G&C 162
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 162
June 2016
Caption Competition
James Vince: Dunno. Why is he like the Ancient Mariner?
Steve Finn: He stoppeth one in three.
Nick Compton: So did I.
Moeen Ali: Me too, but I did bowl one over.
Out and About with the Professor
It was very cold at Headingley…it often is. And there weren’t many people there. But the first day of the summer’s Tests has to be respected, so I put on the scarf and gloves and took my place on the north-east terrace to greet the north-east wind.
It would be difficult to imagine a less welcoming set of circumstances for the Sri Lankans: it was cold, dull, overcast and the pitch was a very attractive shade of emerald. I haven’t seen as green a track as this for many years at the Headquarters of the North but the Sri Lankans had a great success on the first day…they won the toss. Had they not, and England put them in, it would have been difficult to see how they could have made it to lunch.
I haven’t seen too many adverse comments about the track but it not only swung, it bounced and seamed. Quite how you play someone bowling at 80 plus miles an hour, on a full length, with the ball swinging and seaming both ways and occasionally bouncing like a rubber ball I’m not too sure. Does anyone know? I read some reviews that said how well the Sri Lankan seamers bowled; reducing England to 80 for 5 etc. but in reality they bowled far too many balls that didn’t need to be played. If you only had a chance to catch the highlights you would have missed just how often Cook (which is after all his natural game) and Hales (which isn’t) could watch the ball sail by. Had the Sri Lankans bowled a foot closer to the off stump it would have been more of a game.
Of course all that became irrelevant when Bairstow came in and just belted the ball all over the place. I recall writing in Googlies some years back that I thought Bairstow would make an England player and it is nice to have a prediction come true (when so many go the other way). I saw his debut for Yorkshire at Headingley and what was particularly evident was not his technique (they all have excellent techniques – by my standards - at this level) but his presence and apparent confidence at the crease. I was sitting right in front of his mum and sister (very easy to spot the Bairstow family) and they were as nervous as could be, but the son didn’t appear so. He didn’t make a great score (20 odd?…although he did make a bigger score in the second innings I seem to recall) but really looked the part and I tend to think that the ability to perform at the very highest level is as much a mental as a technical thing. However that may be he is clearly now cemented in at No.7 (since the laws of cricket require that all wicket keepers bat there). Notwithstanding the catches in this match he has a long way to go, in my view, to be an international class ‘keeper. He will always hold on to a fair proportion of snicks standing back and so, if Ali is restricted to just the one over per Test, I suppose that won’t matter too much.
Day 2 was a little warmer and more or less saw the match decided. 15 wickets and over 200 runs is a decent days cricket for most, I should have thought, and well worth the £50 ticket…although Yorkshire people rarely express such emotions. I suppose because we won and Bairstow made it look so easy that nothing will be said about the pitch. I wonder what they are writing in the Colombo Times.
Still, a crushing win for the chaps and demoralising for the visitors. They must be looking forward to the feather bed that is the Riverside.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan is a busy man at this time of year
The weather forecast was pretty dreadful for today, so I opted not to go to the Rose Bowl or the Oval, but the actual weather has been glorious all day. Not that I would have had much fun at the Rose Bowl: Middlesex chose to bowl, but had little joy, A Voges was hit on the head by a throw in (why wasn't he watching the ball?) from sub Ollie; he has concussion and will play no further part in the match. At 228-3 and down to ten men, things looked rough for Middlesex, but they fought back to have Hampshire out for 336, but then slumped to 58-3 before bad light and rain stopped play on day two. This was one of only two out of eight matches where the toss was uncontested, the other was Ng v Y at TB.
I was fearing the worst from Soton, with Simpson at 5 and Harris at 7, we could have been in big trouble, but Dawid (121), Simmo (65), Jimmy (57) and Murts (39*) did brilliantly to secure a lead of 25. I think Mx get 12 points for the draw at the Rose Bowl, which is probably as many as could be hoped as they had to play without Voges for 90% of the match. Nobody bothered to tell me who skippered in Adam's absence, but it can only have been Compton or Malan can't it? I have been searching the internet but the Middlesex website certainly does not know and the internet just shrugs its shoulders and says "dunno mate" or "how about Adam Voges?" or "Eoin Morgan, perhaps?" or "last guess: James Vince?". Pathetic! However, I now think I have tumbled what happened: no papers or websites could put the skipper's asterisk against any of the other Middlesex players, because none of them was captain! I reckon the skipper was substitute James Franklin!
Australia's George Bailey will take over from Adam Voges as Middlesex's overseas player when the latter is unavailable for a spell from the end of June.
Concussion ruled Middlesex captain Adam Voges out of the Championship match against Nottinghamshire which started at Lord's on May 8th with James Franklin coming into the side as captain and off-spinner Ollie Rayner being preferred to pace bowler Jimmy Harris. For Notts, 23 year old seamer Brett Hutton replaced their Australian pace bowler Jackson Bird. Visiting skipper Chris Read won the toss and chose to bat first on a track that looked nowhere near as green as most of those seen at Lord's in recent seasons. Tim Murtagh got Middlesex off to a great start with the wicket of ex-Lancashire man Steve Mullaney with the fifth ball of the match, but ex-Leicestershire batsman Greg Smith (29) looked good for a while in a partnership of 57 with Hillingdon boy Alex Hales. Hales's confidence began to grow after a subdued start and he shared an excellent stand of 107 with ex-England limited overs batsman Michael Lumb. Hales's innings was increasingly fluent and it was slightly surprising when he fell for 73 off 124 balls with 10 fours and a six, but Lumb continued to impress until he also fell for 78 off 124 balls with 9 fours and a six.
England allrounder Samit Patel was now into his stride and he shared a useful stand of 71 with ex-England keeper Read before the latter departed for 38. Then Hutton, born in Yorkshire, but educated in Worksop, made another handy partner for Patel in a stand of 55 for the eighth wicket before the latter unexpectedly departed right at the start of day two for a thoroughly entertaining 86 from 138 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes. It was Toby Roland-Jones who deservedly claimed Patel's wicket and he claimed another to finish with the excellent figures of 22-2-61-5 as Notts succumbed to a slightly disappointing 354 all out.
354 did not look so disappointing, however, as Middx soon slumped to 49 for 3 with Hutton claiming two wickets to add to his useful 28* at the end of the Notts innings. That was the end of the success for the visitors' bowlers, however, as Sam Robson was playing a fine innings and now he was joined by John Simpson who also started to play well in an unbroken stand of 153 before bad light and then rain put a stop to proceedings with the total on 203-3 after 62.2 overs and Robbo on 114* and Simmo on 66*. That was shortly after tea on day two and unfortunately there was no more play in the match. Sam Robson faced 206 balls and hit 17 fours, John Simpson received 126 balls and hit 11 fours and a six. Sam now averages 225.5 at Lord's this season, but his away form has not been quite so good. Middlesex took 9 points from the draw and Notts 10; Notts are third in Division 1 and Middx fifth.
With Nick Compton and Steve Finn away on England duty, Middlesex brought back skipper Adam Voges, following his concussion, and Jimmy Harris for the Championship match against Surrey starting at the Oval on May 15th. Voges won the toss, chose to bat and Middlesex got off to a good start through openers Sam Robson and Nick Gubbins. Gubbins looked in particularly fine form and runs were coming at four runs an over. Robson too kept up his good form until he departed for a classy 53 from 103 balls with 8 fours and a six following an excellent opening partnership of 126. Gubbins, who has yet to make a century in the Championship, followed for an outstanding 91 from 122 balls with 16 fours. Dawid Malan was joined by Voges and they put together an impressive 70 for the third wicket before things began to go wrong just after tea. Malan fell for an admirable 58 from 115 balls with 8 fours and Voges soon followed for an accomplished 47 off 99 balls with 6 fours and Middlesex slumped from 238-2 to 327-9, though James Franklin battled hard for his 32. Fortunately, a last wicket stand of 68 in just over an hour between Toby Roland-Jones, who looked in great form hitting 44* off 56 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes and Tim Murtagh (24) took the total to 395 all out at lunch on day 2. The successful home bowlers were seamers Tom Curran (4-113) and James Burke (3-65) and off-spinner Gareth Batty (3-97).
With an opening partnership of 40, Rory Burns and Arun Harinath made a steady start to the Surrey innings, but things changed quickly when Ollie Rayner (no doubt recalling his 15-118 in this fixture in 2013) dismissed both openers and soon 4 wickets were down for 69. Jason Roy's innings are not often described as dull, but he was in no hurry to unfurl his shots in this innings, instead he showed good judgement in building a classy 47 off 81 balls with 6 fours before he surprisingly fell to the leg-spin of Dawid Malan after keeper Ben Foakes had kept him company in a useful stand of 60 for the fifth wicket. However, Surrey soon found themselves struggling on 151 for 7 before skipper Batty (why does he bat below Tom Curran?) hit 38 with 6 fours and dominated an eighth wicket stand of 62 with Foakes. Springbok paceman Matthew Pillans hit a cheerful 20 off 20 balls before Rayner polished off the innings with the excellent figures of 36.3-7-79-6. Foakes had come to the wicket when the score was 69-4 and stuck to his task right to the end, finishing on 59* in 298 minutes off 236 balls and hit only one boundary: it was not pretty, but it was valuable and so nearly saved the follow on for his team.
Surrey were all out for 242 (four short of the follow on target) and Burns and Harinath batted again facing a deficit of 153 and finished day three on a determined 98-0 off 45 overs with Burns on 57* with 5 fours and Harinath on 37* with 4 fours. Day three had been spoiled for this spectator by the presence of thousands of screaming schoolbrats who made an excruciating racket from before the start until mid-afternoon when they finally had mercy on us and headed home: this could drive away the last few spectators. A very wet morning meant that no play was possible on day 4 with Surrey taking 9 points and Middlesex 10 in their fifth draw in 5 matches this season. Somerset have also drawn all five (Middlesex play Somerset next week at Lord's, sounds like a cracker!) as have Worcestershire, Sussex and Derbyshire in Division 2. Voges had done his best to make the breakthrough using eight bowlers (including four spinners) in both innings (unused leggies Robson and Gubbins were gutted they could not catch the skipper's eye), but even Ollie could not make a breakthrough in the second innings. Ollie has now gone to the top of the Middlesex bowling averages, while Sam is still top of the batting, of course.
Ex-Middlesex captain Chris Rogers won the toss and decided to bat in the Middlesex versus Somerset Championship match which started at Lord's on May 22nd. Middlesex were unchanged from the team that played at the Oval, but Somerset brought back bad boy Craig Overton, though twin brother and England squad man Jamie was dropped. Marcus Trescothick departed early on, but Rogers and 22 year old Tom Abell from Taunton embarked on a dull but valuable stand of 85 before Abell fell for 41 with 6 fours. This brought ex-England Lions batsman James Hildreth to the wicket and a fine stand of 136 developed before Rogers fell for a typically gutsy 109 from 211 balls with 10 fours, then two more wickets fell quickly including that of Hildreth for a classy 68 off 170 balls with 6 fours. The situation was retrieved by a valuable partnership of 113 between ex-Middlesex allrounder Peter Trego and ex-England u-19s allrounder Lewis Gregory before Trego departed for an entertaining 65 off 90 balls with 9 fours and a six. This precipitated another collapse from 346-5 to 376 all out and included the loss of Gregory for a sound 49 off 129 balls with 7 fours. Tim Murtagh bowled splendidly for his best figures of the season (5-53) and he was well supported by Toby Roland-Jones (3-69) and Ollie Rayner (2-75).
Sam Robson and Nick Gubbins got the Middlesex innings off to a brilliant start with an outstanding partnership of 198 for the first wicket before Robson surprisingly fell on the third morning for a top class 99 off 206 balls with 14 fours, but this brought his average at Lord's this season crashing down to 183.33. There followed a rather disappointing spell for Middlesex as they discovered some demons in the wicket which had not previously been apparent. Gubbins made a splendid career best 109 off 234 balls with 15 fours (his first ever ton in the Championship), but suddenly 5 wickets were down for 252. Paul Stirling led the recovery and received good support from Rayner in a seventh wicket partnership of 79. Ollie fell for 26 and Stirling followed for a very impressive 85 off 132 balls with 11 fours and a six (this was his highest score in the Championship and the quality of his strokeplay suggested that he should be batting higher in the order) and the innings finally closed early on day four for 423. Accurate slow left armer Jack Leach deserved his fine figures of 5 for 77, while Aussie Jim Allenby picked up 3 for 51 with his medium pace. A lead of 47 was not enough for Middlesex to be confident of winning, but they bowled well in very ordinary light and soon big names like Trescothick and Rogers were back in the hutch and 4 wickets were down for only 57. However, Hildreth and Trego joined forces in a praiseworthy stand of 99 for the fifth wicket before Trego fell after another fine effort of 58 from 80 balls with 6 fours and a six and the two more wickets fell very quickly to leave Somerset struggling again on 158 for 7. However, that man Hildreth was still there and now he found a useful ally in Overton and Middlesex's chances were slipping away. The umpires realised there was little prospect of a result and soon after tea offered the light to the visiting batsmen (though the light was actually no worse than it had been all day) with the score on 202-7 and, of course, they accepted.
Hildreth finished on an excellent 85* off 146 balls with 11 fours and emphasised once again how unlucky he has been to have got no closer to the England Test team than a solitary Lions tour. Hildreth's career first class batting average is 43.91 and I looked up the batting averages of several near contemporaries selected for England (mainly) for their batting and this is what I found: Ravi Bopara 40.97; Paul Collingwood 36.01; Nick Compton 43.00; Alex Hales 38.71; Rob Key 40.45; Adam Lyth 40.46; Sam Robson 37.87; Owais Shah 41.94; Ben Stokes 34.14; Marcus Trescothick 42.01; James Vince 41.15: so what did Hildy do wrong? Rayner was the star of the bowling attack with 4 for 56 and Murtagh again bowled well for 2 for 33 and 7 for 86 in the match. John Simpson took 5 catches behind the stumps in the match. Middlesex took 9 points from the draw and Somerset 10. Both teams have now drawn all 6 matches and are fifth (Middlesex) and sixth (Somerset) in the first division table.
King Cricket Matters
Alex Bowden expands on what everyone is thinking
Some have questioned why Tests are scheduled for the North of England in May. The weather has been used as one argument against doing so, but attendances have earned a few mentions too. Let’s take a look at where Test cricket is played in England and when, and examine the merits of the Test schedule we have at present.
Jonathan Agnew asked why we play Test cricket in the North of England in spring in a recent BBC column. To be fair to Agnew, he isn’t advocating spurning that half of the country altogether, but shuffling Tests about so that northern Tests take place later in the year.“I don’t understand why Sri Lanka have been sent to Leeds and Durham for these opening two Tests.“You could say that the cold, grey conditions quite likely in the north of England at this part of the year give the hosts their best chance of winning – but there’s much more to it than that.”
Agnew goes on to argue that such scheduling is not what’s best for Test cricket because it exaggerates England’s home advantage and the matches can therefore sometimes become less of a spectacle. To answer Agnew’s implicit question one reason to play in the North of England in spring is because it’s actually a drier time of year, so spectators are less likely to experience rain interruptions. According to Met Office figures, the average precipitation in Durham is 44.2mm in May and 60.8mm in August (raining on 9.2 days in May and 9.6 days in August).Manchester gets 54.8mm in May and 79.4mm in August; Leeds gets 65.2mm in May and 81.1mm in August; while Nottingham (if that’s the North) gets 51.8mm in May and 62mm in August.
But does the weather negatively affect the cricket? The conventional wisdom that it swings more when it’s cloudy shouldn’t really apply. Going by the figures above, it’s not really greyer in the North in spring. Even allowing for heavier rain in the summer months, it’s probably on balance less grey.
It is colder though – more so in the east – and this matters because it means pitches aren’t as dry and a juicy pitch will tend to seam more. You could argue that seaming conditions are as valid as any other, but this is, perhaps, another argument that could easily run to a full length article in its own right. A related point, voiced recently by MCC President Roger Knight, is that Test cricket is ‘thriving’ in London in May and not elsewhere. This is to a great extent true. But why? An obvious reason is that London has a bigger catchment area (or, more accurately, a larger catchment population). A simplistic conclusion might also be that this area is more interested in seeing live Test cricket than others. We’d temper the latter with another point though.
If you regularly watch Test cricket at Lord’s, there’s a very simple thought process at the start of each year: who’s touring and do you want to see them? If the answer is yes, you then decide which day of the Test you would like to attend. Every touring side plays a Test at Lord’s, both Tests start on a Thursday and barring unusual circumstances, one will always be the first Test of summer. Across the city, it isn’t much more complicated. The Oval always hosts a Test, it is usually the last of summer and as often as not, it starts on a Thursday. Test attendances at The Oval aren’t quite as reliable as at Lord’s.
Now let’s take a look elsewhere. The following thought process applies to pretty much any of the nation’s other Test venues. Who’s touring this year? Is either side playing a Test at your local ground? If so, in what month and on what day does the match start? It’s not fiendishly complicated, but with every question you lose a bunch of people. If you want to sell something, you make the transaction as straightforward as possible.
We could also get into the cost of hosting a Test match and what northern grounds can charge for tickets versus what grounds in the south-east can charge. The ECB’s bidding process is not just about money, so there’s more to it than that. Nevertheless, speaking as someone living in ‘the regions’, Test tickets now cost more than we’re really happy to spend. We would hazard a guess that the proportion of people who feel similarly has been growing at a faster rate in the North than in the South-East.
Toss Matters
The Great Jack Morgan assesses the situation
I am starting to think that the improvement in pitches caused by the uncontested tosses is going to be a total disaster. No home teams are going to want to present a greentop to the visitors, so they are preparing good batting tracks, which sounds like a good idea, but as the notion of the challenging declaration went out some years ago, we are getting tedious draws all over the country. Assuming Middlesex do not contrive to lose at the Rose Bowl, they will have had 3 boring draws out of 3. The normal reaction to this would have been to make sure a nice "sporting" track was prepared for the next home game on Sunday (Notts), but this is no longer a good idea, so we will probably get another bore-draw and this situation will continue throughout the season. We should all have known this was going to happen. Five day county cricket anyone?
I wrote that para about the uncontested tosses yesterday afternoon, but after that the Ng v Y game suddenly came to life when the Yorkies, thinking they had made the game safe with 8 wickets in hand, suddenly thought they might as well have a crack at getting the 176 needed to win in 20 overs, but things did not go to plan and no 11 Brooks had to keep out the last 2 balls to ensure the draw with 9 wkts down! There have only been 2 results in Division 1 this season.
Isterling Matters
John Isterling would like to see more coverage of club cricket in these pages. If anyone would like to submit any material I will be happy to include it.
In memoriam
I received this from Robin Ager
Bob Peach rang me yesterday about the recent death of Peter Dickson, so I imagine that it is a fairly well-known fact. But I just thought it was worth alerting you to it, as I am sure you will have a number of readers who will have known him. As others may have told you, he played for Turnham Green, South Hampstead and Teddington, and was President of the last-named for a number of years. He also got involved with Cobham Rugby Club and was a business partner of Russell Bowes.
Last Over Matters
Cricket Badger has the answer to the question the whole world of cricket has been asking
Ben Stokes: People say, why didn’t you bowl yorkers? And I’m like, ‘Well, I was fcking trying to bowl fcking yorkers, you dickheads.
I thought so.
Jake Ball upon learning he had been selected for England's Test squad.
“I met Trevor this morning and bumped into him in a corridor in my Notts gear and shook his hand and I don’t think he quite knew who I was. I passed him, went up and got my England kit and he said: ‘It’s Jake isn’t it?’
Ged Matters
Ged writes:
I prepared a splendid picnic, though I say so myself, for me and Daisy to enjoy on the Saturday of the Lord’s Ashes Test. Breakfast muffins stuffed with juicy coriander prawns was the centrepiece of the midday feast. The main event, though, was focaccia-wiches, containing Big Al deLarge’s latest discovery of amazing Parma ham. Following a successful use of the latter fare the previous week, when Dave The DJ came round to my place for a guitar/ukulele jam, Daisy was envious as crazy and expected nothing less.
These days, Daisy and I choose to hide from the sun in the “unfashionable but good for priority bookers” front reaches of the Lower Edrich. This time we were surrounded by delightful Middlesex CCC people, many of whom we knew at least by name from the internet radio and website chats in years gone by. It was like an impromptu gathering of the e-clan.
Mid-afternoon, I ventured alone round to the posh side for a pee. As I have reported many times before, you get a better class of floor piss round there. But as I approached the Tavern Stand loo, I saw that Mr Johnny Friendly, who had sent me and Daisy the MCC Rules of Real Tennis only a few weeks previously, was standing in the doorway, engrossed in reading his electronic tablet. It seemed to me, momentarily, that I was always running into Mr Friendly in or near those toilets and that he might mistake my repeated presence as sinister, or perhaps a quest for additional gifts. As he was deeply engrossed and I was sure he hadn’t seen me, I decided to save embarrassment by walking a little further round to the Allen Stand loo instead.
When I got back to our stand and reported my sighting to Daisy, she was most put out. “But supposing Mr Friendly did see you? He would surely see your lack of acknowledgement as a snub – and after he has shown us such kindness in the matter of Real Tennis. Surely the correct etiquette now would be for you to write and apologise profusely to Mr Friendly for your rudeness.”
I said that I thought the correct etiquette in the circumstances would be to forget the whole thing. But, you see, I come from the wrong kind of family and only went a few modest steps up the lower rungs of the social ladder by winning a scholarship to almost the right kind of school. Do not scorn or reproach me, dear reader – pity me.
Daisy was both unsure and upset. “Oh drains to oiky pater and that common, lawn tennis court he built for us. Why couldn’t we have had the real thing, then none of this Mr Friendly dilemma would have happened?”
There was no point consulting the good folk of Middlesex CCC around us. Good, honest, stout yeo-folk to be sure, but not the sort of people equipped to advise us on etiquette paradoxes. Where are the MCC posh boys when you need them?
“I know how we can resolve this dispute,” I said. “Let’s consult Jane Austen…”
… by which I meant the Complete Works of Jane Austen, which we always have to hand on our e-book readers. Unfortunately, Daisy misunderstood me and got straight on the mobile to Jane Austin, sister of the mighty Ian Austin, the greatest all-round cricketer that Baxenden CC, nay, perhaps even the whole of the Ribblesdale League, has ever produced. Daisy asked Jane Austin her etiquette question, listened politely to the answer, said: “Thank you very much indeed,” then put the phone down.
“What did she say?” I asked.
“Art tawkin’ ter me or chewin’ a brick?” said Daisy.
“I think that means she agrees with me,” I concluded.
Stroke Matters
Eric Tracey sent me this
As you may be aware the Stroke Association, where I am a trustee, is campaigning for a new national stroke strategy to be adopted by the Government. The current stroke strategy is coming to an end and there are no plans to introduce a new one. Let’s make the voice of stroke survivors be heard by Parliament . If you have not already done so, please follow the link below to sign the UK Government and Parliament Petition calling on the Government to commit to a new national stroke strategy. Together we can conquer stroke.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/129830
Old Danes Gathering
There will be an Old Danes Gathering at Shepherds Bush Cricket Club on Friday 29 July 2016. All Old Danes, spouses and friends will be welcome as this is not a cricketer only event. The event will commence around 2pm and will continue into the evening or until everyone has left! The bar will be open throughout.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 162
June 2016
Caption Competition
- Steve Finn: Why is Jonny Bairstow like the Ancient Mariner?
James Vince: Dunno. Why is he like the Ancient Mariner?
Steve Finn: He stoppeth one in three.
- Joe Root: Shit game, I got 0.
Nick Compton: So did I.
Moeen Ali: Me too, but I did bowl one over.
- James Vince: Are test matches all like that?
- James Vince: Do we get paid for all five days?
- Fred Trueman: Ya’ll never get wickets bowling up the hill, lad.
- Joe Root: Look out, here comes Jonathan Agnew.
Out and About with the Professor
It was very cold at Headingley…it often is. And there weren’t many people there. But the first day of the summer’s Tests has to be respected, so I put on the scarf and gloves and took my place on the north-east terrace to greet the north-east wind.
It would be difficult to imagine a less welcoming set of circumstances for the Sri Lankans: it was cold, dull, overcast and the pitch was a very attractive shade of emerald. I haven’t seen as green a track as this for many years at the Headquarters of the North but the Sri Lankans had a great success on the first day…they won the toss. Had they not, and England put them in, it would have been difficult to see how they could have made it to lunch.
I haven’t seen too many adverse comments about the track but it not only swung, it bounced and seamed. Quite how you play someone bowling at 80 plus miles an hour, on a full length, with the ball swinging and seaming both ways and occasionally bouncing like a rubber ball I’m not too sure. Does anyone know? I read some reviews that said how well the Sri Lankan seamers bowled; reducing England to 80 for 5 etc. but in reality they bowled far too many balls that didn’t need to be played. If you only had a chance to catch the highlights you would have missed just how often Cook (which is after all his natural game) and Hales (which isn’t) could watch the ball sail by. Had the Sri Lankans bowled a foot closer to the off stump it would have been more of a game.
Of course all that became irrelevant when Bairstow came in and just belted the ball all over the place. I recall writing in Googlies some years back that I thought Bairstow would make an England player and it is nice to have a prediction come true (when so many go the other way). I saw his debut for Yorkshire at Headingley and what was particularly evident was not his technique (they all have excellent techniques – by my standards - at this level) but his presence and apparent confidence at the crease. I was sitting right in front of his mum and sister (very easy to spot the Bairstow family) and they were as nervous as could be, but the son didn’t appear so. He didn’t make a great score (20 odd?…although he did make a bigger score in the second innings I seem to recall) but really looked the part and I tend to think that the ability to perform at the very highest level is as much a mental as a technical thing. However that may be he is clearly now cemented in at No.7 (since the laws of cricket require that all wicket keepers bat there). Notwithstanding the catches in this match he has a long way to go, in my view, to be an international class ‘keeper. He will always hold on to a fair proportion of snicks standing back and so, if Ali is restricted to just the one over per Test, I suppose that won’t matter too much.
Day 2 was a little warmer and more or less saw the match decided. 15 wickets and over 200 runs is a decent days cricket for most, I should have thought, and well worth the £50 ticket…although Yorkshire people rarely express such emotions. I suppose because we won and Bairstow made it look so easy that nothing will be said about the pitch. I wonder what they are writing in the Colombo Times.
Still, a crushing win for the chaps and demoralising for the visitors. They must be looking forward to the feather bed that is the Riverside.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan is a busy man at this time of year
The weather forecast was pretty dreadful for today, so I opted not to go to the Rose Bowl or the Oval, but the actual weather has been glorious all day. Not that I would have had much fun at the Rose Bowl: Middlesex chose to bowl, but had little joy, A Voges was hit on the head by a throw in (why wasn't he watching the ball?) from sub Ollie; he has concussion and will play no further part in the match. At 228-3 and down to ten men, things looked rough for Middlesex, but they fought back to have Hampshire out for 336, but then slumped to 58-3 before bad light and rain stopped play on day two. This was one of only two out of eight matches where the toss was uncontested, the other was Ng v Y at TB.
I was fearing the worst from Soton, with Simpson at 5 and Harris at 7, we could have been in big trouble, but Dawid (121), Simmo (65), Jimmy (57) and Murts (39*) did brilliantly to secure a lead of 25. I think Mx get 12 points for the draw at the Rose Bowl, which is probably as many as could be hoped as they had to play without Voges for 90% of the match. Nobody bothered to tell me who skippered in Adam's absence, but it can only have been Compton or Malan can't it? I have been searching the internet but the Middlesex website certainly does not know and the internet just shrugs its shoulders and says "dunno mate" or "how about Adam Voges?" or "Eoin Morgan, perhaps?" or "last guess: James Vince?". Pathetic! However, I now think I have tumbled what happened: no papers or websites could put the skipper's asterisk against any of the other Middlesex players, because none of them was captain! I reckon the skipper was substitute James Franklin!
Australia's George Bailey will take over from Adam Voges as Middlesex's overseas player when the latter is unavailable for a spell from the end of June.
Concussion ruled Middlesex captain Adam Voges out of the Championship match against Nottinghamshire which started at Lord's on May 8th with James Franklin coming into the side as captain and off-spinner Ollie Rayner being preferred to pace bowler Jimmy Harris. For Notts, 23 year old seamer Brett Hutton replaced their Australian pace bowler Jackson Bird. Visiting skipper Chris Read won the toss and chose to bat first on a track that looked nowhere near as green as most of those seen at Lord's in recent seasons. Tim Murtagh got Middlesex off to a great start with the wicket of ex-Lancashire man Steve Mullaney with the fifth ball of the match, but ex-Leicestershire batsman Greg Smith (29) looked good for a while in a partnership of 57 with Hillingdon boy Alex Hales. Hales's confidence began to grow after a subdued start and he shared an excellent stand of 107 with ex-England limited overs batsman Michael Lumb. Hales's innings was increasingly fluent and it was slightly surprising when he fell for 73 off 124 balls with 10 fours and a six, but Lumb continued to impress until he also fell for 78 off 124 balls with 9 fours and a six.
England allrounder Samit Patel was now into his stride and he shared a useful stand of 71 with ex-England keeper Read before the latter departed for 38. Then Hutton, born in Yorkshire, but educated in Worksop, made another handy partner for Patel in a stand of 55 for the eighth wicket before the latter unexpectedly departed right at the start of day two for a thoroughly entertaining 86 from 138 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes. It was Toby Roland-Jones who deservedly claimed Patel's wicket and he claimed another to finish with the excellent figures of 22-2-61-5 as Notts succumbed to a slightly disappointing 354 all out.
354 did not look so disappointing, however, as Middx soon slumped to 49 for 3 with Hutton claiming two wickets to add to his useful 28* at the end of the Notts innings. That was the end of the success for the visitors' bowlers, however, as Sam Robson was playing a fine innings and now he was joined by John Simpson who also started to play well in an unbroken stand of 153 before bad light and then rain put a stop to proceedings with the total on 203-3 after 62.2 overs and Robbo on 114* and Simmo on 66*. That was shortly after tea on day two and unfortunately there was no more play in the match. Sam Robson faced 206 balls and hit 17 fours, John Simpson received 126 balls and hit 11 fours and a six. Sam now averages 225.5 at Lord's this season, but his away form has not been quite so good. Middlesex took 9 points from the draw and Notts 10; Notts are third in Division 1 and Middx fifth.
With Nick Compton and Steve Finn away on England duty, Middlesex brought back skipper Adam Voges, following his concussion, and Jimmy Harris for the Championship match against Surrey starting at the Oval on May 15th. Voges won the toss, chose to bat and Middlesex got off to a good start through openers Sam Robson and Nick Gubbins. Gubbins looked in particularly fine form and runs were coming at four runs an over. Robson too kept up his good form until he departed for a classy 53 from 103 balls with 8 fours and a six following an excellent opening partnership of 126. Gubbins, who has yet to make a century in the Championship, followed for an outstanding 91 from 122 balls with 16 fours. Dawid Malan was joined by Voges and they put together an impressive 70 for the third wicket before things began to go wrong just after tea. Malan fell for an admirable 58 from 115 balls with 8 fours and Voges soon followed for an accomplished 47 off 99 balls with 6 fours and Middlesex slumped from 238-2 to 327-9, though James Franklin battled hard for his 32. Fortunately, a last wicket stand of 68 in just over an hour between Toby Roland-Jones, who looked in great form hitting 44* off 56 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes and Tim Murtagh (24) took the total to 395 all out at lunch on day 2. The successful home bowlers were seamers Tom Curran (4-113) and James Burke (3-65) and off-spinner Gareth Batty (3-97).
With an opening partnership of 40, Rory Burns and Arun Harinath made a steady start to the Surrey innings, but things changed quickly when Ollie Rayner (no doubt recalling his 15-118 in this fixture in 2013) dismissed both openers and soon 4 wickets were down for 69. Jason Roy's innings are not often described as dull, but he was in no hurry to unfurl his shots in this innings, instead he showed good judgement in building a classy 47 off 81 balls with 6 fours before he surprisingly fell to the leg-spin of Dawid Malan after keeper Ben Foakes had kept him company in a useful stand of 60 for the fifth wicket. However, Surrey soon found themselves struggling on 151 for 7 before skipper Batty (why does he bat below Tom Curran?) hit 38 with 6 fours and dominated an eighth wicket stand of 62 with Foakes. Springbok paceman Matthew Pillans hit a cheerful 20 off 20 balls before Rayner polished off the innings with the excellent figures of 36.3-7-79-6. Foakes had come to the wicket when the score was 69-4 and stuck to his task right to the end, finishing on 59* in 298 minutes off 236 balls and hit only one boundary: it was not pretty, but it was valuable and so nearly saved the follow on for his team.
Surrey were all out for 242 (four short of the follow on target) and Burns and Harinath batted again facing a deficit of 153 and finished day three on a determined 98-0 off 45 overs with Burns on 57* with 5 fours and Harinath on 37* with 4 fours. Day three had been spoiled for this spectator by the presence of thousands of screaming schoolbrats who made an excruciating racket from before the start until mid-afternoon when they finally had mercy on us and headed home: this could drive away the last few spectators. A very wet morning meant that no play was possible on day 4 with Surrey taking 9 points and Middlesex 10 in their fifth draw in 5 matches this season. Somerset have also drawn all five (Middlesex play Somerset next week at Lord's, sounds like a cracker!) as have Worcestershire, Sussex and Derbyshire in Division 2. Voges had done his best to make the breakthrough using eight bowlers (including four spinners) in both innings (unused leggies Robson and Gubbins were gutted they could not catch the skipper's eye), but even Ollie could not make a breakthrough in the second innings. Ollie has now gone to the top of the Middlesex bowling averages, while Sam is still top of the batting, of course.
Ex-Middlesex captain Chris Rogers won the toss and decided to bat in the Middlesex versus Somerset Championship match which started at Lord's on May 22nd. Middlesex were unchanged from the team that played at the Oval, but Somerset brought back bad boy Craig Overton, though twin brother and England squad man Jamie was dropped. Marcus Trescothick departed early on, but Rogers and 22 year old Tom Abell from Taunton embarked on a dull but valuable stand of 85 before Abell fell for 41 with 6 fours. This brought ex-England Lions batsman James Hildreth to the wicket and a fine stand of 136 developed before Rogers fell for a typically gutsy 109 from 211 balls with 10 fours, then two more wickets fell quickly including that of Hildreth for a classy 68 off 170 balls with 6 fours. The situation was retrieved by a valuable partnership of 113 between ex-Middlesex allrounder Peter Trego and ex-England u-19s allrounder Lewis Gregory before Trego departed for an entertaining 65 off 90 balls with 9 fours and a six. This precipitated another collapse from 346-5 to 376 all out and included the loss of Gregory for a sound 49 off 129 balls with 7 fours. Tim Murtagh bowled splendidly for his best figures of the season (5-53) and he was well supported by Toby Roland-Jones (3-69) and Ollie Rayner (2-75).
Sam Robson and Nick Gubbins got the Middlesex innings off to a brilliant start with an outstanding partnership of 198 for the first wicket before Robson surprisingly fell on the third morning for a top class 99 off 206 balls with 14 fours, but this brought his average at Lord's this season crashing down to 183.33. There followed a rather disappointing spell for Middlesex as they discovered some demons in the wicket which had not previously been apparent. Gubbins made a splendid career best 109 off 234 balls with 15 fours (his first ever ton in the Championship), but suddenly 5 wickets were down for 252. Paul Stirling led the recovery and received good support from Rayner in a seventh wicket partnership of 79. Ollie fell for 26 and Stirling followed for a very impressive 85 off 132 balls with 11 fours and a six (this was his highest score in the Championship and the quality of his strokeplay suggested that he should be batting higher in the order) and the innings finally closed early on day four for 423. Accurate slow left armer Jack Leach deserved his fine figures of 5 for 77, while Aussie Jim Allenby picked up 3 for 51 with his medium pace. A lead of 47 was not enough for Middlesex to be confident of winning, but they bowled well in very ordinary light and soon big names like Trescothick and Rogers were back in the hutch and 4 wickets were down for only 57. However, Hildreth and Trego joined forces in a praiseworthy stand of 99 for the fifth wicket before Trego fell after another fine effort of 58 from 80 balls with 6 fours and a six and the two more wickets fell very quickly to leave Somerset struggling again on 158 for 7. However, that man Hildreth was still there and now he found a useful ally in Overton and Middlesex's chances were slipping away. The umpires realised there was little prospect of a result and soon after tea offered the light to the visiting batsmen (though the light was actually no worse than it had been all day) with the score on 202-7 and, of course, they accepted.
Hildreth finished on an excellent 85* off 146 balls with 11 fours and emphasised once again how unlucky he has been to have got no closer to the England Test team than a solitary Lions tour. Hildreth's career first class batting average is 43.91 and I looked up the batting averages of several near contemporaries selected for England (mainly) for their batting and this is what I found: Ravi Bopara 40.97; Paul Collingwood 36.01; Nick Compton 43.00; Alex Hales 38.71; Rob Key 40.45; Adam Lyth 40.46; Sam Robson 37.87; Owais Shah 41.94; Ben Stokes 34.14; Marcus Trescothick 42.01; James Vince 41.15: so what did Hildy do wrong? Rayner was the star of the bowling attack with 4 for 56 and Murtagh again bowled well for 2 for 33 and 7 for 86 in the match. John Simpson took 5 catches behind the stumps in the match. Middlesex took 9 points from the draw and Somerset 10. Both teams have now drawn all 6 matches and are fifth (Middlesex) and sixth (Somerset) in the first division table.
King Cricket Matters
Alex Bowden expands on what everyone is thinking
Some have questioned why Tests are scheduled for the North of England in May. The weather has been used as one argument against doing so, but attendances have earned a few mentions too. Let’s take a look at where Test cricket is played in England and when, and examine the merits of the Test schedule we have at present.
Jonathan Agnew asked why we play Test cricket in the North of England in spring in a recent BBC column. To be fair to Agnew, he isn’t advocating spurning that half of the country altogether, but shuffling Tests about so that northern Tests take place later in the year.“I don’t understand why Sri Lanka have been sent to Leeds and Durham for these opening two Tests.“You could say that the cold, grey conditions quite likely in the north of England at this part of the year give the hosts their best chance of winning – but there’s much more to it than that.”
Agnew goes on to argue that such scheduling is not what’s best for Test cricket because it exaggerates England’s home advantage and the matches can therefore sometimes become less of a spectacle. To answer Agnew’s implicit question one reason to play in the North of England in spring is because it’s actually a drier time of year, so spectators are less likely to experience rain interruptions. According to Met Office figures, the average precipitation in Durham is 44.2mm in May and 60.8mm in August (raining on 9.2 days in May and 9.6 days in August).Manchester gets 54.8mm in May and 79.4mm in August; Leeds gets 65.2mm in May and 81.1mm in August; while Nottingham (if that’s the North) gets 51.8mm in May and 62mm in August.
But does the weather negatively affect the cricket? The conventional wisdom that it swings more when it’s cloudy shouldn’t really apply. Going by the figures above, it’s not really greyer in the North in spring. Even allowing for heavier rain in the summer months, it’s probably on balance less grey.
It is colder though – more so in the east – and this matters because it means pitches aren’t as dry and a juicy pitch will tend to seam more. You could argue that seaming conditions are as valid as any other, but this is, perhaps, another argument that could easily run to a full length article in its own right. A related point, voiced recently by MCC President Roger Knight, is that Test cricket is ‘thriving’ in London in May and not elsewhere. This is to a great extent true. But why? An obvious reason is that London has a bigger catchment area (or, more accurately, a larger catchment population). A simplistic conclusion might also be that this area is more interested in seeing live Test cricket than others. We’d temper the latter with another point though.
If you regularly watch Test cricket at Lord’s, there’s a very simple thought process at the start of each year: who’s touring and do you want to see them? If the answer is yes, you then decide which day of the Test you would like to attend. Every touring side plays a Test at Lord’s, both Tests start on a Thursday and barring unusual circumstances, one will always be the first Test of summer. Across the city, it isn’t much more complicated. The Oval always hosts a Test, it is usually the last of summer and as often as not, it starts on a Thursday. Test attendances at The Oval aren’t quite as reliable as at Lord’s.
Now let’s take a look elsewhere. The following thought process applies to pretty much any of the nation’s other Test venues. Who’s touring this year? Is either side playing a Test at your local ground? If so, in what month and on what day does the match start? It’s not fiendishly complicated, but with every question you lose a bunch of people. If you want to sell something, you make the transaction as straightforward as possible.
We could also get into the cost of hosting a Test match and what northern grounds can charge for tickets versus what grounds in the south-east can charge. The ECB’s bidding process is not just about money, so there’s more to it than that. Nevertheless, speaking as someone living in ‘the regions’, Test tickets now cost more than we’re really happy to spend. We would hazard a guess that the proportion of people who feel similarly has been growing at a faster rate in the North than in the South-East.
Toss Matters
The Great Jack Morgan assesses the situation
I am starting to think that the improvement in pitches caused by the uncontested tosses is going to be a total disaster. No home teams are going to want to present a greentop to the visitors, so they are preparing good batting tracks, which sounds like a good idea, but as the notion of the challenging declaration went out some years ago, we are getting tedious draws all over the country. Assuming Middlesex do not contrive to lose at the Rose Bowl, they will have had 3 boring draws out of 3. The normal reaction to this would have been to make sure a nice "sporting" track was prepared for the next home game on Sunday (Notts), but this is no longer a good idea, so we will probably get another bore-draw and this situation will continue throughout the season. We should all have known this was going to happen. Five day county cricket anyone?
I wrote that para about the uncontested tosses yesterday afternoon, but after that the Ng v Y game suddenly came to life when the Yorkies, thinking they had made the game safe with 8 wickets in hand, suddenly thought they might as well have a crack at getting the 176 needed to win in 20 overs, but things did not go to plan and no 11 Brooks had to keep out the last 2 balls to ensure the draw with 9 wkts down! There have only been 2 results in Division 1 this season.
Isterling Matters
John Isterling would like to see more coverage of club cricket in these pages. If anyone would like to submit any material I will be happy to include it.
In memoriam
I received this from Robin Ager
Bob Peach rang me yesterday about the recent death of Peter Dickson, so I imagine that it is a fairly well-known fact. But I just thought it was worth alerting you to it, as I am sure you will have a number of readers who will have known him. As others may have told you, he played for Turnham Green, South Hampstead and Teddington, and was President of the last-named for a number of years. He also got involved with Cobham Rugby Club and was a business partner of Russell Bowes.
Last Over Matters
Cricket Badger has the answer to the question the whole world of cricket has been asking
Ben Stokes: People say, why didn’t you bowl yorkers? And I’m like, ‘Well, I was fcking trying to bowl fcking yorkers, you dickheads.
I thought so.
Jake Ball upon learning he had been selected for England's Test squad.
“I met Trevor this morning and bumped into him in a corridor in my Notts gear and shook his hand and I don’t think he quite knew who I was. I passed him, went up and got my England kit and he said: ‘It’s Jake isn’t it?’
Ged Matters
Ged writes:
I prepared a splendid picnic, though I say so myself, for me and Daisy to enjoy on the Saturday of the Lord’s Ashes Test. Breakfast muffins stuffed with juicy coriander prawns was the centrepiece of the midday feast. The main event, though, was focaccia-wiches, containing Big Al deLarge’s latest discovery of amazing Parma ham. Following a successful use of the latter fare the previous week, when Dave The DJ came round to my place for a guitar/ukulele jam, Daisy was envious as crazy and expected nothing less.
These days, Daisy and I choose to hide from the sun in the “unfashionable but good for priority bookers” front reaches of the Lower Edrich. This time we were surrounded by delightful Middlesex CCC people, many of whom we knew at least by name from the internet radio and website chats in years gone by. It was like an impromptu gathering of the e-clan.
Mid-afternoon, I ventured alone round to the posh side for a pee. As I have reported many times before, you get a better class of floor piss round there. But as I approached the Tavern Stand loo, I saw that Mr Johnny Friendly, who had sent me and Daisy the MCC Rules of Real Tennis only a few weeks previously, was standing in the doorway, engrossed in reading his electronic tablet. It seemed to me, momentarily, that I was always running into Mr Friendly in or near those toilets and that he might mistake my repeated presence as sinister, or perhaps a quest for additional gifts. As he was deeply engrossed and I was sure he hadn’t seen me, I decided to save embarrassment by walking a little further round to the Allen Stand loo instead.
When I got back to our stand and reported my sighting to Daisy, she was most put out. “But supposing Mr Friendly did see you? He would surely see your lack of acknowledgement as a snub – and after he has shown us such kindness in the matter of Real Tennis. Surely the correct etiquette now would be for you to write and apologise profusely to Mr Friendly for your rudeness.”
I said that I thought the correct etiquette in the circumstances would be to forget the whole thing. But, you see, I come from the wrong kind of family and only went a few modest steps up the lower rungs of the social ladder by winning a scholarship to almost the right kind of school. Do not scorn or reproach me, dear reader – pity me.
Daisy was both unsure and upset. “Oh drains to oiky pater and that common, lawn tennis court he built for us. Why couldn’t we have had the real thing, then none of this Mr Friendly dilemma would have happened?”
There was no point consulting the good folk of Middlesex CCC around us. Good, honest, stout yeo-folk to be sure, but not the sort of people equipped to advise us on etiquette paradoxes. Where are the MCC posh boys when you need them?
“I know how we can resolve this dispute,” I said. “Let’s consult Jane Austen…”
… by which I meant the Complete Works of Jane Austen, which we always have to hand on our e-book readers. Unfortunately, Daisy misunderstood me and got straight on the mobile to Jane Austin, sister of the mighty Ian Austin, the greatest all-round cricketer that Baxenden CC, nay, perhaps even the whole of the Ribblesdale League, has ever produced. Daisy asked Jane Austin her etiquette question, listened politely to the answer, said: “Thank you very much indeed,” then put the phone down.
“What did she say?” I asked.
“Art tawkin’ ter me or chewin’ a brick?” said Daisy.
“I think that means she agrees with me,” I concluded.
Stroke Matters
Eric Tracey sent me this
As you may be aware the Stroke Association, where I am a trustee, is campaigning for a new national stroke strategy to be adopted by the Government. The current stroke strategy is coming to an end and there are no plans to introduce a new one. Let’s make the voice of stroke survivors be heard by Parliament . If you have not already done so, please follow the link below to sign the UK Government and Parliament Petition calling on the Government to commit to a new national stroke strategy. Together we can conquer stroke.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/129830
Old Danes Gathering
There will be an Old Danes Gathering at Shepherds Bush Cricket Club on Friday 29 July 2016. All Old Danes, spouses and friends will be welcome as this is not a cricketer only event. The event will commence around 2pm and will continue into the evening or until everyone has left! The bar will be open throughout.
Googlies and Chinamen
is produced by
James Sharp
Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
Tel: 01298 70237
Email: [email protected]
www.googliesandchinamen.com
