G&C 269
.GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 269
May 2025
Spot the Ball
Out and About with the Professor
So, at last the great day had arrived! It had been a long, cold, lonely winter, but now the great game had returned to Northern HQ. Headingley was bathed in sunshine, the sky was blue, the turf verdant, the fervour of excitement palpable. At last the gates opened, and in flooded, well, er, a couple of hundred elderly Yorkshire men to take up their preferred positions on the terraces and begin a new season of complaining about, well, pretty much anything. The man next to me on the fabled North East Terrace (Upper) actually started complaining that he was too warm: “When ye cum oop ‘ere” (think West Riding accent), “thee expects a breeze. I got me thick woolly jumper on, and there’s no bloody breeze!”.
The groundstaff had supplied, doubtless because of the cold, a fairly green looking strip for this first match, and the Worcestershire captain, D’Oliveira, having won the toss, looked at the pitch, looked at his newly-arrived strapping New Zealand quick bowler, Jacob Duffy, and decided to bowl. It didn’t work out too well. Duffy’s first two balls went to the boundary and after five overs he was taken off, and didn’t return until late afternoon. “Jet lag” was the explanation of a nearby Worcestershire supporter. Yorkshire went to lunch at 103-1 and were pretty much in command for the rest of the game. The stand-out knock from the first innings was Dawid Malan’s 98 (76* in the second) and he looks very assured at this level, driving through extra cover, as he does so well, off almost any length. Yorkshire’s batting line up looks pretty good, with Lyth, Malan and Bairstow as 1, 4 and 5, and some very useful young players: Bean, Wharton and Hill in the gaps. Should Root and Brook put in a guest appearance, that is pretty much a Test batting line up.
George Hill, by the way, is an interesting player. At one level, he is the typical county cricketer: bowls right arm fast medium and bats lower middle order, but he might turn out to be a little better than that. His fast medium is decidedly nippy and he looks a very useful number six. 63 and a 4-23 in this match - it will be worth watching his progress through the season.
It was difficult not to see some desperation in D’Oliveira’s tactics. Towards the end of the first day, he had six fielders on the fence and in all used nine bowlers. I don’t recall before seeing that in a first-class match, in fact I don’t think I have ever played in a game where nine bowlers were used. (Doubtless there is a record somewhere of some team or other using all eleven…but it did seem a little odd). Duffy came back late in the day with some success but Yorkshire’s 456 always looked a handy (put-in) score and their 315-4 in the second innings, which seemed to go on forever - with Bess picking up a very early hundred - was decisive.
I have some doubts about Yorkshire ability to bowl sides out given Ben Coad’s propensity to get injured and the use of Bess as the only spinner. Then again, since the County Championship isn’t really played in the summer, a spin bowler might not be that important. All the rest of the bowling is, in essence, the same – right arm fast medium. In the event, Worcester crumpled in their second innings, only scoring 105 of the 600+ target, and giving Yorkshire apparently the largest margin of victory ever in the competition…which I found surprising.
Luxton and Malan leave the field for tea on Day One at Headingley
Less than a week later, it was off to the Riverside and a repeat script: green top, opposition win the toss and “after you”. Not so easy this time. Potts. Raine, Coughlin and, especially, the Australian Doggett, were rather better than Worcestershire’s nine. 75-2 at lunch, ended up at 295-8 at the close when it got sufficiently cold and dark for the umpires to come off. Durham is, after all, quite close to the tundra. The comparison, or so it seems to me, is with the Rose Bowl (or whatever it’s called now) and Sophia Gardens, rather than the “city” Test venues. The Riverside has a lot going for it: it’s a very large arena with nets and other sports nearby, it is easily accessible, and has very generous parking arrangements but, when it is cold, it does feel a little bleak…more than a little, in truth.
The best contribution to Yorkshire’s first innings came from James Wharton, and he is another one to watch. His last Championship innings of 2024 was 285 against Northants, and while theirs was hardly a frightening attack, 285 sounds pretty good to me. He is a very correct player and uses his feet more than almost any player around. He advances to all bowling, especially the quicks, with the obvious benefit of minimising movement but with the slight disadvantage (so I would have thought) of having even less time to see the ball. It would have been very interesting to see him play Wood in this fixture but he, being an England fast bowler, is of course injured.
The limitations of Yorkshire’s bowling were shown up on the second day and the tradition of players doing well against the club that had released them was maintained by Lees with a fine hundred. (Unlike the footballers, he celebrated his achievement.) Coad was “rested” for
Coughlin bowling to Wharton, Day One at Chester le Street
this match, having played two Championship matches in a row. He must have been exhausted. Bairstow’s new status as Yorkshire’s captain hasn’t exactly boosted his batting and, up to this match, he’s just managed a couple of “cameos”. There was another one in the first innings: 22 from 27 balls including five boundaries off six balls from Potts. Four were straight drives and the other the dismissive straight arm swot that Bairstow does over midwicket. The second innings saw a change, his not out 86 ensured the draw.
So, lost one, won one, drawn one. Sounds sort of mid-table…perhaps. We are now more than a fifth the way through the Championship fixtures, and it’s the 21st April. Let’s hope the sun shines in September.
This & That
Ex Middlesex players have been excelling for their adopted counties in the early matches of this season. John Simpson, now of Sussex, scored 181 not out in their opening match against Warwickshire and then 110 not out in their second game against Somerset. Martin Andersson, now of Derbyshire, scored 101 against Leicestershire and then 107 against, of all teams, Middlesex.
Simpson is Division 1’s second highest run scorer with 471 putting behind only his Sussex colleague Tom Haines who has scored 513. In Division 2 Middlesex’ Max Holden is the top scorer with 507 with Derbyshire’s Wayne Madsen in second place with 436.
After Sam Northeast’s 335 in the season’s opener at Lord’s last year there was another triple centurion this year as Tom Banton made 371 for Somerset against Worcestershire. Banton in recent years has concentrated on franchise cricket having played for Brisbane Heat, Colombo Stars, Delhi Bulls, Dubai Capitals, Fortune Barishal, Gulf Giants, Kolkata Knight Riders, MI Cape Town, MI Emirates, Northern Superchargers, Peshawar Zalmi, Qalandars, Quetta Gladiators, Team Abu Dhabi, Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire. But on this occasion he hit fifty-three fours and just one six. He added 371 with James Rew for the fifth wicket which was a county record and his individual score was the highest ever for the county beating Justin Langer’s 342 against Surrey in 2006.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) got off to a flying start in this year’s IPL scoring 284 in the second match. But their much feared batting line up – Head, Abhishek Singh, Ish Kish & Klaasen - failed to deliver again until the 27th match. The Punjab Kings (PK) won the toss and batted first. Their captain, Shreyas Iyer, made 82 from 36 balls and set SRH a formidable looking 246 to win. Travis Head was out in the thirteenth over with the score on 171 having scored 66 from 37 balls but it was Abishek Sharma at the other end who was blazing the trail to victory and when he was out in the seventeenth over the score was 222 and he had scored 141 from just 55 balls, having reached his 100 from just 40 balls. Klaasen and Ish Kish finished the job with a staggering nine balls to spare. Abhishek’s innings was the third highest in IPL history after Chris Gayle (175) and Baz (158).
In the 2024 IPL auction Vaibhav Suryavanshi at 13 became the youngest player to feature in the IPL when RR paid £103k for his services. On debut he hit his first delivery for six over extra cover. Then in match 47 he opened with Yashavsi Jaiswal as RR set about chasing down the Gujarat Titans (GT) target of 210. He was out in the twelfth over with the score on 166 having made 101 from 37 balls. His hundred came up from 35 balls when he lifted Rashid Khan for his eleventh six. This was the second fastest hundred in IPL history ahead of Yusuf Pathan (37 balls) and behind Chris Gayle (30 balls). Jaiswal and Pirag finished off the chase with nearly four overs to spare. Oh, and, by the way, Suryavanshi is not without style, he batted in one orange and one pale blue boot.
Earlier, in match 22, the Punjab Kings’ Priyansh Arya scored 103 from 42 balls with 9 sixes and 7 fours as his colleagues all around him failed. He was out in the fourteenth over with the score on 154 for 6. Arya has scored 346 runs in this year’s IPL which puts him in the top twelve but some way behind Sai Sudharsan who has 456. Kohli is second with 443 but he is playing the anchor role for RCB and is the only one in the top twelve with a strike rate below 150. If you are interested in this sort of thing Pooran has hit most sixes (34) which is way ahead of Shreyes Iyer in second place with 25. Hazlewood is the leading bowler with 18 wickets.
Phil Foden and Carl Palmer (remember them?) were the superstars of the 2023/24 PL season and much was written and spoken about their relative merits and how both were indispensable to the England team. This season Foden was absent from Pep City’s early lineups and then dropped after poor performances. He is now lucky to get on for a few minutes as a sub. Palmer drifts out of the game after about twenty minutes and you even forget that he is on the pitch after half time. Have they both suffered a dramatic loss of form or have the opposition coaches just worked them out?
Thompson Matters
This is an unashamedly relatively parochial piece but those who have been Googlies Readers from the first ball will know that the early editions were, almost inevitably, heavily populated by articles about South Hampstead. In this the club’s 150th year I thought it would be appropriate to reflect upon the thirteen players who represented the club and have also played first class cricket.
There were of course likely to have been others in the pre-war period but there are sadly no records available to identify them.
HENRY MALCOLM played 4 first-class matches for Middlesex in 1948 and the following summer he scored 105 for the club Cricket Conference against the New Zealand tourists. In the 1951 club season he scored 2,531 runs at an average of 140.6 and took 123 wickets at an average of 13. Not surprisingly, therefore, when I began playing as colt in the mid-60s his name was legendary.
RICHARD ‘DICKIE’ BROOKS played one season for the club before going up to Oxford. A wicketkeeper and lower order batsman he played 35 first-class matches initially for Oxford University in 1967 and then for Somerset for the entirety of the 1968 season before taking up a teaching post.
RON HOOKER played 300 first class matches for Middlesex spanning 1956-1969 scoring over 8,000 runs and taking 490 wickets. He played on and off for the club more particularly after retiring from the first-class game in the ‘70s. He was an outstanding close fielder particularly at short leg and took over 300 catches in first-class cricket.
TERRY CORDAROY’s name is synonymous with South Hampstead. I had the privilege of opening the batting with him between 1974 and 1981 but for many seasons before and after he was the cornerstone of the club’s batting surpassing all batting records. He made just two appearances for Middlesex notably scoring 81 on debut against Leicestershire in 1968. His technical excellence was such that in another era if Middlesex had had fewer outstanding batsmen Terry may well have played more top-flight matches. He was an outstanding gully fielder and one of my earliest memories of watching at the club as very young boy was seeing him dive full length to his right to take a one-handed catch.
NIGEL ROSS played 25 first-class matches for Middlesex as wicketkeeper/batsman between 1973 and 1977 and it was between 1974 and 1976 that through the Dickie Simpson connection (which bought both Nigel and Ossie Burton from Surbiton) he arrived at South Hampstead. He played in several crucial League and cup matches in the 1974 ‘double’ year.
KEITH HARDIE, brother of Essex’s Brian, played 10 first-class matches for Scotland between 1966 and 1976. He took 35 wickets with his orthodox slow-left arm and was a more than useful late-middle-order batsman. From1974-1976 his more flighted and varied slow left arm was the perfect foil for Cliff Dickeson for two seasons.
CLIFF DICKESON played 90 first-class games for Northern Districts taking 282 wickets between 1973 and 1987. He played for the club in 1975 and 1976 whilst in England playing for Bedfordshire. Bowling his left arm spin at slightly quicker pace than most left-armers he was particularly effective on slow turners.
It’s worth noting that in the Centenary season, the club whilst not retaining the league title it had won the previous summer lost narrowly to the eventual winners York in the semi-final of the National Knockout. Six of the thirteen who played first-class cricket played for the club that season.
JOHN ANDERSON played 4 first-class matches for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield between 1976 and 1977 where he batted in the top three against the likes of Dennis Lillee. John was one of a number of Australians and New Zealanders to play for the club in the ‘70s and early 80’s and he became the first overseas player to captain the club.
PETER KING played briefly for the club during the same period as John Anderson. A fellow Victorian, as a fast bowler he made 6 Sheffield Shield appearances for Victoria (and one first-class match against the England tourists) between 1982-85.
PRANAB ROY was the first of three Test cricketers to play for the club each for one season only and sadly as the club was beginning to and eventually finally lost its premier league status. He played two Tests for India on the 1981 tour of England. He played the 1983 season opening the batting with Terry Cordaroy.
ROB NICOL played two Tests opening the batting for New Zealand against South Africa in 2012. He played for Auckland, Canterbury and in 2012, Gloucestershire. He played for the club in 2001.
ALVIN KALLICHARRAN played 66 Tests for West Indies and played a season at the club in 2011 when he was 62. He was the club’s only Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1983.
BOB PEACH made two appearances for the Combined Services in 1960 at a time when some of their matches were given first-class status and of the thirteen records represented here his is perhaps the least notable. However, Bob came to the club from Harrow Town as a young man and for the best part of 70 years both on and off the field his playing and administrative commitment have no equal. He was First XI captain between 1961-68 and he was there and instrumental in the creation of the Middlesex County League in 1972. He has been Club Chairman for many years steering the club through the best of times, indeed he led the centenary celebrations fifty years ago, and latterly through some more challenging years.
As with all clubs, times change, personnel come and go and of course South Hampstead is no exception but as the club begins its 150th season for just under half its entire existence Bob Peach has been at the forefront of all that is South Hampstead Cricket Club. Now that genuinely is first class.
To mark the 150th year of its existence MCC will play South Hampstead at Milverton Road on 16th July. It is hoped that many former players and friends of the club will be able to attend and more information about the day will appear in next month’s Googlies.
Vernacular Cricket
I have always enjoyed TV commentators using cricket vernacular which I had assumed was a reflection of their club cricket backgrounds. Nasser Hussain is to the fore in this usage but more recently I have heard others use these terms without any explanation. Here are a few with my interpretations of their meanings. Do you know any of the origins?
Buzzers – overthrows
Jaffa – unplayable delivery
Getting tap – bowler conceding runs freely
Bunsen – turning wicket (cockney rhyming slang)
Buy a ticket – advice to a slip fielder who is standing too deep
Strangled – batsman who is caught down the leg side.
Keep him honest – fast bowler who unleashes an unexpected bouncer
Would anyone like to add to this list?
Crocks Corner
In this era when bowlers have to carry out inappropriate fitness regimes and then spend more time on the treatment bench than actually bowling this feature celebrates the manifold complaints of these elite athletes. Feel free to submit anything you notice
“Lancashire batsman Rocky Flintoff will miss the first part of the County Championship season because of a back injury. The county says the 16-year-old has suffered a "lumbar stress reaction", which is why he was left out of the squad for their Division Two opener against Middlesex at Lord's. He felt discomfort in his back during pre-season and is being rested so the injury does not worsen while also having rehabilitation.”
“England's fast-bowling stocks have been further depleted after Olly Stone was ruled out of the Test summer by a right knee injury. Stone, who played two Tests last summer and was part of the winter tours to Pakistan and New Zealand, had scans earlier this week. Subsequent surgery has sidelined the 31-year-old for 14 weeks, meaning he will miss all of England's home Tests against Zimbabwe and India.”
Ged Matters
DAISY: So, who are the Sunrisers?
GED: They are the women’s franchise comprising Middlesex and other neighbouring counties, such as Essex and Northamptonshire.
DAISY: I thought that was London Spirit.
GED: London Spirit is a “The Hundred” franchise – except we’re not supposed to call those ones franchises – whereas Sunrisers is a franchise for 50-over and Twenty20 cricket.
DAISY: That makes no sense.
GED: None of the domestic cricket makes sense at the moment.
DAISY: Where’s the DJ? Where’s the razzamatazz? Where’s the crowd?
GED: The ECB wants to promote The Hundred, so domestic Twenty20 gets the dregs.
DAISY: How many of the players do you recognise?
GED: Frankly, apart from the international players I don’t recognise any of them. This is only the second time I have been to a women’s domestic match.
DAISY: They aren’t very forthcoming on the big screen or the tannoy either. How many Middlesex players are playing for Sunrisers today?
GED: No idea.
DAISY: Are any of today’s Sunrisers actually Middlesex players then?
GED: Possibly not… (Googles a bit) …I don’t think so.
DAISY: Then why should we support Sunrisers?
GED: Because they are Middlesex’s team, that’s why. Sunrisers are the team included in your Middlesex membership.
DAISY: I’m sold.
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.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 269
May 2025
Spot the Ball
Out and About with the Professor
So, at last the great day had arrived! It had been a long, cold, lonely winter, but now the great game had returned to Northern HQ. Headingley was bathed in sunshine, the sky was blue, the turf verdant, the fervour of excitement palpable. At last the gates opened, and in flooded, well, er, a couple of hundred elderly Yorkshire men to take up their preferred positions on the terraces and begin a new season of complaining about, well, pretty much anything. The man next to me on the fabled North East Terrace (Upper) actually started complaining that he was too warm: “When ye cum oop ‘ere” (think West Riding accent), “thee expects a breeze. I got me thick woolly jumper on, and there’s no bloody breeze!”.
The groundstaff had supplied, doubtless because of the cold, a fairly green looking strip for this first match, and the Worcestershire captain, D’Oliveira, having won the toss, looked at the pitch, looked at his newly-arrived strapping New Zealand quick bowler, Jacob Duffy, and decided to bowl. It didn’t work out too well. Duffy’s first two balls went to the boundary and after five overs he was taken off, and didn’t return until late afternoon. “Jet lag” was the explanation of a nearby Worcestershire supporter. Yorkshire went to lunch at 103-1 and were pretty much in command for the rest of the game. The stand-out knock from the first innings was Dawid Malan’s 98 (76* in the second) and he looks very assured at this level, driving through extra cover, as he does so well, off almost any length. Yorkshire’s batting line up looks pretty good, with Lyth, Malan and Bairstow as 1, 4 and 5, and some very useful young players: Bean, Wharton and Hill in the gaps. Should Root and Brook put in a guest appearance, that is pretty much a Test batting line up.
George Hill, by the way, is an interesting player. At one level, he is the typical county cricketer: bowls right arm fast medium and bats lower middle order, but he might turn out to be a little better than that. His fast medium is decidedly nippy and he looks a very useful number six. 63 and a 4-23 in this match - it will be worth watching his progress through the season.
It was difficult not to see some desperation in D’Oliveira’s tactics. Towards the end of the first day, he had six fielders on the fence and in all used nine bowlers. I don’t recall before seeing that in a first-class match, in fact I don’t think I have ever played in a game where nine bowlers were used. (Doubtless there is a record somewhere of some team or other using all eleven…but it did seem a little odd). Duffy came back late in the day with some success but Yorkshire’s 456 always looked a handy (put-in) score and their 315-4 in the second innings, which seemed to go on forever - with Bess picking up a very early hundred - was decisive.
I have some doubts about Yorkshire ability to bowl sides out given Ben Coad’s propensity to get injured and the use of Bess as the only spinner. Then again, since the County Championship isn’t really played in the summer, a spin bowler might not be that important. All the rest of the bowling is, in essence, the same – right arm fast medium. In the event, Worcester crumpled in their second innings, only scoring 105 of the 600+ target, and giving Yorkshire apparently the largest margin of victory ever in the competition…which I found surprising.
Luxton and Malan leave the field for tea on Day One at Headingley
Less than a week later, it was off to the Riverside and a repeat script: green top, opposition win the toss and “after you”. Not so easy this time. Potts. Raine, Coughlin and, especially, the Australian Doggett, were rather better than Worcestershire’s nine. 75-2 at lunch, ended up at 295-8 at the close when it got sufficiently cold and dark for the umpires to come off. Durham is, after all, quite close to the tundra. The comparison, or so it seems to me, is with the Rose Bowl (or whatever it’s called now) and Sophia Gardens, rather than the “city” Test venues. The Riverside has a lot going for it: it’s a very large arena with nets and other sports nearby, it is easily accessible, and has very generous parking arrangements but, when it is cold, it does feel a little bleak…more than a little, in truth.
The best contribution to Yorkshire’s first innings came from James Wharton, and he is another one to watch. His last Championship innings of 2024 was 285 against Northants, and while theirs was hardly a frightening attack, 285 sounds pretty good to me. He is a very correct player and uses his feet more than almost any player around. He advances to all bowling, especially the quicks, with the obvious benefit of minimising movement but with the slight disadvantage (so I would have thought) of having even less time to see the ball. It would have been very interesting to see him play Wood in this fixture but he, being an England fast bowler, is of course injured.
The limitations of Yorkshire’s bowling were shown up on the second day and the tradition of players doing well against the club that had released them was maintained by Lees with a fine hundred. (Unlike the footballers, he celebrated his achievement.) Coad was “rested” for
Coughlin bowling to Wharton, Day One at Chester le Street
this match, having played two Championship matches in a row. He must have been exhausted. Bairstow’s new status as Yorkshire’s captain hasn’t exactly boosted his batting and, up to this match, he’s just managed a couple of “cameos”. There was another one in the first innings: 22 from 27 balls including five boundaries off six balls from Potts. Four were straight drives and the other the dismissive straight arm swot that Bairstow does over midwicket. The second innings saw a change, his not out 86 ensured the draw.
So, lost one, won one, drawn one. Sounds sort of mid-table…perhaps. We are now more than a fifth the way through the Championship fixtures, and it’s the 21st April. Let’s hope the sun shines in September.
This & That
Ex Middlesex players have been excelling for their adopted counties in the early matches of this season. John Simpson, now of Sussex, scored 181 not out in their opening match against Warwickshire and then 110 not out in their second game against Somerset. Martin Andersson, now of Derbyshire, scored 101 against Leicestershire and then 107 against, of all teams, Middlesex.
Simpson is Division 1’s second highest run scorer with 471 putting behind only his Sussex colleague Tom Haines who has scored 513. In Division 2 Middlesex’ Max Holden is the top scorer with 507 with Derbyshire’s Wayne Madsen in second place with 436.
After Sam Northeast’s 335 in the season’s opener at Lord’s last year there was another triple centurion this year as Tom Banton made 371 for Somerset against Worcestershire. Banton in recent years has concentrated on franchise cricket having played for Brisbane Heat, Colombo Stars, Delhi Bulls, Dubai Capitals, Fortune Barishal, Gulf Giants, Kolkata Knight Riders, MI Cape Town, MI Emirates, Northern Superchargers, Peshawar Zalmi, Qalandars, Quetta Gladiators, Team Abu Dhabi, Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire. But on this occasion he hit fifty-three fours and just one six. He added 371 with James Rew for the fifth wicket which was a county record and his individual score was the highest ever for the county beating Justin Langer’s 342 against Surrey in 2006.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) got off to a flying start in this year’s IPL scoring 284 in the second match. But their much feared batting line up – Head, Abhishek Singh, Ish Kish & Klaasen - failed to deliver again until the 27th match. The Punjab Kings (PK) won the toss and batted first. Their captain, Shreyas Iyer, made 82 from 36 balls and set SRH a formidable looking 246 to win. Travis Head was out in the thirteenth over with the score on 171 having scored 66 from 37 balls but it was Abishek Sharma at the other end who was blazing the trail to victory and when he was out in the seventeenth over the score was 222 and he had scored 141 from just 55 balls, having reached his 100 from just 40 balls. Klaasen and Ish Kish finished the job with a staggering nine balls to spare. Abhishek’s innings was the third highest in IPL history after Chris Gayle (175) and Baz (158).
In the 2024 IPL auction Vaibhav Suryavanshi at 13 became the youngest player to feature in the IPL when RR paid £103k for his services. On debut he hit his first delivery for six over extra cover. Then in match 47 he opened with Yashavsi Jaiswal as RR set about chasing down the Gujarat Titans (GT) target of 210. He was out in the twelfth over with the score on 166 having made 101 from 37 balls. His hundred came up from 35 balls when he lifted Rashid Khan for his eleventh six. This was the second fastest hundred in IPL history ahead of Yusuf Pathan (37 balls) and behind Chris Gayle (30 balls). Jaiswal and Pirag finished off the chase with nearly four overs to spare. Oh, and, by the way, Suryavanshi is not without style, he batted in one orange and one pale blue boot.
Earlier, in match 22, the Punjab Kings’ Priyansh Arya scored 103 from 42 balls with 9 sixes and 7 fours as his colleagues all around him failed. He was out in the fourteenth over with the score on 154 for 6. Arya has scored 346 runs in this year’s IPL which puts him in the top twelve but some way behind Sai Sudharsan who has 456. Kohli is second with 443 but he is playing the anchor role for RCB and is the only one in the top twelve with a strike rate below 150. If you are interested in this sort of thing Pooran has hit most sixes (34) which is way ahead of Shreyes Iyer in second place with 25. Hazlewood is the leading bowler with 18 wickets.
Phil Foden and Carl Palmer (remember them?) were the superstars of the 2023/24 PL season and much was written and spoken about their relative merits and how both were indispensable to the England team. This season Foden was absent from Pep City’s early lineups and then dropped after poor performances. He is now lucky to get on for a few minutes as a sub. Palmer drifts out of the game after about twenty minutes and you even forget that he is on the pitch after half time. Have they both suffered a dramatic loss of form or have the opposition coaches just worked them out?
Thompson Matters
This is an unashamedly relatively parochial piece but those who have been Googlies Readers from the first ball will know that the early editions were, almost inevitably, heavily populated by articles about South Hampstead. In this the club’s 150th year I thought it would be appropriate to reflect upon the thirteen players who represented the club and have also played first class cricket.
There were of course likely to have been others in the pre-war period but there are sadly no records available to identify them.
HENRY MALCOLM played 4 first-class matches for Middlesex in 1948 and the following summer he scored 105 for the club Cricket Conference against the New Zealand tourists. In the 1951 club season he scored 2,531 runs at an average of 140.6 and took 123 wickets at an average of 13. Not surprisingly, therefore, when I began playing as colt in the mid-60s his name was legendary.
RICHARD ‘DICKIE’ BROOKS played one season for the club before going up to Oxford. A wicketkeeper and lower order batsman he played 35 first-class matches initially for Oxford University in 1967 and then for Somerset for the entirety of the 1968 season before taking up a teaching post.
RON HOOKER played 300 first class matches for Middlesex spanning 1956-1969 scoring over 8,000 runs and taking 490 wickets. He played on and off for the club more particularly after retiring from the first-class game in the ‘70s. He was an outstanding close fielder particularly at short leg and took over 300 catches in first-class cricket.
TERRY CORDAROY’s name is synonymous with South Hampstead. I had the privilege of opening the batting with him between 1974 and 1981 but for many seasons before and after he was the cornerstone of the club’s batting surpassing all batting records. He made just two appearances for Middlesex notably scoring 81 on debut against Leicestershire in 1968. His technical excellence was such that in another era if Middlesex had had fewer outstanding batsmen Terry may well have played more top-flight matches. He was an outstanding gully fielder and one of my earliest memories of watching at the club as very young boy was seeing him dive full length to his right to take a one-handed catch.
NIGEL ROSS played 25 first-class matches for Middlesex as wicketkeeper/batsman between 1973 and 1977 and it was between 1974 and 1976 that through the Dickie Simpson connection (which bought both Nigel and Ossie Burton from Surbiton) he arrived at South Hampstead. He played in several crucial League and cup matches in the 1974 ‘double’ year.
KEITH HARDIE, brother of Essex’s Brian, played 10 first-class matches for Scotland between 1966 and 1976. He took 35 wickets with his orthodox slow-left arm and was a more than useful late-middle-order batsman. From1974-1976 his more flighted and varied slow left arm was the perfect foil for Cliff Dickeson for two seasons.
CLIFF DICKESON played 90 first-class games for Northern Districts taking 282 wickets between 1973 and 1987. He played for the club in 1975 and 1976 whilst in England playing for Bedfordshire. Bowling his left arm spin at slightly quicker pace than most left-armers he was particularly effective on slow turners.
It’s worth noting that in the Centenary season, the club whilst not retaining the league title it had won the previous summer lost narrowly to the eventual winners York in the semi-final of the National Knockout. Six of the thirteen who played first-class cricket played for the club that season.
JOHN ANDERSON played 4 first-class matches for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield between 1976 and 1977 where he batted in the top three against the likes of Dennis Lillee. John was one of a number of Australians and New Zealanders to play for the club in the ‘70s and early 80’s and he became the first overseas player to captain the club.
PETER KING played briefly for the club during the same period as John Anderson. A fellow Victorian, as a fast bowler he made 6 Sheffield Shield appearances for Victoria (and one first-class match against the England tourists) between 1982-85.
PRANAB ROY was the first of three Test cricketers to play for the club each for one season only and sadly as the club was beginning to and eventually finally lost its premier league status. He played two Tests for India on the 1981 tour of England. He played the 1983 season opening the batting with Terry Cordaroy.
ROB NICOL played two Tests opening the batting for New Zealand against South Africa in 2012. He played for Auckland, Canterbury and in 2012, Gloucestershire. He played for the club in 2001.
ALVIN KALLICHARRAN played 66 Tests for West Indies and played a season at the club in 2011 when he was 62. He was the club’s only Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1983.
BOB PEACH made two appearances for the Combined Services in 1960 at a time when some of their matches were given first-class status and of the thirteen records represented here his is perhaps the least notable. However, Bob came to the club from Harrow Town as a young man and for the best part of 70 years both on and off the field his playing and administrative commitment have no equal. He was First XI captain between 1961-68 and he was there and instrumental in the creation of the Middlesex County League in 1972. He has been Club Chairman for many years steering the club through the best of times, indeed he led the centenary celebrations fifty years ago, and latterly through some more challenging years.
As with all clubs, times change, personnel come and go and of course South Hampstead is no exception but as the club begins its 150th season for just under half its entire existence Bob Peach has been at the forefront of all that is South Hampstead Cricket Club. Now that genuinely is first class.
To mark the 150th year of its existence MCC will play South Hampstead at Milverton Road on 16th July. It is hoped that many former players and friends of the club will be able to attend and more information about the day will appear in next month’s Googlies.
Vernacular Cricket
I have always enjoyed TV commentators using cricket vernacular which I had assumed was a reflection of their club cricket backgrounds. Nasser Hussain is to the fore in this usage but more recently I have heard others use these terms without any explanation. Here are a few with my interpretations of their meanings. Do you know any of the origins?
Buzzers – overthrows
Jaffa – unplayable delivery
Getting tap – bowler conceding runs freely
Bunsen – turning wicket (cockney rhyming slang)
Buy a ticket – advice to a slip fielder who is standing too deep
Strangled – batsman who is caught down the leg side.
Keep him honest – fast bowler who unleashes an unexpected bouncer
Would anyone like to add to this list?
Crocks Corner
In this era when bowlers have to carry out inappropriate fitness regimes and then spend more time on the treatment bench than actually bowling this feature celebrates the manifold complaints of these elite athletes. Feel free to submit anything you notice
“Lancashire batsman Rocky Flintoff will miss the first part of the County Championship season because of a back injury. The county says the 16-year-old has suffered a "lumbar stress reaction", which is why he was left out of the squad for their Division Two opener against Middlesex at Lord's. He felt discomfort in his back during pre-season and is being rested so the injury does not worsen while also having rehabilitation.”
“England's fast-bowling stocks have been further depleted after Olly Stone was ruled out of the Test summer by a right knee injury. Stone, who played two Tests last summer and was part of the winter tours to Pakistan and New Zealand, had scans earlier this week. Subsequent surgery has sidelined the 31-year-old for 14 weeks, meaning he will miss all of England's home Tests against Zimbabwe and India.”
Ged Matters
DAISY: So, who are the Sunrisers?
GED: They are the women’s franchise comprising Middlesex and other neighbouring counties, such as Essex and Northamptonshire.
DAISY: I thought that was London Spirit.
GED: London Spirit is a “The Hundred” franchise – except we’re not supposed to call those ones franchises – whereas Sunrisers is a franchise for 50-over and Twenty20 cricket.
DAISY: That makes no sense.
GED: None of the domestic cricket makes sense at the moment.
DAISY: Where’s the DJ? Where’s the razzamatazz? Where’s the crowd?
GED: The ECB wants to promote The Hundred, so domestic Twenty20 gets the dregs.
DAISY: How many of the players do you recognise?
GED: Frankly, apart from the international players I don’t recognise any of them. This is only the second time I have been to a women’s domestic match.
DAISY: They aren’t very forthcoming on the big screen or the tannoy either. How many Middlesex players are playing for Sunrisers today?
GED: No idea.
DAISY: Are any of today’s Sunrisers actually Middlesex players then?
GED: Possibly not… (Googles a bit) …I don’t think so.
DAISY: Then why should we support Sunrisers?
GED: Because they are Middlesex’s team, that’s why. Sunrisers are the team included in your Middlesex membership.
DAISY: I’m sold.
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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