G&C 233
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 233
May 2022
Spot the Ball
Out and About with The Professor
There are two things that everyone knows about cricket at this time of year. The first was neatly summed up by a now long-departed cricket chum: “Cricket in April? Well, sometimes it’s wet, sometimes it’s dry…but it’s always bloody cold”. There have been some beautiful April days this year and I’m sure that some have been able to watch a county match tucked away in the sun in a warm corner of the ground. The North East Stand (Upper Tier) at Headingley is not one such corner. I was wearing more layers than a medium-sized onion and was still freezing.
The second thing we all know is that April pitches are soft and slow, outfields are lush and runs are hard to come by. Well…not exactly. I read that in the 2021 County Championship there were 146 hundreds scored. This year, in April, there have been 68, eight of which have been double hundreds. The Derbyshire opener Masood has scored more runs (713) before the start of May than Alastair Cook, for example, did in the whole of last season. How can this be explained? The Yorkshire (soon to be England?) coach, Otis Gibson has offered two explanations. One is that England Test cricket is in such disarray that young batters are sensing a chance to make the national side and so are focussing very hard. This strikes me as a flawed explanation. In the first place, I don’t buy the suggested proposition that young players didn’t try hard in past seasons. Does anyone walk to the wicket thinking: “I’ll give it a go but since there are no Test places on offer, I’m not that bothered”. Secondly, the England bowling attack also doesn’t seem exactly settled – so why aren’t the bowlers trying equally hard. Finally, of course, this particular thesis does exactly explain why Masood and all the other non-qualified batters are making vast numbers of runs.
Gibson’s second offer, which may have some more traction, is that the ball isn’t swinging. Why? Because it’s too cold. I’m not completely confident about this proposition either, although Mr Gibson ought to know about swing bowling. The reason a ball swings (according to the aeronautical engineers in the institution in which I used to work) is primarily, but not solely, because of the differential air resistance of the seam and the rest of the ball. Now cold air is denser than hot air and thus I should have thought there would be greater resistance. It’s certainly true that swing bowlers find problems in very hot dry weather. There may be a Googlies physicist out there who can shed some light on this. However, that is Mr Gibson’s view.
My own view, for what it’s worth, is that a bone-dry April has allowed ground staff to prepare “July” pitches and that the outfields are similarly quick. I certainly can’t recall the ball zipping to the fence like it has on the first Yorkshire (home) game of the season. The Headingley pitch was straw coloured and from (almost) behind the bowler’s arm, there seemed to be very little movement.
What makes cricket the best of all games is the combination of the cerebral and the athletic. To succeed needs skill and intelligence…although it doesn’t always seem so. But I especially enjoyed this little bit of captaincy from Steve Patterson, in Kent’s first innings. Kent’s No. 10, the lanky Nathan Gilchrist, made his way to the wicket not looking that pleased to be facing Haris Rauf. Patterson sent Bess off to get the helmet and box and then settle underneath the batter’s nose. Malan was pushed back to the fence at Square Leg. As Rauf moved in, Gilchrist moved back (“to give himself more time”, as the commentators say), the yorker removed his off stump.
The contrast, I suppose, is with the quite dreadful declaration against Northants which left the game as a draw when it looked a very easy win. Yorkshire had bowled out Northants for 200 in the first innings but decided to bat on and on to set them 500 in the second. They finished 7 down and a couple of hundred adrift.
In the match against Kent, Yorkshire emulated the visitors in being 3 down for 20 odd in the first innings but then Malan and Brook took the game away with substantial hundreds. Malan looked to have a lot of time to play and was especially strong through the covers (when isn’t he?) and Brook continued his progress to what must be a Test or two for England, getting his highest score to date, and being very severe on South African George Linde’s slow left-armers.
The match, of course, ended in a draw through, principally, a combination of bad light and the injury to Rauf. Yorkshire could easily, with a bit more luck and some common sense, have won their first three games. Instead, it is one win and two draws but there’s still a long way to go to the end of the season…as everybody knows.
This & That
Not much has been heard of Shan Masood lately and so it was something of an irritant when he turned up at Lord’s to open for Derbyshire against Middlesex and scored 91 and 62 in the match. However, it seems that Middlesex got off lightly as in the next two games he scored 239 against Sussex and then 219 against Leicestershire. This means that he has already scored 611 runs this year and it is still only April. He still has three more matches to score the balance he needs to become the first batsman to score 1000 before the end of May. When was that last achieved?
In fact, there have been a surprisingly large number of double centuries scored already this season. Maybe the batsmen have worked out that big scoring and crease occupation will be the best route to test status rather than flailing around for a couple of hours.
I watched the third of Jos Buttler’s centuries in the IPL and he is now playing these innings much the same way as he was playing ODIs a few years ago. He is relatively circumspect to start with and then moves into a secondary phase where he appears to have a boundary shot for every delivery he receives. He reached his fifty in the Powerplay (six overs) having faced 23 balls. I would generally have been happy to get off the mark in the first six overs. This is largely facilitated by his wrist power and bat speed at the point of execution. Strangely in this Rajasthan Royal’s innings the biggest hitting came at the end when Sanju Samson scored the bulk of the 44 scored in the final three overs of the innings.
Buttler is by some way the leading scorer in this year’s competition, but KL Rahul recently scored his second hundred and is usually among the top scorers in this format. He rarely plays a slog and acquires his runs through skill and finesse.
One of the eye-catching new players is the nineteen-year-old Dewald Brevis who in one over took 29 off Chahar including a six which was measured at a staggering 112 metres. Another South African of note is the giant 6’ 9” Marco Jansen who even towers over his team coach, Tom Moody. He is a left arm quick who gets the white ball to swing into the right handers. But more of him in a minute.
The IPL has been expanded from eight to ten teams this season which enables there to be more participants and, of course, more games. The two new teams are the Gujarat Titans and the Lucknow Super Giants and they are both in the top four at this stage. The traditional big teams, the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings are languishing at the bottom with just two wins between them.
The Gujarat Titans are captained by Hardik Panya who bats at three, opens the bowling when fit, and fields in key positions. He also gets visibly frustrated when things go wrong but his senior henchmen invariably get him home. Earlier in the competition when David Miller had let him down Rahul Tewatia came in and hit the final two balls of the innings for six to win the match. Against the Sunrisers Hyderabad Tewatia found himself at the crease with Rashid Khan for the final two overs with 41 still needed. Rashid hit the final ball of the nineteenth for six leaving 23 required from the final over. Tewatia hit the first ball for six and then took a single. Rashid then hit the third ball for six but missed the fourth. With nine required from the final two balls, Rashid hit them both for six to win the match. The bowler of that final over was Marco Jansen.
It was Tewatia who in 2020 hit Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over when playing for the Rajasthan Royals against the King’s XI Punjab.
Morgan Matters
The Great man is still holding out on his abstinence from Lords’s
Alec Stewart defends the quality of the County Championship saying "England's first class system is an adequate breeding ground for producing Test-quality players” yet "the gulf between the Championship and Test cricket has gotten bigger - players would finish a Test and play a Championship match the next day" and "the quality of overseas players has diminished". While Mark Ramprakash says that "England must keep faith with their best young batters and tolerate their failures".
Ex-Middlesex batter/ keeper Adam Rossington has gone on a season-long loan from Northants to Essex. Only two weeks ago he was replaced as Northants's red-ball captain. Has he been caught doing something he should not have been doing? Later I read that he had requested time away from Northants after the captaincy change, before finally deciding to move to Essex.
Tanya Aldred thinks that Lancashire will be this season's Champions (Northants will be bottom) while Notts will win division 2. Middlesex (in division 2, of course) will be fourth and Worcs will be last.
I am not going to Lord's tomorrow and have no plans to go any more games at Lord's... or possibly anywhere. I was thoroughly fed up with the travelling (especially the tube section of the journey) and the need to stand in line awaiting a search of one's clothing and baggage and I have been quite happy with my 2 and a half years of release from both the underground and the clothing/ baggage inspection. I could be tempted to return, I suppose, but I do not feel like it at the moment.
In the season’s opener at Lord’s Eskinazi's ton was the first Championship hundred of the year and his first at Lord's for 5 years. T Murtagh took his 900th first class wicket when he bowled B Godleman, but then withdrew from the match with a hamstring injury after bowling only 4.2 overs in the second innings.
Durham are seeking to "determine the facts" (always a good policy) about allegations of bullying made by Yuzvendra Chahal against head coach James Franklin. He claims that Franklin and Andrew Symonds tied him up when they played together in the IPL at Mumbai in 2011.
Former England coach Chris Silverwood has been appointed head coach of Sri Lanka for two years, his first assignment is a two Test series in Bangladesh next month.
A press release tells us that "Andrew McDonald will be named coach of Australia's men after impressing in an interim role during the tour of Pakistan. The former Test allrounder strengthened his bonds with a playing group that was desperate for change after Justin Langer's messy departure in February". Later, this news was confirmed, and we also heard that he will "consider offloading some white ball responsibilities".
Jade Dernbach has joined Middlesex as "consultant fast bowling coach". He took 583 wickets in all 3 domestic formats and played 58 times for England picking up 75 international wickets across both white ball formats.
Ben Compton spent more than 14 hours at the crease at Canterbury in the Kent v Lancashire match which is a new record for the length of time spent at the crease in a Championship match... but, of course, Kent still lost... so he had better get his head down next time!
David Lawrence was the first British-born black man to play cricket for England, but now he wants to break down more barriers at Gloucestershire by being a "modern president" and (probably) the first black president of any county.
The G has an article, which tells the senior executives of the ECB who are due to share a £2.1m bonus that they should not accept the money after English cricket's "annus horribilis”.
G also speculates that Saqib Mahmood could be on his way out of Old Trafford with Warwicks the favourites to snap him up. J Bohannon has hit 231 for Lancashire v Gloucestershire at OT and now everyone wants him in the England team including Paul Edwards in the Cricketer.
The May Cricketer tells us that:
Jason Roy was fined £2,500 and handed a suspended 2 match ban for "undisclosed misconduct";
Mark Wood underwent elbow surgery after pulling out of the Test series in the West Indies and a Lucknow stint worth worth £734,000;
David Gower thinks that "Stokes and Langer can move us on from the Winter of Discontent"; Mike Brearley pays tribute to the "true Australian legend" Rod Marsh, who was the "spiritual leader of the group";
Middlesex spinner Thilan Walallawita has belatedly been granted British citizenship: the 23 year old moved to England aged 12 and came through Middlesex's youth system, only to find that his path to senior cricket blocked by bureaucracy that meant he could not be registered as a local player, forcing him instead to compete with overseas signings for a first team spot;
The future of outground cricket is under threat as the ECB prepares to introduce a new minimum standard threshold for facilities which might make hosting of one-off matches away from county headquarters prohibitive;
A clutch of counties have exploited an ECB rule change that now allows uncapped cricketers to feature as overseas players in the County Championship;
King Cricket
King Cricket examines the inevitable dilemma that has been created
As we highlighted a couple of weeks ago when Joe Root stood down, the biggest issue for Ben Stokes the Test captain is less the fact that he's six cricketers in one and more the fact that he's so in demand for all three formats.
Stokes sacked off cricket completely for a good chunk of last year because he simply couldn’t take it anymore. Having him run the Test team while remaining a central pillar of Eoin Morgan's white ball sides will take some innovative management.
That's why the Test captaincy and the two head coach jobs are probably less important than the national selector role that's likely to rematerialise at some point soon. That person and director of men's cricket Rob Key will be the ones allocating playing resources between the various formats in the coming years and attempting to manage the unmanageable.
Morgan will want use of Stokes the all-rounder in both T20s and one-day internationals. Stokes the captain will want - and presumably get - use of Stokes the all-rounder in Tests. History tells us that if both men get what they want, pretty soon neither will have what they want because Stokes will be burnt out, injured or diminished by his workload in some magical new way.
Fifty Years of Middlesex Club League Cricket
Don Shelley must have had a longer period under lockdown than the rest of us! He has produced a mammoth tome depicting the history of the Middlesex League’s first fifty years of existence. It is in A4 format and runs to 288 pages. There are articles on every aspect of the league including officials, umpires, 2nd XIs and notable performances. However, the bulk of it is given over to a year by year, match by match report of each of the fifty years of games. This gives an excellent flavour of the individual seasons as well as the flow of clubs’ fortunes.
The book becomes compulsive reading, and you keep looking for mention of players that you know and your club’s successes. For example, I discovered that Terry Cordaroy was the first batsman to score a century for the League’s representative side. He would never have mentioned it in the changing room the following weekend. That it all started at a secret meeting organized by Bob Peach at South Hampstead in 1972. Rhys Axworthy is the umpire in the photo of the South Hampstead title winning team in 1974 and he also features prominently in the Umpires section. I hadn’t realized that Bob Baxter captained the South Hampstead side that won the title in 1988. And on and on it goes with fascinating stuff jumping out from every page.
I recommend it to anyone associated in any way with Middlesex club cricket during this period. It is very modestly priced at £6 plus £4 p&p and you can obtain your copy direct from Don at:
Don Shelley, 16 Hamilton Court, Hamilton Road, Ealing, W5 2EJ.
George’s Bat Update
George still has more kit to reminisce over
We went to Rebecca’s yesterday and I recounted the story of the cricket bat to Rebecca and George. Rebecca well remembered the bag that Joe Jones gave us being in the back shed in the garden at Trotanoy for 28 years and also its contents. I think the pads did get thrown out when we moved, but much else survived. One thing which did go was the strap-on box.
This caused us to have a discussion last night about the wearing of boxes and as the conversation proceeded, I started to talk about the usually pink plastic injection moulding boxes that would slide down the front of a jockstrap, or, in the absence of a jockstrap, just a pair of pants. The slightly cringe-making add on to this is that it wasn't uncommon, particularly in school cricket, to see a box being removed from somebody's trousers as they'd been got out and handed onto the incoming batsmen. This happened to me more than once and I well remember even now the warm feeling of the box which had just been nestled up against someone else's genitals.
In Memoriam
Ken James died in April. His funeral will take place at Hendon Crematorium at 10.00am on Friday 6 May at Hendon Crematorium. There will be a wake at South Hampstead afterwards from noon.
Allen Bruton sent me this
To say that Ken enjoyed an unusual lifestyle is probably a serious understatement. He lived the whole of his life in the same North West London house until the last few years when unfortunately ill health caused him to move into a care home. Most of his adult life was devoted to the organisation and administration of sporting events. These would include cricket, football, darts, annual dinners, tours etc.
Ken largely avoided what most of us would term a job or occupation, although in the early/mid 1960’s he did “work” in the Perivale offices of Hoover. However, his main output seemed to be the production of the weekly Old Uffingtonians Newsletter which in those days was typed onto a stencil and affixed to a Gestetner Duplicator. Although unbeknown to them Hoover were one of the early sporting sponsors as they supplied all the paper and envelopes prior to distribution of the newsletter via their franking machine.
As a reward, or possibly a condition, for his hard work Ken always had a team to captain. In fact, I cannot recall a single instance of him taking the field for South Hampstead or Old Uffs when he was not captain. Having crossed the white line I gained the impression that a Walter Mitty type character would take over and an Old Uffs Fifth Eleven game would assume the importance of an FA Cup Final and a South Hampstead Third Eleven match became an Ashes Test Match.
My impression was reinforced on a Devon holiday when Ken descended into what can only be described as a massive sulk because nobody was willing to play him at tennis on the hotel court. Eventually to retain the holiday spirit Reg Fardon borrowed an old racket from reception and proceeded to the court attired in brown trousers, sandals and a green cardigan. Ken emerged unzipping a brand new racket from its cover and dressed for the Centre Court at Wimbledon. Within twenty minutes Ken left the court with mood restored, mission accomplished, another Grand Slam safely in the bag.
I believe that Ken’s main great achievement is that probably thousands of us over the years were just able to turn up and enjoy our sport thanks largely to his efforts and we should be forever thankful.
Barnet Watch
Andre Russell must have his own personal coiffeuse as he has a new look and, indeed, a new colour every time he appears. His latest style is a strip running from his forehead to the nape of his neck which has been dyed white. His head now looks like the middle of the road.
Another regular in this column is the Newcastle fans favourite Saint Maximin. His latest style features nine-inch dreadlocks around the front and right side of his head only. It seems that he must have been caught in a revolving door which extracted the rest.
Kalvin Phillips has been out injured for some time but it seems he has put this time to good use as on his reappearance he has had his hair woven into an intricate chess board pattern.
Rhys James, formerly of the Biba lampshade design, has now gone for three-inch mini dreadlocks all over the top of his scalp which have been dyed a fawn colour. It looks like someone has emptied a bag of crisps over his head.
Hall of Shame
I think that it was George Eastham who introduced the Nancy penalty in which you feinted to send the goalkeeper the wrong way and then rolled it slowly into the other corner. But George knew that the secret to this technique was that you cannot afford to miss. The Prat of the Month Award for April has to be shared by Bruno Fernandes and Jorginho who both did their silly dances before missing their targets. The best way to take a penalty has always been to hit the inside of the side netting since the goalkeeper cannot get to it. There is no place for Come Dancing wannabees at the top level.
Ged Matters
Ian Harris gets to Lord’s
As I get older, I realise that certain statements that older people make, such as, "the policemen look younger and younger" express how those older people feel, rather than an objective reality about the average age of policemen.
But when I say, "the county championship seems to start earlier and earlier" I believe that is pretty much true...although not by all that much.
The last time I froze this much, Daisy and I went to see the second day of the season in Nottingham, 11 April that year. But I digress.
I had arranged to play tennis at 14:00. I got to Lord's in time to see most of the first session of play. I decided to sit in the relatively sheltered central part of the pavilion forecourt, where I watched, read and chatted a little with one or two other hardy folk. The stewards reckoned I wouldn't last long out there but actually it wasn't too bad in the morning and the new soft padding on the pavilion benches made the whole experience less painful than expected.
After a very close game of tennis, which my adversary won by dint of the odd point here and there, I took my time over my ablutions and then grabbed a soft drink followed by a light bite and coffee - initially in the pavilion bar but subsequently, as the sun was shining, I took my coffee in the new Compton Stand.
But even in the sunshine, it was bitterly cold by that afternoon period, so I decided to return to the pavilion. By the time I got to the pavilion, Josh de Caires had taken a wicket. This was to be my burden all afternoon; I didn't actually get to see a single wicket - I was either changing or on the move every time Middlesex took a wicket. One of the friendly pavilion stewards even asked me to keep moving around, as my moves seemed to coincide with Middlesex's success so comprehensively.
Anyway I decided to focus on 19-year-old Josh de Caires's bowling. I watched for a while from one of my favourite vantage points, the writing room. I had brought plenty of warm clobber with me and I decided to don the lot of it. After all, as Alfred Wainwright famously said:
“There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.”
Thus I braved the middle tier balcony for about three overs, before I decided that jumper, thick jacket, scarf, hat and gloves were insufficient for me as the sun was going down on a seriously chilly April day.
I congratulated the handful of hardy folk who remained on the balcony, admitting to them that I was a wimp. One agreed. One consoled me by letting me know that I was far from the first to have tried and failed to brave the afternoon chill. One pointed out that I hadn't lowered the ear-flaps on my hat, which might have made all the difference.
I watched the remainder of the day from the impressionistic comfort of the writing room. Naturally Middlesex took a wicket while I was ambling down one flight of stairs from balcony to room. I had a very good day. I read, I chatted, I played tennis and best of all I watched some live cricket again.
South Hampstead records
In 2004 Ken James invited me to salvage a large number of scorebooks and other historical data from the shed behind the pavilion at South Hampstead. I have used some of this information in Googlies whilst Bill Hart and Alan Cox transcribed many scorebooks into computer friendly format which enabled them to be uploaded to the web. It will be time for me to pass them on at some point in the future. Does anyone want to take custody of them or know of an appropriate repository?
Old Danes Gathering
The Last Old Danes Gathering will take place on Friday 29 July at Shepherds Bush CC. The day is the final day of the club's cricket week. The Gathering will commence at 2pm but attendees will be welcome throughout the afternoon.
This is not a gathering of cricketers and all Old Danes, their partners, friends and even non-Old Danes will be welcome. There is no dress code for the event and no prizes will be awarded for the oldest attendees.
I am circulating a list of attendees and apologies on a separate circulation list. If you would like to be added to this list please let me know.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
www.googliesandchinamen.com
Googlies and Chinamen
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James Sharp
Broad Lee House
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 233
May 2022
Spot the Ball
- Wicket Keeper: How did the umpire miss that stumping?
- Rob Key: Is this Masood chap English?
- Jonathan Agnew: Who are we likely to see in your first test side?
- Toby Roland-Jones: Archer. Wood and Robinson are injured. Anderson and Broad are out of favour. Perhaps I still have an outside chance of getting another test call up?
Out and About with The Professor
There are two things that everyone knows about cricket at this time of year. The first was neatly summed up by a now long-departed cricket chum: “Cricket in April? Well, sometimes it’s wet, sometimes it’s dry…but it’s always bloody cold”. There have been some beautiful April days this year and I’m sure that some have been able to watch a county match tucked away in the sun in a warm corner of the ground. The North East Stand (Upper Tier) at Headingley is not one such corner. I was wearing more layers than a medium-sized onion and was still freezing.
The second thing we all know is that April pitches are soft and slow, outfields are lush and runs are hard to come by. Well…not exactly. I read that in the 2021 County Championship there were 146 hundreds scored. This year, in April, there have been 68, eight of which have been double hundreds. The Derbyshire opener Masood has scored more runs (713) before the start of May than Alastair Cook, for example, did in the whole of last season. How can this be explained? The Yorkshire (soon to be England?) coach, Otis Gibson has offered two explanations. One is that England Test cricket is in such disarray that young batters are sensing a chance to make the national side and so are focussing very hard. This strikes me as a flawed explanation. In the first place, I don’t buy the suggested proposition that young players didn’t try hard in past seasons. Does anyone walk to the wicket thinking: “I’ll give it a go but since there are no Test places on offer, I’m not that bothered”. Secondly, the England bowling attack also doesn’t seem exactly settled – so why aren’t the bowlers trying equally hard. Finally, of course, this particular thesis does exactly explain why Masood and all the other non-qualified batters are making vast numbers of runs.
Gibson’s second offer, which may have some more traction, is that the ball isn’t swinging. Why? Because it’s too cold. I’m not completely confident about this proposition either, although Mr Gibson ought to know about swing bowling. The reason a ball swings (according to the aeronautical engineers in the institution in which I used to work) is primarily, but not solely, because of the differential air resistance of the seam and the rest of the ball. Now cold air is denser than hot air and thus I should have thought there would be greater resistance. It’s certainly true that swing bowlers find problems in very hot dry weather. There may be a Googlies physicist out there who can shed some light on this. However, that is Mr Gibson’s view.
My own view, for what it’s worth, is that a bone-dry April has allowed ground staff to prepare “July” pitches and that the outfields are similarly quick. I certainly can’t recall the ball zipping to the fence like it has on the first Yorkshire (home) game of the season. The Headingley pitch was straw coloured and from (almost) behind the bowler’s arm, there seemed to be very little movement.
What makes cricket the best of all games is the combination of the cerebral and the athletic. To succeed needs skill and intelligence…although it doesn’t always seem so. But I especially enjoyed this little bit of captaincy from Steve Patterson, in Kent’s first innings. Kent’s No. 10, the lanky Nathan Gilchrist, made his way to the wicket not looking that pleased to be facing Haris Rauf. Patterson sent Bess off to get the helmet and box and then settle underneath the batter’s nose. Malan was pushed back to the fence at Square Leg. As Rauf moved in, Gilchrist moved back (“to give himself more time”, as the commentators say), the yorker removed his off stump.
The contrast, I suppose, is with the quite dreadful declaration against Northants which left the game as a draw when it looked a very easy win. Yorkshire had bowled out Northants for 200 in the first innings but decided to bat on and on to set them 500 in the second. They finished 7 down and a couple of hundred adrift.
In the match against Kent, Yorkshire emulated the visitors in being 3 down for 20 odd in the first innings but then Malan and Brook took the game away with substantial hundreds. Malan looked to have a lot of time to play and was especially strong through the covers (when isn’t he?) and Brook continued his progress to what must be a Test or two for England, getting his highest score to date, and being very severe on South African George Linde’s slow left-armers.
The match, of course, ended in a draw through, principally, a combination of bad light and the injury to Rauf. Yorkshire could easily, with a bit more luck and some common sense, have won their first three games. Instead, it is one win and two draws but there’s still a long way to go to the end of the season…as everybody knows.
This & That
Not much has been heard of Shan Masood lately and so it was something of an irritant when he turned up at Lord’s to open for Derbyshire against Middlesex and scored 91 and 62 in the match. However, it seems that Middlesex got off lightly as in the next two games he scored 239 against Sussex and then 219 against Leicestershire. This means that he has already scored 611 runs this year and it is still only April. He still has three more matches to score the balance he needs to become the first batsman to score 1000 before the end of May. When was that last achieved?
In fact, there have been a surprisingly large number of double centuries scored already this season. Maybe the batsmen have worked out that big scoring and crease occupation will be the best route to test status rather than flailing around for a couple of hours.
I watched the third of Jos Buttler’s centuries in the IPL and he is now playing these innings much the same way as he was playing ODIs a few years ago. He is relatively circumspect to start with and then moves into a secondary phase where he appears to have a boundary shot for every delivery he receives. He reached his fifty in the Powerplay (six overs) having faced 23 balls. I would generally have been happy to get off the mark in the first six overs. This is largely facilitated by his wrist power and bat speed at the point of execution. Strangely in this Rajasthan Royal’s innings the biggest hitting came at the end when Sanju Samson scored the bulk of the 44 scored in the final three overs of the innings.
Buttler is by some way the leading scorer in this year’s competition, but KL Rahul recently scored his second hundred and is usually among the top scorers in this format. He rarely plays a slog and acquires his runs through skill and finesse.
One of the eye-catching new players is the nineteen-year-old Dewald Brevis who in one over took 29 off Chahar including a six which was measured at a staggering 112 metres. Another South African of note is the giant 6’ 9” Marco Jansen who even towers over his team coach, Tom Moody. He is a left arm quick who gets the white ball to swing into the right handers. But more of him in a minute.
The IPL has been expanded from eight to ten teams this season which enables there to be more participants and, of course, more games. The two new teams are the Gujarat Titans and the Lucknow Super Giants and they are both in the top four at this stage. The traditional big teams, the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings are languishing at the bottom with just two wins between them.
The Gujarat Titans are captained by Hardik Panya who bats at three, opens the bowling when fit, and fields in key positions. He also gets visibly frustrated when things go wrong but his senior henchmen invariably get him home. Earlier in the competition when David Miller had let him down Rahul Tewatia came in and hit the final two balls of the innings for six to win the match. Against the Sunrisers Hyderabad Tewatia found himself at the crease with Rashid Khan for the final two overs with 41 still needed. Rashid hit the final ball of the nineteenth for six leaving 23 required from the final over. Tewatia hit the first ball for six and then took a single. Rashid then hit the third ball for six but missed the fourth. With nine required from the final two balls, Rashid hit them both for six to win the match. The bowler of that final over was Marco Jansen.
It was Tewatia who in 2020 hit Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over when playing for the Rajasthan Royals against the King’s XI Punjab.
Morgan Matters
The Great man is still holding out on his abstinence from Lords’s
Alec Stewart defends the quality of the County Championship saying "England's first class system is an adequate breeding ground for producing Test-quality players” yet "the gulf between the Championship and Test cricket has gotten bigger - players would finish a Test and play a Championship match the next day" and "the quality of overseas players has diminished". While Mark Ramprakash says that "England must keep faith with their best young batters and tolerate their failures".
Ex-Middlesex batter/ keeper Adam Rossington has gone on a season-long loan from Northants to Essex. Only two weeks ago he was replaced as Northants's red-ball captain. Has he been caught doing something he should not have been doing? Later I read that he had requested time away from Northants after the captaincy change, before finally deciding to move to Essex.
Tanya Aldred thinks that Lancashire will be this season's Champions (Northants will be bottom) while Notts will win division 2. Middlesex (in division 2, of course) will be fourth and Worcs will be last.
I am not going to Lord's tomorrow and have no plans to go any more games at Lord's... or possibly anywhere. I was thoroughly fed up with the travelling (especially the tube section of the journey) and the need to stand in line awaiting a search of one's clothing and baggage and I have been quite happy with my 2 and a half years of release from both the underground and the clothing/ baggage inspection. I could be tempted to return, I suppose, but I do not feel like it at the moment.
In the season’s opener at Lord’s Eskinazi's ton was the first Championship hundred of the year and his first at Lord's for 5 years. T Murtagh took his 900th first class wicket when he bowled B Godleman, but then withdrew from the match with a hamstring injury after bowling only 4.2 overs in the second innings.
Durham are seeking to "determine the facts" (always a good policy) about allegations of bullying made by Yuzvendra Chahal against head coach James Franklin. He claims that Franklin and Andrew Symonds tied him up when they played together in the IPL at Mumbai in 2011.
Former England coach Chris Silverwood has been appointed head coach of Sri Lanka for two years, his first assignment is a two Test series in Bangladesh next month.
A press release tells us that "Andrew McDonald will be named coach of Australia's men after impressing in an interim role during the tour of Pakistan. The former Test allrounder strengthened his bonds with a playing group that was desperate for change after Justin Langer's messy departure in February". Later, this news was confirmed, and we also heard that he will "consider offloading some white ball responsibilities".
Jade Dernbach has joined Middlesex as "consultant fast bowling coach". He took 583 wickets in all 3 domestic formats and played 58 times for England picking up 75 international wickets across both white ball formats.
Ben Compton spent more than 14 hours at the crease at Canterbury in the Kent v Lancashire match which is a new record for the length of time spent at the crease in a Championship match... but, of course, Kent still lost... so he had better get his head down next time!
David Lawrence was the first British-born black man to play cricket for England, but now he wants to break down more barriers at Gloucestershire by being a "modern president" and (probably) the first black president of any county.
The G has an article, which tells the senior executives of the ECB who are due to share a £2.1m bonus that they should not accept the money after English cricket's "annus horribilis”.
G also speculates that Saqib Mahmood could be on his way out of Old Trafford with Warwicks the favourites to snap him up. J Bohannon has hit 231 for Lancashire v Gloucestershire at OT and now everyone wants him in the England team including Paul Edwards in the Cricketer.
The May Cricketer tells us that:
Jason Roy was fined £2,500 and handed a suspended 2 match ban for "undisclosed misconduct";
Mark Wood underwent elbow surgery after pulling out of the Test series in the West Indies and a Lucknow stint worth worth £734,000;
David Gower thinks that "Stokes and Langer can move us on from the Winter of Discontent"; Mike Brearley pays tribute to the "true Australian legend" Rod Marsh, who was the "spiritual leader of the group";
Middlesex spinner Thilan Walallawita has belatedly been granted British citizenship: the 23 year old moved to England aged 12 and came through Middlesex's youth system, only to find that his path to senior cricket blocked by bureaucracy that meant he could not be registered as a local player, forcing him instead to compete with overseas signings for a first team spot;
The future of outground cricket is under threat as the ECB prepares to introduce a new minimum standard threshold for facilities which might make hosting of one-off matches away from county headquarters prohibitive;
A clutch of counties have exploited an ECB rule change that now allows uncapped cricketers to feature as overseas players in the County Championship;
King Cricket
King Cricket examines the inevitable dilemma that has been created
As we highlighted a couple of weeks ago when Joe Root stood down, the biggest issue for Ben Stokes the Test captain is less the fact that he's six cricketers in one and more the fact that he's so in demand for all three formats.
Stokes sacked off cricket completely for a good chunk of last year because he simply couldn’t take it anymore. Having him run the Test team while remaining a central pillar of Eoin Morgan's white ball sides will take some innovative management.
That's why the Test captaincy and the two head coach jobs are probably less important than the national selector role that's likely to rematerialise at some point soon. That person and director of men's cricket Rob Key will be the ones allocating playing resources between the various formats in the coming years and attempting to manage the unmanageable.
Morgan will want use of Stokes the all-rounder in both T20s and one-day internationals. Stokes the captain will want - and presumably get - use of Stokes the all-rounder in Tests. History tells us that if both men get what they want, pretty soon neither will have what they want because Stokes will be burnt out, injured or diminished by his workload in some magical new way.
Fifty Years of Middlesex Club League Cricket
Don Shelley must have had a longer period under lockdown than the rest of us! He has produced a mammoth tome depicting the history of the Middlesex League’s first fifty years of existence. It is in A4 format and runs to 288 pages. There are articles on every aspect of the league including officials, umpires, 2nd XIs and notable performances. However, the bulk of it is given over to a year by year, match by match report of each of the fifty years of games. This gives an excellent flavour of the individual seasons as well as the flow of clubs’ fortunes.
The book becomes compulsive reading, and you keep looking for mention of players that you know and your club’s successes. For example, I discovered that Terry Cordaroy was the first batsman to score a century for the League’s representative side. He would never have mentioned it in the changing room the following weekend. That it all started at a secret meeting organized by Bob Peach at South Hampstead in 1972. Rhys Axworthy is the umpire in the photo of the South Hampstead title winning team in 1974 and he also features prominently in the Umpires section. I hadn’t realized that Bob Baxter captained the South Hampstead side that won the title in 1988. And on and on it goes with fascinating stuff jumping out from every page.
I recommend it to anyone associated in any way with Middlesex club cricket during this period. It is very modestly priced at £6 plus £4 p&p and you can obtain your copy direct from Don at:
Don Shelley, 16 Hamilton Court, Hamilton Road, Ealing, W5 2EJ.
George’s Bat Update
George still has more kit to reminisce over
We went to Rebecca’s yesterday and I recounted the story of the cricket bat to Rebecca and George. Rebecca well remembered the bag that Joe Jones gave us being in the back shed in the garden at Trotanoy for 28 years and also its contents. I think the pads did get thrown out when we moved, but much else survived. One thing which did go was the strap-on box.
This caused us to have a discussion last night about the wearing of boxes and as the conversation proceeded, I started to talk about the usually pink plastic injection moulding boxes that would slide down the front of a jockstrap, or, in the absence of a jockstrap, just a pair of pants. The slightly cringe-making add on to this is that it wasn't uncommon, particularly in school cricket, to see a box being removed from somebody's trousers as they'd been got out and handed onto the incoming batsmen. This happened to me more than once and I well remember even now the warm feeling of the box which had just been nestled up against someone else's genitals.
In Memoriam
Ken James died in April. His funeral will take place at Hendon Crematorium at 10.00am on Friday 6 May at Hendon Crematorium. There will be a wake at South Hampstead afterwards from noon.
Allen Bruton sent me this
To say that Ken enjoyed an unusual lifestyle is probably a serious understatement. He lived the whole of his life in the same North West London house until the last few years when unfortunately ill health caused him to move into a care home. Most of his adult life was devoted to the organisation and administration of sporting events. These would include cricket, football, darts, annual dinners, tours etc.
Ken largely avoided what most of us would term a job or occupation, although in the early/mid 1960’s he did “work” in the Perivale offices of Hoover. However, his main output seemed to be the production of the weekly Old Uffingtonians Newsletter which in those days was typed onto a stencil and affixed to a Gestetner Duplicator. Although unbeknown to them Hoover were one of the early sporting sponsors as they supplied all the paper and envelopes prior to distribution of the newsletter via their franking machine.
As a reward, or possibly a condition, for his hard work Ken always had a team to captain. In fact, I cannot recall a single instance of him taking the field for South Hampstead or Old Uffs when he was not captain. Having crossed the white line I gained the impression that a Walter Mitty type character would take over and an Old Uffs Fifth Eleven game would assume the importance of an FA Cup Final and a South Hampstead Third Eleven match became an Ashes Test Match.
My impression was reinforced on a Devon holiday when Ken descended into what can only be described as a massive sulk because nobody was willing to play him at tennis on the hotel court. Eventually to retain the holiday spirit Reg Fardon borrowed an old racket from reception and proceeded to the court attired in brown trousers, sandals and a green cardigan. Ken emerged unzipping a brand new racket from its cover and dressed for the Centre Court at Wimbledon. Within twenty minutes Ken left the court with mood restored, mission accomplished, another Grand Slam safely in the bag.
I believe that Ken’s main great achievement is that probably thousands of us over the years were just able to turn up and enjoy our sport thanks largely to his efforts and we should be forever thankful.
Barnet Watch
Andre Russell must have his own personal coiffeuse as he has a new look and, indeed, a new colour every time he appears. His latest style is a strip running from his forehead to the nape of his neck which has been dyed white. His head now looks like the middle of the road.
Another regular in this column is the Newcastle fans favourite Saint Maximin. His latest style features nine-inch dreadlocks around the front and right side of his head only. It seems that he must have been caught in a revolving door which extracted the rest.
Kalvin Phillips has been out injured for some time but it seems he has put this time to good use as on his reappearance he has had his hair woven into an intricate chess board pattern.
Rhys James, formerly of the Biba lampshade design, has now gone for three-inch mini dreadlocks all over the top of his scalp which have been dyed a fawn colour. It looks like someone has emptied a bag of crisps over his head.
Hall of Shame
I think that it was George Eastham who introduced the Nancy penalty in which you feinted to send the goalkeeper the wrong way and then rolled it slowly into the other corner. But George knew that the secret to this technique was that you cannot afford to miss. The Prat of the Month Award for April has to be shared by Bruno Fernandes and Jorginho who both did their silly dances before missing their targets. The best way to take a penalty has always been to hit the inside of the side netting since the goalkeeper cannot get to it. There is no place for Come Dancing wannabees at the top level.
Ged Matters
Ian Harris gets to Lord’s
As I get older, I realise that certain statements that older people make, such as, "the policemen look younger and younger" express how those older people feel, rather than an objective reality about the average age of policemen.
But when I say, "the county championship seems to start earlier and earlier" I believe that is pretty much true...although not by all that much.
The last time I froze this much, Daisy and I went to see the second day of the season in Nottingham, 11 April that year. But I digress.
I had arranged to play tennis at 14:00. I got to Lord's in time to see most of the first session of play. I decided to sit in the relatively sheltered central part of the pavilion forecourt, where I watched, read and chatted a little with one or two other hardy folk. The stewards reckoned I wouldn't last long out there but actually it wasn't too bad in the morning and the new soft padding on the pavilion benches made the whole experience less painful than expected.
After a very close game of tennis, which my adversary won by dint of the odd point here and there, I took my time over my ablutions and then grabbed a soft drink followed by a light bite and coffee - initially in the pavilion bar but subsequently, as the sun was shining, I took my coffee in the new Compton Stand.
But even in the sunshine, it was bitterly cold by that afternoon period, so I decided to return to the pavilion. By the time I got to the pavilion, Josh de Caires had taken a wicket. This was to be my burden all afternoon; I didn't actually get to see a single wicket - I was either changing or on the move every time Middlesex took a wicket. One of the friendly pavilion stewards even asked me to keep moving around, as my moves seemed to coincide with Middlesex's success so comprehensively.
Anyway I decided to focus on 19-year-old Josh de Caires's bowling. I watched for a while from one of my favourite vantage points, the writing room. I had brought plenty of warm clobber with me and I decided to don the lot of it. After all, as Alfred Wainwright famously said:
“There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.”
Thus I braved the middle tier balcony for about three overs, before I decided that jumper, thick jacket, scarf, hat and gloves were insufficient for me as the sun was going down on a seriously chilly April day.
I congratulated the handful of hardy folk who remained on the balcony, admitting to them that I was a wimp. One agreed. One consoled me by letting me know that I was far from the first to have tried and failed to brave the afternoon chill. One pointed out that I hadn't lowered the ear-flaps on my hat, which might have made all the difference.
I watched the remainder of the day from the impressionistic comfort of the writing room. Naturally Middlesex took a wicket while I was ambling down one flight of stairs from balcony to room. I had a very good day. I read, I chatted, I played tennis and best of all I watched some live cricket again.
South Hampstead records
In 2004 Ken James invited me to salvage a large number of scorebooks and other historical data from the shed behind the pavilion at South Hampstead. I have used some of this information in Googlies whilst Bill Hart and Alan Cox transcribed many scorebooks into computer friendly format which enabled them to be uploaded to the web. It will be time for me to pass them on at some point in the future. Does anyone want to take custody of them or know of an appropriate repository?
Old Danes Gathering
The Last Old Danes Gathering will take place on Friday 29 July at Shepherds Bush CC. The day is the final day of the club's cricket week. The Gathering will commence at 2pm but attendees will be welcome throughout the afternoon.
This is not a gathering of cricketers and all Old Danes, their partners, friends and even non-Old Danes will be welcome. There is no dress code for the event and no prizes will be awarded for the oldest attendees.
I am circulating a list of attendees and apologies on a separate circulation list. If you would like to be added to this list please let me know.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
www.googliesandchinamen.com
Googlies and Chinamen
is produced by
James Sharp
Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
[email protected]