GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 18
June 2004
This Was
England’s run chase at Lords was impressive and confirms their all round improvement. It is surprising how difficult it is at test level to chase significant totals in the fourth innings. Gordon Greenidge made mincemeat of England’s target in 1984, but there has only been one other occasion when a side has scored over 200 in the fourth innings to win a Lord’s test. At the lower levels there have been two enormous successful chases already this year. South Zone beat the Academy tourists in March by knocking off a trifling 503 and in May Durham scored an unlikely 453 for 9 to beat Somerset at Taunton after earlier being 95 for 5.
Our New Zealand correspondent, Peter Hoare, suggests that we “look out for Oram, a very good player, and Mark Richardson, one of the few entertainingly poor fielders left in the game since the fitness craze took hold”. He says that, sadly, “Vettori has become the Ashley Giles of NZ cricket, picked because the others are even worse”.
Russell Bowes tells me that he played golf in North London recently with someone who knew Jack Hyams, who is now 85. They claimed that he was still playing cricket until two years ago. This seems extraordinarily unlikely but if he was he was no doubt still pinching the strike and scoring 4000 runs a season. Perhaps Dusty Miller was running for him. I mentioned this to Bill Hart who said that he remembered Jack Hyams as being so unpleasant that even Don Wallis seemed mild and inoffensive alongside him.
Bob Peach tells me that Shepherds Bush played their first game on their new Bromyard Avenue square in May. It must be playing fairly well since the bush knocked off over 200 to win the game.
David Banks has been a Googlies reader since the first edition. He always asks me to send his best wishes to any Old Danes who remember him. He recently informed me that he is extremely ill. We all send David our best wishes but if you would like to send a personal message his email address is: [email protected]
Out and About with The Professor The Professor reports on the opening weeks of the domestic season
You will be pleased to know, James, that after a mere 58 years (please check with Jack that I am indeed that old) I have at last managed to get my life organised. Last week I had two meetings in London that finished promptly before lunch, allowing me to nip along to Headquarters to see Middlesex’s South Africans take on Lancashire. The weather eventually prevented a result, but there was some top class cricket on view. It was cold and had been very wet and so no great surprise that the swing/seamers did well. Keegan again was impressive (whenever I seen him he seems to take important wickets) and Cork was inspired for Lancashire. In among all that there were some excellent innings: Loye had a great match and Law’s 90 was top notch. Joyce didn’t have a long knock but, as always, oozed class. The Lancashire folk I met told me that Law will shortly be eligible for England selection as is Flower – that looks like a rather more permanent middle order than England normally put out.
Closer to home, you will be pleased to hear that Welwyn Garden City CC have had a successful start to the season winning our first game against Sawbridgeworth - last year’s promoted team. Sawbridgeworth is a small Hertfordshire town but with a good cricketing tradition: last year in addition to getting promoted to our league, they beat Radlett in the final of the county cup. Fortunately for us they have lost Nic Walker, who joined Derbyshire, and he has left a bit of a hole in their batting and bowling. It will, by the way, be interesting to see how he does at Derby since he has a reputation of being a rather difficult young man. Perhaps the first class set up will generate some more discipline. Interestingly, he joins Botha at Derby who I saw hit Hertfordshire’s bowling (principally the younger Butcher) to all parts of Bishops Stortford, getting Ireland to 380 off 50 overs.
Our success was due in considerable part, to our new Australian signing – Mark Colegrave. He had the “dream” start of taking a wicket in each of his first three overs. It’s always something of a lottery getting an overseas player but Mark looks the genuine article. He’s a great strapping opening bowler who is also an ex- Aussie Rules professional (does that game have any “rules”) and has played for Tasmania. I will keep you posted on other successes or otherwise.
George gets copied in on our correspondence and he commented as follows
John's remark about “Aussie rules (are there any?)” reminds me that I did go to see a local derby crunch match at Melbourne cricket ground on Easter Monday 1999.
I have three recollections:
1) There were 96000 there
2) For 2 adults and 3 kids it cost just over £10 in total to get in
3) There was a rule that only a certain number of players from a side were allowed into an area of the field about the size of Rutland.
*
Nic Walker didn’t take long to write himself into the record books at Derbyshire. He scored 80 batting at number 11 against Somerset, beating the previous record held by Martin Jean-Jacques, a name not unfamiliar to the Shepherds Bush and South Hampstead clubs.
So who is in the Middle Order? I made the mistake of referring to the middle order in my article on Antipodeans at South Hampstead in the last edition. The Great Jack Morgan responded as follows:
“Middle order” – I have ceased to use this term as everyone seems to understand something different by it. Fortunately, it looks as if you have roughly the same understanding of the expression as I do. To me it means 6, 7 and 8, those above being the top order and those below being the tail. But some think it means 5, 6 and 7, or 4, 5 and 6 or even 3, 4 and 5.
This seemed like too good an opportunity to miss and so I replied as follows:
I guess this will vary from team to team. The top order is the guys who can bat and are expected to score runs. The tail will wag at best and isn't expected to score runs. The middle order is those guys who have some ability to bat but are generally unreliable. Most England one day sides in recent years have had a middle order that starts at 3 and goes down to 10 or 11. Unfortunately they are picked as all rounders and can't bowl either. If Collingwood is picked at four in the test side the middle order starts there. There are some players who have middle order imprinted on their foreheads: Anthony McGrath, Mark Ealham, Rikki Clarke, Gareth Batty, Dougie Brown, the Welsh Wizard, Ian Salisbury, Big Ronnie, Jeremy Snape, Graham Swan and Alex Tudor for starters. This was a bit of a waste – I could have used it as a Strange XI.
In the Caribbean this winter Trescothick was used as an all rounder who did both poorly and so the middle order was stretched up to two. In the Professors side in 1964 I was batting at six and so the middle order presumably started at seven. In some of Bob Peach's sides there was no middle order. Bruce Tutton would bat at eight and then Bill Hart, Don Wallis and Roy Phipps would constitute the tail.
Alternatively the middle order could constitute those guys who have to bat without the time to play a long measured innings. Either time or wickets conspire against them. In the first case there is only so much time or so many overs until declaration time and so they have to slog a bit and run well but get a bollocking if they fail doing either. In the latter they get left high and dry once the tail is reached and find themselves trying to keep the strike so that they can amass a few more precious runs, whilst secretly hoping that the tail enders get out so that they are left not out and can tell everyone that if only someone had stuck with them they would have scored fifty.
Doosra
Murali was reported by Chris Broad for throwing during the winter and the experts have adjudged that his doosra is “technically illegal” whatever that means. Since it is all about technicalities, then he is being called a cheat and is throwing about a third of his deliveries.
The scientists who rendered this decision say that the action in bowling the doosra gives him no discernable advantage! Try telling the English batsmen that, or the Aussies of whom he dismissed twenty-eight in three tests this winter or the Bangla Desh side who provided him with his record breaking wickets to enable him to pass Courtney Walsh’s test aggregate.
And this is cricket’s problem. The greatest test wicket taker of all time is a chucker. It is not possible to bowl the doosra without throwing it and many of us think that he throws his normal off spinner as well. The experts at the University of Western Australia decided that he created the illusion of throwing. Surely that is what constitutes throwing-if it looks like throwing it is throwing. If he bowls in front of an Australian umpire in Australia he will get called again, elsewhere his action will be accepted because it is too late now to do anything about it.
Absentee Journalism Peter Hoare adds another sad indictment to the trend of cricket reporting around the world
I've been meaning to write for a while to add to the Naff and Absentee Journalism strand. CricInfo has taken this trend several steps further by having its correspondents on a different continent from that where the matches they report on are being played.
For three seasons I was employed by CricInfo to travel around the North Island of NZ covering domestic cricket. It was a blissful time, and the fact that I never met anybody who had actually read anything I had written did nothing to diminish that feeling. However, after CricInfo was taken over by Wisden, and the purpose of a balance sheet was explained, the NZ operation was shut down. Reports on international games here still appear, but are written from in front of a TV screen in either Mumbai or London. This applies to most games in Australia too.
Rangers Reflections
All readers will be aware that the most significant event in the football world this month was that the Rangers won automatic promotion to the First Division. In 1974/5 they were runners up in the old First Division but have been in steady decline ever since, suffering the ignominy of Receivership along the way. However, many of our readers still turn to their result first each week before establishing what is the latest record Arsenal have broken or what side the Beckham boy is parting his hair this week. I have received various comments about this singular achievement and they reflect that particular ironic style of the Rangers supporter.
The Great Jack Morgan sent me this just before the season finale: “ Jim Revier has seen the Rangers four times in the last couple of months, but his report was that they are “not very good”. I had to come to their defence, of course, and gave the excuses that they had three central defenders out, two emergency signings at fullback and a loanee in goal, so what did he expect? But Jim said “there was nothing wrong with the defence…. it was the rest of them!” He described the midfield and attack as basically “useless”, exempting only Rowlands and Furlong from criticism. He couldn’t get a ticket for the Swindon game, which was sold out for home fans. Will you be going to Hillsborough for the climax? Jim gives us “no chance”. He says that not only are we not any good, but that we never win the big games. However, I had to remind him of Villa Park 1968, which was a very similar situation. Perhaps we could arrange for a home fullback to slip one past his own goalie? Were you there? I traveled down from Sheffield with Dave Dollery (a Villa fan of course) and Rog the Wolves supporter, who would tag along with anyone who was going to a football match. I don’t think I’m quite as pessimistic as Jim although I’m far from confident. I don’t think Wednesday are much of a side and as they are safe from relegation, they could be there for the taking?”
And I received this after the event As for how they will do next season, that sort of prediction is even more difficult than it used to be with such a vast turnover of players every close season. Holloway himself has got a new contract, but there will surely be plenty of other changes. Already Clarke Carlisle is talking to the Blades and the Rangers are talking to Barry Hayles. If Jim Revier’s verdict on the midfield and attack is correct then class recruits are essential. Holloway has proved himself a good recruiter of cheap players, but will they be good enough for division one? The Acton Gazette thinks that Johnson, Edghill, Palmer, Walshe, Oli, Pacquette and Forbes could all be out.
The Professor sent me this: “ I don’t think there is too much I can contribute on this subject having only seen the one game in the last decade. Presumably they will struggle – try to be difficult to beat at home, and remain in Division 1 for more than just one season. Of more interest is the manager. We remember him as a demented mid-fielder but now his has metamorphosed into a sort of idiot sage – a master of the mangled idiom. Anyway, why are we discussing football in the cricket season? I know the first test is early but there can’t ever have been a year when the test series began before the Cup Final. I see that there are football fixtures up to 31st May – presumably pre-season training starts in June. Then of course the summer will be dominated by events in Portugal”.
George sent me this after the Hillsborough weekend: “I went jogging from Wynne's along the canal in Old Hanwell on Monday lunchtime. I noticed that someone had a big Union Jack draped across the back of their house. I tut-tutted to myself about National front and racists in Ealing etc. Then when I got closer I realised it was emblazoned 'QPR FC' - fully justified!”
Bad Grounds
For reasons that completely escape me now South Hampstead had a fixture with Vauxhall Motors in the 1970s. The square was OK and the straight boundaries reasonably short. But the pavilion which was really more of an outpost was located 250 yards away at wide third man. It involved a long hike with a deckchair and the other paraphernalia required for a comfortable afternoon out to get within a young man’s eyesight of the square to see what was going on. You would have thought that the brains behind the Vauxhall Victor Estate would have known better.
The Pipsqueak Kiwi Revisited Peter Hoare sent me these observations on our favourite umpire
Our own Billy Bowden's star seems to be in decline judging from the comments that I've read in the UK press. People don't realise that the Billy we see on the international stage is a muted version of the Barnum-like figure that developed in the domestic game here. It used to be the case that he was less showy when the TV cameras were not present, but now the reverse is true. Having been told to reduce the histrionics if he was to get on the international stage, he can now only let go when he thinks that nobody is watching, which there usually isn't in domestic cricket here. At a game I covered a couple of years ago he walked slowly from the bowler's end to square leg, embarked on a conference about a doubtful catch with his colleague, walked at a funereal pace back to his original position, crouched as if waiting for the next delivery, paused for another couple of seconds and only then raised the crooked finger of fate to send the batsman on his way.
And an erratum By the way, Simon Taufel is still on the elite panel. You were victim of one of a growing number of gaffes in the Wisden Cricketer. Along with Shepherd and Bucknor, Taufel was in charge of the recent Pakistan v India series, a sign that he is highly favoured. It is Russell Tiffen of Zimbabwe who has gone, not before time. Tiffen and Ashocker De Silva both came here to umpire the recent series against SA after it had announced that the had been dropped, which couldn't have provided much of an incentive to get an early night before a hard day's finger raising.
Match Report
Two for the price of one this month.
The following games took place at Croxley Green between Old Merchant Taylor’s 1st and 3rd XIs and South Hampstead 1st and 3rd XIs on Saturday 29th May 1965
In this pair of games I found myself in the South Hampstead 3rd XI where the second field is located adjacent to the first team pitch in the beautiful country setting at Croxley Green. In our game we fielded first and I was soon keeping wicket to the steady, if none too pacey, bowling of Alan Motherwell and Ray Cook. Meanwhile on the senior square Terry Cordaroy and Bob Peach were opening the batting for the South Hampstead 1st XI.
In the 3rd XI game nothing much happened in the first hour. Ray and Alan bowled tidily without taking a wicket and OMTs progressed to 30 without loss. On the adjacent square events were unwinding quite differently. The South Hampstead openers added 9 in the first two overs but in the third Bob Peach was out LBW to Grover. In the following over Smith dismissed Terry Cordaroy and Len Stubbs, and in his third over added Bruce Tutton to his tally. In Graves’ fifth over Robin Ager was caught which reduced South Hampstead to 14 for 5.
Back in our game Ken Fletcher relieved Ray Cook and brought Sandy Sandresegara into the attack. Sandy bowled slow left arm with plenty of zip and soon started to get amongst the wickets, as did the OMT’s 1st XI bowlers who quickly dismissed Bob Cleaver, John Mersley Matthews, Bill Hart and Russell Bowes to reduce the South Hampstead 1st XI to 32 for 9. Back on our square Sandy was working his way through the OMT’s middle order with the help of catches by Brian Shadwell and a couple of stumpings.
Don Wallis and Roy Phipps attempted to restore pride and order over on the first team square and added a further 9 runs before Roy was caught. The innings had lasted 86 minutes and South Hampstead had been dismissed for 41. Only John Mersley Matthews reached double figures and four of the top order were dismissed without scoring. For the OMTs Graver took 4 for 10 and Smith took 6 for 27.
In our game it looked as if Sandy might take all ten but Brian Shadwell took the wicket of their top scorer, which left Sandy with 9 for 18 from 11 overs. The OMT 3rd XI amassed the relatively demanding score of 65.
Tea had never been taken so early at Croxley Green and the OMT 1st XI were back at the crease before the kettles had usually been turned on. Bill Hart and Don Wallis opened the bowling for South Hampstead and Bill had Wiles caught by Terry Cordaroy with the score at 14 but this was to be the only wicket to fall and OMTs reached their target in the twenty- first over.
On the third XI square Ray Cook and Martin Niblett opened in search of the 66 needed for victory. When Martin was caught Brian Shadwell took over until he was similarly dismissed. Ray and I then saw us sedately through to an eight wicket victory in the 25th over.
These games strangely mirrored each other in many respects with differing but balancing fortunes for the two clubs. Sandy’s figures were the best I ever witnessed from behind the stumps.
I contacted seven of the South Hampstead 1stXI from that fateful day to see if they had any personal anecdotes to add
.
Bruce Tutton remembered that there was a wedding going on elsewhere in the park and that it was an extremely cold day. In fact so much so that the Legendary Len Stubbs took the field in two pairs of flannels and four sweaters. Russell Bowes recalled that the wicket was a green top and that the ball seamed all over the place.Bob Peach reminded me that the fixture was not renewed, although who dropped who is not entirely clear.
Apparently the rest had all obliterated the ignominy completely from their minds
Naff Kit Update
Following our in depth analysis of Naff Kit in G&C17, Young Dave Myers informed me that he was reminded “ of a rain affected match I played in when there was a great deal of beer at stake. I batted in green wellies and a plastic mac in the hope that it would convince the umpire of the unsuitability of the playing conditions. It did not.”
I was somewhat surprised not to hear from the George Bottrill Fan Club whose hero considered it de rigueur to play in a black T-shirt worn underneath a Marks and Spencer white dress shirt.
When the Great Jack Morgan and I first played together our opening batsmen were the identical Shaw twins, Mark and Brian. These lads played in white T-shirts with M and B, respectively emblazoned on the back in blue biro to enable the scorers to identify to whom to credit any runs scored.
Count me out
There seem to be a lot of competitions and invitations around these days to identify promising fast bowlers. I trust that no-one is expecting me to participate in these activities. My occasional looping leg spinners would probably not reach the 50 mph mark and I have no intention of bowling them off a long run. Besides I haven’t turned my arm over this century.
Sunday 5th September
The following have already indicated their intention to be at the re-union at South Hampstead on Sunday 5th September:
Bob and Diana Peach, Steve and Heather Thompson, Roy and Joyce Dodson, Bill and Gill Hart, Alvin and Helen Nienow, Russell and Sally Bowes, Robin and Carol Ager, Len Stubbs, Terry Cordaroy, Jim Sharp, Wynne Sharp, Wally and Di Barratt, Ken James, Russ Collins, Roy Cutler and Geoff Cleaver.
If you are planning to attend, please let Bob Peach or me know. It will encourage others to make the effort to come along and it will assist us with the catering and other arrangements for the day.
South Hampstead 1stXI 1973
Steve Thompson, Terry Cordaroy, Bill Hart and Jim Sharp have confirmed that they will be at South Hampstead on 5th September. We await a response from Allen Bruton. If anyone knows how to contact Geoff Howe, Ossie Burton, Alan Cox, Lincoln Sylburne or Ian Jerman please let me know. Presumably Colin Price is still in Australia.
Bruce Tutton is celebrating his fortieth wedding anniversary on 5th September with his wife, Patsy, in the Dordogne and so they won’t be able to join us. Bruce sends his best wishes to everyone. We hope that his older brother, John, will be representing the family.
Roy Huntley and Bob Cleaver both live in New Zealand.
The Legendary Len Stubbs advised me that his older brother, Harold, died in the Algarve in the late nineties, having retired there. John Ducker passed away earlier this year after collapsing on the tennis court. Alan Huntley died a few years back.
Strange Elevens
Dave Banks correctly identified that the Strange Eleven in last month’s edition all played for three or more counties in the course of careers of varying lengths. We are working on a Somerset side who have all previously played for Middlesex, but are really too spoiled for choice.
In the meantime The Great Jack Morgan invites you to select the common denominator in this month’s Jazz Hat side:
Len Hutton
Conrad Hunte
Don Bradman
Viv Richards
Everton Weekes
Clyde Walcott (W/K)
Frank Worrell
Garry Sobers
Richard Hadlee
Gubby Allen
Alec Bedser
Irritating trends in modern cricket-number 17 OK its time I faced up to it. The pace of scoring in modern cricket is frankly an embarrassment to me. For most of my career scoring at 2 an over was acceptable and 3 an over was creaming it. Now anyone who doesn’t score at 80 per hundred balls is considered dilatory.
In what turned out to be my final season I purchased a Jumbo bat in an effort to up my strike rate. It is still in my garage with hardly a mark on it if anyone wants to make me an offer.
Earlier Editions
I will be please to email you a copy of the earlier editions of Googlies & Chinamen, if you missed or have mislaid them:
If you received this edition through a third party, please send me your email address to ensure that you get on the main mailing list for future editions.
Googlies and Chinamen
is produced by
James Sharp
Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
Tel & fax: 01298 70237
Email: [email protected]
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 18
June 2004
This Was
England’s run chase at Lords was impressive and confirms their all round improvement. It is surprising how difficult it is at test level to chase significant totals in the fourth innings. Gordon Greenidge made mincemeat of England’s target in 1984, but there has only been one other occasion when a side has scored over 200 in the fourth innings to win a Lord’s test. At the lower levels there have been two enormous successful chases already this year. South Zone beat the Academy tourists in March by knocking off a trifling 503 and in May Durham scored an unlikely 453 for 9 to beat Somerset at Taunton after earlier being 95 for 5.
Our New Zealand correspondent, Peter Hoare, suggests that we “look out for Oram, a very good player, and Mark Richardson, one of the few entertainingly poor fielders left in the game since the fitness craze took hold”. He says that, sadly, “Vettori has become the Ashley Giles of NZ cricket, picked because the others are even worse”.
Russell Bowes tells me that he played golf in North London recently with someone who knew Jack Hyams, who is now 85. They claimed that he was still playing cricket until two years ago. This seems extraordinarily unlikely but if he was he was no doubt still pinching the strike and scoring 4000 runs a season. Perhaps Dusty Miller was running for him. I mentioned this to Bill Hart who said that he remembered Jack Hyams as being so unpleasant that even Don Wallis seemed mild and inoffensive alongside him.
Bob Peach tells me that Shepherds Bush played their first game on their new Bromyard Avenue square in May. It must be playing fairly well since the bush knocked off over 200 to win the game.
David Banks has been a Googlies reader since the first edition. He always asks me to send his best wishes to any Old Danes who remember him. He recently informed me that he is extremely ill. We all send David our best wishes but if you would like to send a personal message his email address is: [email protected]
Out and About with The Professor The Professor reports on the opening weeks of the domestic season
You will be pleased to know, James, that after a mere 58 years (please check with Jack that I am indeed that old) I have at last managed to get my life organised. Last week I had two meetings in London that finished promptly before lunch, allowing me to nip along to Headquarters to see Middlesex’s South Africans take on Lancashire. The weather eventually prevented a result, but there was some top class cricket on view. It was cold and had been very wet and so no great surprise that the swing/seamers did well. Keegan again was impressive (whenever I seen him he seems to take important wickets) and Cork was inspired for Lancashire. In among all that there were some excellent innings: Loye had a great match and Law’s 90 was top notch. Joyce didn’t have a long knock but, as always, oozed class. The Lancashire folk I met told me that Law will shortly be eligible for England selection as is Flower – that looks like a rather more permanent middle order than England normally put out.
Closer to home, you will be pleased to hear that Welwyn Garden City CC have had a successful start to the season winning our first game against Sawbridgeworth - last year’s promoted team. Sawbridgeworth is a small Hertfordshire town but with a good cricketing tradition: last year in addition to getting promoted to our league, they beat Radlett in the final of the county cup. Fortunately for us they have lost Nic Walker, who joined Derbyshire, and he has left a bit of a hole in their batting and bowling. It will, by the way, be interesting to see how he does at Derby since he has a reputation of being a rather difficult young man. Perhaps the first class set up will generate some more discipline. Interestingly, he joins Botha at Derby who I saw hit Hertfordshire’s bowling (principally the younger Butcher) to all parts of Bishops Stortford, getting Ireland to 380 off 50 overs.
Our success was due in considerable part, to our new Australian signing – Mark Colegrave. He had the “dream” start of taking a wicket in each of his first three overs. It’s always something of a lottery getting an overseas player but Mark looks the genuine article. He’s a great strapping opening bowler who is also an ex- Aussie Rules professional (does that game have any “rules”) and has played for Tasmania. I will keep you posted on other successes or otherwise.
George gets copied in on our correspondence and he commented as follows
John's remark about “Aussie rules (are there any?)” reminds me that I did go to see a local derby crunch match at Melbourne cricket ground on Easter Monday 1999.
I have three recollections:
1) There were 96000 there
2) For 2 adults and 3 kids it cost just over £10 in total to get in
3) There was a rule that only a certain number of players from a side were allowed into an area of the field about the size of Rutland.
*
Nic Walker didn’t take long to write himself into the record books at Derbyshire. He scored 80 batting at number 11 against Somerset, beating the previous record held by Martin Jean-Jacques, a name not unfamiliar to the Shepherds Bush and South Hampstead clubs.
So who is in the Middle Order? I made the mistake of referring to the middle order in my article on Antipodeans at South Hampstead in the last edition. The Great Jack Morgan responded as follows:
“Middle order” – I have ceased to use this term as everyone seems to understand something different by it. Fortunately, it looks as if you have roughly the same understanding of the expression as I do. To me it means 6, 7 and 8, those above being the top order and those below being the tail. But some think it means 5, 6 and 7, or 4, 5 and 6 or even 3, 4 and 5.
This seemed like too good an opportunity to miss and so I replied as follows:
I guess this will vary from team to team. The top order is the guys who can bat and are expected to score runs. The tail will wag at best and isn't expected to score runs. The middle order is those guys who have some ability to bat but are generally unreliable. Most England one day sides in recent years have had a middle order that starts at 3 and goes down to 10 or 11. Unfortunately they are picked as all rounders and can't bowl either. If Collingwood is picked at four in the test side the middle order starts there. There are some players who have middle order imprinted on their foreheads: Anthony McGrath, Mark Ealham, Rikki Clarke, Gareth Batty, Dougie Brown, the Welsh Wizard, Ian Salisbury, Big Ronnie, Jeremy Snape, Graham Swan and Alex Tudor for starters. This was a bit of a waste – I could have used it as a Strange XI.
In the Caribbean this winter Trescothick was used as an all rounder who did both poorly and so the middle order was stretched up to two. In the Professors side in 1964 I was batting at six and so the middle order presumably started at seven. In some of Bob Peach's sides there was no middle order. Bruce Tutton would bat at eight and then Bill Hart, Don Wallis and Roy Phipps would constitute the tail.
Alternatively the middle order could constitute those guys who have to bat without the time to play a long measured innings. Either time or wickets conspire against them. In the first case there is only so much time or so many overs until declaration time and so they have to slog a bit and run well but get a bollocking if they fail doing either. In the latter they get left high and dry once the tail is reached and find themselves trying to keep the strike so that they can amass a few more precious runs, whilst secretly hoping that the tail enders get out so that they are left not out and can tell everyone that if only someone had stuck with them they would have scored fifty.
Doosra
Murali was reported by Chris Broad for throwing during the winter and the experts have adjudged that his doosra is “technically illegal” whatever that means. Since it is all about technicalities, then he is being called a cheat and is throwing about a third of his deliveries.
The scientists who rendered this decision say that the action in bowling the doosra gives him no discernable advantage! Try telling the English batsmen that, or the Aussies of whom he dismissed twenty-eight in three tests this winter or the Bangla Desh side who provided him with his record breaking wickets to enable him to pass Courtney Walsh’s test aggregate.
And this is cricket’s problem. The greatest test wicket taker of all time is a chucker. It is not possible to bowl the doosra without throwing it and many of us think that he throws his normal off spinner as well. The experts at the University of Western Australia decided that he created the illusion of throwing. Surely that is what constitutes throwing-if it looks like throwing it is throwing. If he bowls in front of an Australian umpire in Australia he will get called again, elsewhere his action will be accepted because it is too late now to do anything about it.
Absentee Journalism Peter Hoare adds another sad indictment to the trend of cricket reporting around the world
I've been meaning to write for a while to add to the Naff and Absentee Journalism strand. CricInfo has taken this trend several steps further by having its correspondents on a different continent from that where the matches they report on are being played.
For three seasons I was employed by CricInfo to travel around the North Island of NZ covering domestic cricket. It was a blissful time, and the fact that I never met anybody who had actually read anything I had written did nothing to diminish that feeling. However, after CricInfo was taken over by Wisden, and the purpose of a balance sheet was explained, the NZ operation was shut down. Reports on international games here still appear, but are written from in front of a TV screen in either Mumbai or London. This applies to most games in Australia too.
Rangers Reflections
All readers will be aware that the most significant event in the football world this month was that the Rangers won automatic promotion to the First Division. In 1974/5 they were runners up in the old First Division but have been in steady decline ever since, suffering the ignominy of Receivership along the way. However, many of our readers still turn to their result first each week before establishing what is the latest record Arsenal have broken or what side the Beckham boy is parting his hair this week. I have received various comments about this singular achievement and they reflect that particular ironic style of the Rangers supporter.
The Great Jack Morgan sent me this just before the season finale: “ Jim Revier has seen the Rangers four times in the last couple of months, but his report was that they are “not very good”. I had to come to their defence, of course, and gave the excuses that they had three central defenders out, two emergency signings at fullback and a loanee in goal, so what did he expect? But Jim said “there was nothing wrong with the defence…. it was the rest of them!” He described the midfield and attack as basically “useless”, exempting only Rowlands and Furlong from criticism. He couldn’t get a ticket for the Swindon game, which was sold out for home fans. Will you be going to Hillsborough for the climax? Jim gives us “no chance”. He says that not only are we not any good, but that we never win the big games. However, I had to remind him of Villa Park 1968, which was a very similar situation. Perhaps we could arrange for a home fullback to slip one past his own goalie? Were you there? I traveled down from Sheffield with Dave Dollery (a Villa fan of course) and Rog the Wolves supporter, who would tag along with anyone who was going to a football match. I don’t think I’m quite as pessimistic as Jim although I’m far from confident. I don’t think Wednesday are much of a side and as they are safe from relegation, they could be there for the taking?”
And I received this after the event As for how they will do next season, that sort of prediction is even more difficult than it used to be with such a vast turnover of players every close season. Holloway himself has got a new contract, but there will surely be plenty of other changes. Already Clarke Carlisle is talking to the Blades and the Rangers are talking to Barry Hayles. If Jim Revier’s verdict on the midfield and attack is correct then class recruits are essential. Holloway has proved himself a good recruiter of cheap players, but will they be good enough for division one? The Acton Gazette thinks that Johnson, Edghill, Palmer, Walshe, Oli, Pacquette and Forbes could all be out.
The Professor sent me this: “ I don’t think there is too much I can contribute on this subject having only seen the one game in the last decade. Presumably they will struggle – try to be difficult to beat at home, and remain in Division 1 for more than just one season. Of more interest is the manager. We remember him as a demented mid-fielder but now his has metamorphosed into a sort of idiot sage – a master of the mangled idiom. Anyway, why are we discussing football in the cricket season? I know the first test is early but there can’t ever have been a year when the test series began before the Cup Final. I see that there are football fixtures up to 31st May – presumably pre-season training starts in June. Then of course the summer will be dominated by events in Portugal”.
George sent me this after the Hillsborough weekend: “I went jogging from Wynne's along the canal in Old Hanwell on Monday lunchtime. I noticed that someone had a big Union Jack draped across the back of their house. I tut-tutted to myself about National front and racists in Ealing etc. Then when I got closer I realised it was emblazoned 'QPR FC' - fully justified!”
Bad Grounds
For reasons that completely escape me now South Hampstead had a fixture with Vauxhall Motors in the 1970s. The square was OK and the straight boundaries reasonably short. But the pavilion which was really more of an outpost was located 250 yards away at wide third man. It involved a long hike with a deckchair and the other paraphernalia required for a comfortable afternoon out to get within a young man’s eyesight of the square to see what was going on. You would have thought that the brains behind the Vauxhall Victor Estate would have known better.
The Pipsqueak Kiwi Revisited Peter Hoare sent me these observations on our favourite umpire
Our own Billy Bowden's star seems to be in decline judging from the comments that I've read in the UK press. People don't realise that the Billy we see on the international stage is a muted version of the Barnum-like figure that developed in the domestic game here. It used to be the case that he was less showy when the TV cameras were not present, but now the reverse is true. Having been told to reduce the histrionics if he was to get on the international stage, he can now only let go when he thinks that nobody is watching, which there usually isn't in domestic cricket here. At a game I covered a couple of years ago he walked slowly from the bowler's end to square leg, embarked on a conference about a doubtful catch with his colleague, walked at a funereal pace back to his original position, crouched as if waiting for the next delivery, paused for another couple of seconds and only then raised the crooked finger of fate to send the batsman on his way.
And an erratum By the way, Simon Taufel is still on the elite panel. You were victim of one of a growing number of gaffes in the Wisden Cricketer. Along with Shepherd and Bucknor, Taufel was in charge of the recent Pakistan v India series, a sign that he is highly favoured. It is Russell Tiffen of Zimbabwe who has gone, not before time. Tiffen and Ashocker De Silva both came here to umpire the recent series against SA after it had announced that the had been dropped, which couldn't have provided much of an incentive to get an early night before a hard day's finger raising.
Match Report
Two for the price of one this month.
The following games took place at Croxley Green between Old Merchant Taylor’s 1st and 3rd XIs and South Hampstead 1st and 3rd XIs on Saturday 29th May 1965
In this pair of games I found myself in the South Hampstead 3rd XI where the second field is located adjacent to the first team pitch in the beautiful country setting at Croxley Green. In our game we fielded first and I was soon keeping wicket to the steady, if none too pacey, bowling of Alan Motherwell and Ray Cook. Meanwhile on the senior square Terry Cordaroy and Bob Peach were opening the batting for the South Hampstead 1st XI.
In the 3rd XI game nothing much happened in the first hour. Ray and Alan bowled tidily without taking a wicket and OMTs progressed to 30 without loss. On the adjacent square events were unwinding quite differently. The South Hampstead openers added 9 in the first two overs but in the third Bob Peach was out LBW to Grover. In the following over Smith dismissed Terry Cordaroy and Len Stubbs, and in his third over added Bruce Tutton to his tally. In Graves’ fifth over Robin Ager was caught which reduced South Hampstead to 14 for 5.
Back in our game Ken Fletcher relieved Ray Cook and brought Sandy Sandresegara into the attack. Sandy bowled slow left arm with plenty of zip and soon started to get amongst the wickets, as did the OMT’s 1st XI bowlers who quickly dismissed Bob Cleaver, John Mersley Matthews, Bill Hart and Russell Bowes to reduce the South Hampstead 1st XI to 32 for 9. Back on our square Sandy was working his way through the OMT’s middle order with the help of catches by Brian Shadwell and a couple of stumpings.
Don Wallis and Roy Phipps attempted to restore pride and order over on the first team square and added a further 9 runs before Roy was caught. The innings had lasted 86 minutes and South Hampstead had been dismissed for 41. Only John Mersley Matthews reached double figures and four of the top order were dismissed without scoring. For the OMTs Graver took 4 for 10 and Smith took 6 for 27.
In our game it looked as if Sandy might take all ten but Brian Shadwell took the wicket of their top scorer, which left Sandy with 9 for 18 from 11 overs. The OMT 3rd XI amassed the relatively demanding score of 65.
Tea had never been taken so early at Croxley Green and the OMT 1st XI were back at the crease before the kettles had usually been turned on. Bill Hart and Don Wallis opened the bowling for South Hampstead and Bill had Wiles caught by Terry Cordaroy with the score at 14 but this was to be the only wicket to fall and OMTs reached their target in the twenty- first over.
On the third XI square Ray Cook and Martin Niblett opened in search of the 66 needed for victory. When Martin was caught Brian Shadwell took over until he was similarly dismissed. Ray and I then saw us sedately through to an eight wicket victory in the 25th over.
These games strangely mirrored each other in many respects with differing but balancing fortunes for the two clubs. Sandy’s figures were the best I ever witnessed from behind the stumps.
I contacted seven of the South Hampstead 1stXI from that fateful day to see if they had any personal anecdotes to add
.
Bruce Tutton remembered that there was a wedding going on elsewhere in the park and that it was an extremely cold day. In fact so much so that the Legendary Len Stubbs took the field in two pairs of flannels and four sweaters. Russell Bowes recalled that the wicket was a green top and that the ball seamed all over the place.Bob Peach reminded me that the fixture was not renewed, although who dropped who is not entirely clear.
Apparently the rest had all obliterated the ignominy completely from their minds
Naff Kit Update
Following our in depth analysis of Naff Kit in G&C17, Young Dave Myers informed me that he was reminded “ of a rain affected match I played in when there was a great deal of beer at stake. I batted in green wellies and a plastic mac in the hope that it would convince the umpire of the unsuitability of the playing conditions. It did not.”
I was somewhat surprised not to hear from the George Bottrill Fan Club whose hero considered it de rigueur to play in a black T-shirt worn underneath a Marks and Spencer white dress shirt.
When the Great Jack Morgan and I first played together our opening batsmen were the identical Shaw twins, Mark and Brian. These lads played in white T-shirts with M and B, respectively emblazoned on the back in blue biro to enable the scorers to identify to whom to credit any runs scored.
Count me out
There seem to be a lot of competitions and invitations around these days to identify promising fast bowlers. I trust that no-one is expecting me to participate in these activities. My occasional looping leg spinners would probably not reach the 50 mph mark and I have no intention of bowling them off a long run. Besides I haven’t turned my arm over this century.
Sunday 5th September
The following have already indicated their intention to be at the re-union at South Hampstead on Sunday 5th September:
Bob and Diana Peach, Steve and Heather Thompson, Roy and Joyce Dodson, Bill and Gill Hart, Alvin and Helen Nienow, Russell and Sally Bowes, Robin and Carol Ager, Len Stubbs, Terry Cordaroy, Jim Sharp, Wynne Sharp, Wally and Di Barratt, Ken James, Russ Collins, Roy Cutler and Geoff Cleaver.
If you are planning to attend, please let Bob Peach or me know. It will encourage others to make the effort to come along and it will assist us with the catering and other arrangements for the day.
South Hampstead 1stXI 1973
Steve Thompson, Terry Cordaroy, Bill Hart and Jim Sharp have confirmed that they will be at South Hampstead on 5th September. We await a response from Allen Bruton. If anyone knows how to contact Geoff Howe, Ossie Burton, Alan Cox, Lincoln Sylburne or Ian Jerman please let me know. Presumably Colin Price is still in Australia.
Bruce Tutton is celebrating his fortieth wedding anniversary on 5th September with his wife, Patsy, in the Dordogne and so they won’t be able to join us. Bruce sends his best wishes to everyone. We hope that his older brother, John, will be representing the family.
Roy Huntley and Bob Cleaver both live in New Zealand.
The Legendary Len Stubbs advised me that his older brother, Harold, died in the Algarve in the late nineties, having retired there. John Ducker passed away earlier this year after collapsing on the tennis court. Alan Huntley died a few years back.
Strange Elevens
Dave Banks correctly identified that the Strange Eleven in last month’s edition all played for three or more counties in the course of careers of varying lengths. We are working on a Somerset side who have all previously played for Middlesex, but are really too spoiled for choice.
In the meantime The Great Jack Morgan invites you to select the common denominator in this month’s Jazz Hat side:
Len Hutton
Conrad Hunte
Don Bradman
Viv Richards
Everton Weekes
Clyde Walcott (W/K)
Frank Worrell
Garry Sobers
Richard Hadlee
Gubby Allen
Alec Bedser
Irritating trends in modern cricket-number 17 OK its time I faced up to it. The pace of scoring in modern cricket is frankly an embarrassment to me. For most of my career scoring at 2 an over was acceptable and 3 an over was creaming it. Now anyone who doesn’t score at 80 per hundred balls is considered dilatory.
In what turned out to be my final season I purchased a Jumbo bat in an effort to up my strike rate. It is still in my garage with hardly a mark on it if anyone wants to make me an offer.
Earlier Editions
I will be please to email you a copy of the earlier editions of Googlies & Chinamen, if you missed or have mislaid them:
If you received this edition through a third party, please send me your email address to ensure that you get on the main mailing list for future editions.
Googlies and Chinamen
is produced by
James Sharp
Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
Tel & fax: 01298 70237
Email: [email protected]