Boxengasse » preserving an easy one-two finish.The ultimate irony would

Middlesex sat down, as most sports teams do, at the start of the season. They discussed cricket, of course they did. But they also picked through how they wanted to be viewed, and how they were going to go about their business in 2016 and beyond. The results were written down, and pinned to the home dressing room wall at Lords. The All Blacks call it the no dickheads policy. At Lords, it is the Middlesex DNA.Team spirit is a tenuous and fragile notion, but the Middlesex DNA can be tangible and visible. It defines director of cricket Angus Frasers recruitment - based as much on personality as playing prowess - and has ensured it is an easy team to come in to, with a series of youngsters slipping in seamlessly as injuries and international call-ups are juggled.It is the Middlesex DNA that makes them riotous celebrators of each others successes; wickets taken, centuries scored, matches won (each greeted with a trip to the Lords Tavern). Thus the team has no social divide, as batsmen mix with bowlers, the newest signing with the oldest lag. It is no coincidence; there is science to their chemistry. Everyone is mates, whether youre 22 or 36, Nick Gubbins, a batsman at the bottom end of that spectrum, says. We want to work hard for each other, and for the next man in to see that everyone is united.By the time they left The Oval after the final day of their fifth game of the season was washed out for a fifth draw, Middlesexs belief that they could win the title - written into the Middlesex DNA - was being tested. The batsman had been scoring runs, and the bowlers taking wickets, yet they were winless and exasperated. There was mitigation: two of those five draws had come on the deadest of Lords pitches - and a sixth would follow there a week later, against Somerset, by which point they had lost 618 overs to bad weather. That Lords pitch would become such a problem that when they drew again there against Lancashire, captain James Franklin said that they would officially complain to their landlords, the MCC.That game at The Oval was Gubbins 22nd first-class match, and he crossed the Thames more frustrated than most. The baby of a seasoned side, he had looked a class apart in coasting to 91, before a leading edge popped to mid-off. Still without a ton, three of his eight half-centuries had ended in the nineties, and it was becoming a problem. At The Oval, he had bottled a gimme, and he knew it. Toby Roland-Jones, one of the teams japesters-in-chief and a centurion himself, took to gently ribbing Gubbins; hands up, he would joke, if youve scored a ton.Gubbins is playing his 30th first-class game this week. He now has three centuries, including an unbeaten double. He was the first man to 999 Championship runs this season, has passed 50 nine times and averages more than 60. The first of the three tons, in that draw against Somerset, was watched in secret by his nervous parents and Gubbins admits he may have shed a tear. A weight had been lifted.I had been lying in bed wondering, he says. Once I got there, I cant describe the feeling, and since then I havent worried about hundreds. I probably got into a selfish mindset, as our psychologist would call it, thinking about the hundred not the team, whereas now its all about the team. What can I do for them? Can I get us off to a good start? My outlooks changed.Middlesex have mirrored Gubbins newfound appetite for conversion, winning four of their last six to top the table. There have been remarkable victories at Scarborough (all three of Yorkshires losses since the start of 2014, each as extraordinary as the last, have come to Middlesex) and Taunton. They even won at Lords, in three days against Durham.Others have helped to build on last seasons second place. John Simpson, the pugnacious, punchy wicketkeeper, has taken his all-round excellence to a new level, just like Roland-Jones, part of a revolving door seam attack (the win at Taunton came without Tim Murtagh, Roland-Jones or Steven Finn). Ollie Rayners offbreaks, meanwhile, have brought 35 wickets and a new contract. Rayners role was once merely to keep the over rate down, as well as provide a few runs and bucket hands at second slip. Now, though, liberated by the captaincy of Adam Voges and Franklin, he is, put simply, trying to get batsmen out. Pitches have been more helpful, but Rayner has helped himself, too; it has been conspicuous that he has spent the summer chatting to opposition spinners about how they go about their shared craft.But it is Gubbins, with more than 900 of his Championship runs in coming in the first innings, who has helped to decisively shape games.This is quite a contrast. Before, he was the original wide-eyed junior pro, known as much for playing the fool as hitting the ball. In 2015, he tripped celebrating a catch during a T20 at Lords; at a pre-season photoshoot he again went viral as Murtagh tricked him into imitating DJ Bravos Champion dance. Both incidents - as well as a cheery disposition and a tongue-out smile when he bats - have made him an easy target for a sledge. His glut of runs has spoken for itself, though. Throughout, he has been brutal on either side of the wicket to anything short, driven elegantly down the ground, and had sound judgement outside off. While he is constantly compared - for a shared school, county, role in the side and left-handedness - to Andrew Strauss (with whom he chats occasionally), it was a chance pre-season conversation with Alastair Cook, and constant dialogue with his team-mates Nick Compton and Sam Robson, that inspired his breakout year.Compos a massive help, he says. We live close by, and we go for coffee and just chat batting. We set targets together before the season, and he helped hone my process at the crease, and how Im building my innings. I set myself a modest amount to reach, and then I build from there. Robbo, too. The way he started the season was massive for me, because it gave me time to just work out my game. I also chatted to Cook. He said how he doesnt have a huge number of shots, but when the ball is in his area, he punishes bowlers. That made me really consider my strengths, then work hard on them.Unsurprisingly, the ECBs lead batting coach Graham Thorpe has been in touch and, while he plans to spend his winter playing for Subiaco in Perth (where work with Justin Langer has already been lined up), it seems likely he will tour with England Lions; a full international tour would be premature, even if those close to him are convinced the Strauss connection will eventually go one step further. Perhaps the most important thing is that Ive just learnt from experience to stay level and in the moment, he says. Ive had a good year, but that doesnt guarantee a good end to it, or a good one next year. That said its definitely nice to talk about something Ive achieved, not the silly stuff.Gubbins believes it is the Middlesex DNA that has underpinned their unbeaten run to the top of Division One. With three games to go, including a potential decider against this great Yorkshire side (another team with a distinct identity) at Lords, Middlesex are in position to win the Championship for the first time in 23 years. In the 17 years before that, they had won it six times. A barren run, they feel, that needs ending; now that really would be achieving something. Clearance Nike Free Running Shoes . Miikka Kiprusoff had just announced his retirement after a decade-long run in Calgary and it would be up to Berra and Ramo to fill the void. Cheap Nike Free For Sale . White came in fourth place in the event. He was the two-time defending gold medallist. The gold medal went to Swiss snowboarder Iouri Podladtchikov. http://www.discountnikefree.com/ . Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, announced Wednesday that the team would assign Swedish forward Elias Lindholm to his nations team for the upcoming tournament. Nike Free Shoes From China . On Tuesday, Ottawa placed forward Cory Conacher and defenceman Joe Corvo on waivers as trade rumours swirl around the Senators. Nike Free Outlet . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. Ferrari have been taking a bit of stick recently over the late pit stop contributing to Kimi R?ikk?nens loss of a podium place in Singapore. Its easy to be wise after the event when not faced with making an instant decision. Even simpler when you dont have half of Italy ready to trot out previous tactical failures in the event of what quickly becomes another very public disappointment.You may think that nothing has changed at Ferrari, but a recent book* makes it clear that the current difficulties at Maranello do not have the added stress of the team principal himself cranking up the tension. For all of Maurizio Arrivabenes perceived faults, at least he is thinking only of the good of the Scuderia rather than settling a personal score with one of his drivers.The 1983 season is mainly remembered for the championship battle between Renaults Alain Prost and the ultimate winner, Nelson Piquet in his Brabham-BMW. It is easy to forget that Patrick Tambay was in the mix until political and mechanical circumstances removed the Ferrari driver from contention and led to the Frenchman being dropped for 1984 before the season was done. It was a typically unfortunate end to a comparatively brief but frequently poignant journey.His F1 future seemingly on the rocks courtesy of uncompetitive cars from McLaren, Theodore and Ligier, Tambay got the career-reviving call from Maranello following the loss of his friend Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder in May 1982. As if that wasnt enough emotion, Tambay had to lift the team once again a couple of months later when Didier Pironi, the apparent shoo-in for the title, was seriously injured during Saturday morning practice at Hockenheim. You can imagine the outpouring of passion and gratitude a day later when Tambay scored his first Grand Prix win.But the feeling of personal sentiment would be even greater the following year when Tambay, starting from the same grid position used by Villeneuve for his last race, went on to win the San Marino Grand Prix for Gilles. There was hardly a dry eye in the house.You might be forgiven for thinking that all of this would elevate Tambay into a position of deity as Ferrari ran strongly for the 1983 championship. In fact, it would have the reverse effect within one significant corner of the teams infrastructure.Marco Piccinini was the team manager; a man who not only had the devout appearance a priest built but also acted like one during his divine daily communication as the link between Enzo Ferrari and what was going within the commendatores team. Tambay, for all his multi-lingual natural charm -- or, perhaps, because of it -- did not enjoy a close relationship with Piccinini; a fault line that would become a chasm in Detroit when Tambay made a serious misjudgement.Tiring of a familiar lecture on etiquette -- You will not fight against one another. You will not touch each other..ddddddddddddYou will follow team orders on the pit board -- Tambay chose to miss the pre-race briefing in preference for watching fellow-countryman Yannick Noah play in the French Open tennis final. I felt I could skip the briefing but I forgot to ask Piccinini for the authorisation to go to my hotel room [overlooking the track], says Tambay. It was a case of my disrespect of his authority. It was a big mistake and he was going to make me pay for it.While Tambay never did discover how the news of his disobedience was relayed to the Old Man, he got a sense of it when Piccinini overruled a decision on tyre choice made by Tambay and his engineer, Tommaso Carletti, who then overheard his driver telling Piccinini to get lost. Or words to that effect.Even allowing for R?ikk?nens renowned insouciance, this is not likely to be a conversation heard in the Ferrari garage these days thanks to Arrivabenes self-confessed awareness of his technical limitations. But in 1983, Tambay was not happy about his bosss false assumption of expert competence.He [Piccinini] wasnt a real specialist, says Tambay. He didnt fit the suit. I think he wanted to have more respect and consideration. But, for me, the important team management came from the technical staff: Mauro [Forghieri - the talented and hugely respected technical director] and Tommaso.Despite starting from the front row eight times in 1983, Tambay would win just once, his season peppered with technical failures, one particular engine blow-up being caused -- in Tambays view -- by being forced to race irascible teammate René Arnoux rather than preserving an easy one-two finish.The ultimate irony would be Ferrari choosing to keep Arnoux for 1984 and replacing Tambay with Michele Alboreto. Tambay received the bad news by telephone from a journalist [Piccinini claiming the line had been busy when he tried to call some hours before].Much as the team would grow to love Alboreto, they were as disturbed by Tambays dismissal as much as the manner of its delivery. At the final race in South Africa, Tambay gave his mechanics the $3000 prize for pole position. Deeply touched by the recognition more than the amount, the boys passed on the money to an Italian charity supporting muscular dystrophy, a cause personally supported by Enzo Ferrari after his son, Dino, had succumbed to the disease in 1956.The final paradox is that Tambay, now 67, is continuing a cheerful active life as best he can while coping with Parkinsons Disease. But none of this will detract from a career that, in his view, was more blessed than blighted. There can be no doubt about that when you read this detailed and extremely revealing story.* 27 Patrick Tambay - The Ferrari Years by Massimo Burbi (Evro Publishing) ' ' '