dAlthough a tap-in birdie at the first lifted McIlroy within

Increasingly, cricket seems to have just one subject, the subject of time. Cricket fights time, struggles with its changes, but in other ways embraces time, puts time at the heart of its drama. As the autumnal sun, soft and fragile, fell down on Lords at the end of this years County Championship, time in all of these aspects was refracted.The match had finished in the way it might in a kids back-garden imagination: three teams in the fight, two engaged in the battle at crickets HQ, the other watching anxiously on television 170 miles away (and lucky that Sky decided at the last minute to show the game, otherwise theyd have been clustered around a radio…). Within two hours the game moved from the farce of lob-up bowling to a desperate race against the clock and the light, settled at the death by a nerve-rattling hat-trick from an unsung hero. It was particularly, peculiarly English: nostalgic, anachronistic, dreamy, and almost impossible to explain properly to outsiders.The drama had built not just on the last afternoon or during the final round of matches, but across a season that began under iron skies on April 10. Behind that lay history, of Yorkshire, the defending champions; of Middlesex, who had not won the title since 1993, when their current director of cricket was still chuntering in, through wind and rain, from the Nursery End; and of Somerset, who have not held the gold trophy at all since the County Championship was constituted at Lords on December 10, 1889, when the Marquis of Salisbury was prime minister and the Wisden Almanack named six bowlers as its first Cricketers of the Year, among them George Lohmann and Bobby Peel.To compete in the County Championship is to join this great history, this vast story, to feel the weight of Yorkshires 32 titles, Phil Meads 46,268 runs, Tich Freemans 3151 wickets, to stand alongside the deeds of Grace and Hutton and Ramprakash, of King Viv and Big Bird and Dasher Denning, of Clive Radley, Mike Gatting, Vince Van der Bijl; of Imran and Sarfraz and Malcolm Marshall and the thousands of other cricketers who have played across the summers. Its a rich and rare place, and its not too fanciful to suggest that all of those summers played into this one, and offered it meaning and power.Time is sometimes an enemy. The Championship does not fit with modern life. If cricket were being conceived now, it would be in its three-hour form of boozy Friday night crowds and heightened, manic action. The Championship began in the era of steam and has survived until steam punk. It has endured through global schisms and wars from which its players did not return. It is cast as crickets crazy old uncle who insists on turning up at the party each year, even though accommodating him and his 18 mates is becoming increasingly inconvenient. This is the story anyway, the one we all know, about county crickets great irrelevance. But as time accelerates and attention spans shorten to mouse-clicks, the internet age has offered something strange and new. A visit to the Championship may be impossible physically, but it is now happening virtually, and it is happening a lot. On digital radio, the BBC broadcast 3889 hours of coverage. Live blogs, including the popular one right here on this site, were read frantically in workplaces and on mobiles. Twitter offers a constant presence. And Lords announced on Sunday that 21,595 people managed to escape their lives and watch the four days of Middlesex versus Yorkshire, making it the biggest crowd for a single Championship game there since May 1966, a time before England won the football World Cup.It is a modern riddle, a metaphor for where were going: the Championship now exists for those who cant watch it but would like to. It retains a purity of competition precisely because it is unfashionable, takes its own sweet time and is not loaded down by the requirements of television and sponsors. Most of its players labour knowing that they have reached the heights that they are going to reach, and that one day they will have to rejoin the real world, for which their current lives cannot prepare them. Its real and human and touching, a quotidian kind of sporting heroism.As each season folds into autumn, some of them ride into the sunset, and they only need look at Twitter or the live blogs to see what they have meant and what they leave behind. Each goes out with a story, be they beloved old warhorses like David Masters and Graham Napier at Essex, or young men who have been granted fleeting careers, like Sussexs remarkable Lewis Hatchett. Others sweat on contract renewals and hunt for gigs in club cricket somewhere in the southern-hemisphere sun to kill another winter.This bittersweetness underpins cricket in England. The County Championship understands time and its challenges, and it has weathered them all. Once youve seen enough summers pass, you come to realise how transient they are and how quickly they come and go. What once seemed endless is over too soon. China Shoes For Sale . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. Fake Shoes Outlet . -- Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No. https://www.fakeshoesonline.com/ . The lawyers filed a 33-page amended complaint Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, expanding on the suit originally filed Oct. 3 in New York Supreme Court. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz last week refused to compel Selig to testify in the grievance, and Rodriguez then walked out of the hearing without testifying. Fake Shoes Discount . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second. Fake Shoes Free Shipping . -- Ryan Getzlaf grabbed the three pucks wrapped in tape and held them up to his chest in the Anaheim Ducks dressing room for a celebration nine seasons in the making.Rory McIlroy believes his game is heading in the right direction after making an encouraging start to his Northern Trust Open debut. The four-time major champion kicked off his first of five tournaments in a six-week stretch with a four-under 67 at Riviera Country Club, keeping him within one stroke of the clubhouse leaders Chez Reavie, Bubba Watson and Luke List.McIlroys gym-heavy training regime was brought in to question ahead of the West Coast Swing finale, with concerns raised about the risk of injury, but the world No 3 was encouraged by his start to the week as he chases a first win of the year. Its a great golf course and Im glad I got off to a good start, McIlroy said. I put myself out of position a couple of times, but with the way the golf course was playing it didnt punish you much. McIlroy mixed five birdies with a bogey during his opening round I felt like my pace on the greens was good and I lag-putted well. All of the things that you need to do around this golf course, I did pretty well today.Beginning on the back nine, McIlroy followed a seven-foot birdie at the 10th by finding the green in two at the monster 589-yard par-five next and two-putting from distance. McIlroys only blemish of the day came when he found the rough with his approach in to the 15th and was unable to save par from 12 feet, but the Northern Irishman bounced back with a gain at the 17th.ddddddddddddAlthough a tap-in birdie at the first lifted McIlroy within two of early pacesetter Reavie, the world No 3 struggled to find his rhythm and was unable to convert a number of chances along the closing stretch.After carding a string of pars and missing a 10-footer at the sixth, McIlroy pitched to three feet at the par-four next to post a fifth and final birdie of the day. The world No 3 opened with back-to-back birdies at Riviera Country Club I really like it (Riviera), McIlroy added. Id heard a lot of good things about the golf course. Ive watched it on TV a lot of times and having now seen it and played it, it has lived up to every expectation.It wouldve been nice to play the golf course a little firmer than it was this morning, but hopefully it will as the week goes on and presents a challenge.I feel really comfortable with my game at the moment. I feel like my game is in good shape and I can get in to contention.Watch the Northern Trust Open throughout the week live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf. Or watch from £6.99 without a contract, on NOW TV. Also See: Rory plays down gym concerns Masters on McIlroys mind WATCH: Rivieras rich history Golf live on Sky Sports 4 ' ' '