, East Midlands superiority. And then Kleinveldt - which in Afrikaans means small field - started to plonk the ball into the stands with brutal power and regularity.At one stage, a Johannesburg looked decidedly on, but alas Kleinveldt, batting with a runner, ran out of steam, having bludgeoned - there is no other word for it - 128 from 63 balls with nine sixes, and Northants finished 425 all out with ten balls remaining, having smitten 17 maximums in their innings.Given that a teams capacity to clear the ropes strongly predicts their prospects in T20 - this, more than exposure to international T20 leagues, is the cornerstone of West Indies success - it should perhaps have come as scant surprise that Northants won this years T20 Blast, having reached the final last year and having won it in 2013.They give it a spank. If you add the three T20 successes of Leicestershire, then the two counties considered the most vulnerable to the periodically mooted reduction in first-class clubs have bagged it five of 14 times, heartening for those who like to see romance trump finance.As a Staffordshire lad, I always had a soft spot for Northamptonshire, who had availed themselves of a steady stream of players from the Potteries - under Mike Turners astutely thrifty chairmanship in the seventies they also mined another Minor County, pre-first-class Durham - including stalwarts from Brian Crump to Jason Brown, as well as four England players: David Steele, Rob Bailey, Paul Taylor and Jeremy Snape. Taylor had been signed on the back of a NatWest Trophy first-round match in which his 12 wicketless overs had disappeared for 92 runs. Sometimes you have to see through the numbers, and Taylor ended up taking over 500 first-class wickets for the Cobblers.In fact, Staffordshire played Northants in back-to-back seasons, both times receiving a thorough shellacking (the pitilessness of which might be explained by Northants having been turned over by Staffordshires neighbours, Cheshire, in 1988, the year after they had been to both Lords finals). Jon Addison, who joined my club as pro in 1994, used to tell a story of one of those games, when he was due in at No. 3 as Staffs attempted to chase down Northants mammoth 360 for 2 off 60 overs.On a chilly day, Curtly Ambrose ambled in for the first ball, which came down at charity game pace. Next ball, Staffs schoolteacher opener Steve Dean gave him the charge, flat-batting a four over extra cover. Cue double teapot, long stare, and the removal of several jumpers. The third ball scorched through. Another was top-edged over the keepers head. Eventually, Dean gloved a catch to slip, and as Addo entered he muttered, Thanks a f***** lot, Deany.Not long after, having himself been dismissed, Addo asked why Dean had run at the worlds premier fast bowler. Well, Dean replied, I figured I was only going to play against him once, so I wanted to see what it was like when he was bowling properly.Northants themselves started life as a Minor County, winning two championships and sharing two more across ten seasons before accession to the County Championship in 1905, a competition they - along with Somerset and Gloucestershire - are yet to win. Given the way English domestic four-day cricket has settled into a semi-stable hierarchy, with counties based at Test venues at the top, and given these clubs seductive pull for the most talented and ambitious red-ball players in Division Two, it is hard to imagine Northants ever winning it. So clearly a judicious move to focus on the white-ball game. And in that they are no minnows at all. Indeed, in the 20 years between September 1, 1976 and August 31, 1996, no team reached more Lords finals than Northamptonshire. They made the short journey down the M1 a total of ten times: a quarter of all finals. Only Lancashire, with nine, made more than seven trips to Lords over that period; Yorkshire, who beat Northants in a 1987 thriller on fewer wickets lost, made just one. Another game was lost with scores level - to Derbyshire in 1981, which finished with Geoff Miller (who could well have been Mankaded in another era) diving face first at the stumps - while three were won: against Lancashire in 76, with Bishan Bedi, Mushtaq Mohammad and Sarfraz Nawaz in the team, Essex in 1980, and Leicestershire in 92.Seeing Allan Lamb, squat and powerful, scuttling out through the famous old gate unfailingly sent a crackle of anticipation around Lords. There was Wayne Larkins, too, a maverick who could, when the mood took him, destroy the very best bowling - and there was a lot of that about in the late 1980s. The cast also included internationals in Peter Willey, Geoff Cook, Nick Cook, Neil Mallender, David Capel and Kevin Curran; the overseas players, Eldine Baptiste, Winston Davis and Roger Harper; and lower-key key contributors in Tony Penberthy, Alan Walker, Alan Fordham, Richard Williams and current coach David Ripley.In the aftermath of the recent success, Northants skipper Alex Wakeley spoke eloquently about how the countys constraints had actually benefited them. The skeleton staff meant there was little anxiety over being dropped, which in turn bred adventurous cricket, while the budgetary restrictions (Nick Hoult reported for the Telegraph that the chairman was declining lunch on match days to save ￡25, while caterers were helping ground staff with covers, and players reporting in for half-day training on a PCA day had to buy sandwiches from the petrol station over the road) have also helped cultivate a Dunkirk spirit.Its perhaps little surprise that Steele, a man not predominantly famous for his fiscal extravagance, was so well loved at Wantage Road. I interviewed Steeley a couple of years back, just prior to the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, and not too far into our chat, his eye well in, he enquired what I was going to do for him. Quid pro quo, he said, in a sort of slow, low, velvety growl. Answering his own question, he suggested I send him a case of wine, doubtless assuming things were as they had been in his 1970s heyday, when journalists from the nationals may well have had an expense account to attend to such niceties. Im freelance, I told him plaintively, and that would seriously eat into my fee. Perhaps through partial deafness, perhaps through plain doggedness, he failed to pick up the implications, so I caved in and asked what his tipple was. Before I could run through a few grape varieties, he flashed back with trademark assurance: White. Dry? Sweet…? Any type of white, he affirmed, as though my question were unnecessarily fancy.As for Steeley, so for the Steelbacks: they, too, seem to prefer white to red these days.Brian Burns Youth Jersey .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Sam Mills Youth Jersey . The 18th player to shoot 60 on the tour, Jamieson settled for par on the final hole when his 15-foot birdie chip grazed the edge of the hole and stayed out. After opening with rounds of 66 and 73 to make the cut by a stroke, he had 11 birdies in the bogey-free round. http://www.shoppanthersonline.us/panthers-christian-mccaffrey-blue-jersey/ . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach. DJ Moore Youth Jersey . -- Former San Diego Chargers safety Paul Oliver was found dead at his Atlanta-area home Tuesday night, and a medical examiner said Wednesday that the ex-player committed suicide. Greg Olsen Panthers Jersey . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury.SAO PAULO -- Brazilian football great Pele has married for a third time in a private ceremony.The 75-year-old Pele married businesswoman Marcia Cibele Aoki, aged 50, at a ceremony on Saturday in the resort of Guaruja, near Sao Paulo.The couple has been in a relationship for six years.The news was released on Peles social media channels and Brazilian television showed parts of the ceremony.In Peles words on a social media page, Aoki iss his definitive love.ddddddddddddIn Brazil, Pele is tipped to light the cauldron on Aug. 5 at the opening ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.At the closing ceremony of London Games in 2012, the three-time World Cup winner appeared in Rios presentation to promise to welcome the world at the next games. ' ' '