A tradition linking the holiday to limited over internationals or the closing stages of the final Test now emerged. It attracted large crowds who saw some fine individual performances from Ian Botham: his 200th Test wicket and, in 1986, an unbeaten 59 (two sixes and eight fours in 54 minutes) against New Zealand on Monday morning before rain intervened. For the spectators it was a classic case of a holiday ruined by the weather, although the memory of an hour of Botham lingers on when many a full day’s cricket is forgotten. These were contrasting times, ranging from crowd trouble fuelled by alcohol at Edgbaston to the charm of the national Village Championship and women’s Test cricket. There were 22,000 people at Lord’s when Australia beat England in the Texaco Trophy in 1989 but the focus was on a prolonged streak by a shapely young woman which began at the Mound Stand and finished by the Warner Stand. The period was a boom time for Tests and ODIs. At Lord’s on Spring Bank Holiday Monday 1991, 24,871 saw England complete a clean sweep in the three Texaco Trophy games against the West Indies. Neil Fairbrother and Graeme Hick, both found wanting in Test cricket, shared a third wicket partnership of 213 in 31 overs and Denis Compton officially opened the Compton and Edrich stands during the lunch interval. August Bank Holiday Monday in 1998 brought defeat for an England bemused by the sorcery of Muralitharan and in a Championship fixture which began on a Monday, Phil Tufnell not only discovered that he had been ignored by the England tour selectors but was twice stung by wasps in the Middlesex- Hampshire game at Southampton. Changing Partners 189