GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 138
June 2014
IPL Matters
I have been watching some of the IPL matches staged both in the UAE and in India. I can’t tell the teams apart as one star studded line up clashes with another and just when you think you know who plays for who another star turns up in a team having apparently been on the bench so far! The best bit is being able to watch Sehwag bat again. He is the warm up act for what has become known as the M&M show, by which they mean Maxwell and Miller. David Miller could still become one of the greats of the modern game. He looks good at the crease and is fearsomely powerful. Glen Maxwell is the sensation of this year’s tournament. Two years ago he confounded everyone by becoming the million dollar man. If there was another auction today it is impossible to say how many millions he would fetch. His performances with the bat have been breathtaking and his aggregate of sixes is way out ahead of the rest. He is also probably the best fielder in the tournament and is a useful off spinner. He would get in any side in the world in this format. He may of course be destined only to play this stuff now as he will be able to earn huge amounts by doing the T20 circuit and will not need to turn out in the longer forms of the game. Pollard seems to have gone down this route and others will follow.
But back to Sehwag. Readers will know that I consider him to be the phenomenon of the current era with records as well as performances that tower over the likes of Tendulkar, Ponting, Pietersen, Smith and Inzaman. He is now thirty five and bats somewhat incongruously in glasses. Although contributing to his side’s cause in the early stages of the competition it was the M&M show for match after match. That is until the semi final when he produced another unique Sehwag performance scoring 122 from 58 balls for the King’s XI, Punjab. In reply the Chennai Super Kings decided that scoring in the six over Power Play was crucial and at the end of it were 100 for 2, of which Suresh Raina scored 87 from 25 balls. This is the fastest scoring in the history of the IPL and Raina beat Yousuf Pathan’s effort of the previous week when he made 72 not out from 22 deliveries. For the record his partner, Brendon McCullum, ran Raina out from the first ball of the seventh over and Chennai were never able to mount a real challenge from then on.
In the final Sehwag, Maxwell and Miller scored 8 between them but opener Vohra made 67 and wicket keeper, Saha, made 115 not out from 55 balls which enabled the King’s XI to set the Kolkata Knight Riders 200 to win. The season’s leading run scorer, Robin Uthappa (remember him from the Oval?), was dismissed cheaply but Pandey with some help from Yousuf Pathan saw them home in the final over.
George sent me this
I was watching a bit of IPL yesterday: maybe you were too. At 126-5 with 4 overs left to reach 190 Rajasthan Royals were somewhat tamely fading away against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. I actually fast forwarded to the end just to see how big was the final margin. They not only got the 65, but got them with 7 balls to spare: quite astonishing. And Smith and Faulkner did this against proper bowlers (Starc was one of them). We used to say in limited overs that beyond six an over and the game was more or less gone. Maybe ten became the new six. Until yesterday. A quick computation shows that if RR maintained this rate throughout a T20 innings they would make 458.
This was in stark contrast to an earlier email
A cricket team were humiliated after only scoring three runs between them.
Ten Wirral Cricket Club batsmen were out for ducks, only the number 11 troubled the scorers, with the other runs coming from two leg byes. It left Wirral some way short of the 109 they needed to beat Haslington in a Cheshire League Division Three fixture.
While an embarrassing loss, it was not a world record lowest score - Somerset club Langport were dismissed for zero against Glastonbury in a 1913 match. The lowest score in a first-class match is six, made by "The B's" against England at the old Lord's ground in 1810. And the lowest total in a Test match is 26, posted by New Zealand against England in 1955.
Jack’s Month
The Great Jack Morgan shares his sporting month with us
The Guardian sent Vic Marks to Lord's for day one of the Yorkshire game and he wrote a decent piece about the players on view, but it was not a report on the match, but a report on the England candidates ie Root, Ballance, Robson and Finn: exactly the same situation I was complaining about last month. Vic moved on to Hove for day two and Worcester for day three, so there was nothing in the Guardian about the game at Lord's. The Guardian did manage a fourth day report by Chris Stocks (freelance?), but it was another of those irritating what Rogers said, what Fraser said, what Gillespie said, will Robson play for England sort of "report" that tells you little or nothing about the game.
I am slightly surprised by the rise of Harry Gurney to the England ODI squad. Harry was something of a protégé of mine as I spotted him some years ago playing for Leeds/ Bradford UCCE against Surrey at the Oval, but I have not seen much of him since. However, he was very disappointing for Notts at Lord’s recently when he returned match figures of 32-4-147-1, figures that must have impressed someone I suppose. I know it is a different format, but if you are getting tonked around in the Championship, why would you be expected to do better in an ODI? Since discovering Tredders’s disastrous record last season (17 wickets @ 56.76), I am also surprised at his retention in the ODI squad. It is a different format again, I know, but Kent now prefer the promising Adam Riley in their Championship team and England should also be looking for someone a little younger and more penetrative.
Carlin matters: Paddy is quite wrong in saying that KP “easily topped the averages” in Oz. In fact, it was Ben Stokes who easily topped the averages: 34.87 plays 29.4.
Morgan and Murtagh are on international duty and Tom Helm has gone on loan to Glamorgan. This meant that Higgins and Podmore were in the squad for Edgbaston, but neither made the XI; it was Rossington and Roland-Jones who got the vacant places. I turned on the teletext about lunchtime to find that the lads were 106 for 9, a remarkably similar situation to the Yorkshire game, when we were 110 for 9. This time Finny (top scorer 37*) and Ollie managed to put on 61 for the last wicket. The Guardian sent MWWS to Edgbaston and he gave us a decent report for once ie one that actually related to the match he was watching and not just about who might be in England contention etc and was not padded out with quotes from players, managers et al.
I was terribly sad to hear of the death of Elena Baltacha at the age of 30. Surbiton was an intimate tournament where the players mingle with spectators and sit and chat with them in the stands, a million miles away from the heavy security of Wimbers. Consequently, I almost felt that I knew Elena, even though I had really only overheard her conversations with her friends and family. Still, she seemed like a nice person and as one of our best tennis players, it is absolutely tragic that she should die so young.
There was another good report from Selvey on day two, but it was depressing stuff ("Ambrose and Patel reduce Middlesex attack to shreds"). V Marks says that "lion-hearted" P Siddle (28-5-107-2) was "busting a gut for his new county", which he certainly was not at Lord's!
Ex-Middlesex 2s man James Kettleborough hit a first class 110 for Northampton v Durham UCCE at the Racecourse, which is the Durham University ground on which I have played (one of my many first class grounds, of course!).
Selvey's third report from Edgbaston was totally bizarre: it was all about J Patel's off breaks and about half of it was about a single over (the 46th) from Patel to Robson, from which four runs were scored and no wicket fell! Rogers was the only other current Middlesex player to get a mention, though Fred Titmus also crept in! Middlesex took a humiliating 2 points from the match.
Leicestershire are doing surprisingly well with the bat this season and this due in part to the form of two young players with Middlesex connections: Ned Eckersley (ex-Ealing and Middlesex 2s) and Angus Robson (brother of Sam) who put on 149 yesterday: Ned 110, Gus 94.
M al Fayed thinks that Fulham’s relegation was due to his statue of Michael Jackson being removed!
Middlesex have now dropped to fifth in the table, 12 points behind leaders Warwickshire and 14 points above Durham in eighth. Middlesex's two wins have been equaled only by Warwick and Sussex, but the reasons that they are behind teams with only one win are that i) they are the only team not to have collected any points from draws (5 points for each draw are awarded this season: why?); ii) they have picked up a pitiful 4 batting points, only Lancashire have done worse; and iii) their bonus point "haul" was reduced even further by the deduction for not playing a spinner at Hove, meaning that a combined total of 3 points were collected from the two games at Hove and Edgbaston. Sack the part-time MD!
L Wright (189) and B Brown (163) had an extraordinary stand of 335 for the sixth wicket to lift Sussex from 115-5 to 505-9 dec v Durham. T Helm made his first useful contribution for Glam when his 17 at no 11 allowed skipper M Wallace to lift the total from 159-9 to 224 a/o v Hants, then he collected his first two wickets, both top order players (L Dawson and W Smith). Teams playing two wicket keepers has become relatively common, but now Durham have joined Surrey in playing three! Surrey's Burns, Davies and Wilson are now matched by Durham's Mustard, Richardson and Sangakkara.
The ridiculous five points for a draw situation was called into question at Hove as P Collingwood rejected E Joyce's sensible suggestion of a declaration and forfeit in order to get a result and entertain the crowd, but Colly preferred to settle for 11 points and a dull day for all concerned. It is no surprise that Dm have drawn all their matches this season: is this how they hope to retain the Championship? There is also a very critical letter in the Cricketer about the five points for a draw blunder.
Sat (17/5) was not a good day. First came the news that A Murray had lost to R Nadal in Rome (though he put up a decent performance apparently); then came news of Middlesex's T20 defeat to Ex; then the expected Quins defeat at Sarries was confirmed; then we heard that Middlesex had also lost to Sussex. A good job the Rs weren't playing too!
It is ridiculous that Eoin has to miss four good days of Championship cricket at Northampton just so that he can play in a 20 over slog! Finny was in the squad, but did not make the XI: is this just squad rotation? Harris and Patel took their places. Balbirnie and Podmore were also in the squad. The batting looks weak with Joe D (ave 6.5) moving up to 5; Ollie and Toby can both bat a bit, but look one place too high at 7 and 8. Ro-Jo (6-55) was the star with the ball as Northampton were bowled out for 283, but Ravi (3-49) also did well. Then Rogers (106) and Malan (92) put on 190 for the second wicket, Dexy (163* with 19 fours and 3 sixes) and Denly (70!) 158 for the fourth wicket and Dexy and Toby then put on 94 in 33 mins for the seventh wicket with TSRJ hitting 60 off 30 balls with 5 fours and 4 sixes, which caused the declaration at 543-7, a lead of 260.
Toby was the star of the second innings too with 6-50 (his third personal best of the match), would surely have taken the MotM and went to the top of the Middlesex bowling averages with 18 wkts at 19.61, just ahead of Finny, Murts and Dexy. Harris’s average is 47.7 and I do not consider anyone else to have qualified for the averages yet. Ro-Jo has also shot up the batting averages to 6th with 31.75, behind the captain (73.88), Dexy (51.83), Robbo (45.09), Eoin (41.83) and Dawid (40.11): these figures are now almost respectable. I have not seen the new table yet, but I am expecting us to be top as we took 23 points from this one and neither Yorkshire nor Sussex are playing; we should be 19 points ahead of Yorkshire (and Somerset, who look likely to beat Durham, who sadly, look unlikely to claim their coveted 5 points for yet another draw) who will have a game in hand.
22/5: we had some exceptionally heavy rain (plus hail, thunder and lightning), but they managed to get a game in at the Oval and I managed to see the highlights thanks to C5. Eng made 247-6 (39 overs) with G Ballance 64, I Bell 50, J Root 45, C Jordan 38* from 13 balls doing well and D/L improved the target to 259; SL could only manage 144 a/o (27.5); Jordan 3-25, J Tredwell 3-38 did well meaning that Eng had won by 81 runs (D/L). MotM: Jordan, who looks a much better player than when I last saw him play for Surrey and now looks a plausible Test player. Somerset stuffed Durham at Taunton, just deserts for the boring draw seekers.
It's great that Rs have sneaked back into the Premier and are going to receive undreamed of millions for doing so, but will also have to pay a huge fine for transgressing financial rules. I even celebrated by watching the highlights, which does not happen very often and I did not really agree with the early reports I heard that said the match was "all Derby". Sure, Derby were on top in the last half hour, but that was when they were playing against ten men! I thought the first half was pretty even, Austin had a couple of good chances early in the second half and, of course, we scored the only goal. Even during their period of ascendancy, I did not think that they bothered Green that much; he had to make a couple of decent saves (which earned him the MotM from Glenn Moore in the Sindy), but I did not think they were going to beat him. The Derby defence was terrible at the end: Buxton should never have let Hoilett through on the right and Keogh's first touch was so dire that he just teed the ball up for Zamora to tuck it neatly away in the corner: thanks very much! Michael Calvin says there were 9 seconds of normal time left when Bobby scored, but they played for about four minutes longer. It was tough on Zamora that he was booked for celebrating: I think you are entitled to a little celebration when you have just put your club back into the Premier! Glenn thought Rs played a 4-4-2 formation, though it was hard to tell from the highlights. I was a bit surprised that 87,348 attended, roughly twice the usual combined attendances.
The Professor’s Weekend
An interesting weekend: the Hoops return to their rightful place; WGCCC complete four out of four; England return to their traditional incompetence; Yorkshire struggled to bowl out Lancs in the rain and I went to the lunch that Phil Sharpe had organised which turned into a sort of tribute - I will drop you a line about it.
WGCCC's middle order of Shah and Laraman secure the fourth win out of four.
Carlin Matters
Paddy Carlin sent me these notes
Having recently umpired a Herts League 20/20 game between WGCCC and Bishops Stortford I realized how difficult the game is for bowlers and that in my view a better balance between bat and ball needs to be found. Any ball that passes wide of leg stump regardless of where it pitches is now deemed a wide unless it passes between the stumps and the batsman who has moved a yard to leg. Also a line is now drawn about two feet wide of off stump and the ball must pass inside of this. Thus a hitting zone is created for the ball must be here and nowhere else- rather like the hitting zone in baseball which 20/20 now resembles. Perhaps the County and Test game could now be decided on a nine innings basis. That should bring the crowds in. Also as in baseball every team could play each other about twenty times. After all we have now got coloured clothing, baseball type caps and dug outs.
On Day two of the Gloucestershire match Surrey resumed on 115 for 6. Gloucester had been bowled out for 168 on the first day. Jason Roy trying to turn the second ball of the day to leg almost gave a leading edge catch and next ball was LBW trying to do the same thing. At the other end Tremlett stretched to a ball going towards first slip and was caught behind. Linley never lasts very long, Dunn hit a couple of fours and Ansari previously retired hurt should not have come out again. Four wickets fell for 17 and Surrey conceded a lead.
Until lunch things did not get any better. Curran and Dunn were wayward, Linley looked uninspired and Tremlett, who seems to get bigger every time I see him, just looked tired. Something happened during or after lunch as Gloucs rapidly lost six wickets, five of them to Tremlett. One cameo was especially amusing as Cameron Herring at number seven, the smallest man in county cricket, played David to Tremlett’s Goliath. In the end Gloucs were all out for 230 thanks to Marshall rallying the tail. But Graeme Smith started with a run a ball 30 set up a win which was achieved on the last day.
I think that Tim Murtagh has bulked up and is now about 20% quicker. He now seems a similar bowler in type and pace to Jimmy Anderson. His current Irish nationality should prove no hindrance if England need a stand in.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan reports from the Edrich Stand
Middlesex brought in Neil Dexter and Joe Denly to replace Adam Rossington and the injured Gareth Berg for the Championship game against Yorkshire at Lord's starting on 27 April. Chris Rogers won the toss for Middlesex and, unsurprisingly, invited Yorkshire to bat first on another green seamers' wicket. England Lions left hander Adam Lyth (34 with 5 fours) and New Zealand Test allrounder Kane Williamson (30 with 6 fours) put on a useful 52 for the second wicket, but most of the other visiting batsmen struggled against the Middlesex pace bowling trio of Tim Murtagh, James Harris and Steve Finn. One who did not struggle, however, was ex-England allrounder Liam Plunkett, batting at 8, who hit an impressive 56* with 10 fours off 55 balls to lift his team from 113 for 7 to 178 all out. Finn (4 for 50), Harris (3 for 42) and Murtagh (3 for 48) were backed up by some good close catching and all seemed right with the world.
However, ex-England left armer Ryan Sidebottom and ex-Northants paceman Jack Brooks soon changed the complexion of the match as Middlesex wickets began to tumble even more quickly than Yorkshire's had. Dawid Malan (31 with 7 fours) and Eoin Morgan (33 with 6 fours) were the only batsmen to pass 15 as the home team collapsed to 123 all out. Sidebottom took 4 for 34, Brooks 3 for 47 and Plunkett made another outstanding contribution with figures of 9-2-16-2.
It was uncanny how the tricky batting conditions turned into a flat batsman's track during the lunch interval on day two and Yorkshire were in little trouble as the classy Lyth (54 off 99 balls with 6 fours) was supported by the tall left hander Alex Lees (33 with 5 fours) in an opening partnership of 82. Then the international pair of Williamson (37 with 6 fours) and captain Joe Root (63 off 100 balls with 6 fours and a six) put on 98 for the third wicket, with Root outshining his Kiwi team-mate. The best Yorkshire batting of the match, however, came from England's Harare born left hander Gary Ballance. Ballance took his time to play himself in and was even slightly overshadowed by an attacking knock from leg spinning allrounder Adil Rashid, who made 43 (with 8 fours off 58 balls) of their fine stand of 72 for the sixth wicket in even time and another 45 were added for the seventh wicket with keeper Andrew Hodd. As the tail enders began to crumble, however, Ballance became dominant, especially during an excellent last wicket stand of 66 with Brooks in 21 minutes and when he was last man out for a brilliant 130 off 143 balls with 15 fours and 6 sixes, he had taken the visitors total to 416 and a formidable lead of 471. Finn (4-89) was again the pick of the Middx bowlers, while Dexter, Murtagh and Ollie Rayner each picked up a couple of wickets. John Simpson and Sam Robson both held four catches in the match and Rayner three.
Not many of the cognoscenti gave Middlesex a chance of achieving the 472 needed to win, but skipper Rogers and England hopeful Robson looked in no trouble as they began the mammoth task and were soon scoring at a good rate. They gave the side a terrific start with an opening stand of 181 in 148 minutes before Robson departed for a very valuable 77 off 119 balls with 13 fours. Malan settled in as Rogers's new partner and at the close of day three, Middlesex stood on 230 for 1 with Rogers on 122 and 242 to get, all of day four in which to get them and nine wickets remained: was the impossible target really becoming a possibility? After a useful stand of 76, Malan fell for 35 with 6 fours (it was his fourth 30-odd in five innings this season), Morgan then helped Rogers add another 70 for the third wicket, which fell with the total on 327. Rogers was still going well, but his new partner, Dexter, had made 11 runs in three innings so far this season and had looked out of touch in the first innings, but in fact, Dexter seemed to hit form almost as soon as he came to the crease and runs flowed from the bats of both players. The pair put on 145 in 103 minutes as Middlesex made it look easy and strolled to victory by 7 wickets with more than 45 overs in hand.
Rogers finished with 241 fantastic runs off 290 balls with 37 fours and Dexter ended with 72 off 83 balls with 10 fours and 2 sixes; Rogers thought that this had been the finest innings of his career. In terms of winning fourth innings scores, this was the highest made by Middlesex at Lord's, the second highest made by Middlesex anywhere and the third highest in County Championship history, putting Middlesex first and third in the history of successful fourth innings run chases in the Championship. It was a shame that more people were not able to witness this magnificent achievement, but this was due to uncontrollable factors such as the poor (and totally inaccurate) weather forecast and, of course, the tube strike. Rogers now has 365 runs at an average of 91.25 this season and Finn has 23 wickets at 17.04. Middlesex took 19 points from the match and Yorkshire 3.
Eoin Morgan and Tim Murtagh returned from international duty to replace the disappointing Adam Rossington and James Harris for the Championship match against Lancashire at Lord's starting on May 11 in extremely cool conditions. It was interesting that Ravi Patel was also in the squad of 14 as it did not seem likely that they would play two spinners, so was Ollie Rayner's fitness in doubt or were they just reminding him that there are other options for the spinner's place? Chris Rogers won the toss and asked Lancashire to bat first on another strip that looked likely to assist the seamers and so it proved. The surprising thing, however, was that it was not Murtagh, Steve Finn and Toby Roland-Jones who caused the problems, but Neil Dexter, with his innocuous looking medium paced wobblers. Lancashire soon declined to 83 for 4, but then England's limited overs keeper Jos Buttler inspired a recovery firstly in a fifth wicket partnership of 55 with left hander Luke Procter and then in a sixth wicket partnership of 52 with another left hander, Tom Smith. Buttler played attractively for 59 off 110 balls with 8 fours, though he should have been caught on more than one occasion and Smith was not at all outshone before he became the last man out, also for 59 with 8 fours off 144 balls, to what turned out to be the last ball of day 1.
Dexter proved a handful for nearly all the visiting batsmen and finished with the excellent figures of 26-10-63-6, a career best, while Rayner held three catches at second slip. The Middlesex reply was based on a fine second wicket stand of 107 between Sam Robson and Dawid Malan, which was sadly ended when Robson was run out by a direct hit from ex-Leeds/ Bradford and Unicorns man Luis Reece for a confident 51 off 99 balls with 8 fours. Malan then shared another good stand of 73 with Morgan and went on to an impressive 92 off 174 balls with 17 fours before he too was run out and if Malan was to blame for Robson’s dismissal, then Morgan was definitely to blame for the second run out. It was easily Dawid's best innings of the season and, actually, his best since 2012. Dexter then joined Morgan in another valuable partnership of 126 for the fourth wicket, making a useful 51 off 154 balls with 7 fours and a six to add to his fine bowling performance, while Eoin progressed to his first century in the Championship since 2009 before falling for an impressive 103 off 197 balls with 12 fours.
This was a dodgy little spell for Middlesex as three wickets went down for 10 runs, but fortunately John Simpson stood firm and Rayner played his best innings of the season so far as the pair put on 124 important runs for the seventh wicket before Simpson departed for 50 from 94 balls with 3 fours and a six. Ollie went on to 77 from 107 balls with 10 fours and a six, but when he was out at 459 for 8 off 141.3 overs, Rogers closed the innings as rain returned in the last session of day three, giving Middx a lead of 193. Kyle Hogg (son of Willie) was the best of the Lancs bowlers with 3 for 48 off 29 accurate overs.
Paul Horton, from Sydney, made 32 with 6 fours at the start of the visitors' second innings, but could not stop his side collapsing to 45 for 5. South African Test player Ashwell Prince was immovable, however, and finding a surprisingly solid partner in Buttler, the pair frustrated the Middlesex attack for nearly two and a half hours until Murtagh, duplicating Dexter's role in the first innings, took two wickets just before tea on day four including Buttler for 50 off 123 balls with 7 fours after a praiseworthy stand of 117 with Prince. Skipper Glen Chapple, born in Skipton, joined Prince after tea and, in contrast to the correctness of his partner, played some strange hoicks and heaves, which were quite eccentric in view of the fact that Lancashire's only objective was a draw. This pair added 55 for the eighth wicket and it was a shock that it was the sedulous Prince who fell (to Murtagh, of course) for a high class 86 off 171 balls with 12 fours. It was nearly all over when Chapple departed for 32 with 6 fours and the all out total of 223 left Middx to make only 31 for victory.
Murtagh bowled magnificently and justly ended with figures of 26.2-11-60-6; Roland-Jones and Finn gave him good support and picked up two wickets apiece, while keeper John Simpson held four second innings catches. Middlesex had 19 overs in which to clinch the win, but needed only 3.5 of them due to some wild bowling from Procter and Zimbabwean Test pace bowler Kyle Jarvis as the home team strolled to a ten wicket win. Middlesex took 22 points and Lancs 4.
WW1
Pete Webster sent me an article by Eric Midwinter and the following is extracted from it
In 1914 WG Grace called on all first class cricketers to come to the aid of their country in the hour of need. Cricket was halted in its tracks, the county season ended and the MCC ordered the counties not to play one another for the duration. Cricket was stopped not because it was trivial but because it was important. Wisdens for 1915 to 1919 are full of obituaries. Overall 2,000 promising amateur cricketers perished along with one in eleven first class players. In the post war period those in authority looked backwards with blinkered nostalgia. They saw a cult that was sacrosanct, one that would be a blasphemy to blemish. The game that had confidently evolved over the past century was regarded as peerless and ideal. No effort was made to change the county championship and the laws were not revised until 1947. WG Grace died in 1915 and in a sense cricket died with him. He was the first celebrity international sports person. It was the petrified carcass of pre 1914 cricket which was resurrected ans worshipped for half a century.
Philip Sharpe
The Professor sent me this
I got back from holiday a week or so ago and just about the first thing I heard about was the death of Phil Sharpe. Since the last time I saw him he was very full of life and I was due to have lunch with him the following week it was, as they say, something of a shock.
We moved to Harrogate some ten years’ ago and on a wet Tuesday in February decided to visit the local stately pile: a place called Harewood House. This is the “seat” of the Lascelles family who made a vast fortune out of, among other things, slavery. The house is interesting enough in the way that such places are and we decided to go to the “lecture” about Lady Something-or-Other to be given in one of the rooms. When we got there we were the only two visitors and so we got a guided tour from “Susan” the lecturer. During the course of our chats I asked about the finances of such a place and the events they held there. Susan said that weddings were an important source of finance and just recently they had had a “cricket wedding”.
“A cricket wedding? Now what would that be?”
“Well.” said Susan, “have you heard of a cricketer called… Len Hutton?”
We established that we had.
“Well, his grandson got married here last week”
“Oh how interesting” (me this time) “that would be Ben, son of Richard, and recently retired as captain of Middlesex.”
“Oh” (Susan again) “you’re interested in cricket!”
“Well…” (the long-suffering Mrs A this time), “I think you could say that”.
“Well, you may have heard of my husband, Philip Sharpe.”
“Played about a dozen tests for England, one member of the great Yorkshire championship winning sides and widely regarded as the best slip fielder in the world at the time…yes we have”
“Goodness! Now, would you be interested in coming to a cricket dinner at Headingley that Philip is organising?”
We would, and we did, and have been friends of the Sharpe’s ever since.
The family home is in Wetherby and the front room more-or-less devoted to cricket. I imagine that many Googlies readers have some cricket memorabilia in their houses but it is hard to top a glass case with 12 England caps, various newspaper photographs of Phil horizontal in the air holding some breathtaking catch and a whole heap of awards and trophies. The Sharpe’s are very into amateur dramatics and hold a “pie and peas” supper after the “run” of various shows. Since a fair number of ex-Yorkshire cricketers turn up, it is an event not to be missed. Philip also organises cricket tours for Yorkshire and always seemed to have some little business venture going: they once owned a Spud-U-Like franchise. A genuinely devoted couple, Susan will be devastated by the loss, and another Yorkshire great has gone.
And then this
I went off to Headingley yesterday for the Phil Sharpe lunch. It was not quite the somber affair I had anticipated. There were about 40 people there all of whom had, at one time or another, been on a cricket tour that Philip had organised. His widow, Susan, was there and gave a little speech to say how much she appreciated everyone turning up and how pleased Philip would have been to know that the event had gone ahead and so on.
During lunch I chatted to John Helm. He is a TV/radio commentator of some 30 years or so experience and is just off to Brazil to work for FIFA. He will do commentaries for all the countries that don't send their own crews. I asked about the names and player recognition and he said he has been working on that everyday since the teams qualified. There will be goal-line technology used apparently and a nice little innovation of which John approves: the ref will carry onto the ground a little can of spray paint. When a free kick is given and the ref paces out 10 yards he will then spray a white line on the ground for the "wall" to stand behind (or not). I suggested that this might mean dozens of lines all over the place - but not so. The paint bio-degrades within two minutes. Now isn't that clever? Who says that FIFA are a load of stick in the mud, behind the times, endlessly corrupt old buffers - well everyone actually - but they have clearly been giving their collective mind to this important facet of the game.
King Cricket Matters
Ged writes:
Late season, I always try to take in a day of county cricket with my old friend, Charley “The Gent” Malloy. It helps us both to prepare for the inevitable winter withdrawal symptoms to come. By 11am we were already tucking in to sesame bagels stuffed with honey roasted salmon, washed down with a perfumed Austrian Riesling, quite similar to the German jobbie we had enjoyed at Chester-le-Street.
“I did something very metrosexual the other week; about as metrosexual as it gets”, said Charley. “Can you guess what it was?”
I looked him up and down carefully. “Nothing to do with hair gel?” I stated, more than asked. “But was it something to do with clothes?”
“Listen carefully to what I said,” instructed Charley. “I DID something. Not wore something. But that’s more than enough clues. You have until one o’clock to guess what it was.”
The puzzle felt a bit light on clues, actually, but then Charley is like a TV quiz master without quiz structure. And without prizes.
Around 12:15, Charley said to me: “Any idea yet what my uber-metrosexual deed was, then?”
“Still, pondering, Charley, still pondering,” I said. “I’ve got until one o’clock anyway, so plenty of time to mull some more and possibly even watch some cricket just now.”
“You’ve got until 12:30,” said Charley. “That’s when lunch is being taken.”
“But you said one o’clock, Charley,” I protested. “I forgot that everything is half-an-hour earlier in September,” he replied.
Just shy of 12:30, I decided to distract Charley by changing the subject. “By the way, I saw your boy on the TV the other evening, right at the end of the Women’s Ashes T20 at Chelmsford. I’m certain it was him.” Charley smiled and said: “Yup, all three of us were there; the missus too. Well done. Had you worked it out all along then?”
“Worked it out? Oh…” I winked at Charley and secretly winked at myself.
“Taking the family to women’s cricket. It doesn’t get much more metrosexual than that, does it?” effused Charley. “Shame you spotted the boy on the TV – made my puzzle too easy for you.”
“I’m sure you’ll find something more challenging for next season, Charley,” I replied.
Googlies and Chinamen
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 138
June 2014
IPL Matters
I have been watching some of the IPL matches staged both in the UAE and in India. I can’t tell the teams apart as one star studded line up clashes with another and just when you think you know who plays for who another star turns up in a team having apparently been on the bench so far! The best bit is being able to watch Sehwag bat again. He is the warm up act for what has become known as the M&M show, by which they mean Maxwell and Miller. David Miller could still become one of the greats of the modern game. He looks good at the crease and is fearsomely powerful. Glen Maxwell is the sensation of this year’s tournament. Two years ago he confounded everyone by becoming the million dollar man. If there was another auction today it is impossible to say how many millions he would fetch. His performances with the bat have been breathtaking and his aggregate of sixes is way out ahead of the rest. He is also probably the best fielder in the tournament and is a useful off spinner. He would get in any side in the world in this format. He may of course be destined only to play this stuff now as he will be able to earn huge amounts by doing the T20 circuit and will not need to turn out in the longer forms of the game. Pollard seems to have gone down this route and others will follow.
But back to Sehwag. Readers will know that I consider him to be the phenomenon of the current era with records as well as performances that tower over the likes of Tendulkar, Ponting, Pietersen, Smith and Inzaman. He is now thirty five and bats somewhat incongruously in glasses. Although contributing to his side’s cause in the early stages of the competition it was the M&M show for match after match. That is until the semi final when he produced another unique Sehwag performance scoring 122 from 58 balls for the King’s XI, Punjab. In reply the Chennai Super Kings decided that scoring in the six over Power Play was crucial and at the end of it were 100 for 2, of which Suresh Raina scored 87 from 25 balls. This is the fastest scoring in the history of the IPL and Raina beat Yousuf Pathan’s effort of the previous week when he made 72 not out from 22 deliveries. For the record his partner, Brendon McCullum, ran Raina out from the first ball of the seventh over and Chennai were never able to mount a real challenge from then on.
In the final Sehwag, Maxwell and Miller scored 8 between them but opener Vohra made 67 and wicket keeper, Saha, made 115 not out from 55 balls which enabled the King’s XI to set the Kolkata Knight Riders 200 to win. The season’s leading run scorer, Robin Uthappa (remember him from the Oval?), was dismissed cheaply but Pandey with some help from Yousuf Pathan saw them home in the final over.
George sent me this
I was watching a bit of IPL yesterday: maybe you were too. At 126-5 with 4 overs left to reach 190 Rajasthan Royals were somewhat tamely fading away against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. I actually fast forwarded to the end just to see how big was the final margin. They not only got the 65, but got them with 7 balls to spare: quite astonishing. And Smith and Faulkner did this against proper bowlers (Starc was one of them). We used to say in limited overs that beyond six an over and the game was more or less gone. Maybe ten became the new six. Until yesterday. A quick computation shows that if RR maintained this rate throughout a T20 innings they would make 458.
This was in stark contrast to an earlier email
A cricket team were humiliated after only scoring three runs between them.
Ten Wirral Cricket Club batsmen were out for ducks, only the number 11 troubled the scorers, with the other runs coming from two leg byes. It left Wirral some way short of the 109 they needed to beat Haslington in a Cheshire League Division Three fixture.
While an embarrassing loss, it was not a world record lowest score - Somerset club Langport were dismissed for zero against Glastonbury in a 1913 match. The lowest score in a first-class match is six, made by "The B's" against England at the old Lord's ground in 1810. And the lowest total in a Test match is 26, posted by New Zealand against England in 1955.
Jack’s Month
The Great Jack Morgan shares his sporting month with us
The Guardian sent Vic Marks to Lord's for day one of the Yorkshire game and he wrote a decent piece about the players on view, but it was not a report on the match, but a report on the England candidates ie Root, Ballance, Robson and Finn: exactly the same situation I was complaining about last month. Vic moved on to Hove for day two and Worcester for day three, so there was nothing in the Guardian about the game at Lord's. The Guardian did manage a fourth day report by Chris Stocks (freelance?), but it was another of those irritating what Rogers said, what Fraser said, what Gillespie said, will Robson play for England sort of "report" that tells you little or nothing about the game.
I am slightly surprised by the rise of Harry Gurney to the England ODI squad. Harry was something of a protégé of mine as I spotted him some years ago playing for Leeds/ Bradford UCCE against Surrey at the Oval, but I have not seen much of him since. However, he was very disappointing for Notts at Lord’s recently when he returned match figures of 32-4-147-1, figures that must have impressed someone I suppose. I know it is a different format, but if you are getting tonked around in the Championship, why would you be expected to do better in an ODI? Since discovering Tredders’s disastrous record last season (17 wickets @ 56.76), I am also surprised at his retention in the ODI squad. It is a different format again, I know, but Kent now prefer the promising Adam Riley in their Championship team and England should also be looking for someone a little younger and more penetrative.
Carlin matters: Paddy is quite wrong in saying that KP “easily topped the averages” in Oz. In fact, it was Ben Stokes who easily topped the averages: 34.87 plays 29.4.
Morgan and Murtagh are on international duty and Tom Helm has gone on loan to Glamorgan. This meant that Higgins and Podmore were in the squad for Edgbaston, but neither made the XI; it was Rossington and Roland-Jones who got the vacant places. I turned on the teletext about lunchtime to find that the lads were 106 for 9, a remarkably similar situation to the Yorkshire game, when we were 110 for 9. This time Finny (top scorer 37*) and Ollie managed to put on 61 for the last wicket. The Guardian sent MWWS to Edgbaston and he gave us a decent report for once ie one that actually related to the match he was watching and not just about who might be in England contention etc and was not padded out with quotes from players, managers et al.
I was terribly sad to hear of the death of Elena Baltacha at the age of 30. Surbiton was an intimate tournament where the players mingle with spectators and sit and chat with them in the stands, a million miles away from the heavy security of Wimbers. Consequently, I almost felt that I knew Elena, even though I had really only overheard her conversations with her friends and family. Still, she seemed like a nice person and as one of our best tennis players, it is absolutely tragic that she should die so young.
There was another good report from Selvey on day two, but it was depressing stuff ("Ambrose and Patel reduce Middlesex attack to shreds"). V Marks says that "lion-hearted" P Siddle (28-5-107-2) was "busting a gut for his new county", which he certainly was not at Lord's!
Ex-Middlesex 2s man James Kettleborough hit a first class 110 for Northampton v Durham UCCE at the Racecourse, which is the Durham University ground on which I have played (one of my many first class grounds, of course!).
Selvey's third report from Edgbaston was totally bizarre: it was all about J Patel's off breaks and about half of it was about a single over (the 46th) from Patel to Robson, from which four runs were scored and no wicket fell! Rogers was the only other current Middlesex player to get a mention, though Fred Titmus also crept in! Middlesex took a humiliating 2 points from the match.
Leicestershire are doing surprisingly well with the bat this season and this due in part to the form of two young players with Middlesex connections: Ned Eckersley (ex-Ealing and Middlesex 2s) and Angus Robson (brother of Sam) who put on 149 yesterday: Ned 110, Gus 94.
M al Fayed thinks that Fulham’s relegation was due to his statue of Michael Jackson being removed!
Middlesex have now dropped to fifth in the table, 12 points behind leaders Warwickshire and 14 points above Durham in eighth. Middlesex's two wins have been equaled only by Warwick and Sussex, but the reasons that they are behind teams with only one win are that i) they are the only team not to have collected any points from draws (5 points for each draw are awarded this season: why?); ii) they have picked up a pitiful 4 batting points, only Lancashire have done worse; and iii) their bonus point "haul" was reduced even further by the deduction for not playing a spinner at Hove, meaning that a combined total of 3 points were collected from the two games at Hove and Edgbaston. Sack the part-time MD!
L Wright (189) and B Brown (163) had an extraordinary stand of 335 for the sixth wicket to lift Sussex from 115-5 to 505-9 dec v Durham. T Helm made his first useful contribution for Glam when his 17 at no 11 allowed skipper M Wallace to lift the total from 159-9 to 224 a/o v Hants, then he collected his first two wickets, both top order players (L Dawson and W Smith). Teams playing two wicket keepers has become relatively common, but now Durham have joined Surrey in playing three! Surrey's Burns, Davies and Wilson are now matched by Durham's Mustard, Richardson and Sangakkara.
The ridiculous five points for a draw situation was called into question at Hove as P Collingwood rejected E Joyce's sensible suggestion of a declaration and forfeit in order to get a result and entertain the crowd, but Colly preferred to settle for 11 points and a dull day for all concerned. It is no surprise that Dm have drawn all their matches this season: is this how they hope to retain the Championship? There is also a very critical letter in the Cricketer about the five points for a draw blunder.
Sat (17/5) was not a good day. First came the news that A Murray had lost to R Nadal in Rome (though he put up a decent performance apparently); then came news of Middlesex's T20 defeat to Ex; then the expected Quins defeat at Sarries was confirmed; then we heard that Middlesex had also lost to Sussex. A good job the Rs weren't playing too!
It is ridiculous that Eoin has to miss four good days of Championship cricket at Northampton just so that he can play in a 20 over slog! Finny was in the squad, but did not make the XI: is this just squad rotation? Harris and Patel took their places. Balbirnie and Podmore were also in the squad. The batting looks weak with Joe D (ave 6.5) moving up to 5; Ollie and Toby can both bat a bit, but look one place too high at 7 and 8. Ro-Jo (6-55) was the star with the ball as Northampton were bowled out for 283, but Ravi (3-49) also did well. Then Rogers (106) and Malan (92) put on 190 for the second wicket, Dexy (163* with 19 fours and 3 sixes) and Denly (70!) 158 for the fourth wicket and Dexy and Toby then put on 94 in 33 mins for the seventh wicket with TSRJ hitting 60 off 30 balls with 5 fours and 4 sixes, which caused the declaration at 543-7, a lead of 260.
Toby was the star of the second innings too with 6-50 (his third personal best of the match), would surely have taken the MotM and went to the top of the Middlesex bowling averages with 18 wkts at 19.61, just ahead of Finny, Murts and Dexy. Harris’s average is 47.7 and I do not consider anyone else to have qualified for the averages yet. Ro-Jo has also shot up the batting averages to 6th with 31.75, behind the captain (73.88), Dexy (51.83), Robbo (45.09), Eoin (41.83) and Dawid (40.11): these figures are now almost respectable. I have not seen the new table yet, but I am expecting us to be top as we took 23 points from this one and neither Yorkshire nor Sussex are playing; we should be 19 points ahead of Yorkshire (and Somerset, who look likely to beat Durham, who sadly, look unlikely to claim their coveted 5 points for yet another draw) who will have a game in hand.
22/5: we had some exceptionally heavy rain (plus hail, thunder and lightning), but they managed to get a game in at the Oval and I managed to see the highlights thanks to C5. Eng made 247-6 (39 overs) with G Ballance 64, I Bell 50, J Root 45, C Jordan 38* from 13 balls doing well and D/L improved the target to 259; SL could only manage 144 a/o (27.5); Jordan 3-25, J Tredwell 3-38 did well meaning that Eng had won by 81 runs (D/L). MotM: Jordan, who looks a much better player than when I last saw him play for Surrey and now looks a plausible Test player. Somerset stuffed Durham at Taunton, just deserts for the boring draw seekers.
It's great that Rs have sneaked back into the Premier and are going to receive undreamed of millions for doing so, but will also have to pay a huge fine for transgressing financial rules. I even celebrated by watching the highlights, which does not happen very often and I did not really agree with the early reports I heard that said the match was "all Derby". Sure, Derby were on top in the last half hour, but that was when they were playing against ten men! I thought the first half was pretty even, Austin had a couple of good chances early in the second half and, of course, we scored the only goal. Even during their period of ascendancy, I did not think that they bothered Green that much; he had to make a couple of decent saves (which earned him the MotM from Glenn Moore in the Sindy), but I did not think they were going to beat him. The Derby defence was terrible at the end: Buxton should never have let Hoilett through on the right and Keogh's first touch was so dire that he just teed the ball up for Zamora to tuck it neatly away in the corner: thanks very much! Michael Calvin says there were 9 seconds of normal time left when Bobby scored, but they played for about four minutes longer. It was tough on Zamora that he was booked for celebrating: I think you are entitled to a little celebration when you have just put your club back into the Premier! Glenn thought Rs played a 4-4-2 formation, though it was hard to tell from the highlights. I was a bit surprised that 87,348 attended, roughly twice the usual combined attendances.
The Professor’s Weekend
An interesting weekend: the Hoops return to their rightful place; WGCCC complete four out of four; England return to their traditional incompetence; Yorkshire struggled to bowl out Lancs in the rain and I went to the lunch that Phil Sharpe had organised which turned into a sort of tribute - I will drop you a line about it.
WGCCC's middle order of Shah and Laraman secure the fourth win out of four.
Carlin Matters
Paddy Carlin sent me these notes
Having recently umpired a Herts League 20/20 game between WGCCC and Bishops Stortford I realized how difficult the game is for bowlers and that in my view a better balance between bat and ball needs to be found. Any ball that passes wide of leg stump regardless of where it pitches is now deemed a wide unless it passes between the stumps and the batsman who has moved a yard to leg. Also a line is now drawn about two feet wide of off stump and the ball must pass inside of this. Thus a hitting zone is created for the ball must be here and nowhere else- rather like the hitting zone in baseball which 20/20 now resembles. Perhaps the County and Test game could now be decided on a nine innings basis. That should bring the crowds in. Also as in baseball every team could play each other about twenty times. After all we have now got coloured clothing, baseball type caps and dug outs.
On Day two of the Gloucestershire match Surrey resumed on 115 for 6. Gloucester had been bowled out for 168 on the first day. Jason Roy trying to turn the second ball of the day to leg almost gave a leading edge catch and next ball was LBW trying to do the same thing. At the other end Tremlett stretched to a ball going towards first slip and was caught behind. Linley never lasts very long, Dunn hit a couple of fours and Ansari previously retired hurt should not have come out again. Four wickets fell for 17 and Surrey conceded a lead.
Until lunch things did not get any better. Curran and Dunn were wayward, Linley looked uninspired and Tremlett, who seems to get bigger every time I see him, just looked tired. Something happened during or after lunch as Gloucs rapidly lost six wickets, five of them to Tremlett. One cameo was especially amusing as Cameron Herring at number seven, the smallest man in county cricket, played David to Tremlett’s Goliath. In the end Gloucs were all out for 230 thanks to Marshall rallying the tail. But Graeme Smith started with a run a ball 30 set up a win which was achieved on the last day.
I think that Tim Murtagh has bulked up and is now about 20% quicker. He now seems a similar bowler in type and pace to Jimmy Anderson. His current Irish nationality should prove no hindrance if England need a stand in.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan reports from the Edrich Stand
Middlesex brought in Neil Dexter and Joe Denly to replace Adam Rossington and the injured Gareth Berg for the Championship game against Yorkshire at Lord's starting on 27 April. Chris Rogers won the toss for Middlesex and, unsurprisingly, invited Yorkshire to bat first on another green seamers' wicket. England Lions left hander Adam Lyth (34 with 5 fours) and New Zealand Test allrounder Kane Williamson (30 with 6 fours) put on a useful 52 for the second wicket, but most of the other visiting batsmen struggled against the Middlesex pace bowling trio of Tim Murtagh, James Harris and Steve Finn. One who did not struggle, however, was ex-England allrounder Liam Plunkett, batting at 8, who hit an impressive 56* with 10 fours off 55 balls to lift his team from 113 for 7 to 178 all out. Finn (4 for 50), Harris (3 for 42) and Murtagh (3 for 48) were backed up by some good close catching and all seemed right with the world.
However, ex-England left armer Ryan Sidebottom and ex-Northants paceman Jack Brooks soon changed the complexion of the match as Middlesex wickets began to tumble even more quickly than Yorkshire's had. Dawid Malan (31 with 7 fours) and Eoin Morgan (33 with 6 fours) were the only batsmen to pass 15 as the home team collapsed to 123 all out. Sidebottom took 4 for 34, Brooks 3 for 47 and Plunkett made another outstanding contribution with figures of 9-2-16-2.
It was uncanny how the tricky batting conditions turned into a flat batsman's track during the lunch interval on day two and Yorkshire were in little trouble as the classy Lyth (54 off 99 balls with 6 fours) was supported by the tall left hander Alex Lees (33 with 5 fours) in an opening partnership of 82. Then the international pair of Williamson (37 with 6 fours) and captain Joe Root (63 off 100 balls with 6 fours and a six) put on 98 for the third wicket, with Root outshining his Kiwi team-mate. The best Yorkshire batting of the match, however, came from England's Harare born left hander Gary Ballance. Ballance took his time to play himself in and was even slightly overshadowed by an attacking knock from leg spinning allrounder Adil Rashid, who made 43 (with 8 fours off 58 balls) of their fine stand of 72 for the sixth wicket in even time and another 45 were added for the seventh wicket with keeper Andrew Hodd. As the tail enders began to crumble, however, Ballance became dominant, especially during an excellent last wicket stand of 66 with Brooks in 21 minutes and when he was last man out for a brilliant 130 off 143 balls with 15 fours and 6 sixes, he had taken the visitors total to 416 and a formidable lead of 471. Finn (4-89) was again the pick of the Middx bowlers, while Dexter, Murtagh and Ollie Rayner each picked up a couple of wickets. John Simpson and Sam Robson both held four catches in the match and Rayner three.
Not many of the cognoscenti gave Middlesex a chance of achieving the 472 needed to win, but skipper Rogers and England hopeful Robson looked in no trouble as they began the mammoth task and were soon scoring at a good rate. They gave the side a terrific start with an opening stand of 181 in 148 minutes before Robson departed for a very valuable 77 off 119 balls with 13 fours. Malan settled in as Rogers's new partner and at the close of day three, Middlesex stood on 230 for 1 with Rogers on 122 and 242 to get, all of day four in which to get them and nine wickets remained: was the impossible target really becoming a possibility? After a useful stand of 76, Malan fell for 35 with 6 fours (it was his fourth 30-odd in five innings this season), Morgan then helped Rogers add another 70 for the third wicket, which fell with the total on 327. Rogers was still going well, but his new partner, Dexter, had made 11 runs in three innings so far this season and had looked out of touch in the first innings, but in fact, Dexter seemed to hit form almost as soon as he came to the crease and runs flowed from the bats of both players. The pair put on 145 in 103 minutes as Middlesex made it look easy and strolled to victory by 7 wickets with more than 45 overs in hand.
Rogers finished with 241 fantastic runs off 290 balls with 37 fours and Dexter ended with 72 off 83 balls with 10 fours and 2 sixes; Rogers thought that this had been the finest innings of his career. In terms of winning fourth innings scores, this was the highest made by Middlesex at Lord's, the second highest made by Middlesex anywhere and the third highest in County Championship history, putting Middlesex first and third in the history of successful fourth innings run chases in the Championship. It was a shame that more people were not able to witness this magnificent achievement, but this was due to uncontrollable factors such as the poor (and totally inaccurate) weather forecast and, of course, the tube strike. Rogers now has 365 runs at an average of 91.25 this season and Finn has 23 wickets at 17.04. Middlesex took 19 points from the match and Yorkshire 3.
Eoin Morgan and Tim Murtagh returned from international duty to replace the disappointing Adam Rossington and James Harris for the Championship match against Lancashire at Lord's starting on May 11 in extremely cool conditions. It was interesting that Ravi Patel was also in the squad of 14 as it did not seem likely that they would play two spinners, so was Ollie Rayner's fitness in doubt or were they just reminding him that there are other options for the spinner's place? Chris Rogers won the toss and asked Lancashire to bat first on another strip that looked likely to assist the seamers and so it proved. The surprising thing, however, was that it was not Murtagh, Steve Finn and Toby Roland-Jones who caused the problems, but Neil Dexter, with his innocuous looking medium paced wobblers. Lancashire soon declined to 83 for 4, but then England's limited overs keeper Jos Buttler inspired a recovery firstly in a fifth wicket partnership of 55 with left hander Luke Procter and then in a sixth wicket partnership of 52 with another left hander, Tom Smith. Buttler played attractively for 59 off 110 balls with 8 fours, though he should have been caught on more than one occasion and Smith was not at all outshone before he became the last man out, also for 59 with 8 fours off 144 balls, to what turned out to be the last ball of day 1.
Dexter proved a handful for nearly all the visiting batsmen and finished with the excellent figures of 26-10-63-6, a career best, while Rayner held three catches at second slip. The Middlesex reply was based on a fine second wicket stand of 107 between Sam Robson and Dawid Malan, which was sadly ended when Robson was run out by a direct hit from ex-Leeds/ Bradford and Unicorns man Luis Reece for a confident 51 off 99 balls with 8 fours. Malan then shared another good stand of 73 with Morgan and went on to an impressive 92 off 174 balls with 17 fours before he too was run out and if Malan was to blame for Robson’s dismissal, then Morgan was definitely to blame for the second run out. It was easily Dawid's best innings of the season and, actually, his best since 2012. Dexter then joined Morgan in another valuable partnership of 126 for the fourth wicket, making a useful 51 off 154 balls with 7 fours and a six to add to his fine bowling performance, while Eoin progressed to his first century in the Championship since 2009 before falling for an impressive 103 off 197 balls with 12 fours.
This was a dodgy little spell for Middlesex as three wickets went down for 10 runs, but fortunately John Simpson stood firm and Rayner played his best innings of the season so far as the pair put on 124 important runs for the seventh wicket before Simpson departed for 50 from 94 balls with 3 fours and a six. Ollie went on to 77 from 107 balls with 10 fours and a six, but when he was out at 459 for 8 off 141.3 overs, Rogers closed the innings as rain returned in the last session of day three, giving Middx a lead of 193. Kyle Hogg (son of Willie) was the best of the Lancs bowlers with 3 for 48 off 29 accurate overs.
Paul Horton, from Sydney, made 32 with 6 fours at the start of the visitors' second innings, but could not stop his side collapsing to 45 for 5. South African Test player Ashwell Prince was immovable, however, and finding a surprisingly solid partner in Buttler, the pair frustrated the Middlesex attack for nearly two and a half hours until Murtagh, duplicating Dexter's role in the first innings, took two wickets just before tea on day four including Buttler for 50 off 123 balls with 7 fours after a praiseworthy stand of 117 with Prince. Skipper Glen Chapple, born in Skipton, joined Prince after tea and, in contrast to the correctness of his partner, played some strange hoicks and heaves, which were quite eccentric in view of the fact that Lancashire's only objective was a draw. This pair added 55 for the eighth wicket and it was a shock that it was the sedulous Prince who fell (to Murtagh, of course) for a high class 86 off 171 balls with 12 fours. It was nearly all over when Chapple departed for 32 with 6 fours and the all out total of 223 left Middx to make only 31 for victory.
Murtagh bowled magnificently and justly ended with figures of 26.2-11-60-6; Roland-Jones and Finn gave him good support and picked up two wickets apiece, while keeper John Simpson held four second innings catches. Middlesex had 19 overs in which to clinch the win, but needed only 3.5 of them due to some wild bowling from Procter and Zimbabwean Test pace bowler Kyle Jarvis as the home team strolled to a ten wicket win. Middlesex took 22 points and Lancs 4.
WW1
Pete Webster sent me an article by Eric Midwinter and the following is extracted from it
In 1914 WG Grace called on all first class cricketers to come to the aid of their country in the hour of need. Cricket was halted in its tracks, the county season ended and the MCC ordered the counties not to play one another for the duration. Cricket was stopped not because it was trivial but because it was important. Wisdens for 1915 to 1919 are full of obituaries. Overall 2,000 promising amateur cricketers perished along with one in eleven first class players. In the post war period those in authority looked backwards with blinkered nostalgia. They saw a cult that was sacrosanct, one that would be a blasphemy to blemish. The game that had confidently evolved over the past century was regarded as peerless and ideal. No effort was made to change the county championship and the laws were not revised until 1947. WG Grace died in 1915 and in a sense cricket died with him. He was the first celebrity international sports person. It was the petrified carcass of pre 1914 cricket which was resurrected ans worshipped for half a century.
Philip Sharpe
The Professor sent me this
I got back from holiday a week or so ago and just about the first thing I heard about was the death of Phil Sharpe. Since the last time I saw him he was very full of life and I was due to have lunch with him the following week it was, as they say, something of a shock.
We moved to Harrogate some ten years’ ago and on a wet Tuesday in February decided to visit the local stately pile: a place called Harewood House. This is the “seat” of the Lascelles family who made a vast fortune out of, among other things, slavery. The house is interesting enough in the way that such places are and we decided to go to the “lecture” about Lady Something-or-Other to be given in one of the rooms. When we got there we were the only two visitors and so we got a guided tour from “Susan” the lecturer. During the course of our chats I asked about the finances of such a place and the events they held there. Susan said that weddings were an important source of finance and just recently they had had a “cricket wedding”.
“A cricket wedding? Now what would that be?”
“Well.” said Susan, “have you heard of a cricketer called… Len Hutton?”
We established that we had.
“Well, his grandson got married here last week”
“Oh how interesting” (me this time) “that would be Ben, son of Richard, and recently retired as captain of Middlesex.”
“Oh” (Susan again) “you’re interested in cricket!”
“Well…” (the long-suffering Mrs A this time), “I think you could say that”.
“Well, you may have heard of my husband, Philip Sharpe.”
“Played about a dozen tests for England, one member of the great Yorkshire championship winning sides and widely regarded as the best slip fielder in the world at the time…yes we have”
“Goodness! Now, would you be interested in coming to a cricket dinner at Headingley that Philip is organising?”
We would, and we did, and have been friends of the Sharpe’s ever since.
The family home is in Wetherby and the front room more-or-less devoted to cricket. I imagine that many Googlies readers have some cricket memorabilia in their houses but it is hard to top a glass case with 12 England caps, various newspaper photographs of Phil horizontal in the air holding some breathtaking catch and a whole heap of awards and trophies. The Sharpe’s are very into amateur dramatics and hold a “pie and peas” supper after the “run” of various shows. Since a fair number of ex-Yorkshire cricketers turn up, it is an event not to be missed. Philip also organises cricket tours for Yorkshire and always seemed to have some little business venture going: they once owned a Spud-U-Like franchise. A genuinely devoted couple, Susan will be devastated by the loss, and another Yorkshire great has gone.
And then this
I went off to Headingley yesterday for the Phil Sharpe lunch. It was not quite the somber affair I had anticipated. There were about 40 people there all of whom had, at one time or another, been on a cricket tour that Philip had organised. His widow, Susan, was there and gave a little speech to say how much she appreciated everyone turning up and how pleased Philip would have been to know that the event had gone ahead and so on.
During lunch I chatted to John Helm. He is a TV/radio commentator of some 30 years or so experience and is just off to Brazil to work for FIFA. He will do commentaries for all the countries that don't send their own crews. I asked about the names and player recognition and he said he has been working on that everyday since the teams qualified. There will be goal-line technology used apparently and a nice little innovation of which John approves: the ref will carry onto the ground a little can of spray paint. When a free kick is given and the ref paces out 10 yards he will then spray a white line on the ground for the "wall" to stand behind (or not). I suggested that this might mean dozens of lines all over the place - but not so. The paint bio-degrades within two minutes. Now isn't that clever? Who says that FIFA are a load of stick in the mud, behind the times, endlessly corrupt old buffers - well everyone actually - but they have clearly been giving their collective mind to this important facet of the game.
King Cricket Matters
Ged writes:
Late season, I always try to take in a day of county cricket with my old friend, Charley “The Gent” Malloy. It helps us both to prepare for the inevitable winter withdrawal symptoms to come. By 11am we were already tucking in to sesame bagels stuffed with honey roasted salmon, washed down with a perfumed Austrian Riesling, quite similar to the German jobbie we had enjoyed at Chester-le-Street.
“I did something very metrosexual the other week; about as metrosexual as it gets”, said Charley. “Can you guess what it was?”
I looked him up and down carefully. “Nothing to do with hair gel?” I stated, more than asked. “But was it something to do with clothes?”
“Listen carefully to what I said,” instructed Charley. “I DID something. Not wore something. But that’s more than enough clues. You have until one o’clock to guess what it was.”
The puzzle felt a bit light on clues, actually, but then Charley is like a TV quiz master without quiz structure. And without prizes.
Around 12:15, Charley said to me: “Any idea yet what my uber-metrosexual deed was, then?”
“Still, pondering, Charley, still pondering,” I said. “I’ve got until one o’clock anyway, so plenty of time to mull some more and possibly even watch some cricket just now.”
“You’ve got until 12:30,” said Charley. “That’s when lunch is being taken.”
“But you said one o’clock, Charley,” I protested. “I forgot that everything is half-an-hour earlier in September,” he replied.
Just shy of 12:30, I decided to distract Charley by changing the subject. “By the way, I saw your boy on the TV the other evening, right at the end of the Women’s Ashes T20 at Chelmsford. I’m certain it was him.” Charley smiled and said: “Yup, all three of us were there; the missus too. Well done. Had you worked it out all along then?”
“Worked it out? Oh…” I winked at Charley and secretly winked at myself.
“Taking the family to women’s cricket. It doesn’t get much more metrosexual than that, does it?” effused Charley. “Shame you spotted the boy on the TV – made my puzzle too easy for you.”
“I’m sure you’ll find something more challenging for next season, Charley,” I replied.
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