GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 19
July 2004
Alone Again Or
I spoke to Peter Huntley recently and after retiring to North Wales he and Eileen have returned to the Home Counties to be closer to family and friends. Peter was one of those mad keen cricketers who wanted to play whatever the weather but when even he had to accept that it was too wet to continue he would say “OK Moses, throw it down”. Peter is now 80 and tells me that his spinning finger is still sore and so he won’t be available for the Wednesday side this season.
Roy Dodson’s Christmas card list and some sleuthing by the Professor have located Colin Newcombe, who was Club Treasurer at South Hampstead during the 1960s and sometime Second XI skipper. After leaving South Hampstead Colin played at Welwyn Garden City CC for a few years after 1969. I knew we had found Colin when I received this from the Professor “When I first joined WGCCC the secretary was a Colin Newcombe. He was the sort of chap who "did everything" for a few years and then disappeared. My memory is of a tallish, dark haired man who wore specs and opened the batting for the 2nd team. Does that sound like your SH man?” Colin tells me “Ian MacLaurin, now Lord MacLaurin, was a member at that time and occasionally played. I seem to remember batting with him and I was bowled playing back on 99 and got told off for not playing forward”.
Mike Talbot-Butler sent me this: “I have no idea why you send me Googlies and Chinamen, but I find it mildly amusing even though I have no knowledge of the majority of people to whom you refer. However, I can put you in touch with Ian Jerman, whom I know quite well. He is the chairman of Alderley Edge C.C. of the Cheshire County League who recently staged the C & G Trophy game between Cheshire and Hants and did a rattling good job. 1,000 people there, £8,000 club profit on a very wet day. He played for the club before then when he was quite a.... competitor, shall I say?” Yes, that’s the Ian we know and love.
In G&C 18 we noted the progress of Nick Walker from Sawbridgeworth to Derbyshire where against Somerset he made the highest score by a number eleven batting for Derbyshire. He had previously scored an unbeaten 31 against Hampshire that included a notable six off Shane Hamburger Warne. His excellent form at the base of the order continued at Oakham School against Leicestershire where he reached fifty in 23 minutes from 24 balls and finished with four sixes and in an undefeated 63. What seems strange is that he remains at number eleven in a notably fragile line up. However, in the one-day side he has been promoted to a pinch-hitting opener.
Celebrity Twelfth Men
When the Test series was over the New Zealand tourists played a number of warm up one-day games in preparation for the triangular series with England and the West Indies. One of these games was played at Chelmsford against Essex. Peter Butler, who I understand is now responsible for running the Westcliff week for Essex CCC, arranged as a charity wheeze for him to be the twelfth man for Essex in this match. Not to be outdone our Islington Kiwi, Eric Tracey, promptly contacted the tourists who agreed for him to be their twelfth man in the match. Eric noted that Peter and his combined ages of 110 probably constituted a record for a one-day match involving an international side. Enoch will know.
When I spoke with Eric prior to the match he was still not clear precisely what his role would entail. I warned him that these guys play for keeps and if in the unlikely event he found himself on the field of play he should under no circumstances go anywhere near the ball. Nevertheless, he signed me up as one of the sponsors for his chosen charity, The UK-NZ Link Foundation that offers two-way fellowships in musical, business and medical fields.
In the event it transpired that the twelfth men would not be called upon during the hours of play. Eric sent me these notes of his involvement: “It was a fantastic day and the players and management made me very welcome throughout the day. I did about 30 years' worth of exercise in the warm up with the team out on the pitch and then won the toss - a turning point in NZ cricket! I came home with a full set of ODI kit and Cairns' sunhat from his last test, Fleming's one day pullover and a piece of one of the bats Chris Cairns broke during his warm up.”
This certainly seems to have been a worthwhile experience for these influential city professionals who, no doubt, raised creditable sums for their chosen charities. However, it does throw open the doors for further opportunities for “designated twelfth men” as opposed to “playing twelfth men”. There is little doubt that Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton would donate significant sums for the opportunity of spending a day as twelfth man for one of the England sides and think of the cross cultural photo opportunities it would create. Peter and Eric may have started a ball rolling that will become impossible to stop.
Blarney
Both The Great Jack Morgan and Paddy O’Hara were quick to point out the Professor’s mistaken identity in the last issue. The latter corrected him as follows:
The Professor is quite wrong when he refers to "Botha of Derbyshire CCC hitting Herefordshire’s bowling to all parts of Bishops Stortford getting Ireland to 380 off 50 overs". It was Andre Botha, who plays club cricket for North County C.C. in the south of Ireland, who inflicted this carnage, (with the assistance of other team mates) but, unfortunately without the "classy” Ed Joyce, and indeed others "hoovered up" by English counties, and currently unavailable to this very good Ireland team.
The Professor, not to be put off by such trifles, tells us more about this epic encounter:
My apologies to your Irish reader for getting my Bothas mixed up in my last piece. Apparently I confused A C Botha with A G Botha (there but for a serif…). Neither of them, I venture, is especially Irish, but the one I saw play at Bishop Stortford can certainly hit a cricket ball a long, long way.
I was reporting, you will recall, on the Hertfordshire versus Ireland C&G match last year, when Ireland got 387 in 50 overs. Perhaps a bit more detail might be of interest. At one level these are strange sorts of contests – neither team is going to win the trophy – but it does give minor county players the chance to meet first class counties or, in this case, national sides. Also there have been, of course, some famous victories along the way.
I went along in part to support the County but also because we had four Welwyn Garden players in the side: Skeggs, Murch, Frazer and Pearman. None of them had particularly distinguished games although James Murch did stem (to a degree) the Niagara of runs – at the time he came on virtually every second ball was going to the fence, or over it. Botha’s companion at the crease was an in-aptly named Mr. Dros who also got a rapid and elegant hundred. I think he had a similar country of origin to Mr. Botha; indeed, my memory is that the Irish top order also included an Australian. In any event I was quite close to David Ward (fielding, reluctantly at his advanced years, on the boundary when the score was about 300-2) when a visiting supporter shouted that the “Paddy’s are giving you a thrashing Wardy”. His rather testy, but perhaps understandable, reaction was: “Well we ‘ain’t ‘erd too many Irish bleeding accents so far”. The visiting supporters were as you might imagine a hugely friendly bunch and I later learned that one of the South Africans had lived and worked in Ireland for some years and thus, I guess, is Irish by association. Come to that, David Ward’s only Hertfordshire connection, as far as I’m aware, is that we pay him to play.
The match finished with Herts about 70 short of the Irish total, which looks an easy win. However, as so often in cricket, there was a decisive moment in the run chase that came when it rained. At that stage Herts were 280 for seven with Iain Fletcher (who has lots of first class experience but only plays about five games of cricket a year these days) batting like a dream. He could have gone next ball, who knows, but with less than 100 to get in about 14 overs they were very confident. Sadly, for all involved the rain came – next day was very different and Ireland wrapped up the match in short order.
Incidentally, if you have not been to Bishops Stortford, it’s an interesting ground. They were at one time a very strong club (national champions I think some years ago, but sadly not so strong now) and the ground is an excellent batting and fielding surface. However at the pavilion side there is a dramatic slope - think of the little slope up to the pavilion at Lords and magnify by about 20 times in height and depth. The result is that if you are fielding on that boundary you are well about the height of the pitch. This means two things happen: first, your returns to the keeper go way above his head, and secondly, if you run in for a catch, you inevitably overshoot, have to stop and turn round and scrabble back up the hill, while the ball harmlessly drops behind you and you look rather foolish. How do I know this…you know how I know this?
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You will be pleased to know that WGCCC are back to winning ways – good win against Millhillians yesterday especially since in addition to the vastly experienced Hutchinson (ex Middlesex opener) they had a chap called Darren Sammy playing for them whom, it seems, has been called into the West Indies one-day squad. He certainly played a one-day shot to get out – but his 5-25 (or thereabouts) was decidedly useful.
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I popped into Lords on Monday - the game was dead and one of Worcester's South Africans- Moore - tried to kill us all with boredom. No sign of the Nursery End Nudist - indeed very few people at all. To return to an earlier theme, it was a warm sunny day with some world-class players on view in the best ground in the world and I counted 57 "paying" customers around the ground. Of those I guess the majority were Middlesex members and so the total paying to watch was probably about the same as the number being paid to play. How is such an arrangement sustainable?
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Finally, some of your readers will remember Gary Black. He, amazingly, still gets in the North Mymms first team, although, as he says, he hasn’t got any knee ligaments (obviously possession of these is not a selection requirement). We were talking about fast scoring and he remembered a match at the Bush when he and David Jukes put on 190 before lunch. “An amazing effort”, I said “even with short boundaries and two hours to bat”. “Oh no” the great man said, “We didn’t start till ten-to-twelve”
Bad Behaviour
Fast bowlers can be either the moody silent types or excitable extroverts. If Ossie Burton falls into the former camp then Bill Hart clearly was a card-carrying member of the latter. When Bill was bowling he was the centre of attention and scarcely a ball went by without there being some incident whether it be an explosive appeal, an exasperated sigh, a scowl at the batsman who had dared to play and miss, a glare at a fielder responsible for a misfield or an aside to the umpire. After the histrionics he would hitch up his flannels in an exaggerated manner and stomp back to his mark.
When I spoke with Bill recently it wasn’t long before he started recounting some of his less glorious escapades. In a game against High Wycombe the opponents’ umpire called a “no ball” when Bill bowled from wide of the crease. Bill knew that he had stepped inside the line and questioned the call. Later in the over Bill bowled his wide of the crease delivery again and the umpire’s verdict was the same. By now fuming, Bill got into an altercation with the umpire who was unmoved by his outburst. Bill then decided to bowl as close to stumps as possible and brush the umpire on his way through to the crease. In the event he misjudged his run up, collided with the umpire and sent him sprawling. This of course created a major incident between the two clubs which was only resolved after Bill had written a letter of apology.
On another occasion in a game at Wallington the opposition umpire turned down three LBW appeals in quick succession, all of which Bill considered were plum. Shortly thereafter Bill splattered the batsman’s stumps and turned to the umpire and said, “That must have been fucking close?”
I don’t know whether Bill is proud of these two stories or whether he was hoping to exorcise them by recounting them. In the early seventies Bill somewhat surprisingly agreed to be Don Wallis’ vice captain and became a reformed character. He set the standard for any future vice captain by taking on all the tedious duties for the captain and leaving Don to get on with the job of winning the match. He also became an almost sagely figure taking younger players under his wing.
The Murali Column
The Great Jack Morgan reported that “It was galling for Middlesex to lose three wickets in the Warwickshire match to the blatant throws of Mark “Jocky Wilson” Wagh. “I didn’t spot a “doosra”…. he just throws every ball.”
Meanwhile the man himself has bottled out of touring Australia because he knows that the Australian umpires will call him and that the crowds will give him relentless stick. Perhaps he should have gone and just played in the test matches where there would have been neutral umpires. It will give Shane Hamburger Warne the opportunity to overtake him as the leading wicket taker of all time, at least for the time being.
Caught on the airwaves During the C&G match between Sussex and Lancashire at Hove the cameras picked out Jack Simmons, the Chairman of Lancashire. David Lloyd commented that Simmons was a prodigious eater and recalled an occasion at Blackpool when he was so enjoying his lunch in the marquee that he stayed in there when his side took the field after lunch and when he did join them a couple of overs later he was carrying a complete gooseberry tart with him.
In the Headingley test Michael Vaughan took up a position square of the wicket on the off side, a sort of short point. Not surprisingly he elected to wear a helmet. CM-J asked Mike Selvey if he had seen such a position utilized before. “Oh, yes” was the reply. “John Emburey was asked to field there in pre-helmet days in a game against Essex, when Stuart Turner was batting. Wayne Daniel obliged with a long hop outside the off stump that Turner hit off the middle of the bat head high towards Emburey. The blow left Emburey with a nose resembling a squashed tomato and explains its current configuration.” CM-J replied, “ Yes he does have a rather distinguished hooter”.
And the Great Jack Morgan sent me this: I turned on Radio 5 at Lord’s on Saturday to get news of the Myskina/ Dementieva match at Roland Garros, but of course, the sodding football was on. However, before I managed to hit the off switch, I heard the commentator, Allan Green, announcing a great long list of substitutions that Sven was making in the England/Iceland match and Green then had me hooting with laughter (there was little else to laugh at Lord’s at that stage) as he announced that he had received a special message from Sven that if there was anyone listening who had not yet had a game for England, they should come along to the City of Manchester stadium and he would guarantee that they would get on before the end of the match!
Captain’s Privilege
In Antigua Brian Lara decided it was appropriate to bat on through the seventh session in order for him to regain his world record. This left him with just eight sessions of play in which to bowl England out twice and win the match. In the event this didn’t prove long enough and the match ended in a draw.
At Sabina Park in the second test against Bangla Desh, Lara was surprisingly dismissed for 119 but his partner at the crease Ramnaresh Sarwan went sublimely on to 261. At this point the West Indies had a lead of 275 and there were six and a half sessions still to play. If he had not got out, Sarwan would probably have needed just two of these to overtake Lara’s new record. However, Lara declared and Bangla Desh were bowled out in just two sessions, leaving Sarwan to think what might have been if he had been able to bat through some of the four unused sessions of play.
It appears, sadly, that when Lara is at the crease personal glory takes precedence over team performance and when he is not preservation of personal records take precedence over opportunities for teammates.
The things I do for you lot Its one thing being a smart-arse about things you have first hand knowledge of but you are on dubious grounds spouting off about things you only get second hand information on. As each edition of this Journal is published my guilt has, therefore, been mounting and so at the end of May I toddled along to the third day's play at Old Trafford between Middlesex and Lancashire. This was my first visit to a county match since Peter Butler took me to Westcliff in 1976 to see a young Graham Gooch take apart the Worcestershire attack.
Middlesex were quite impressive. Lancashire started the day at 253 for 2 in reply to Middlesex's 382. I was fully expecting them to rattle up 600 or 700 as they had last year. In the event Dalrymple and Peploe, whom the players not surprisingly call Pepsi, bowled in tandem from the start of play for 30 overs and imposed a strangle hold on the Lancashire batting. They were helped by the fact that no one made any attempt to get after them, which was somewhat surprising since those Grand Old Men of Lancashire, Stuart Law and Carl Hooper, were visitors to the crease during this period of play. It was a pleasant day and 18 overs were bowled in the first hour. When drinks were brought on the crowd slow hand clapped the Middlesex team and called them “Southern Sissies”. After 90 minutes they had bowled an extraordinary 30 overs. This was despite the fact that Peploe was called for a number of wides down the leg side when bowling over the wicket into the non-existent rough.
Peploe eventually gave way to Klusener who bowled quicker and in a more lively manner than I had expected. At this point Middlesex were guilty of some time wasting with exaggerated ball polishing exercises. It may have been that they didn't want to end up bowling any extra overs at the end of the day or alternatively that they were taking the piss out of Shah who still hadn't taken the new ball after 120 overs. Middlesex were booed off by the northern oiks at lunch but had had by far the better of the play restricting Lancs to 320 for 4.
During the luncheon interval the public address system triumphantly announced Nass’ retirement from all first class cricket and then in case anyone in the Greater Manchester area had missed it the first time they repeated it five minutes later. I don’t know why they were so excited, no one from Lancashire is likely to take his place, their batsmen are all too old and foreign.
Having dismissed both Law and Hooper, Dalrymple continued his epic spell after lunch but eventually gave way to Hayward when the new ball was taken. Lancashire had so lost their way that they were 30 short of their final batting point at 130 overs. They then, untidily, conceded an extra bowling point when they lost wickets in the 129th and 130th overs. Hayward looked impressive and made the difference getting Loye, Swann and Mahmood. Loye batted 6 hours for 98 and on the day made 39 in 3 hours. Hegg slogged around at the end which gave Hutchinson the chance for a bowl but he was singularly unimpressive, didn't look pacey and certainly didn't trouble the tail enders. Middlesex must have been pleased with 417 all out and I am sure would have settled for it at the beginning of play.
Anderson looked quite quick and got Koenig to play on and then Shah played delightfully and looked a class above anyone else seen on the day. He was never troubled and dispatched anything wayward with crisp certainty. I now understand Hutton's bizarre statistics of long dour innings sprinkled with sixes. He is a big blocker who opens his shoulders and gives air to anything the slow bowlers drop short to him. He hit Hooper for one enormous six and another blow fell just short. However, Anderson returned in the additional overs Middlesex had earned earlier in the day and had him LBW.
I was surprised that there were probably a couple of thousand in the ground. It must have been the quality of the opposition. It certainly wasn’t to enjoy the facilities. Old Trafford is a disgrace. No wonder they don't get much in the way of test matches now. The playing surface seems good but the ground is like a throw back to the fifties. I doubt whether there has been any improvements for fifty years. After watching the Lords test and seeing the cricket from St Lucia in the previous week the Lancashire committee should be ashamed of themselves.
Player Identification
I must admit that I watch most of my cricket on television where it is relatively straightforward to identify the players. However, during my recent sojourn to Old Trafford I found player identification quite difficult. The scoreboard didn't identify the fielders as it used to at Lords and with a lot of hats and caps being worn the Middlesex guys were difficult to identify, particularly as I hadn't seen many of them before. The Lancashire team had numbers on their shirts and sweaters, which of course made it easier, but looked vulgar.
I put this point to the Great Jack Morgan who replied as follows:
I agree about player recognition in view of the headgear worn these days. Of course, I know the Middlesex chaps, but spotting the visitors can be difficult. At Lord’s, however, it is easy because the scoreboard flashes up the name of the fielder after each ball, usually correctly, so one can soon confidently identify each player. One feels helpless, however, on other grounds where one gets no assistance whatsoever. Numbers on kit are universal, I think, in M Mouse and Dumberer games, but are rare in first class matches. It is such a long time since I went to a C&G game that I cannot tell you what the norm is there. I like to see numbers in second team games as it is a constant struggle to get any clues at all about who the hell they all are!
Match Report
The following match took place at Cardiff on 1,2,3 &4 July 1993 between Glamorgan and Middlesex.
Glamorgan won the toss and although at one stage they were 137 for 3, they finally declared without further loss at 562 for 3. Adrian Dale and Viv Richards both scored unbeaten double centuries and their partnership of 425 created a new record for any Glamorgan wicket.
Mike Roseberry was out before the close of play on the second day which brought John Emburey to the crease in his role as night watchman. On day three Desmond Haynes was LBW to Steve Watkin for 73 but Emburey and Mike Gatting added 262 for the third wicket. Emburey was ultimately dismissed for 123 whilst Gatting proceeded to 173. Middlesex were finally all out on the fourth morning for 584 with their wicket keeper, Keith Brown, unbeaten on 88.
Angus Fraser and Neil Williams opened the bowling for Middlesex in the Glamorgan second innings with little effect. However, when they gave way to the spinners, Emburey and Tufnell, an amazing collapse took place. Glamorgan slumped to 104 for 8 at tea. Tufnell took eight of the first nine wickets to fall with Cottey being run out. Emburey took the final wicket to leave Tufnell with 8 for 29 from 23 overs. Matthew Maynard top scored for Glamorgan with 32 and Glamorgan managed only 109. This left Middlesex to score 88 from a maximum of 33 overs after tea. Haynes and Roseberry cruised to victory in under twenty overs.
It seems extraordinary that two unbeaten double centurions should end up not only on the losing side but also on the wrong end of a ten-wicket thrashing. The change in wickets over the last decade is no better illustrated than by Tufnell’s contrasting first and second innings figures of 1 for 114 and 8 for 29, respectively.
Rangers Update I received another castigation from the Great Jack Morgan for my error in G&C 18
Runners-up in 74/75? What makes you toss in these howlers? Every schoolboy knows it was 75/76! Do you do this to keep me on my toes? To make sure that I read each issue with the thoroughness it deserves? Or just to give everyone a bit of a giggle? I bet even the Professor spotted that one. Of course, I cannot really agree about the “steady decline ever since” either. An unbroken spell of thirteen seasons (83/84 – 95/96) in the top division does not indicate a decline of any sort. There were some very good spells of football in many of those seasons and finishing fifth three times during that period is a good achievement for a club the size of the Rangers. The decline only happened after the sale of Les Ferdinand was followed by the disastrous managerial spells of Butch Wilkins and Stewart Houston in the nineties.
Rangers Reminiscences
Stephen King would have been fifty this year. Sadly he died soon after leaving school in the seventies. Steve Thompson was vice school captain when Stephen King was school captain in 1972/3. Stephen came from a family of fanatical Rangers supporters. His dad, Sam King, has been a Rangers supporter for seventy-four years that, I suppose, is testament to a strong constitution. He sent me these reminiscences:
I started being a QPR supporter in 1930 together with my father and two brothers. I saw them play on Christmas morning-George Goddard, Ivor Powell and Jefferson all come to mind. During the war, in 1941, I was stationed at Stamford Brook with the Royal Signals. We had a good football team and played against the Royal Artillery on Chiswick Polytechnic Sports Ground. Ted Vignyarde, the Rangers Manager, happened to be there and invited me for a trial at Loftus Road. I had quite a good game playing in a side that drew with a Rangers squad. A week later I got posted to Egypt and so ended my Rangers ambitions.
I played quite a lot in Egypt against Tom Finney, Roy Westwood and many professionals. Coming back to England, awaiting demob from the army, I played for Cheltenham Town in the Southern League. I currently have a season ticket and attend all home matches with my daughter Janet, her husband and my grandson, Paul. I thought that maybe I was the oldest supporter but then remembered that Cyril Budd sits behind me.
Reunion at South Hampstead on September 5th
Please treat this as your formal invitation to the reunion of sixties and seventies club cricketers at South Hampstead on Sunday 5th September. The event will start at noon and a buffet lunch will be served. Wives will be most welcome. The cost of the event will be £10 per head. If you haven’t already responded to Bob Peach or myself we would appreciate your advising whether you intend to attend or not. Thanks to all who have responded. The acceptance list now reads as follows:
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, Geoff Cleaver, Allan Clain, Clive Coleman, Peter and Eileen Huntley, Ian Jerman, Bob Denley and Russ Collins.
Unfortunately, the Professor will be on a lecture tour in South Africa and so will be unable to attend the event. John Tutton, like his brother Bruce, will also be away and sends his best wishes to everyone. John Weale and Colin Newcombe have other commitments on that day and will be unable to attend. Dave Perrin and Don Wallis will also be away on holiday.
We still have been unable to track down the following: George Bottrill, Geoff Howe, Lincoln Sylburne, Ian Kinrade, Jeremy Hall, Jeremy Asquith, Russell Tant, Colin Ezer, Keith Hardie, Ted Meade-King, Richard Brookes, Ron Hooker, John Mersley Matthews, Brian Shadwell, John Courtney, Ron Smith, Harry Bayliss, Rickie Cameron, Mark Rigby, Tim Miles, Peter Barclay, David Evans, Peter Dickson, Nigel Ross, Alf Langley, Mike Langley, Stephen Doughty, Dick Bostell, Eric Carter, Laurie Nash, John Bowerman, David Mindell, Jim Pearcey, Chris Hayles, Mick Buck, Howard Tucker, David Harrison, Gary Couch, Lindsey MacDougall, Robin Syrett, Maurice Applegate, Peter Yellowlees, Dick Boothroyd, George Hepworth, John Mountjoy, Jack Singman, Jeremy Ornstein, Ranji Kerai and Chandy Ratnatunga. I would be most grateful for any assistance in locating any of these individuals.
Irritating trends in modern cricket-number 18 When fielding restrictions were introduced for the first fifteen overs of limited over matches someone thought it would be a good idea to exploit the potential opportunity for fast scoring by sending in a lower order big hitter. Ian Botham was an early filler of this role. However, it rarely works and the spectacle of lesser players swishing air against the new ball is the norm. In general the best batsmen are those at the top of the order and these are the guys who should be given the opportunity to spend the most time at the crease. They should be the players best equipped to play shots that will get the innings off to a good start.
Someone borrowed the baseball term “pinch hitter” to describe the role and it has surprisingly stuck. I cannot think of any other baseball term that has found its way into common cricketing parlance.
Strange Elevens
The Jazz Hat gang in the last edition have all been knighted. The Great Jack Morgan submitted the following Midweek XI, which for some strange reason will have to perform without the services of a wicket keeper:
Eric Russell
Gilbert Parkhouse
Mike Denness
Tony Lewis
Alan Watkins
Gavin Hamilton
Robert Croft
Greg Thomas
Martin McCague
Jeff Jones
Ian Peebles
All you have to do is identify what unites them.
And Finally- A Clarification
In order to assist identification it is now compulsory for anyone with an IQ lower than 85 to display a warning flag (comprising of a red cross on a white background) attached to the top of at least one door of their vehicle. For drivers with an IQ below 65 additional flags are required. The same regulations apply to householders.
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
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 19
July 2004
Alone Again Or
I spoke to Peter Huntley recently and after retiring to North Wales he and Eileen have returned to the Home Counties to be closer to family and friends. Peter was one of those mad keen cricketers who wanted to play whatever the weather but when even he had to accept that it was too wet to continue he would say “OK Moses, throw it down”. Peter is now 80 and tells me that his spinning finger is still sore and so he won’t be available for the Wednesday side this season.
Roy Dodson’s Christmas card list and some sleuthing by the Professor have located Colin Newcombe, who was Club Treasurer at South Hampstead during the 1960s and sometime Second XI skipper. After leaving South Hampstead Colin played at Welwyn Garden City CC for a few years after 1969. I knew we had found Colin when I received this from the Professor “When I first joined WGCCC the secretary was a Colin Newcombe. He was the sort of chap who "did everything" for a few years and then disappeared. My memory is of a tallish, dark haired man who wore specs and opened the batting for the 2nd team. Does that sound like your SH man?” Colin tells me “Ian MacLaurin, now Lord MacLaurin, was a member at that time and occasionally played. I seem to remember batting with him and I was bowled playing back on 99 and got told off for not playing forward”.
Mike Talbot-Butler sent me this: “I have no idea why you send me Googlies and Chinamen, but I find it mildly amusing even though I have no knowledge of the majority of people to whom you refer. However, I can put you in touch with Ian Jerman, whom I know quite well. He is the chairman of Alderley Edge C.C. of the Cheshire County League who recently staged the C & G Trophy game between Cheshire and Hants and did a rattling good job. 1,000 people there, £8,000 club profit on a very wet day. He played for the club before then when he was quite a.... competitor, shall I say?” Yes, that’s the Ian we know and love.
In G&C 18 we noted the progress of Nick Walker from Sawbridgeworth to Derbyshire where against Somerset he made the highest score by a number eleven batting for Derbyshire. He had previously scored an unbeaten 31 against Hampshire that included a notable six off Shane Hamburger Warne. His excellent form at the base of the order continued at Oakham School against Leicestershire where he reached fifty in 23 minutes from 24 balls and finished with four sixes and in an undefeated 63. What seems strange is that he remains at number eleven in a notably fragile line up. However, in the one-day side he has been promoted to a pinch-hitting opener.
Celebrity Twelfth Men
When the Test series was over the New Zealand tourists played a number of warm up one-day games in preparation for the triangular series with England and the West Indies. One of these games was played at Chelmsford against Essex. Peter Butler, who I understand is now responsible for running the Westcliff week for Essex CCC, arranged as a charity wheeze for him to be the twelfth man for Essex in this match. Not to be outdone our Islington Kiwi, Eric Tracey, promptly contacted the tourists who agreed for him to be their twelfth man in the match. Eric noted that Peter and his combined ages of 110 probably constituted a record for a one-day match involving an international side. Enoch will know.
When I spoke with Eric prior to the match he was still not clear precisely what his role would entail. I warned him that these guys play for keeps and if in the unlikely event he found himself on the field of play he should under no circumstances go anywhere near the ball. Nevertheless, he signed me up as one of the sponsors for his chosen charity, The UK-NZ Link Foundation that offers two-way fellowships in musical, business and medical fields.
In the event it transpired that the twelfth men would not be called upon during the hours of play. Eric sent me these notes of his involvement: “It was a fantastic day and the players and management made me very welcome throughout the day. I did about 30 years' worth of exercise in the warm up with the team out on the pitch and then won the toss - a turning point in NZ cricket! I came home with a full set of ODI kit and Cairns' sunhat from his last test, Fleming's one day pullover and a piece of one of the bats Chris Cairns broke during his warm up.”
This certainly seems to have been a worthwhile experience for these influential city professionals who, no doubt, raised creditable sums for their chosen charities. However, it does throw open the doors for further opportunities for “designated twelfth men” as opposed to “playing twelfth men”. There is little doubt that Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton would donate significant sums for the opportunity of spending a day as twelfth man for one of the England sides and think of the cross cultural photo opportunities it would create. Peter and Eric may have started a ball rolling that will become impossible to stop.
Blarney
Both The Great Jack Morgan and Paddy O’Hara were quick to point out the Professor’s mistaken identity in the last issue. The latter corrected him as follows:
The Professor is quite wrong when he refers to "Botha of Derbyshire CCC hitting Herefordshire’s bowling to all parts of Bishops Stortford getting Ireland to 380 off 50 overs". It was Andre Botha, who plays club cricket for North County C.C. in the south of Ireland, who inflicted this carnage, (with the assistance of other team mates) but, unfortunately without the "classy” Ed Joyce, and indeed others "hoovered up" by English counties, and currently unavailable to this very good Ireland team.
The Professor, not to be put off by such trifles, tells us more about this epic encounter:
My apologies to your Irish reader for getting my Bothas mixed up in my last piece. Apparently I confused A C Botha with A G Botha (there but for a serif…). Neither of them, I venture, is especially Irish, but the one I saw play at Bishop Stortford can certainly hit a cricket ball a long, long way.
I was reporting, you will recall, on the Hertfordshire versus Ireland C&G match last year, when Ireland got 387 in 50 overs. Perhaps a bit more detail might be of interest. At one level these are strange sorts of contests – neither team is going to win the trophy – but it does give minor county players the chance to meet first class counties or, in this case, national sides. Also there have been, of course, some famous victories along the way.
I went along in part to support the County but also because we had four Welwyn Garden players in the side: Skeggs, Murch, Frazer and Pearman. None of them had particularly distinguished games although James Murch did stem (to a degree) the Niagara of runs – at the time he came on virtually every second ball was going to the fence, or over it. Botha’s companion at the crease was an in-aptly named Mr. Dros who also got a rapid and elegant hundred. I think he had a similar country of origin to Mr. Botha; indeed, my memory is that the Irish top order also included an Australian. In any event I was quite close to David Ward (fielding, reluctantly at his advanced years, on the boundary when the score was about 300-2) when a visiting supporter shouted that the “Paddy’s are giving you a thrashing Wardy”. His rather testy, but perhaps understandable, reaction was: “Well we ‘ain’t ‘erd too many Irish bleeding accents so far”. The visiting supporters were as you might imagine a hugely friendly bunch and I later learned that one of the South Africans had lived and worked in Ireland for some years and thus, I guess, is Irish by association. Come to that, David Ward’s only Hertfordshire connection, as far as I’m aware, is that we pay him to play.
The match finished with Herts about 70 short of the Irish total, which looks an easy win. However, as so often in cricket, there was a decisive moment in the run chase that came when it rained. At that stage Herts were 280 for seven with Iain Fletcher (who has lots of first class experience but only plays about five games of cricket a year these days) batting like a dream. He could have gone next ball, who knows, but with less than 100 to get in about 14 overs they were very confident. Sadly, for all involved the rain came – next day was very different and Ireland wrapped up the match in short order.
Incidentally, if you have not been to Bishops Stortford, it’s an interesting ground. They were at one time a very strong club (national champions I think some years ago, but sadly not so strong now) and the ground is an excellent batting and fielding surface. However at the pavilion side there is a dramatic slope - think of the little slope up to the pavilion at Lords and magnify by about 20 times in height and depth. The result is that if you are fielding on that boundary you are well about the height of the pitch. This means two things happen: first, your returns to the keeper go way above his head, and secondly, if you run in for a catch, you inevitably overshoot, have to stop and turn round and scrabble back up the hill, while the ball harmlessly drops behind you and you look rather foolish. How do I know this…you know how I know this?
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You will be pleased to know that WGCCC are back to winning ways – good win against Millhillians yesterday especially since in addition to the vastly experienced Hutchinson (ex Middlesex opener) they had a chap called Darren Sammy playing for them whom, it seems, has been called into the West Indies one-day squad. He certainly played a one-day shot to get out – but his 5-25 (or thereabouts) was decidedly useful.
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I popped into Lords on Monday - the game was dead and one of Worcester's South Africans- Moore - tried to kill us all with boredom. No sign of the Nursery End Nudist - indeed very few people at all. To return to an earlier theme, it was a warm sunny day with some world-class players on view in the best ground in the world and I counted 57 "paying" customers around the ground. Of those I guess the majority were Middlesex members and so the total paying to watch was probably about the same as the number being paid to play. How is such an arrangement sustainable?
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Finally, some of your readers will remember Gary Black. He, amazingly, still gets in the North Mymms first team, although, as he says, he hasn’t got any knee ligaments (obviously possession of these is not a selection requirement). We were talking about fast scoring and he remembered a match at the Bush when he and David Jukes put on 190 before lunch. “An amazing effort”, I said “even with short boundaries and two hours to bat”. “Oh no” the great man said, “We didn’t start till ten-to-twelve”
Bad Behaviour
Fast bowlers can be either the moody silent types or excitable extroverts. If Ossie Burton falls into the former camp then Bill Hart clearly was a card-carrying member of the latter. When Bill was bowling he was the centre of attention and scarcely a ball went by without there being some incident whether it be an explosive appeal, an exasperated sigh, a scowl at the batsman who had dared to play and miss, a glare at a fielder responsible for a misfield or an aside to the umpire. After the histrionics he would hitch up his flannels in an exaggerated manner and stomp back to his mark.
When I spoke with Bill recently it wasn’t long before he started recounting some of his less glorious escapades. In a game against High Wycombe the opponents’ umpire called a “no ball” when Bill bowled from wide of the crease. Bill knew that he had stepped inside the line and questioned the call. Later in the over Bill bowled his wide of the crease delivery again and the umpire’s verdict was the same. By now fuming, Bill got into an altercation with the umpire who was unmoved by his outburst. Bill then decided to bowl as close to stumps as possible and brush the umpire on his way through to the crease. In the event he misjudged his run up, collided with the umpire and sent him sprawling. This of course created a major incident between the two clubs which was only resolved after Bill had written a letter of apology.
On another occasion in a game at Wallington the opposition umpire turned down three LBW appeals in quick succession, all of which Bill considered were plum. Shortly thereafter Bill splattered the batsman’s stumps and turned to the umpire and said, “That must have been fucking close?”
I don’t know whether Bill is proud of these two stories or whether he was hoping to exorcise them by recounting them. In the early seventies Bill somewhat surprisingly agreed to be Don Wallis’ vice captain and became a reformed character. He set the standard for any future vice captain by taking on all the tedious duties for the captain and leaving Don to get on with the job of winning the match. He also became an almost sagely figure taking younger players under his wing.
The Murali Column
The Great Jack Morgan reported that “It was galling for Middlesex to lose three wickets in the Warwickshire match to the blatant throws of Mark “Jocky Wilson” Wagh. “I didn’t spot a “doosra”…. he just throws every ball.”
Meanwhile the man himself has bottled out of touring Australia because he knows that the Australian umpires will call him and that the crowds will give him relentless stick. Perhaps he should have gone and just played in the test matches where there would have been neutral umpires. It will give Shane Hamburger Warne the opportunity to overtake him as the leading wicket taker of all time, at least for the time being.
Caught on the airwaves During the C&G match between Sussex and Lancashire at Hove the cameras picked out Jack Simmons, the Chairman of Lancashire. David Lloyd commented that Simmons was a prodigious eater and recalled an occasion at Blackpool when he was so enjoying his lunch in the marquee that he stayed in there when his side took the field after lunch and when he did join them a couple of overs later he was carrying a complete gooseberry tart with him.
In the Headingley test Michael Vaughan took up a position square of the wicket on the off side, a sort of short point. Not surprisingly he elected to wear a helmet. CM-J asked Mike Selvey if he had seen such a position utilized before. “Oh, yes” was the reply. “John Emburey was asked to field there in pre-helmet days in a game against Essex, when Stuart Turner was batting. Wayne Daniel obliged with a long hop outside the off stump that Turner hit off the middle of the bat head high towards Emburey. The blow left Emburey with a nose resembling a squashed tomato and explains its current configuration.” CM-J replied, “ Yes he does have a rather distinguished hooter”.
And the Great Jack Morgan sent me this: I turned on Radio 5 at Lord’s on Saturday to get news of the Myskina/ Dementieva match at Roland Garros, but of course, the sodding football was on. However, before I managed to hit the off switch, I heard the commentator, Allan Green, announcing a great long list of substitutions that Sven was making in the England/Iceland match and Green then had me hooting with laughter (there was little else to laugh at Lord’s at that stage) as he announced that he had received a special message from Sven that if there was anyone listening who had not yet had a game for England, they should come along to the City of Manchester stadium and he would guarantee that they would get on before the end of the match!
Captain’s Privilege
In Antigua Brian Lara decided it was appropriate to bat on through the seventh session in order for him to regain his world record. This left him with just eight sessions of play in which to bowl England out twice and win the match. In the event this didn’t prove long enough and the match ended in a draw.
At Sabina Park in the second test against Bangla Desh, Lara was surprisingly dismissed for 119 but his partner at the crease Ramnaresh Sarwan went sublimely on to 261. At this point the West Indies had a lead of 275 and there were six and a half sessions still to play. If he had not got out, Sarwan would probably have needed just two of these to overtake Lara’s new record. However, Lara declared and Bangla Desh were bowled out in just two sessions, leaving Sarwan to think what might have been if he had been able to bat through some of the four unused sessions of play.
It appears, sadly, that when Lara is at the crease personal glory takes precedence over team performance and when he is not preservation of personal records take precedence over opportunities for teammates.
The things I do for you lot Its one thing being a smart-arse about things you have first hand knowledge of but you are on dubious grounds spouting off about things you only get second hand information on. As each edition of this Journal is published my guilt has, therefore, been mounting and so at the end of May I toddled along to the third day's play at Old Trafford between Middlesex and Lancashire. This was my first visit to a county match since Peter Butler took me to Westcliff in 1976 to see a young Graham Gooch take apart the Worcestershire attack.
Middlesex were quite impressive. Lancashire started the day at 253 for 2 in reply to Middlesex's 382. I was fully expecting them to rattle up 600 or 700 as they had last year. In the event Dalrymple and Peploe, whom the players not surprisingly call Pepsi, bowled in tandem from the start of play for 30 overs and imposed a strangle hold on the Lancashire batting. They were helped by the fact that no one made any attempt to get after them, which was somewhat surprising since those Grand Old Men of Lancashire, Stuart Law and Carl Hooper, were visitors to the crease during this period of play. It was a pleasant day and 18 overs were bowled in the first hour. When drinks were brought on the crowd slow hand clapped the Middlesex team and called them “Southern Sissies”. After 90 minutes they had bowled an extraordinary 30 overs. This was despite the fact that Peploe was called for a number of wides down the leg side when bowling over the wicket into the non-existent rough.
Peploe eventually gave way to Klusener who bowled quicker and in a more lively manner than I had expected. At this point Middlesex were guilty of some time wasting with exaggerated ball polishing exercises. It may have been that they didn't want to end up bowling any extra overs at the end of the day or alternatively that they were taking the piss out of Shah who still hadn't taken the new ball after 120 overs. Middlesex were booed off by the northern oiks at lunch but had had by far the better of the play restricting Lancs to 320 for 4.
During the luncheon interval the public address system triumphantly announced Nass’ retirement from all first class cricket and then in case anyone in the Greater Manchester area had missed it the first time they repeated it five minutes later. I don’t know why they were so excited, no one from Lancashire is likely to take his place, their batsmen are all too old and foreign.
Having dismissed both Law and Hooper, Dalrymple continued his epic spell after lunch but eventually gave way to Hayward when the new ball was taken. Lancashire had so lost their way that they were 30 short of their final batting point at 130 overs. They then, untidily, conceded an extra bowling point when they lost wickets in the 129th and 130th overs. Hayward looked impressive and made the difference getting Loye, Swann and Mahmood. Loye batted 6 hours for 98 and on the day made 39 in 3 hours. Hegg slogged around at the end which gave Hutchinson the chance for a bowl but he was singularly unimpressive, didn't look pacey and certainly didn't trouble the tail enders. Middlesex must have been pleased with 417 all out and I am sure would have settled for it at the beginning of play.
Anderson looked quite quick and got Koenig to play on and then Shah played delightfully and looked a class above anyone else seen on the day. He was never troubled and dispatched anything wayward with crisp certainty. I now understand Hutton's bizarre statistics of long dour innings sprinkled with sixes. He is a big blocker who opens his shoulders and gives air to anything the slow bowlers drop short to him. He hit Hooper for one enormous six and another blow fell just short. However, Anderson returned in the additional overs Middlesex had earned earlier in the day and had him LBW.
I was surprised that there were probably a couple of thousand in the ground. It must have been the quality of the opposition. It certainly wasn’t to enjoy the facilities. Old Trafford is a disgrace. No wonder they don't get much in the way of test matches now. The playing surface seems good but the ground is like a throw back to the fifties. I doubt whether there has been any improvements for fifty years. After watching the Lords test and seeing the cricket from St Lucia in the previous week the Lancashire committee should be ashamed of themselves.
Player Identification
I must admit that I watch most of my cricket on television where it is relatively straightforward to identify the players. However, during my recent sojourn to Old Trafford I found player identification quite difficult. The scoreboard didn't identify the fielders as it used to at Lords and with a lot of hats and caps being worn the Middlesex guys were difficult to identify, particularly as I hadn't seen many of them before. The Lancashire team had numbers on their shirts and sweaters, which of course made it easier, but looked vulgar.
I put this point to the Great Jack Morgan who replied as follows:
I agree about player recognition in view of the headgear worn these days. Of course, I know the Middlesex chaps, but spotting the visitors can be difficult. At Lord’s, however, it is easy because the scoreboard flashes up the name of the fielder after each ball, usually correctly, so one can soon confidently identify each player. One feels helpless, however, on other grounds where one gets no assistance whatsoever. Numbers on kit are universal, I think, in M Mouse and Dumberer games, but are rare in first class matches. It is such a long time since I went to a C&G game that I cannot tell you what the norm is there. I like to see numbers in second team games as it is a constant struggle to get any clues at all about who the hell they all are!
Match Report
The following match took place at Cardiff on 1,2,3 &4 July 1993 between Glamorgan and Middlesex.
Glamorgan won the toss and although at one stage they were 137 for 3, they finally declared without further loss at 562 for 3. Adrian Dale and Viv Richards both scored unbeaten double centuries and their partnership of 425 created a new record for any Glamorgan wicket.
Mike Roseberry was out before the close of play on the second day which brought John Emburey to the crease in his role as night watchman. On day three Desmond Haynes was LBW to Steve Watkin for 73 but Emburey and Mike Gatting added 262 for the third wicket. Emburey was ultimately dismissed for 123 whilst Gatting proceeded to 173. Middlesex were finally all out on the fourth morning for 584 with their wicket keeper, Keith Brown, unbeaten on 88.
Angus Fraser and Neil Williams opened the bowling for Middlesex in the Glamorgan second innings with little effect. However, when they gave way to the spinners, Emburey and Tufnell, an amazing collapse took place. Glamorgan slumped to 104 for 8 at tea. Tufnell took eight of the first nine wickets to fall with Cottey being run out. Emburey took the final wicket to leave Tufnell with 8 for 29 from 23 overs. Matthew Maynard top scored for Glamorgan with 32 and Glamorgan managed only 109. This left Middlesex to score 88 from a maximum of 33 overs after tea. Haynes and Roseberry cruised to victory in under twenty overs.
It seems extraordinary that two unbeaten double centurions should end up not only on the losing side but also on the wrong end of a ten-wicket thrashing. The change in wickets over the last decade is no better illustrated than by Tufnell’s contrasting first and second innings figures of 1 for 114 and 8 for 29, respectively.
Rangers Update I received another castigation from the Great Jack Morgan for my error in G&C 18
Runners-up in 74/75? What makes you toss in these howlers? Every schoolboy knows it was 75/76! Do you do this to keep me on my toes? To make sure that I read each issue with the thoroughness it deserves? Or just to give everyone a bit of a giggle? I bet even the Professor spotted that one. Of course, I cannot really agree about the “steady decline ever since” either. An unbroken spell of thirteen seasons (83/84 – 95/96) in the top division does not indicate a decline of any sort. There were some very good spells of football in many of those seasons and finishing fifth three times during that period is a good achievement for a club the size of the Rangers. The decline only happened after the sale of Les Ferdinand was followed by the disastrous managerial spells of Butch Wilkins and Stewart Houston in the nineties.
Rangers Reminiscences
Stephen King would have been fifty this year. Sadly he died soon after leaving school in the seventies. Steve Thompson was vice school captain when Stephen King was school captain in 1972/3. Stephen came from a family of fanatical Rangers supporters. His dad, Sam King, has been a Rangers supporter for seventy-four years that, I suppose, is testament to a strong constitution. He sent me these reminiscences:
I started being a QPR supporter in 1930 together with my father and two brothers. I saw them play on Christmas morning-George Goddard, Ivor Powell and Jefferson all come to mind. During the war, in 1941, I was stationed at Stamford Brook with the Royal Signals. We had a good football team and played against the Royal Artillery on Chiswick Polytechnic Sports Ground. Ted Vignyarde, the Rangers Manager, happened to be there and invited me for a trial at Loftus Road. I had quite a good game playing in a side that drew with a Rangers squad. A week later I got posted to Egypt and so ended my Rangers ambitions.
I played quite a lot in Egypt against Tom Finney, Roy Westwood and many professionals. Coming back to England, awaiting demob from the army, I played for Cheltenham Town in the Southern League. I currently have a season ticket and attend all home matches with my daughter Janet, her husband and my grandson, Paul. I thought that maybe I was the oldest supporter but then remembered that Cyril Budd sits behind me.
Reunion at South Hampstead on September 5th
Please treat this as your formal invitation to the reunion of sixties and seventies club cricketers at South Hampstead on Sunday 5th September. The event will start at noon and a buffet lunch will be served. Wives will be most welcome. The cost of the event will be £10 per head. If you haven’t already responded to Bob Peach or myself we would appreciate your advising whether you intend to attend or not. Thanks to all who have responded. The acceptance list now reads as follows:
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, Geoff Cleaver, Allan Clain, Clive Coleman, Peter and Eileen Huntley, Ian Jerman, Bob Denley and Russ Collins.
Unfortunately, the Professor will be on a lecture tour in South Africa and so will be unable to attend the event. John Tutton, like his brother Bruce, will also be away and sends his best wishes to everyone. John Weale and Colin Newcombe have other commitments on that day and will be unable to attend. Dave Perrin and Don Wallis will also be away on holiday.
We still have been unable to track down the following: George Bottrill, Geoff Howe, Lincoln Sylburne, Ian Kinrade, Jeremy Hall, Jeremy Asquith, Russell Tant, Colin Ezer, Keith Hardie, Ted Meade-King, Richard Brookes, Ron Hooker, John Mersley Matthews, Brian Shadwell, John Courtney, Ron Smith, Harry Bayliss, Rickie Cameron, Mark Rigby, Tim Miles, Peter Barclay, David Evans, Peter Dickson, Nigel Ross, Alf Langley, Mike Langley, Stephen Doughty, Dick Bostell, Eric Carter, Laurie Nash, John Bowerman, David Mindell, Jim Pearcey, Chris Hayles, Mick Buck, Howard Tucker, David Harrison, Gary Couch, Lindsey MacDougall, Robin Syrett, Maurice Applegate, Peter Yellowlees, Dick Boothroyd, George Hepworth, John Mountjoy, Jack Singman, Jeremy Ornstein, Ranji Kerai and Chandy Ratnatunga. I would be most grateful for any assistance in locating any of these individuals.
Irritating trends in modern cricket-number 18 When fielding restrictions were introduced for the first fifteen overs of limited over matches someone thought it would be a good idea to exploit the potential opportunity for fast scoring by sending in a lower order big hitter. Ian Botham was an early filler of this role. However, it rarely works and the spectacle of lesser players swishing air against the new ball is the norm. In general the best batsmen are those at the top of the order and these are the guys who should be given the opportunity to spend the most time at the crease. They should be the players best equipped to play shots that will get the innings off to a good start.
Someone borrowed the baseball term “pinch hitter” to describe the role and it has surprisingly stuck. I cannot think of any other baseball term that has found its way into common cricketing parlance.
Strange Elevens
The Jazz Hat gang in the last edition have all been knighted. The Great Jack Morgan submitted the following Midweek XI, which for some strange reason will have to perform without the services of a wicket keeper:
Eric Russell
Gilbert Parkhouse
Mike Denness
Tony Lewis
Alan Watkins
Gavin Hamilton
Robert Croft
Greg Thomas
Martin McCague
Jeff Jones
Ian Peebles
All you have to do is identify what unites them.
And Finally- A Clarification
In order to assist identification it is now compulsory for anyone with an IQ lower than 85 to display a warning flag (comprising of a red cross on a white background) attached to the top of at least one door of their vehicle. For drivers with an IQ below 65 additional flags are required. The same regulations apply to householders.
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.
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