G&C 261

GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 261
September 2024
 
Spot the Ball
 
 

 
 
Out and About with the Professor
 
“  ‘bout bloody time us ‘ad some proper cricket t’watch. ” Thus, the definitive voice of the West Riding from the man sitting very close to me on the North East Terrace (Upper) as the county championship returned to the northern Home of Cricket. He went on with a description of T20 and, especially,  “t’Hundred”, too expletive ridden for the delicate sensibilities of Googlies readers.
 
For my part I don’t really see the point of complaining about the short form of the game since it is here to stay (in one form or another) for the reason that people come to watch. They may be people who, in Duncan Hamilton’s phrase, “Don’t really like cricket”…but they come. This is not an argument that is worth propounding to the North East Terrace (Upper) Glee Club…but then there aren’t many that are.
 
However, the return of county cricket after its summer break, has gone quite well for Yorkshire, with a good win over leaders Sussex (featuring a fifty for Bairstow and 5-fer for Coad) and a very high scoring draw against Middlesex (featuring, err, the Headingley pitch). The result is that the team remain third in the table, some 20 points behind Sussex. Some good results in the remaining three fixtures (the last of which is just before Christmas) might even see them topping the table…then again, “think on”, as they say in these parts.
There was glorious sunshine for a couple of the days of the Middlesex match but bowling was far from a joyful experience. 160 from Bairstow and a not out 169 from George Hill (a very handy young cricketer who bowls briskly and fields well) set up the 601-6 total. Middlesex used eight bowlers with Noah Cornwell going for 83 from 15, and Helm 80 from 20. Yorkshire didn’t do much better. They clearly decided that it was a spinners’ track and so Bess, Moriarty and Lyth bowled 143 overs without any discernible turn. Bess picked up 7 wickets from his mammoth spell of 70 overs which seemed to be a reward for persistence rather than anything else. Moriarty’s 174 – 0 from 61 was, sad to say, an appropriate return for the way that he bowled. “Pitch it up!” was the not infrequent advice from the Hundred fan. The Middlesex response of 522 (hundreds for Robson and Higgins) ensured the draw. It was, in short, not the sort of game that would bring in the white ball fans.
 
 
 
 
This & That
 
I continue to be puzzled by the fitness of modern cricketers who still don’t seem to be up for the job. They may be magnificent athletic specimens but that doesn’t mean they are fit to perform in the highly specific arena of a cricket match. Stokes and Wood are the latest examples. Neither has played any cricket to speak of this season, yet both have sustained injuries that will keep them out for the season. Let’s harp back to the sixties when the fast bowlers would play six days a week, bowl a thousand overs a season and play through niggles. Surely its time the backroom fitness boys were fired, and the players told to get on with it and play all season.
 
Do you remember the 6’ 5” Josh Tongue? He was an instant success in the test team against Ireland in 2023, was awarded a two-year central contract and has never been heard of again. Then there was the 6’7” George Scrimshaw who came from nowhere (Derbyshire actually) into the England ranks and has disappeared without trace. Now we have the 6’7” Josh Hull who has been called up for all three squads. What do we reckon his chances of being around by the end of the season?
 
Unlike the West Indians the Sri Lankans took the time to play a four-day match against the England Lions before the first test against England, which they lost by seven wickets which didn’t augur well for Old Trafford. However, it was a useful insight as to who the England selectors thought were worthy of a Second XI place. The Lions team was:
 
Ben McKinney - Durham
Rob Yates - Warwickshire
Ollie Price - Gloucestershire
Hamza Shaikh - Warwickshire
James Rew (wk), - Somerset
Lyndon James (c), - Notts
Kasey Aldridge - Somerset
Zaman Akhter - Gloucestershire
Farhan Ahmed - Notts
Ajeet Singh Dale - Gloucestershire

Josh Hull – Leicestershire
 
If this lot progress to the national side it would provide an eclecticism that Yorkshire may never achieve.
 
In the stalemate at Headingley Luke Holman bowled 47 overs in the Yorkshire innings in which he took 4 for 194. Then in the Middlesex innings Dan Moriarty bowled 61 overs taking 0 for 174 whilst Dom Bess (remember him?) bowled 70.4 overs and took 7 for 179.
 
In the One Day cup at Trent Bridge Haseeb Hameed (remember him?) took his side to a seemingly impregnable 332 with his second hundred in this year’s competition. But Miles Hammond had other ideas as he scored 157 from just 113 balls and led his side home with over three overs to spare.
 
Against Hampshire at Merchant Taylors’ Middlesex’ obsession with putting their opponents in to bat seemed to have paid off as Hampshire only reached 276 for 7 from their fifty overs, but once again they came unstuck as they were bowled out for 257.
 
In the mid-season rounds of first class matches there seemed to be less runs around than there had been in the cold wet earlier rounds. But then the double centuries started to appear. First it was Rory Burns (remember him?) who made 227 out of 444 for 9 for Surrey against Lancashire. Then Ben Charlesworth (210) and James Bracey (207*) both scored them for Gloucester against Nottinghamshire, for whom new England man Josh Hull took 1 for 133. Finally, Colin Ingram scored 257 not out for Glamorgan during which he became the fastest Glamorgan player to reach 1000 runs taking just 13 innings which beat Majid Khan’s 15 innings in 1972.
 
Against Northants the Middlesex skipper, T R-J, took 5 for 49 and 6 for 58. He is probably one of the unluckier ones of the former England pacemen. He had made a considerable impact at the national level only to be sidelined by injury and has never apparently been back in contention.
 
Already in the record books on his Championship debut as the youngest player to bag five wickets or more in a first-class match in Britain, Farhan Ahmed, the younger brother of England leg spinner Rehan Ahmed, achieved another even more prestigious landmark when he claimed his 10th wicket of the match. This enabled him to replace W.G.Grace as the youngest to take ten or more wickets in a first-class match in this country. Grace’s record had stood for 159 years.
 
 
 
The County Championship Division Two match between Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire was abandoned on day one owing to concerns from the umpires over player safety on a hybrid pitch. Umpires Chris Watts and Sue Redfern called a halt early on in the final session after Northamptonshire batsmen Ricardo Vasconcelos and Rob Keogh had both been struck on the hand by Gloucestershire paceman Ajeet Singh Dale and forced to retire hurt.
 
I am discerning a difference between Football Fans and Club Supporters. The former have a love of the beautiful game and are fascinated by the twists and turns of a match right up to the final whistle. The latter are only interested in the success of the team they support. They may not know much or anything about football but like to be associated with the success of, normally, their local team. The classic case of this phenomena is the Manchester United supporter base who are exceptionally vociferous when their side is doing well but leave the ground when they are losing. By the end of the Liverpool match last weekend about a half of the home ticket seats were empty which suggests that probably 30,000 had left early, not interested in the football. The London Stadium was also substantially vacated at the weekend as the home ticket holders elected not to watch the Great Harland making history. This was a common phenomena last season at Sheffield United where the ground was often substantially empty by half time.
 
The Prof emailed the following:
“Ken Malloy's contribution, about Edrich and his many wives, reminded
 me of the story told of Compton arriving as a guest at the church for
the fifth marriage.
"Bride or Groom?" said the usher.
"Season ticket" said Compton.
 
 
 
Thompson Matters
Steve takes a trip down Memory Lane
 
There is nothing like a school reunion to emphasise the inevitable reality of the ageing process.  This is more especially so when the get-together involves the teacher and students and when almost forty years have elapsed since the former last set eyes on the latter.
 
In 1981 my Enfield Grammar School under-15 XI represented Middlesex in the Lord’s Taverner’s Trophy; the national competition for all schools. They were there by dint of being Under-14 County champions the previous season. Victories over Radley College (which included a very young Mark Durden-Smith) and three other independent schools in the earlier rounds saw them contest the final at Edgbaston with Howletch High School from Peterlee in Durham. This was the first and, from what we can gather, remains the only time two state schools have contested this age-group national final.  Coming as the reunion did a little over a month before my 70th birthday, the shocking realisation was that these ‘boys’ are now themselves fifty-eight; a painful fact only partially soothed from noting that I had a little more hair than most of them! For the record we lost the final, somewhat controversially, by one wicket but it was a day to remember for all involved.
 
With a history of producing excellent cricketers, most notably MJ Smith of Middlesex and England (Limited Over Internationals), the 80s and 90s were a particularly special time for cricket at the school boasting a staff team with five Middlesex league first team players: Jim Conroy, Roy Cutler, Dave Littlewood, Alex Presnell and me and one Hertfordshire League player with two or three others who could have comfortably played club 2nd XI/3rd XI cricket. During that period the school produced many outstanding club cricketers feeding Enfield, Winchmore Hill and Southgate and attracted a young Colin Metson to the Lower Sixth to study at A-Level.  Despite its name the school was an 11-18 Boy comprehensive but the cricket fixture list from Under 12 XI to First XI featured mainly independent school opposition. Where local state schools were played it was almost always a school second string side travelling with, one felt, almost a missionary brief.  Every Saturday would see three senior elevens fielded as well as A and B teams for Lower School age groups and Wednesdays would see afternoon A- Level classes bereft of senior cricketers as they hosted or travelled to fixtures against Home Counties’ Public Schools. In addition, a loyal band of parents produced some of the best cricket teas in the county.
 
This was still the era of O and A-Level examinations which only lasted a calendar month rather than almost an entire Summer Term. A full programme of winter nets began in earnest from January for all age groups and in the school’s own facility and there was a Cricket Week which culminated in the annual MCC fixture, a listing very few state schools could claim.
 
None of this would have been possible without the monumental effort made over the years by one man, Jim Conroy.  His commitment to the boys’ development as players sometimes led to the odd lively staff room debate with a subject teacher who hadn’t seen the 1st XI opening bowler for several consecutive lessons but there was only ever one outcome; the boy played. In fostering the abilities of so many young cricketers, Jim’s contribution to club cricket in that part of North London and to Middlesex Schools’ cricket over several decades will never be surpassed.
 
 With some Saturdays seeing as many as ten sides fielded and with almost exclusively afternoon starts finding staff willing to take teams, and umpire, and drive the minibuses for away games was always a challenge especially since the Masters i/c of each year group would themselves be playing on Saturdays.  Fortunately, there were many willing volunteers but, in addition, the staff duty system whereby all staff had to do either two sports duties or two detention duties a term, swelled the ranks.  When the choice was between an afternoon in the sunshine at Haberdasher’s or Merchant Taylors’ with a cream tea followed by a post-match glass of sherry in the staff room or, an hour staffing a school detention in room 15 with half a dozen reprobates from 5B it was little wonder that cricket became the popular alternative.
 
I have no involvement with school cricket these days but I am pretty confident that there will be few, if any, state schools offering today the same opportunities the boys of Enfield Grammar had in those halcyon years.
 
That Under-15XI team of 1981 self-evidently remain great mates. What more can you want from a sport than to foster life-long friendships.
 
This may be an age thing too. I have tried, I have really tried to ‘get’ The Hundred, but I just can’t. I watched several games, admittedly not every ball of each innings but attentively enough to give it a chance.  For me it’s the sporting equivalent of stumbling upon Eastenders or Emmerdale when channel hopping.  It doesn’t matter what episode it is or indeed what soap it is, the scenes are almost identical, and whilst the actors are no doubt very skillful one could be watching the same dialogue with the same overly dramatised script the next time you accidentally drop in.  Like the soaps of course viewership is king and it’s hard to criticise a product that evidently sells so well but it will be interesting to see if the crop of young London Spirit or Southern Brave fans remain loyal to the format if as seems likely next year the equivalent of a leading character in Emmerdale leaves The Woolpack only suddenly to appear pulling pints in Walford’s Queen Vic.
 
 
 
Quidnuncs Colombia Tour in 1978
 
 
I have been contacted by Andres Venegas who is keen to hear from anyone involved in the Quidnuncs tour of Colombia in 1978 as he is writing a book about Colombia, focusing on how British sports, including cricket, influenced the Bogotá society in the early XIX century and Cricket History in Colombia.
 
If you have any info or know of someone who does please contact him directly: [email protected]
 
 
 
Molloy Matters
 
Not many of you will know that our Madrid correspondent, Ken Molloy, played a crucial role in the Paris Olympics where he had volunteered to adjudicate on Trans Matters. Many referrals involved lengthy examinations but in the case of the two athletes below he was able to pass them without need for a genetic test.
 

 
 
 
 
 
Googlies Website
 
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