G&C 178
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 178
October 2017
Caption Competition
1.Paul Stirling: Relegation ain’t so bad. Most of us will get picked up by First Division counties, won’t we?
Nick Compton: You think?
2. Paul Stirling: Will the MCC continue to let us play at Lord’s next year?
3. Paul Stirling: Did we get points deducted for visiting the MBargo Club?
4. Angus Fraser: OK, who pulled their weight this season? Who averaged over 40 with the bat?
Sam Robson: Not me.
Nick Gubbins: Not me.
Adam Voges: Not me.
Dawid Malan: Not me.
Stevie Eskinazi: Not me.
John Simpson: Not me.
Nick Compton: Not me.
James Franklin: Not me.
Paul Stirling: Does that include matches for Ireland?
Angus Fraser: So, you are telling me it was a bowlers’ year, are you? Then, who took over forty wickets?
Tim Murtagh: Not me.
Steven Finn: Not me.
Toby Roland-Jones: Not me.
Tom Helm: Not me.
James Harris: Not me.
Ollie Rayner: Not me.
James Franklin: Not me.
5. James Franklin: Hey Gus, why don’t we merge with Durham for next season?
Out and About with the Professor
Anyone involved in club cricket knows that there are highs and lows. Actually, anyone involved in club cricket knows that there are lots of lows and the very occasional high.
So, I’m delighted to be able to report a very considerable high for my club side.
I joined Welwyn Garden City cricket club in 1971. It was the Club’s 50th anniversary which, I have to say, I found rather surprising, thinking, as I did then, of WGC as a “new town”. The First XI captain at the time was Ian MacLaurin who has since occupied the somewhat less prestigious position of President of the MCC. Ian was a fine club cricketer: an aggressive middle order bat, an excellent slipper and an economical bowler of what he called left-arm “spin”. Economical, I always thought, because batsmen spent considerable amounts of time waiting for the ball to diverge more than an inch or two off the pitch. He was also – as might be imagined – a very effective captain. It was a very decent side and, arguably, the best side in Hertfordshire at that time (pre-League days, of course).
Ian effectively retired from cricket in the early 1970s to devote all his attention to running a grocery store and in the many years that followed numerous captains came and went (including your correspondent) and highs and lows were regularly (if not evenly) experienced. Last Saturday, we had a high.
Welwyn play in the Hertfordshire League which is one of the 25 or so (I haven’t counted) ECB recognised leagues whose results are given each week in The Cricket Paper. (There is, parenthetically, no real way of knowing the comparative strengths of these leagues. The Yorkshire-based ones have a play-off but a national competition between all the winners could be a high prestige addition and, incidentally, bring the now almost moribund Sunday cricket back to life.)
Club cricket is, in my estimation, far stronger than it was 30 or 40 years’ ago. The best London sides then often had a Minor Counties player in the team who was the star performer. Now the best sides have numerous players who have caps at that level plus a sprinkling of former First Class players and even, as in Welwyn’s case, Test players. The result is some extremely good teams added to which, the quality of the playing surfaces has improved beyond recognition. Even clubs of modest pretentions have the sort of equipment: covers, heavy motorised rollers, scarifiers/slitters, etc. that characterised county clubs not that long ago. I think it is also the case that league cricket has greatly enhanced competition and standards (while, predictably, all but destroying “social” cricket).
So, what was the good news? Well Welwyn won the Hertfordshire League, having led the table for much of the year. However, for some unknown reason, Hertfordshire have introduced a play-off (similar to that in rugby and football) where the top four teams have two knock-out rounds at the end of the season. I can see the point of this in professional sport (money) but not in the amateur game. However, play-offs there were and we duly won the first and thus entered the final on the last day of the season hoping to win the League twice, as it were. The opposition, Totteridge-Millhillians posted a useful 222 from their 50 overs principally thanks to Steve Selwood (a surname that many London cricketers will recognise) and useful contributions from players of the ability of Ben Howgego (ex-Northants).
Rain and Duckworth and Lewis (and the other one) contrived to make things more difficult but Dan Blacktopp (ex-Lord’s Ground Staff and Hertfordshire) and James Hewitt (ex-Middlesex and Kent) got nicely close to the line until the not-entirely-unknown batting collapse saw Welwyn’s number 11 on to the field with 7 runs needed to win the match and the League (twice). Welwyn’s number 11 is Life Member Simon Bridgewater who bowls left arm “spin” much in the manner of his illustrious forebear Ian MacLaurin. There were four balls left in the over, and he missed them all. Six runs from the other end took us down to the last over. Simon has batted very little this year, and you could tell. With the scores level, but Welwyn facing defeat (having lost more wickets) two more misses took us to the last ball; and from the last ball, of the last over, of the last game of the season, the bat connected with a straight very full ball which went merrily away through midwicket to the general delirium of (almost all) the spectators.
Lots of lows…but with highs like that, well, it’s worth all the suffering.
This and that
I find it amusing that the new lexicon of batting strokes is based on the old one which came from the MCC Coaching Manual, a tome which is frequently referred to but I for one have never seen. The techniques advocated always involved hitting the ball along the ground. Indeed, the only stroke allowed to be played aerially was the Lofted On-drive. In the new parlance the Slog Sweep is a good example. It has obviously been coined by an old school proponent since it incorporates the disparaging term “slog”, but is given credibility by the inclusion of the traditional “sweep” but in fact apart from being a cross batted stroke does not incorporate any other features of it. We need some new inventive descriptions for the panoply of the range of aerial hits that dominate the modern game. Come to think of it the Ramp is one such, let’s have some more. Maybe we need younger commentators who come from the new era and have never heard of the MCC Coaching Manual.
The last time I lunched with the Professor we ended up in hysterics as we unravelled one of the modern day myths, namely the role of the modern coach. It is commonplace for the television cameras to pick out, for example, Mark Ramprakesh on the England balcony and for one of the commentators to say how hard he has been working with, for example, Keaton Jennings on his technique. We started to speculate what this might have entailed: maybe some viewing of computer recordings of previous innings, examination of batting stats, time in the nets talking technique. In all maybe half an hour’s worth of effort. This doesn’t add up to hard work in my book and in fact it is hard to think of anything that he could be required to do which would warrant such a classification.
There has been some media excitement at the inclusion of a rhyming trio in the Ashes tour party- Woakes, Stokes and Foakes. This is on the same footing as the eighties trio of Lillee caught Willey bowled Dilley which so pleased Brian Johnson. However, delight is likely to be short lived since it is hard to see that Stokes will be making the plane. At present the ECB are relying on the police to make things easier for them by not prosecuting. If they do his career may be over. If they don’t the ECB will, no doubt, bend over backwards to find a way of prolonging his England career. This is just asking for trouble since their disciplinary stance will then be in question and will be seen as making exceptions for stars. Stokes has had a good run of behaviour but things could have got nasty on the field of play in the West Indies ODIs as Marlon Samuels was winding him up. The new quick, Joseph, seemed up for a confrontation at the Oval, but by then Stokes had already exploded elsewhere. Unfortunately, he will need a complete ban to avoid his employers losing all credibility, regardless of the outcome of the police investigations.
One of the joys of recent cricket watching has been the return to form of Rohit Sharma who must be one of the very best batsmen to view when he is at the top of his game. When Tendulkar scored 200 in an ODI it seemed impossible for anyone to get many more, or at least an Englishman when Cook and Trott would have a net at the top of the order. Sharma has subsequently had scores of 209 and 264 in this format. His timing is so good that it seems effortless as his high six rate accelerates his innings along. His current partner is Rahane who is also in sublime form. They make a formidable opening pair, ask Australia, and it is hard to see Dhawan replacing either of them when he recovers from injury. Opening in ODIs has become even more a specialist activity and the other leading pair in World Cricket are Warner and Finch. I would have added Hales and Roy but that pairing has been upset with Bairstow substituting for both of them on occasion. If Hales turns out to be a culprit in the Bristol incident ODI cricket will miss one of its greatest stars in the modern era.
Everyone wants to watch Chris Gayle bat. Instead of the usual xenophobic jubilation at getting out one of the visiting stars there was a groan of disappointment each time he was dismissed in the recent ODI series. On most occasions he had glittered briefly before succumbing. Indeed, at the Rose Bowl he had, after his usual sighter overs, suddenly exploded and hit Jake Ball for five sixes in six balls. The sixth delivery had landed a yard short of the boundary. Gayle is now thirty-seven and a large unit, as they say in common parlance, which contributes to his being somewhat immobile both in the field and particularly when batting. Indeed, he was run out twice whilst jogging, no strolling, sedately to the other end. No one wants the guy to retire but the West Indies top order now runs the risk of becoming a Freak Show as the audience waits for him to start hitting sixes and for the duration of his innings there are virtually no other runs scored as twos are declined and no singles are attempted.
On the other hand, his opening partner, Evin Lewis, looks the complete package. His innings at The Oval was magnificent and ticked all the boxes- well paced, strike rotation, explosive hitting when appropriate and great timing. Just the sort of guy Middlesex could do with…
Middlesex are starting to suffer from having to play away from Lord’s for part of the season. A couple of years back they lost almost the whole of a game at Merchant Taylors against Sussex not to the weather but because the outfield wouldn’t drain. The same thing happened at Uxbridge this year. If they continue to be forced to play on club grounds maybe they should pay for modern drainage to be installed at the selected grounds. It can be funded by top slicing the exorbitant salaries of the senior players who clearly have not been earning it.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan writes with a heavy heart
Middlesex brought in Tom Helm and Max Holden (making his Championship debut for Middlesex after playing on loan in most of Northamptonshire's matches this season) for Tim Murtagh and Paul Stirling (both supposedly on duty with Ireland, but there was no play at all in the match) for the Championship match against Hampshire at Uxbridge which was scheduled to start on September 12th. There was not a ball bowled on day one of the match and this was not because, as reported in the press, of a "wet outfield", it was because of some disgracefully negligent covering of the southern end of the wicket on which the match was to be played. The weather continued to misbehave and on day 2 there were 30.1 overs, on day 3 there were 28.5 overs and on day 4 a magnificent 58.1 overs were bowled, but the match had died well before then.
Unsurprisingly, Hampshire skipper Jimmy Adams invited Middlesex to bat first on the green pitch and, also unsurprisingly, Middlesex struggled, though the calm opening stand of 40 between Sam Robson and Nick Compton was the third biggest of the match. The largest stand of the match was for Middlesex's fourth wicket between the experienced Aussie Adam Voges and inexperienced England U-19s batsman, Holden, who put on an accomplished 58. Then John Simpson made the highest score of the match and guided Middx to 204 all out, which did not look impressive at the time, but which soon looked much better. Simpson made a praiseworthy 36, Holden 35, Robson 28 and Voges 27. For Hants, the wild, but dangerous Fidel Edwards took 5 for 79 and the much more accurate Kyle Abbott 3 for 25 in 18 controlled overs.
Hants were soon in trouble at 46 for 4 and never really recovered despite the best efforts of Joe Weatherley (35), Ian Holland (23) and ex-Middlesex allrounder Gareth Berg (22) and were all out for 146 in only 36.1 overs, half as long as the Middlesex innings. The credit goes to the three-man Middlesex seam attack of Steve Finn (3 for 41), Helm (3 for 43), Jimmy Harris (2 for 27) and keeper Simpson with 4 catches.
We were now well into day 4 and Middlesex just had time to limp to 14 for 1 before the rains came again and we were all allowed to go home and forget this dismal match. Middlesex 9 points, Hants 8 and because of results elsewhere, Middlesex dropped into the second relegation place though they are level on points with Somerset (whom they play at Taunton in the last game of the season) and only one point behind Yorkshire; even Hampshire and Surrey, who are now 4th and 3rd, could still be caught as they are only 12 and 13 points respectively ahead of Middx and Somerset.
Middlesex brought in Dawid Malan for Max Holden, Toby Roland-Jones for captain James Franklin and Tim Murtagh for Tom Helm for the crucial Championship match against Lancashire at Lord's which started on 19th September. Adam Voges took over the captaincy and surprised most of us by opting to bat first on a bright green track, but apparently both sides felt that the wicket was likely to deteriorate and Lancashire would also have batted first. Things looked grim for Middlesex, however, as they quickly descended to 28 for 4 and although Voges and John Simpson put on 52 for the 5th wicket, they slumped again to 89 for 7. Fortunately, Roland-Jones and Ollie Rayner both batted brilliantly to put on 102 for the eighth wicket before Toby fell for an excellent 53 off 72 balls with 10 fours. Ollie carried on and managed to take Middlesex up to the heights of 233 all out with an outstanding 52 not out off 71 balls with 7 fours. The impressive opening bowlers Tom Bailey (5 for 64) and Ryan McLaren (4 for 63) did the damage while the diminutive keeper (and opening bat) Alex Davies held on to 3 good catches.
The Lancashire innings started nearly as badly as the Middlesex innings had done, but from 56 for 4, skipper Steve Croft (37 off 65 balls with 6 fours) assisted by Shiv Chanderpaul and McLaren, managed to make the score look almost respectable before another slump saw them crash to 165 all out. Opening bowlers Murtagh (4-49) and Roland-Jones (2 for 30 before he went off with a back injury) took most of the credit, but Rayner chipped in with 2 for 2 towards the end with his off spin.
When Middlesex batted again, there was some very ordinary attempts to cope with some useful bowling on the unreliable pitch, but Sam Robson deserves great credit for an exceptional top score of the match (58 off 96 balls with 7 fours), while Simpson made 33 off 40 balls. When Simpson was out however, Middlesex collapsed disastrously from 130 for 5 to an embarrassing 152 all out and Dawid Malan was the only other Middlesex man to get out of single figures. The credit again goes to Bailey with 5 for 44 (and 10 for 98 in the match) and this time to Kyle Jarvis with 3 for 30.
Lancashire needed 221 to win, but started badly, losing 4 wickets for 59 and then lost their dogged opener Haseeb Hameed (23*) to a broken finger when the score was 75-4. Strangely, this led to the best period of the Lancashire innings as Dane Vilas (37 off 51 balls with 7 fours) and Jordan Clark (31 off 35 balls with 6 fours) played their shots, while McLaren played a contrastingly dour, but valuable, knock of 37 off 105 balls. Hameed returned to the crease when the ninth wicket fell, but there was now no stopping Middlesex and Lancashire were all out for 184 and Middlesex had won a gripping encounter by 36 runs. Roland-Jones did not take the field for the Lancashire second innings, but Steve Finn stepped brilliantly into the limelight with one of the best spells of his career and he finished with a magnificent 8 for 79 from 22.4 overs. He was assisted by some great close catching by keeper Simpson (2) and slips Voges (2) and Rayner (1), with one each by Voges and Rayner falling quite clearly into the absolutely brilliant category.
The match had lasted less than two and a half days. Middlesex took 20 points from the match, Lancashire 3 and Middlesex move up the table to 5th on 143 points ahead of Hampshire on 140 and Somerset on 127, all of whom will be very anxious to avoid the dreaded 7th place which would mean accompanying Warwickshire into Division 2. Middlesex's last game is away to Somerset next week, but Roland-Jones is definitely out of the match and Rayner is also very doubtful, which is a big blow as he is Middlesex's only top-class spinner and will be sorely missed on the spinners' paradise at Taunton. I am not going to Taunton so I think my season is over. It is no surprise that my total of 30 days cricket is the lowest since records began, but only by one, which is slightly surprising as there were fewer Championship matches this year than ever before.
Middlesex have been fined 2 points following the crossbow incident at the Oval. Middlesex had declared and were going to get in a few quick overs to boost their over rate, but the game was abandoned causing them to have 2 points deducted. Middlesex are understandably angry. I think we will be relegated.
County Championship Team of the Season
The BBC website ran a poll to identify the County Championship team of the season. Players unlucky to miss out include Chris Cooke, Nick Browne, Paul Collingwood, Ryan McLaren, Craig Overton and Jack Leach based on the votes their direct rivals for a place in the side received. But here is the team of the season, as chosen by BBC Sport users.
Alastair Cook (Essex)
667 runs, average 66.70, three centuries
Having the former England captain available for the first half of the summer was a major plus and his three centuries all came in games which Essex won. They included a superb 193 against 2016 champions Middlesex when he and Nick Browne put on 373 for the first wicket.
Mark Stoneman (Surrey)
1,156 runs, average 60.84, four centuries
Stoneman made the move south from Durham last winter in the hope of furthering his international prospects and his impressive form for Surrey earned him three Test caps against West Indies and a trip to Australia this winter. Made a career-best 197 against Essex, one of very few batsmen to prosper against the new champions.
Kumar Sangakkara (Surrey)
Kumar Sangakkara was applauded into the dressing room after his final first-class innings
1,491 runs, average 106.50, eight centuries
Words are superfluous, just look at the numbers. The Sri Lankan batting star rounded off his first-class career in style and also scored his 100th century in all formats of the game in Surrey's One-Day Cup quarter-final win over Yorkshire.
Gary Ballance (Yorkshire)
951 runs, average 67.93, three centuries
Having been elevated to the Yorkshire captaincy, Ballance began the season with scores of 72, 120, 55, 22, 108, 203, the latter a 491-minute marathon to save his side from defeat by Hampshire. His runs total was almost 400 higher than any other Yorkshire batsman in a disappointing season for the Tykes.
Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire)
Samit Patel had plenty of chances to lift silverware this season
906 runs, average 53.29, two centuries; 19 wickets, average 35.89
Patel played one of the innings of the summer when he made a career-best 257 not out against Gloucestershire in June. He contributed more than 900 runs to Nottinghamshire's promotion campaign and scored more than 1,800 in all formats of the game as they also won the T20 Blast and One-Day Cup.
Ben Foakes (Surrey)
680 runs, average 42.50; 29 catches, two stumpings
End-of-season selection for the winter Ashes tour was fitting reward for wicketkeeper Foakes, one of the most consistent performers in the Surrey team. He also topped their batting averages in the One-Day Cup with 96.40.
Darren Stevens (Kent)
Kent coach Matt Walker said in April that Darren Stevens was improving like a "fine wine"
707 runs, average 41.59, one century; 62 wickets, average 18.08
At the age of 41, Stevens seems to be getting better and better and Kent's ultimate failure to secure a promotion spot was certainly through no lack of effort from him. He took five wickets or more in an innings on seven occasions, including a career-best 8-75 against Leicestershire.
Jofra Archer (Sussex)
61 wickets, average 25.30; 638 runs, average 45.57
Archer lived up to the promise shown in 2016 with another impressive season in which he also demonstrated his potential with the bat by scoring five fifties. Capable of serious speed when his rhythm is right, he took 7-47 in the early-season encounter with Kent in Hove.
Simon Harmer (Essex)
72 wickets, average 19.19; 260 runs, average 16.25
Harmer proved a revelation for Essex in his first season of county cricket, keeping things tight in the first innings and bowling sides out in the second when wickets offered turn. Maybe South Africa were premature in looking elsewhere for a Test spinner. Their loss is very much Essex's gain.
Kyle Abbott (Hampshire)
Kyle Abbott took 60 wickets for Hampshire this season
60 wickets, average 18.20; 418 runs, average 28.96
Kyle Abbott was in tears after revealing his decision to quit international cricket and sign a four-year Kolpak deal with Hampshire. But he proved to be everything a club could want from an overseas-born player after taking 7-41 as they beat Yorkshire in their opening Championship match.
Jamie Porter (Essex)
75 wickets, average 16.83
The Championship's leading wicket-taker, his contribution to Essex's title win was immense, with barely a single ball wasted in a superb exhibition of Glenn McGrath-like accuracy. Unlucky to miss out on an Ashes tour, if he maintains his form and fitness, a future in international cricket looks inevitable.
Hedgecock Matters
Murray hedgecock sent me this
Thanks for another entertaining and pleasingly quirky roundup of the game that matters most. I append some thoughts:
I am happy, in the best traditions of Antipodean generosity, to move on from past criticism by The Professor for certain of my opinions, and acclaim his fascinating and informative study on the future of the bat, as affected by Law 5. The remorseless recent advance of the bloated bludgeon producing miss-hits for six over cover-point, when they should rightly result in midfield catches, has been a continuing irritant, so hooray for MCC’s corrective action.
Also, I do wish the academic gent a most rewarding Ashes tour, and am considering commissioning my granddaughter to monitor his progress and advise same. London-born and schooled Georgia has just spent the season reporting online as “Middlesex CCC women’s content co-ordinator”, before returning to Melbourne where she completed last year a journalism degree course, then working as an intern with Cricket Victoria. She now hopes for a post with Cricket Australia, while continuing to cross Ashes swords with me from a distance, she being as fervent an England supporter as I am of my native land.
I also have a query: Why did Middlesex Matters in the latest Googlies not explain - where was Ollie? The big Middlesex offspinner O.Rayner was out of the team for several weeks, not returning until the August 28 fixture against Surrey – the match hastily abandoned when the locals began playing bows and arrows. There was no explanation to his absence that I could see, either in the Press or on the Middlesex website. I’ve always taken an interest in Ollie Rayner for his unusual origins i.e. born in the German town of Walsrode – where my wife went to school. At least his often wasted batting talent brought him some runs in the aborted occasion, even if his non-turning offbreaks got nowhere on The Oval pitch.
Carlin Matters
Paddy Carlin sent me this
A very poor season so far in my cricket watching (I only go to County matches and Lord’s tests) as there have only been a couple of occasions to se Middlesex and none at all to the Oval. There sometimes seems nothing on but 50 over or T20 matches and before that the International ODI competition. Maybe 2018 will be better before the City 20/20 takes over.
Nevertheless, an enjoyable day at Cheltenham again for Gloucestershire v Worcestershire in July. The usual mix of players including six overseas and seven ex public schoolboys between them, and the inclusion of seven wicketkeepers-Dent, Bancroft, Roderick, and Mustard for Gloucestershire and Fell, Cox and Clarke for Worcestershire. This left no room for spin bowlers and only very few overs of spin were bowled in the day.
Gloucestershire moved from 343 for 8 to 383 all out, before Worcestershire made 300 for 9 dec and Gloucester then made 16 for 0 before the close. This made the day more interesting to me than any 20/20 bash. Room to sit down in the sunshine behind the bowler’s arm with no fireworks and good beer at £3.40 a pint. Sounds OK?
Two highlights from WGCCC’s year. The 1st XI having led the table all seasonclinched the Premier Division LeGUE Table last week and now go into the play offs for the Grand Final and Premier Champions Cup as favourites. The other sides are Radlett, Totteridge Millhillians and North Mymms. Out of six games in the season we have won five against these opponents, so confidence is there but….
The other highlight was the visit to the ground of the Australian Over 50s squad to play Southern Counties Over 50s. The Aussies in their gold and green blazers with the baggy green on top lined up with the home players for Advance Australia Fair and God Save the Queen and then battle commenced. In truth the Aussies with several players with state credentials and most ex 1st graders, were not very good having a hard time on a good wicket to come to terms with the slow to medium left arm over of Tim Smith (Bishop Stortford) and Tony Rhodes(Hertford). Chasing about 170 was no problem for the Southern Counties with Mel Hussein (now Bishop Stortford) getting 80 odd not out. The best part of the day was afterwards with a crowded bar full of players discussing the match for a couple of hours. Just like it used to be.
Talking to one of our veteran 3/4th XI players recently he bemoaned the fact that many young players (under 17) have no ability at playing a simple forward defensive or backward defensive shot. There had been a few games when his XI needing only a dozen or so to win with three or four wickets in hand had seen a procession of youngsters dumbfounded by straight balls. They can all play and are seen to be coached to play attractive off-drives as the bowling machine puts the ball in the same place every time and they see on TV the ball struck over cow corner every third shot in 20/20 and 50 over cricket. But playing an immaculate cover drive to a ball homing in on middle and leg is not a good strategy. The lads simply have not been shown how to defend.
In the Stone Age when I started proper cricket this was about all we were shown. Later on at the South Harrow Indoor School, now long gone, George Pope and Lofty Herman taught the on-drive to a straightish ball but then they were sort of bowling machines themselves.
Why can’t England play two players in the test team who aren’t playing for their places, Hales and Buttler, instead of trying out nervous newcomers at nos 2,3 & 5? Also, how could Roland-Jones ever have been dropped and replaced by an unfit Woakes?
King Cricket Matters
England v South Africa at Trent Bridge – match report
Bert writes:
Whenever Ged goes to the Test, he is literally sustained by a succession of culinary marvels. My test match sustenance, on the other hand, is more metaphorical than literal, being largely a succession of pointless and asinine conversations. But just as when Harry Morgan’s closes its doors for the evening, the source of our interlocutory morsels occasionally fails, and uncomfortable silence falls. It is at moments such as these when the Times Saturday Review section comes to the rescue.
Aside from being very badly named (it is published on a Saturday morning, for god’s sake), its usefulness as a trigger for drunken conversation is unsurpassed. Not the least of its delights is the puzzle section, and the edition I grabbed on my way out of the house could not have been more appropriate. The Two Brains quiz comprised the following questions:
1. Which England cricket captains share their surname with a British Prime Minister?
2. Which first name is the most common among a) British Prime Ministers and b) England Cricket Captains, and how many times does the most common of the latter occur in the list of the former? (This second question I interpreted as asking a numerical question, as opposed to the answer being “Gaz” or “Kev”.)
During a hiatus at the conversation, I asked the lads these questions. Several people in the locality overheard, and soon it became the main point of discussion in our part of the stand. Answers were flying in from all over the place. The first PM / Captain surname combo was knocked off quite quickly, but the others took some time. My suggestion of Derbyshire opening batsman Des Rayleigh was dismissed as made-up nonsense, which was true, but I didn’t think gave it sufficient credit. Therefore, I repeated it a few times till it was at least acknowledged. The captains’ first name question also didn’t take too long, but the prime ministerial version took a lot longer.
To finish, we did the Word Finder puzzle, to find as many words as you can from the letters Y, D, E, D, S, U, N, T, U, R, four letters or more, all containing the first of these letters (Y), no proper nouns, no conjugated verbs, no comparatives, superlatives or plurals. A ten-letter word does exist, we are told. Getting 13 words is described as “average”. 18 is “good”, 26 is “very good”, and 34 is “excellent”. We also added a rule that any word we could associate with cricket, however loosely, would score two points. Our combined total of words by stumps, taking into account the double-points amendment, was coincidentally the same as that of England test wins in this series at that moment.
It wasn’t all pointless rambling though. We also asked and answered the question, “Is First Slip the most redundant position on a test match field?”, and debated whether or not the observation (made by one of us) that he preferred the South African whites was acceptable in this day and age.
In memoriam
Last week I heard from Roy Dodson that Bob Denley had died after a fall at home. Bob was a talented player who played some notable big hitting innings in knock out cup matches and also captained the second XI. He had a memorable bowling action for his medium pacers and strangely, for a such a tall man, utilized a Gray Nicholls Supershort bat when at the crease. He is survived by Frances, his wife.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
www.googliesandchinamen.com
Googlies and Chinamen
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 178
October 2017
Caption Competition
1.Paul Stirling: Relegation ain’t so bad. Most of us will get picked up by First Division counties, won’t we?
Nick Compton: You think?
2. Paul Stirling: Will the MCC continue to let us play at Lord’s next year?
3. Paul Stirling: Did we get points deducted for visiting the MBargo Club?
4. Angus Fraser: OK, who pulled their weight this season? Who averaged over 40 with the bat?
Sam Robson: Not me.
Nick Gubbins: Not me.
Adam Voges: Not me.
Dawid Malan: Not me.
Stevie Eskinazi: Not me.
John Simpson: Not me.
Nick Compton: Not me.
James Franklin: Not me.
Paul Stirling: Does that include matches for Ireland?
Angus Fraser: So, you are telling me it was a bowlers’ year, are you? Then, who took over forty wickets?
Tim Murtagh: Not me.
Steven Finn: Not me.
Toby Roland-Jones: Not me.
Tom Helm: Not me.
James Harris: Not me.
Ollie Rayner: Not me.
James Franklin: Not me.
5. James Franklin: Hey Gus, why don’t we merge with Durham for next season?
Out and About with the Professor
Anyone involved in club cricket knows that there are highs and lows. Actually, anyone involved in club cricket knows that there are lots of lows and the very occasional high.
So, I’m delighted to be able to report a very considerable high for my club side.
I joined Welwyn Garden City cricket club in 1971. It was the Club’s 50th anniversary which, I have to say, I found rather surprising, thinking, as I did then, of WGC as a “new town”. The First XI captain at the time was Ian MacLaurin who has since occupied the somewhat less prestigious position of President of the MCC. Ian was a fine club cricketer: an aggressive middle order bat, an excellent slipper and an economical bowler of what he called left-arm “spin”. Economical, I always thought, because batsmen spent considerable amounts of time waiting for the ball to diverge more than an inch or two off the pitch. He was also – as might be imagined – a very effective captain. It was a very decent side and, arguably, the best side in Hertfordshire at that time (pre-League days, of course).
Ian effectively retired from cricket in the early 1970s to devote all his attention to running a grocery store and in the many years that followed numerous captains came and went (including your correspondent) and highs and lows were regularly (if not evenly) experienced. Last Saturday, we had a high.
Welwyn play in the Hertfordshire League which is one of the 25 or so (I haven’t counted) ECB recognised leagues whose results are given each week in The Cricket Paper. (There is, parenthetically, no real way of knowing the comparative strengths of these leagues. The Yorkshire-based ones have a play-off but a national competition between all the winners could be a high prestige addition and, incidentally, bring the now almost moribund Sunday cricket back to life.)
Club cricket is, in my estimation, far stronger than it was 30 or 40 years’ ago. The best London sides then often had a Minor Counties player in the team who was the star performer. Now the best sides have numerous players who have caps at that level plus a sprinkling of former First Class players and even, as in Welwyn’s case, Test players. The result is some extremely good teams added to which, the quality of the playing surfaces has improved beyond recognition. Even clubs of modest pretentions have the sort of equipment: covers, heavy motorised rollers, scarifiers/slitters, etc. that characterised county clubs not that long ago. I think it is also the case that league cricket has greatly enhanced competition and standards (while, predictably, all but destroying “social” cricket).
So, what was the good news? Well Welwyn won the Hertfordshire League, having led the table for much of the year. However, for some unknown reason, Hertfordshire have introduced a play-off (similar to that in rugby and football) where the top four teams have two knock-out rounds at the end of the season. I can see the point of this in professional sport (money) but not in the amateur game. However, play-offs there were and we duly won the first and thus entered the final on the last day of the season hoping to win the League twice, as it were. The opposition, Totteridge-Millhillians posted a useful 222 from their 50 overs principally thanks to Steve Selwood (a surname that many London cricketers will recognise) and useful contributions from players of the ability of Ben Howgego (ex-Northants).
Rain and Duckworth and Lewis (and the other one) contrived to make things more difficult but Dan Blacktopp (ex-Lord’s Ground Staff and Hertfordshire) and James Hewitt (ex-Middlesex and Kent) got nicely close to the line until the not-entirely-unknown batting collapse saw Welwyn’s number 11 on to the field with 7 runs needed to win the match and the League (twice). Welwyn’s number 11 is Life Member Simon Bridgewater who bowls left arm “spin” much in the manner of his illustrious forebear Ian MacLaurin. There were four balls left in the over, and he missed them all. Six runs from the other end took us down to the last over. Simon has batted very little this year, and you could tell. With the scores level, but Welwyn facing defeat (having lost more wickets) two more misses took us to the last ball; and from the last ball, of the last over, of the last game of the season, the bat connected with a straight very full ball which went merrily away through midwicket to the general delirium of (almost all) the spectators.
Lots of lows…but with highs like that, well, it’s worth all the suffering.
This and that
I find it amusing that the new lexicon of batting strokes is based on the old one which came from the MCC Coaching Manual, a tome which is frequently referred to but I for one have never seen. The techniques advocated always involved hitting the ball along the ground. Indeed, the only stroke allowed to be played aerially was the Lofted On-drive. In the new parlance the Slog Sweep is a good example. It has obviously been coined by an old school proponent since it incorporates the disparaging term “slog”, but is given credibility by the inclusion of the traditional “sweep” but in fact apart from being a cross batted stroke does not incorporate any other features of it. We need some new inventive descriptions for the panoply of the range of aerial hits that dominate the modern game. Come to think of it the Ramp is one such, let’s have some more. Maybe we need younger commentators who come from the new era and have never heard of the MCC Coaching Manual.
The last time I lunched with the Professor we ended up in hysterics as we unravelled one of the modern day myths, namely the role of the modern coach. It is commonplace for the television cameras to pick out, for example, Mark Ramprakesh on the England balcony and for one of the commentators to say how hard he has been working with, for example, Keaton Jennings on his technique. We started to speculate what this might have entailed: maybe some viewing of computer recordings of previous innings, examination of batting stats, time in the nets talking technique. In all maybe half an hour’s worth of effort. This doesn’t add up to hard work in my book and in fact it is hard to think of anything that he could be required to do which would warrant such a classification.
There has been some media excitement at the inclusion of a rhyming trio in the Ashes tour party- Woakes, Stokes and Foakes. This is on the same footing as the eighties trio of Lillee caught Willey bowled Dilley which so pleased Brian Johnson. However, delight is likely to be short lived since it is hard to see that Stokes will be making the plane. At present the ECB are relying on the police to make things easier for them by not prosecuting. If they do his career may be over. If they don’t the ECB will, no doubt, bend over backwards to find a way of prolonging his England career. This is just asking for trouble since their disciplinary stance will then be in question and will be seen as making exceptions for stars. Stokes has had a good run of behaviour but things could have got nasty on the field of play in the West Indies ODIs as Marlon Samuels was winding him up. The new quick, Joseph, seemed up for a confrontation at the Oval, but by then Stokes had already exploded elsewhere. Unfortunately, he will need a complete ban to avoid his employers losing all credibility, regardless of the outcome of the police investigations.
One of the joys of recent cricket watching has been the return to form of Rohit Sharma who must be one of the very best batsmen to view when he is at the top of his game. When Tendulkar scored 200 in an ODI it seemed impossible for anyone to get many more, or at least an Englishman when Cook and Trott would have a net at the top of the order. Sharma has subsequently had scores of 209 and 264 in this format. His timing is so good that it seems effortless as his high six rate accelerates his innings along. His current partner is Rahane who is also in sublime form. They make a formidable opening pair, ask Australia, and it is hard to see Dhawan replacing either of them when he recovers from injury. Opening in ODIs has become even more a specialist activity and the other leading pair in World Cricket are Warner and Finch. I would have added Hales and Roy but that pairing has been upset with Bairstow substituting for both of them on occasion. If Hales turns out to be a culprit in the Bristol incident ODI cricket will miss one of its greatest stars in the modern era.
Everyone wants to watch Chris Gayle bat. Instead of the usual xenophobic jubilation at getting out one of the visiting stars there was a groan of disappointment each time he was dismissed in the recent ODI series. On most occasions he had glittered briefly before succumbing. Indeed, at the Rose Bowl he had, after his usual sighter overs, suddenly exploded and hit Jake Ball for five sixes in six balls. The sixth delivery had landed a yard short of the boundary. Gayle is now thirty-seven and a large unit, as they say in common parlance, which contributes to his being somewhat immobile both in the field and particularly when batting. Indeed, he was run out twice whilst jogging, no strolling, sedately to the other end. No one wants the guy to retire but the West Indies top order now runs the risk of becoming a Freak Show as the audience waits for him to start hitting sixes and for the duration of his innings there are virtually no other runs scored as twos are declined and no singles are attempted.
On the other hand, his opening partner, Evin Lewis, looks the complete package. His innings at The Oval was magnificent and ticked all the boxes- well paced, strike rotation, explosive hitting when appropriate and great timing. Just the sort of guy Middlesex could do with…
Middlesex are starting to suffer from having to play away from Lord’s for part of the season. A couple of years back they lost almost the whole of a game at Merchant Taylors against Sussex not to the weather but because the outfield wouldn’t drain. The same thing happened at Uxbridge this year. If they continue to be forced to play on club grounds maybe they should pay for modern drainage to be installed at the selected grounds. It can be funded by top slicing the exorbitant salaries of the senior players who clearly have not been earning it.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan writes with a heavy heart
Middlesex brought in Tom Helm and Max Holden (making his Championship debut for Middlesex after playing on loan in most of Northamptonshire's matches this season) for Tim Murtagh and Paul Stirling (both supposedly on duty with Ireland, but there was no play at all in the match) for the Championship match against Hampshire at Uxbridge which was scheduled to start on September 12th. There was not a ball bowled on day one of the match and this was not because, as reported in the press, of a "wet outfield", it was because of some disgracefully negligent covering of the southern end of the wicket on which the match was to be played. The weather continued to misbehave and on day 2 there were 30.1 overs, on day 3 there were 28.5 overs and on day 4 a magnificent 58.1 overs were bowled, but the match had died well before then.
Unsurprisingly, Hampshire skipper Jimmy Adams invited Middlesex to bat first on the green pitch and, also unsurprisingly, Middlesex struggled, though the calm opening stand of 40 between Sam Robson and Nick Compton was the third biggest of the match. The largest stand of the match was for Middlesex's fourth wicket between the experienced Aussie Adam Voges and inexperienced England U-19s batsman, Holden, who put on an accomplished 58. Then John Simpson made the highest score of the match and guided Middx to 204 all out, which did not look impressive at the time, but which soon looked much better. Simpson made a praiseworthy 36, Holden 35, Robson 28 and Voges 27. For Hants, the wild, but dangerous Fidel Edwards took 5 for 79 and the much more accurate Kyle Abbott 3 for 25 in 18 controlled overs.
Hants were soon in trouble at 46 for 4 and never really recovered despite the best efforts of Joe Weatherley (35), Ian Holland (23) and ex-Middlesex allrounder Gareth Berg (22) and were all out for 146 in only 36.1 overs, half as long as the Middlesex innings. The credit goes to the three-man Middlesex seam attack of Steve Finn (3 for 41), Helm (3 for 43), Jimmy Harris (2 for 27) and keeper Simpson with 4 catches.
We were now well into day 4 and Middlesex just had time to limp to 14 for 1 before the rains came again and we were all allowed to go home and forget this dismal match. Middlesex 9 points, Hants 8 and because of results elsewhere, Middlesex dropped into the second relegation place though they are level on points with Somerset (whom they play at Taunton in the last game of the season) and only one point behind Yorkshire; even Hampshire and Surrey, who are now 4th and 3rd, could still be caught as they are only 12 and 13 points respectively ahead of Middx and Somerset.
Middlesex brought in Dawid Malan for Max Holden, Toby Roland-Jones for captain James Franklin and Tim Murtagh for Tom Helm for the crucial Championship match against Lancashire at Lord's which started on 19th September. Adam Voges took over the captaincy and surprised most of us by opting to bat first on a bright green track, but apparently both sides felt that the wicket was likely to deteriorate and Lancashire would also have batted first. Things looked grim for Middlesex, however, as they quickly descended to 28 for 4 and although Voges and John Simpson put on 52 for the 5th wicket, they slumped again to 89 for 7. Fortunately, Roland-Jones and Ollie Rayner both batted brilliantly to put on 102 for the eighth wicket before Toby fell for an excellent 53 off 72 balls with 10 fours. Ollie carried on and managed to take Middlesex up to the heights of 233 all out with an outstanding 52 not out off 71 balls with 7 fours. The impressive opening bowlers Tom Bailey (5 for 64) and Ryan McLaren (4 for 63) did the damage while the diminutive keeper (and opening bat) Alex Davies held on to 3 good catches.
The Lancashire innings started nearly as badly as the Middlesex innings had done, but from 56 for 4, skipper Steve Croft (37 off 65 balls with 6 fours) assisted by Shiv Chanderpaul and McLaren, managed to make the score look almost respectable before another slump saw them crash to 165 all out. Opening bowlers Murtagh (4-49) and Roland-Jones (2 for 30 before he went off with a back injury) took most of the credit, but Rayner chipped in with 2 for 2 towards the end with his off spin.
When Middlesex batted again, there was some very ordinary attempts to cope with some useful bowling on the unreliable pitch, but Sam Robson deserves great credit for an exceptional top score of the match (58 off 96 balls with 7 fours), while Simpson made 33 off 40 balls. When Simpson was out however, Middlesex collapsed disastrously from 130 for 5 to an embarrassing 152 all out and Dawid Malan was the only other Middlesex man to get out of single figures. The credit again goes to Bailey with 5 for 44 (and 10 for 98 in the match) and this time to Kyle Jarvis with 3 for 30.
Lancashire needed 221 to win, but started badly, losing 4 wickets for 59 and then lost their dogged opener Haseeb Hameed (23*) to a broken finger when the score was 75-4. Strangely, this led to the best period of the Lancashire innings as Dane Vilas (37 off 51 balls with 7 fours) and Jordan Clark (31 off 35 balls with 6 fours) played their shots, while McLaren played a contrastingly dour, but valuable, knock of 37 off 105 balls. Hameed returned to the crease when the ninth wicket fell, but there was now no stopping Middlesex and Lancashire were all out for 184 and Middlesex had won a gripping encounter by 36 runs. Roland-Jones did not take the field for the Lancashire second innings, but Steve Finn stepped brilliantly into the limelight with one of the best spells of his career and he finished with a magnificent 8 for 79 from 22.4 overs. He was assisted by some great close catching by keeper Simpson (2) and slips Voges (2) and Rayner (1), with one each by Voges and Rayner falling quite clearly into the absolutely brilliant category.
The match had lasted less than two and a half days. Middlesex took 20 points from the match, Lancashire 3 and Middlesex move up the table to 5th on 143 points ahead of Hampshire on 140 and Somerset on 127, all of whom will be very anxious to avoid the dreaded 7th place which would mean accompanying Warwickshire into Division 2. Middlesex's last game is away to Somerset next week, but Roland-Jones is definitely out of the match and Rayner is also very doubtful, which is a big blow as he is Middlesex's only top-class spinner and will be sorely missed on the spinners' paradise at Taunton. I am not going to Taunton so I think my season is over. It is no surprise that my total of 30 days cricket is the lowest since records began, but only by one, which is slightly surprising as there were fewer Championship matches this year than ever before.
Middlesex have been fined 2 points following the crossbow incident at the Oval. Middlesex had declared and were going to get in a few quick overs to boost their over rate, but the game was abandoned causing them to have 2 points deducted. Middlesex are understandably angry. I think we will be relegated.
County Championship Team of the Season
The BBC website ran a poll to identify the County Championship team of the season. Players unlucky to miss out include Chris Cooke, Nick Browne, Paul Collingwood, Ryan McLaren, Craig Overton and Jack Leach based on the votes their direct rivals for a place in the side received. But here is the team of the season, as chosen by BBC Sport users.
Alastair Cook (Essex)
667 runs, average 66.70, three centuries
Having the former England captain available for the first half of the summer was a major plus and his three centuries all came in games which Essex won. They included a superb 193 against 2016 champions Middlesex when he and Nick Browne put on 373 for the first wicket.
Mark Stoneman (Surrey)
1,156 runs, average 60.84, four centuries
Stoneman made the move south from Durham last winter in the hope of furthering his international prospects and his impressive form for Surrey earned him three Test caps against West Indies and a trip to Australia this winter. Made a career-best 197 against Essex, one of very few batsmen to prosper against the new champions.
Kumar Sangakkara (Surrey)
Kumar Sangakkara was applauded into the dressing room after his final first-class innings
1,491 runs, average 106.50, eight centuries
Words are superfluous, just look at the numbers. The Sri Lankan batting star rounded off his first-class career in style and also scored his 100th century in all formats of the game in Surrey's One-Day Cup quarter-final win over Yorkshire.
Gary Ballance (Yorkshire)
951 runs, average 67.93, three centuries
Having been elevated to the Yorkshire captaincy, Ballance began the season with scores of 72, 120, 55, 22, 108, 203, the latter a 491-minute marathon to save his side from defeat by Hampshire. His runs total was almost 400 higher than any other Yorkshire batsman in a disappointing season for the Tykes.
Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire)
Samit Patel had plenty of chances to lift silverware this season
906 runs, average 53.29, two centuries; 19 wickets, average 35.89
Patel played one of the innings of the summer when he made a career-best 257 not out against Gloucestershire in June. He contributed more than 900 runs to Nottinghamshire's promotion campaign and scored more than 1,800 in all formats of the game as they also won the T20 Blast and One-Day Cup.
Ben Foakes (Surrey)
680 runs, average 42.50; 29 catches, two stumpings
End-of-season selection for the winter Ashes tour was fitting reward for wicketkeeper Foakes, one of the most consistent performers in the Surrey team. He also topped their batting averages in the One-Day Cup with 96.40.
Darren Stevens (Kent)
Kent coach Matt Walker said in April that Darren Stevens was improving like a "fine wine"
707 runs, average 41.59, one century; 62 wickets, average 18.08
At the age of 41, Stevens seems to be getting better and better and Kent's ultimate failure to secure a promotion spot was certainly through no lack of effort from him. He took five wickets or more in an innings on seven occasions, including a career-best 8-75 against Leicestershire.
Jofra Archer (Sussex)
61 wickets, average 25.30; 638 runs, average 45.57
Archer lived up to the promise shown in 2016 with another impressive season in which he also demonstrated his potential with the bat by scoring five fifties. Capable of serious speed when his rhythm is right, he took 7-47 in the early-season encounter with Kent in Hove.
Simon Harmer (Essex)
72 wickets, average 19.19; 260 runs, average 16.25
Harmer proved a revelation for Essex in his first season of county cricket, keeping things tight in the first innings and bowling sides out in the second when wickets offered turn. Maybe South Africa were premature in looking elsewhere for a Test spinner. Their loss is very much Essex's gain.
Kyle Abbott (Hampshire)
Kyle Abbott took 60 wickets for Hampshire this season
60 wickets, average 18.20; 418 runs, average 28.96
Kyle Abbott was in tears after revealing his decision to quit international cricket and sign a four-year Kolpak deal with Hampshire. But he proved to be everything a club could want from an overseas-born player after taking 7-41 as they beat Yorkshire in their opening Championship match.
Jamie Porter (Essex)
75 wickets, average 16.83
The Championship's leading wicket-taker, his contribution to Essex's title win was immense, with barely a single ball wasted in a superb exhibition of Glenn McGrath-like accuracy. Unlucky to miss out on an Ashes tour, if he maintains his form and fitness, a future in international cricket looks inevitable.
Hedgecock Matters
Murray hedgecock sent me this
Thanks for another entertaining and pleasingly quirky roundup of the game that matters most. I append some thoughts:
I am happy, in the best traditions of Antipodean generosity, to move on from past criticism by The Professor for certain of my opinions, and acclaim his fascinating and informative study on the future of the bat, as affected by Law 5. The remorseless recent advance of the bloated bludgeon producing miss-hits for six over cover-point, when they should rightly result in midfield catches, has been a continuing irritant, so hooray for MCC’s corrective action.
Also, I do wish the academic gent a most rewarding Ashes tour, and am considering commissioning my granddaughter to monitor his progress and advise same. London-born and schooled Georgia has just spent the season reporting online as “Middlesex CCC women’s content co-ordinator”, before returning to Melbourne where she completed last year a journalism degree course, then working as an intern with Cricket Victoria. She now hopes for a post with Cricket Australia, while continuing to cross Ashes swords with me from a distance, she being as fervent an England supporter as I am of my native land.
I also have a query: Why did Middlesex Matters in the latest Googlies not explain - where was Ollie? The big Middlesex offspinner O.Rayner was out of the team for several weeks, not returning until the August 28 fixture against Surrey – the match hastily abandoned when the locals began playing bows and arrows. There was no explanation to his absence that I could see, either in the Press or on the Middlesex website. I’ve always taken an interest in Ollie Rayner for his unusual origins i.e. born in the German town of Walsrode – where my wife went to school. At least his often wasted batting talent brought him some runs in the aborted occasion, even if his non-turning offbreaks got nowhere on The Oval pitch.
Carlin Matters
Paddy Carlin sent me this
A very poor season so far in my cricket watching (I only go to County matches and Lord’s tests) as there have only been a couple of occasions to se Middlesex and none at all to the Oval. There sometimes seems nothing on but 50 over or T20 matches and before that the International ODI competition. Maybe 2018 will be better before the City 20/20 takes over.
Nevertheless, an enjoyable day at Cheltenham again for Gloucestershire v Worcestershire in July. The usual mix of players including six overseas and seven ex public schoolboys between them, and the inclusion of seven wicketkeepers-Dent, Bancroft, Roderick, and Mustard for Gloucestershire and Fell, Cox and Clarke for Worcestershire. This left no room for spin bowlers and only very few overs of spin were bowled in the day.
Gloucestershire moved from 343 for 8 to 383 all out, before Worcestershire made 300 for 9 dec and Gloucester then made 16 for 0 before the close. This made the day more interesting to me than any 20/20 bash. Room to sit down in the sunshine behind the bowler’s arm with no fireworks and good beer at £3.40 a pint. Sounds OK?
Two highlights from WGCCC’s year. The 1st XI having led the table all seasonclinched the Premier Division LeGUE Table last week and now go into the play offs for the Grand Final and Premier Champions Cup as favourites. The other sides are Radlett, Totteridge Millhillians and North Mymms. Out of six games in the season we have won five against these opponents, so confidence is there but….
The other highlight was the visit to the ground of the Australian Over 50s squad to play Southern Counties Over 50s. The Aussies in their gold and green blazers with the baggy green on top lined up with the home players for Advance Australia Fair and God Save the Queen and then battle commenced. In truth the Aussies with several players with state credentials and most ex 1st graders, were not very good having a hard time on a good wicket to come to terms with the slow to medium left arm over of Tim Smith (Bishop Stortford) and Tony Rhodes(Hertford). Chasing about 170 was no problem for the Southern Counties with Mel Hussein (now Bishop Stortford) getting 80 odd not out. The best part of the day was afterwards with a crowded bar full of players discussing the match for a couple of hours. Just like it used to be.
Talking to one of our veteran 3/4th XI players recently he bemoaned the fact that many young players (under 17) have no ability at playing a simple forward defensive or backward defensive shot. There had been a few games when his XI needing only a dozen or so to win with three or four wickets in hand had seen a procession of youngsters dumbfounded by straight balls. They can all play and are seen to be coached to play attractive off-drives as the bowling machine puts the ball in the same place every time and they see on TV the ball struck over cow corner every third shot in 20/20 and 50 over cricket. But playing an immaculate cover drive to a ball homing in on middle and leg is not a good strategy. The lads simply have not been shown how to defend.
In the Stone Age when I started proper cricket this was about all we were shown. Later on at the South Harrow Indoor School, now long gone, George Pope and Lofty Herman taught the on-drive to a straightish ball but then they were sort of bowling machines themselves.
Why can’t England play two players in the test team who aren’t playing for their places, Hales and Buttler, instead of trying out nervous newcomers at nos 2,3 & 5? Also, how could Roland-Jones ever have been dropped and replaced by an unfit Woakes?
King Cricket Matters
England v South Africa at Trent Bridge – match report
Bert writes:
Whenever Ged goes to the Test, he is literally sustained by a succession of culinary marvels. My test match sustenance, on the other hand, is more metaphorical than literal, being largely a succession of pointless and asinine conversations. But just as when Harry Morgan’s closes its doors for the evening, the source of our interlocutory morsels occasionally fails, and uncomfortable silence falls. It is at moments such as these when the Times Saturday Review section comes to the rescue.
Aside from being very badly named (it is published on a Saturday morning, for god’s sake), its usefulness as a trigger for drunken conversation is unsurpassed. Not the least of its delights is the puzzle section, and the edition I grabbed on my way out of the house could not have been more appropriate. The Two Brains quiz comprised the following questions:
1. Which England cricket captains share their surname with a British Prime Minister?
2. Which first name is the most common among a) British Prime Ministers and b) England Cricket Captains, and how many times does the most common of the latter occur in the list of the former? (This second question I interpreted as asking a numerical question, as opposed to the answer being “Gaz” or “Kev”.)
During a hiatus at the conversation, I asked the lads these questions. Several people in the locality overheard, and soon it became the main point of discussion in our part of the stand. Answers were flying in from all over the place. The first PM / Captain surname combo was knocked off quite quickly, but the others took some time. My suggestion of Derbyshire opening batsman Des Rayleigh was dismissed as made-up nonsense, which was true, but I didn’t think gave it sufficient credit. Therefore, I repeated it a few times till it was at least acknowledged. The captains’ first name question also didn’t take too long, but the prime ministerial version took a lot longer.
To finish, we did the Word Finder puzzle, to find as many words as you can from the letters Y, D, E, D, S, U, N, T, U, R, four letters or more, all containing the first of these letters (Y), no proper nouns, no conjugated verbs, no comparatives, superlatives or plurals. A ten-letter word does exist, we are told. Getting 13 words is described as “average”. 18 is “good”, 26 is “very good”, and 34 is “excellent”. We also added a rule that any word we could associate with cricket, however loosely, would score two points. Our combined total of words by stumps, taking into account the double-points amendment, was coincidentally the same as that of England test wins in this series at that moment.
It wasn’t all pointless rambling though. We also asked and answered the question, “Is First Slip the most redundant position on a test match field?”, and debated whether or not the observation (made by one of us) that he preferred the South African whites was acceptable in this day and age.
In memoriam
Last week I heard from Roy Dodson that Bob Denley had died after a fall at home. Bob was a talented player who played some notable big hitting innings in knock out cup matches and also captained the second XI. He had a memorable bowling action for his medium pacers and strangely, for a such a tall man, utilized a Gray Nicholls Supershort bat when at the crease. He is survived by Frances, his wife.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
www.googliesandchinamen.com
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