G&C 274 oct25
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 274
October 2025
Spot the Ball
Cricket in Ireland
Out and About with the Professor
There will be some Googlies readers who know the Malahide ground well. In essence it is a club ground set in a public park…but it is a good deal better appointed than that curmudgeonly description suggests. There are two grounds, separated by a path, with the second having an artificial pitch (pretty useful in this part of the world), and short boundaries, presumably used for junior matches, etc. There are also rugby pitches - so a nice facility close to the centre of a small seaside town.
The three T20 games were written up as a “big step forward” for Irish cricket and significant step in popularising the sport. I didn’t speak to anyone in Dublin who knew the matches were taking place so, seemingly, there is a fair bit more “popularising” to go. The three matches were, however very well attended with the last two being sold out. The Club had erected a number of temporary stands (as well as a ten-foot fence around the perimeter) and so several thousand supporters (who clearly had heard about it) could attend. There were also two very large beer tents and the inevitable concession stalls selling inedible food – so a venue offering rather more than the average club ground. The beer tents were particularly popular for the second match when it started raining about an hour before the start and never relented. It wasn’t anything like a downpour, just persistent light drizzle, “a soft gentle rain, so it is”, was a local’s take on the weather. The upshot was that the beer tents resembled the Central Line at rush hour…although much better humoured. Back in Dublin I complained about the rain to the landlord of the O’Donoghue pub. It had just stopped raining at about 7pm for about ten minutes: “Oh yes” he said, “so it has…but I feel sure the drought will break sometime soon”.
I’m not sure what the England management learnt from the three games: a close(ish) win for England, a wash out, and an easy win. In fact, the first game, while there were lots of runs scored, wasn’t all that close – England knocked off 197 with 14 balls to spare, and the third game was something of a canter with 17 balls left and no real need to do anything too desperate. They presumably learned that Phil Salt is a “must play” (runs in both games and his 89 from 46 balls was quite stunning). The problem is that he is just the most recent “must play” in a long list (of batters that is). Consider choosing England’s best front seven for a T20 (assuming all are fit). Who would you go for? Seven from: Smith, Salt, Duckett, Bethell, Ahmed, Curran S., Banton, Jacks, Buttler, Cox, Brook, Livingstone…have I left anyone out? Buttler, Bethell and Brook must be in the side. Perhaps go to the other end of the alphabet with Salt and Smith? Two more; Jacks and Cox? (Cox, incidentally, found a use for the second ground, for which it was never intended, as a place to go and find the ball). That is some batting line up for a T20. Oh, and what about Stokes? Presumably he gets in as a bowler – 4 overs would be just about perfect for him – and he would make the best number 8 ever to have worn an England shirt.
It is easy to get a little carried away with this, it is, after all, Ireland that has been defeated, and it was less than a month ago that this (more or less the same) batting line-up was bowled out for 131 by South Africa in an ODI, within 25 overs. Still, it does look like a selection problem for the future.
Perhaps more urgency needs to be attached to the bowling which, with the exception (normally) of Rashid, doesn’t look too daunting. OK, Archer comes into the “best” XI, as does our No. 8. One more would give you four bowlers and that means finding four overs from the batters…a ploy that hasn’t gone too well of late. The assumption for this selectorial problem, namely that all players are fit, means this is a theoretical exercise solely. What the selectors may have learned is that while Sonny Baker may be the prospect they clearly think he is (and they have had some success in predictions), he does not appear to be ready yet. His dreadful debut in the ODI was followed here by 0-52 from his four overs. It was a bit of a mystery why Bethell brought him back for a final over given that Dawson had only bowled two (2-9). The general feeling was that Bethell thought that Ireland hadn’t got enough, which, one hopes, cannot be true.
And what of Bethell? An astute captain at a very early age.? Difficult to tell against this opposition, but I suppose: played two, won two, is as good a start as anyone could hope for.
The scorecard carried a composite photo of the two captains: Stirling, fat, forty (well… not quite) and unshaven, could easily pass for one of the bouncers outside a Dublin club and Bethell, looking for all the world like a 6th former in need of some ID to get in. When interviewed, Bethell said how much he had enjoyed his visit to Malahide, and that must be true, it’s a very nice place, so it is.
This & That
When the Warwickshire Bears played Somerset at Taunton in the Quarter Final of the Vitality Blast Davies and Yates got them off to a flying start at one stage having hit nine consecutive deliveries for four. The overall innings was strange, especially for Taunton, since there were 28 fours scored but no sixes. Tom Kholer-Cadmore knows that’s not the way to do it and soon hit one out of the stadium when Somerset started their reply. But it was left once again to Sean Dickson with 71 not out from 26 balls to see them home.
I also managed to see the Quarter Final at the Oval where the forty-year-old Ravi Bopara scored 105 not out in a match reduced to fourteen overs a side. I have long thought that Bopara was better than his stats suggested and here he showed great power and skill after both openers had been dismissed without scoring.
Kent have had a wretched season. In their final match Derbyshire won the toss and did the right thing. They amassed 698 for 6 with Luis Reece soring 211 and Wayne Madsen 198. Both eventually fell to Matt Parkinson who conceded 188 in the innings. Reece may be an undersung all-rounder. He topped the CC2 bowling with 50 wickets and scored 643 runs (average 64)
In their final game of the season Middlesex slumped to a predictable 161 for 4 before Leus du Plooy added 121 with Ben Geddes, 116 with Joe Cracknell and an improbable 179 with Seb Morgan. When du Plooy eventually declared on 634 for 9 his personal score was 263 not out. Gloucester were beaten by an innings as Gohar and TRJ bowled them out twice.
As a result of this mammoth innings du Plooy became the only Middlesex player to reach 1000 runs for the season. The top run scorers in the County Championship were Saif Zaib (1425), Ben Compton (1386), Dom Sibley (1274) and Haseeb Hameed (1258). Zaib’s total is remarkable since he scored his runs batting lower down the order, usually at six or seven.
Just outside this group of top run scorers was John Simpson (1086), the Sussex captain, whose total included four hundreds, Other ex- Middlesex men also had good seasons. Martin Andersson sored 745 at an average of 49.66 for Derbyshire. By contrast Sam Robson managed just 497 at 29.23. Stevie Eskinazi joined Leicestershire in September and scored 155 against Northants. Ethan Bamber, now with Warwickshire took 43 wickets in the CC First Division.
The top wicket takers in the CC were: Tom Taylor 58, Kyle Abbott 56, Jack Leach (remember him?) 52, George Hill 51 and Luis Reece 50. TRJ managed a creditable 45.
It was a tie for who hit most sixes in this season’s CC and I am fairly sure I could have taken money off most Googlies readers to name them. Ethan Brookes and Grant Stewart both hit 24.
This season has seen a return of nudity to the Premiership with scorers removing their shirts and rushing towards the corner flag as if to collect their win bonus. I played at various levels in my playing days and can safely say that I never saw anyone remove their shirt after scoring. It cannot be popular with their managers since it brings an automatic yellow card.
Kevin de Bruyne has a lot to answer for. A few seasons back he scored from a free kick when he slotted the ball under the jumping wall who expected him to be lifting it over them. As a result the managers have subsequently directed some poor sod to lie on the grass behind the wall so that when the players in the wall jump there is a secondary line of defence and the prostrate one can get one in the face or the knackers. This may be the most undignified role in soccer, but it was further compounded in the Bournemouth v Leeds match when Semenyo got his free kick under the wall and managed to avoid the prostrate figure. Back to the training ground for the Leeds dead ball defence specialists.
Thompson Matters
Clearly not every cricketer, whether amateur or professional plays golf; nevertheless many have and do. In hindsight I wish that I’d begun playing regularly and relatively seriously much earlier that I did seven years ago. From Dexter to Sobers and Lara to Strauss the number of scratch (or close to) golfing Test cricketers is testament to their innate skill set and the similarities of the golf swing to a front foot cover drive. However, if they were that similar I for one might hit my drives off the tee rather more consistently!
Like many I’ve just had quite a golfing weekend. Mine began on Friday playing Royal Porthcawl, the premier course in Wales and the recent venue for the British Women’s Open. Steeped in history and bunkers, its membership numbers many stars of Welsh Rugby and several of its footballers. As sporting venues go there can be few to rival it visually with views across Cardigan Bay and a level of greenkeeping the envy of any golf club the world over. The remainder of the weekend was spent with an ear on the Ryder Cup one of sports great contests. This one didn’t fail to live up to expectations despite being sullied by the appalling behaviour of too many of the home ‘supporters’.
There has of course been some golf-related criticism of the current England set-up. That paragon of virtue KP stirred up the debate earlier in the year after a poor tour of India but he might perhaps have had a little word beforehand with Brian Lara. Lara famously played 18 holes at his local Antigua golf club on the morning of his record-breaking 375 against England. He recalls that he got up at 6 o’clock and played a quick 18 holes with a friend which he says helped him to relax. Lara plays golf equally well left or right-handed (sickening eh!) but decided to swing right-handed so as not to impact on his batting.
Closer to home some will recall South Hampstead’s Len Stubbs who would play a round of golf, off all but scratch, before creaming it through the covers for South Hampstead by mid-afternoon at Milverton Road.
Cricket is the ultimate in team games and as a boy I’m so pleased I played a team game for all that it teaches and develops in young people. With the exception of competitions like the Ryder Cup golf is a game for individuals but as we saw so wonderfully at the weekend it can become a great advocate for team sport.
That said, and this might be considered Googlies sacrilege, I wish, like Brian Lara apparently, that I’d played more golf in my youth. If I had to choose between the pleasure of a cover drive on the up for four or a two hundred plus yards drive down the middle, the golf shot wins every time.
As if on cue, as the day draws to a close, one of England’s greatest team players has decided to call it a day internationally. In an era that requires many more strings to an all-rounders bow than in times past, Chris Woakes proved time and again what a great team player he is. A fast-bowling career that overlapped with Broad and Anderson still saw his home Test bowling average of 23.87 as better than either of theirs and with Stokes as the premier all-rounder in his time Woakes remains one of only six players to record a hundred, a five wicket and a ten-wicket haul at Lord’s. He’ll be missed.
Who missed the Boat?
The following current county seamers all with international caps did not make the cut for the Ashes:
James Anderson
Saqid Mahmood
Toby Roland-Jones
George Scrimshaw
Luke Wood
David Willey
Olly Stone
Jake Ball
Craig Overton
Sam Curran
Tom Curran
Matt Fisher
Chris Jordan
Jamie Overton
Reece Topley
Tymal Mills
Ollie Robinson
George Garton
Richard Gleason
Chris Woakes
Josh Hull
Sonny Baker
The spinners were:
Scott Borthwick
Matt Parkinson
Tom Hartley
Liam Livingstone
Jack Leach
Moeen Ali
Danny Briggs
Dom Bess
Liam Dawson
And while we are at it these are the opening batsmen:
Alex Lees
Mark Stoneman
Keaton Jennings
Sam Robson
Haseeb Hameed
Dom Sibley
Rory Burns
Adam Lyth
Dawid Malan
After his season Haseeb Hameed must be the unluckiest of the lot not to be making the trip.
I was feeling great in the nets stuff
“Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has been injured in a nets training mishap, adding to his list of unfortunate accidents. Maxwell was bowling in the nets when batsman Mitchell Owen "smoked" a shot back at him and left him with a fractured arm. The 36-year-old previously fractured a leg when a friend fell on it at a 50th birthday party in 2022. He was also left concussed when he fell off a golf cart at the 2023 World Cup.
His latest injury has ruled him out of this week's three-match T20 series in New Zealand. Australian all-round Matthew Short was batting in an adjoining net in Mount Maunganui and said he saw the incident "out of the corner of my eye". Speaking to cricket.com.au, he added: "I saw [Owen] smoked it and then the aftermath. It hit Maxi on the wrist. It didn't sound good he is not the guy you want to be bowling to in T20 training, that's for sure.”
Political Correctness Gone Mad
I thought that this was just a wind up but if you go to their web site there is a 26-page document detailing this drivel
Footballers have been warned against using the phrase ‘come on lads’ which is now deemed offensive. Berks and Bucks Football Association has compiled and published an inclusive language guide which aims to help foster ‘a more welcoming environment’. Among other recommendations, players have been encouraged to avoid using the phrase ‘linesman’ with ‘assistant referee’ suggested as a more ’modern, inclusive’ alternative
Don’t say: Come on lads - do say: Come on team. Don’t say: Linesman, do say: Assistant referee. Don’t say: Christian name, do say: Given name. Don’t say: Bring your wife, do say: Bring your partner. Don’t say: Ladies and gentlemen, do say: Hi all. Don’t say: Guys, do say: Everyone. Don’t say: Mother, do say: Parent / carer. Don’t say: You must be married with kids, do say: Do you have any family joining today?
Critics of the recently released document claimed it was ‘sinister’ and the distortion of language was ‘deeply worrying’. Berks and Bucks FA represents over 600 clubs and 34,000 players across the area. The association’s website proclaims it is ‘responsible for leading, protecting and supporting the development of the grassroots game in its entirety across the region’
Barnet Matters
There is no shortage of dreadlocks on the Fulham playing staff but when Adama Traore came on as substitute for the unfortunate Jimenez at Villa Park I noticed that he had a red and yellow marking towards the base his. Could this possibly be an unlikely indication that he is an MCC member?
Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah wears his hair scraped straight back from the hairline which gives him a passable likeness to the Music Hall comedian Max Wall. He hasn’t so far adopted the latter’s gait.
County Championship Fixture Conundrum
One of King Cricket’s correspondents has the answer
Dad said that back when he started playing first team cricket for Northwich, they competed in the Manchester Association. This not-wholly-accurately named competition included clubs from places as far afield as Lytham and Buxton.
“The list of clubs in our league was as long as your arm. Our fixture list was established years before. Some clubs we played twice, some once and some never. In 1969, or thereabouts, we won the league. Huzzah and lots of back slapping.
“All clubs organised their own fixtures and I’m sure, if we wanted to, a match against Wigan could have been arranged, but they were the strongest around at the time, so we never played them.”
This strikes us a perfect solution for the knotty problem that is the County Championship. Stick everyone in the same league and let each county draw up its own fixtures list. Everybody’s happy.
You don’t want to play Surrey because they’ve been the best team in recent years? Don’t play them.
You want to play Kent three times instead? Go for it.
You want to continue playing 14 matches instead of 12? Knock yourself out. Hell, play 16 if you want.
Once you’ve allowed competitive asymmetry into your sporting competition, why bother striving for any illusion of balance. Just go full Manchester Association: a big free-for-all and most points wins.
Alas, North-West club cricket in the 1970s was a little more enthusiastic about running a balanced and meritocratic competition than contemporary county cricket. Northwich therefore became founder members of the Cheshire County League, a much more sensible pyramid system, which still exists to this day.
Dad says that this move did not come without cost for Northwich. “While initially we were protected against relegation, eventually the full force of a sensible system hit us.”
…..
This sounds remarkably like the old Evening Standard League that operated in London in the sixties.
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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Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
[email protected]
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 274
October 2025
Spot the Ball
Cricket in Ireland
Out and About with the Professor
There will be some Googlies readers who know the Malahide ground well. In essence it is a club ground set in a public park…but it is a good deal better appointed than that curmudgeonly description suggests. There are two grounds, separated by a path, with the second having an artificial pitch (pretty useful in this part of the world), and short boundaries, presumably used for junior matches, etc. There are also rugby pitches - so a nice facility close to the centre of a small seaside town.
The three T20 games were written up as a “big step forward” for Irish cricket and significant step in popularising the sport. I didn’t speak to anyone in Dublin who knew the matches were taking place so, seemingly, there is a fair bit more “popularising” to go. The three matches were, however very well attended with the last two being sold out. The Club had erected a number of temporary stands (as well as a ten-foot fence around the perimeter) and so several thousand supporters (who clearly had heard about it) could attend. There were also two very large beer tents and the inevitable concession stalls selling inedible food – so a venue offering rather more than the average club ground. The beer tents were particularly popular for the second match when it started raining about an hour before the start and never relented. It wasn’t anything like a downpour, just persistent light drizzle, “a soft gentle rain, so it is”, was a local’s take on the weather. The upshot was that the beer tents resembled the Central Line at rush hour…although much better humoured. Back in Dublin I complained about the rain to the landlord of the O’Donoghue pub. It had just stopped raining at about 7pm for about ten minutes: “Oh yes” he said, “so it has…but I feel sure the drought will break sometime soon”.
I’m not sure what the England management learnt from the three games: a close(ish) win for England, a wash out, and an easy win. In fact, the first game, while there were lots of runs scored, wasn’t all that close – England knocked off 197 with 14 balls to spare, and the third game was something of a canter with 17 balls left and no real need to do anything too desperate. They presumably learned that Phil Salt is a “must play” (runs in both games and his 89 from 46 balls was quite stunning). The problem is that he is just the most recent “must play” in a long list (of batters that is). Consider choosing England’s best front seven for a T20 (assuming all are fit). Who would you go for? Seven from: Smith, Salt, Duckett, Bethell, Ahmed, Curran S., Banton, Jacks, Buttler, Cox, Brook, Livingstone…have I left anyone out? Buttler, Bethell and Brook must be in the side. Perhaps go to the other end of the alphabet with Salt and Smith? Two more; Jacks and Cox? (Cox, incidentally, found a use for the second ground, for which it was never intended, as a place to go and find the ball). That is some batting line up for a T20. Oh, and what about Stokes? Presumably he gets in as a bowler – 4 overs would be just about perfect for him – and he would make the best number 8 ever to have worn an England shirt.
It is easy to get a little carried away with this, it is, after all, Ireland that has been defeated, and it was less than a month ago that this (more or less the same) batting line-up was bowled out for 131 by South Africa in an ODI, within 25 overs. Still, it does look like a selection problem for the future.
Perhaps more urgency needs to be attached to the bowling which, with the exception (normally) of Rashid, doesn’t look too daunting. OK, Archer comes into the “best” XI, as does our No. 8. One more would give you four bowlers and that means finding four overs from the batters…a ploy that hasn’t gone too well of late. The assumption for this selectorial problem, namely that all players are fit, means this is a theoretical exercise solely. What the selectors may have learned is that while Sonny Baker may be the prospect they clearly think he is (and they have had some success in predictions), he does not appear to be ready yet. His dreadful debut in the ODI was followed here by 0-52 from his four overs. It was a bit of a mystery why Bethell brought him back for a final over given that Dawson had only bowled two (2-9). The general feeling was that Bethell thought that Ireland hadn’t got enough, which, one hopes, cannot be true.
And what of Bethell? An astute captain at a very early age.? Difficult to tell against this opposition, but I suppose: played two, won two, is as good a start as anyone could hope for.
The scorecard carried a composite photo of the two captains: Stirling, fat, forty (well… not quite) and unshaven, could easily pass for one of the bouncers outside a Dublin club and Bethell, looking for all the world like a 6th former in need of some ID to get in. When interviewed, Bethell said how much he had enjoyed his visit to Malahide, and that must be true, it’s a very nice place, so it is.
This & That
When the Warwickshire Bears played Somerset at Taunton in the Quarter Final of the Vitality Blast Davies and Yates got them off to a flying start at one stage having hit nine consecutive deliveries for four. The overall innings was strange, especially for Taunton, since there were 28 fours scored but no sixes. Tom Kholer-Cadmore knows that’s not the way to do it and soon hit one out of the stadium when Somerset started their reply. But it was left once again to Sean Dickson with 71 not out from 26 balls to see them home.
I also managed to see the Quarter Final at the Oval where the forty-year-old Ravi Bopara scored 105 not out in a match reduced to fourteen overs a side. I have long thought that Bopara was better than his stats suggested and here he showed great power and skill after both openers had been dismissed without scoring.
Kent have had a wretched season. In their final match Derbyshire won the toss and did the right thing. They amassed 698 for 6 with Luis Reece soring 211 and Wayne Madsen 198. Both eventually fell to Matt Parkinson who conceded 188 in the innings. Reece may be an undersung all-rounder. He topped the CC2 bowling with 50 wickets and scored 643 runs (average 64)
In their final game of the season Middlesex slumped to a predictable 161 for 4 before Leus du Plooy added 121 with Ben Geddes, 116 with Joe Cracknell and an improbable 179 with Seb Morgan. When du Plooy eventually declared on 634 for 9 his personal score was 263 not out. Gloucester were beaten by an innings as Gohar and TRJ bowled them out twice.
As a result of this mammoth innings du Plooy became the only Middlesex player to reach 1000 runs for the season. The top run scorers in the County Championship were Saif Zaib (1425), Ben Compton (1386), Dom Sibley (1274) and Haseeb Hameed (1258). Zaib’s total is remarkable since he scored his runs batting lower down the order, usually at six or seven.
Just outside this group of top run scorers was John Simpson (1086), the Sussex captain, whose total included four hundreds, Other ex- Middlesex men also had good seasons. Martin Andersson sored 745 at an average of 49.66 for Derbyshire. By contrast Sam Robson managed just 497 at 29.23. Stevie Eskinazi joined Leicestershire in September and scored 155 against Northants. Ethan Bamber, now with Warwickshire took 43 wickets in the CC First Division.
The top wicket takers in the CC were: Tom Taylor 58, Kyle Abbott 56, Jack Leach (remember him?) 52, George Hill 51 and Luis Reece 50. TRJ managed a creditable 45.
It was a tie for who hit most sixes in this season’s CC and I am fairly sure I could have taken money off most Googlies readers to name them. Ethan Brookes and Grant Stewart both hit 24.
This season has seen a return of nudity to the Premiership with scorers removing their shirts and rushing towards the corner flag as if to collect their win bonus. I played at various levels in my playing days and can safely say that I never saw anyone remove their shirt after scoring. It cannot be popular with their managers since it brings an automatic yellow card.
Kevin de Bruyne has a lot to answer for. A few seasons back he scored from a free kick when he slotted the ball under the jumping wall who expected him to be lifting it over them. As a result the managers have subsequently directed some poor sod to lie on the grass behind the wall so that when the players in the wall jump there is a secondary line of defence and the prostrate one can get one in the face or the knackers. This may be the most undignified role in soccer, but it was further compounded in the Bournemouth v Leeds match when Semenyo got his free kick under the wall and managed to avoid the prostrate figure. Back to the training ground for the Leeds dead ball defence specialists.
Thompson Matters
Clearly not every cricketer, whether amateur or professional plays golf; nevertheless many have and do. In hindsight I wish that I’d begun playing regularly and relatively seriously much earlier that I did seven years ago. From Dexter to Sobers and Lara to Strauss the number of scratch (or close to) golfing Test cricketers is testament to their innate skill set and the similarities of the golf swing to a front foot cover drive. However, if they were that similar I for one might hit my drives off the tee rather more consistently!
Like many I’ve just had quite a golfing weekend. Mine began on Friday playing Royal Porthcawl, the premier course in Wales and the recent venue for the British Women’s Open. Steeped in history and bunkers, its membership numbers many stars of Welsh Rugby and several of its footballers. As sporting venues go there can be few to rival it visually with views across Cardigan Bay and a level of greenkeeping the envy of any golf club the world over. The remainder of the weekend was spent with an ear on the Ryder Cup one of sports great contests. This one didn’t fail to live up to expectations despite being sullied by the appalling behaviour of too many of the home ‘supporters’.
There has of course been some golf-related criticism of the current England set-up. That paragon of virtue KP stirred up the debate earlier in the year after a poor tour of India but he might perhaps have had a little word beforehand with Brian Lara. Lara famously played 18 holes at his local Antigua golf club on the morning of his record-breaking 375 against England. He recalls that he got up at 6 o’clock and played a quick 18 holes with a friend which he says helped him to relax. Lara plays golf equally well left or right-handed (sickening eh!) but decided to swing right-handed so as not to impact on his batting.
Closer to home some will recall South Hampstead’s Len Stubbs who would play a round of golf, off all but scratch, before creaming it through the covers for South Hampstead by mid-afternoon at Milverton Road.
Cricket is the ultimate in team games and as a boy I’m so pleased I played a team game for all that it teaches and develops in young people. With the exception of competitions like the Ryder Cup golf is a game for individuals but as we saw so wonderfully at the weekend it can become a great advocate for team sport.
That said, and this might be considered Googlies sacrilege, I wish, like Brian Lara apparently, that I’d played more golf in my youth. If I had to choose between the pleasure of a cover drive on the up for four or a two hundred plus yards drive down the middle, the golf shot wins every time.
As if on cue, as the day draws to a close, one of England’s greatest team players has decided to call it a day internationally. In an era that requires many more strings to an all-rounders bow than in times past, Chris Woakes proved time and again what a great team player he is. A fast-bowling career that overlapped with Broad and Anderson still saw his home Test bowling average of 23.87 as better than either of theirs and with Stokes as the premier all-rounder in his time Woakes remains one of only six players to record a hundred, a five wicket and a ten-wicket haul at Lord’s. He’ll be missed.
Who missed the Boat?
The following current county seamers all with international caps did not make the cut for the Ashes:
James Anderson
Saqid Mahmood
Toby Roland-Jones
George Scrimshaw
Luke Wood
David Willey
Olly Stone
Jake Ball
Craig Overton
Sam Curran
Tom Curran
Matt Fisher
Chris Jordan
Jamie Overton
Reece Topley
Tymal Mills
Ollie Robinson
George Garton
Richard Gleason
Chris Woakes
Josh Hull
Sonny Baker
The spinners were:
Scott Borthwick
Matt Parkinson
Tom Hartley
Liam Livingstone
Jack Leach
Moeen Ali
Danny Briggs
Dom Bess
Liam Dawson
And while we are at it these are the opening batsmen:
Alex Lees
Mark Stoneman
Keaton Jennings
Sam Robson
Haseeb Hameed
Dom Sibley
Rory Burns
Adam Lyth
Dawid Malan
After his season Haseeb Hameed must be the unluckiest of the lot not to be making the trip.
I was feeling great in the nets stuff
“Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has been injured in a nets training mishap, adding to his list of unfortunate accidents. Maxwell was bowling in the nets when batsman Mitchell Owen "smoked" a shot back at him and left him with a fractured arm. The 36-year-old previously fractured a leg when a friend fell on it at a 50th birthday party in 2022. He was also left concussed when he fell off a golf cart at the 2023 World Cup.
His latest injury has ruled him out of this week's three-match T20 series in New Zealand. Australian all-round Matthew Short was batting in an adjoining net in Mount Maunganui and said he saw the incident "out of the corner of my eye". Speaking to cricket.com.au, he added: "I saw [Owen] smoked it and then the aftermath. It hit Maxi on the wrist. It didn't sound good he is not the guy you want to be bowling to in T20 training, that's for sure.”
Political Correctness Gone Mad
I thought that this was just a wind up but if you go to their web site there is a 26-page document detailing this drivel
Footballers have been warned against using the phrase ‘come on lads’ which is now deemed offensive. Berks and Bucks Football Association has compiled and published an inclusive language guide which aims to help foster ‘a more welcoming environment’. Among other recommendations, players have been encouraged to avoid using the phrase ‘linesman’ with ‘assistant referee’ suggested as a more ’modern, inclusive’ alternative
Don’t say: Come on lads - do say: Come on team. Don’t say: Linesman, do say: Assistant referee. Don’t say: Christian name, do say: Given name. Don’t say: Bring your wife, do say: Bring your partner. Don’t say: Ladies and gentlemen, do say: Hi all. Don’t say: Guys, do say: Everyone. Don’t say: Mother, do say: Parent / carer. Don’t say: You must be married with kids, do say: Do you have any family joining today?
Critics of the recently released document claimed it was ‘sinister’ and the distortion of language was ‘deeply worrying’. Berks and Bucks FA represents over 600 clubs and 34,000 players across the area. The association’s website proclaims it is ‘responsible for leading, protecting and supporting the development of the grassroots game in its entirety across the region’
Barnet Matters
There is no shortage of dreadlocks on the Fulham playing staff but when Adama Traore came on as substitute for the unfortunate Jimenez at Villa Park I noticed that he had a red and yellow marking towards the base his. Could this possibly be an unlikely indication that he is an MCC member?
Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah wears his hair scraped straight back from the hairline which gives him a passable likeness to the Music Hall comedian Max Wall. He hasn’t so far adopted the latter’s gait.
County Championship Fixture Conundrum
One of King Cricket’s correspondents has the answer
Dad said that back when he started playing first team cricket for Northwich, they competed in the Manchester Association. This not-wholly-accurately named competition included clubs from places as far afield as Lytham and Buxton.
“The list of clubs in our league was as long as your arm. Our fixture list was established years before. Some clubs we played twice, some once and some never. In 1969, or thereabouts, we won the league. Huzzah and lots of back slapping.
“All clubs organised their own fixtures and I’m sure, if we wanted to, a match against Wigan could have been arranged, but they were the strongest around at the time, so we never played them.”
This strikes us a perfect solution for the knotty problem that is the County Championship. Stick everyone in the same league and let each county draw up its own fixtures list. Everybody’s happy.
You don’t want to play Surrey because they’ve been the best team in recent years? Don’t play them.
You want to play Kent three times instead? Go for it.
You want to continue playing 14 matches instead of 12? Knock yourself out. Hell, play 16 if you want.
Once you’ve allowed competitive asymmetry into your sporting competition, why bother striving for any illusion of balance. Just go full Manchester Association: a big free-for-all and most points wins.
Alas, North-West club cricket in the 1970s was a little more enthusiastic about running a balanced and meritocratic competition than contemporary county cricket. Northwich therefore became founder members of the Cheshire County League, a much more sensible pyramid system, which still exists to this day.
Dad says that this move did not come without cost for Northwich. “While initially we were protected against relegation, eventually the full force of a sensible system hit us.”
…..
This sounds remarkably like the old Evening Standard League that operated in London in the sixties.
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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