GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 80
August 2009
Caption Competition
Freddie Flintoff: I love playing for England.
Matt Prior: But you have just announced your retirement from Test cricket.
Freddie Flintoff: I am still going to play in ODIs and Twenty20. You only have to bowl in four over spells in that cricket.
Graham Swann: But you just insisted on bowling an eleven over spell at Lords that could have stopped you bowling for the rest of the series.
Freddie Flintoff: Yes, but if I got five wickets I got on the honours board.
Stuart Broad: So you put personal glory above playing for England?
Freddie Flintoff: Well if you put it like I suppose I do. Well that and the Indian shilling.
Out and About with the Professor
One of the small pleasures in life is introducing acquaintances; people who have never met, but who have common interests and you rather suspect will get on.
So, it was with some enthusiasm that I arranged to meet two Googlies readers at lunchtime on the first day of the Lord’s test.
We met by the “Batsman” behind the Compton stand, and I did the honours:
“Peter meet Douglas; Douglas – Peter”.
A bit of chit-chat – how well Strauss was batting, what has happened to Johnson’s form, etc., and then I made an observation. (It might be as well, at this point, to indicate that both parties had, shall we say, enjoyed several years of retirement.)
“I’m surprised,” I said, “That you two don’t know each other. You are both keen cricket watchers and both MCC members”.
Douglas: “Well there are 18,000 MCC members”, (Douglas is pretty up on facts) “and we have not met before”.
“Still”, I said, “It is easy to get into conversation in the Pavilion, and Peter has spent a lot of time there since he retired as Head of Sherborne School”.
Douglas: “I did have a long conversation a year or so back with someone who said he was the former head of Sherborne”.
Peter: “Well, that was me!”
Some chortling now, and a few “well-I-nevers”.
Bit more chit-chat, and then,
Peter: “Do you follow a County, Douglas?”.
Douglas: “Why yes, I’m a Gloucestershire man”.
Peter: “I’m a life-member of Gloucestershire”.
Douglas: “Well, I’m a life-member of Gloucestershire”.
Well-I-never, well-I-never, etc.
Peter: “Last time I was at Bristol I had a long conversation with another life-member about the redevelopment work”.
Douglas: “Well, that was me!”.
And so on… A few more pleasantries, a refreshing ale, and then back to the cricket.
It seems to me, on reflection, that I have at last discovered one, perhaps the only, good thing about advancing years – all experiences are fresh and new. No matter that we have had them before, and especially quite recently, they come to us as happy new revelations.
Ashes Matters
In the pre-season period when I was planning this year’s cricket days with friends Eric Tracey offered me an MCC Rover ticket for the fifth day of the Lords test. There was, of course, no guarantee of play on the fifth day but since I didn’t have any tickets for Cardiff or Edgbaston it was my only opportunity to get to see any of the first three tests.
I started listening to the test on the Thursday in Chicago early in the morning whilst Eric was listening late at night in Australia. By Friday I was watching the second day highlights at home courtesy of Sky. Over the weekend I followed play on the television as it happened. By Sunday lunchtime it looked distinctly like my trip to London would not be necessary when Australia had slumped to 138 for 5 but then Clarke and Haddin played superbly and were still there at the close. I phoned Eric who had returned over the weekend and we arranged to meet in the Warner Stand.
Getting up at 4.30 am with jet lag is not the ideal way to start the week but my journey south went well and I was in the ground by 9.15am. If the weather was fair and the batsmen could survive the early onslaught I quite fancied an historic Australian win. At Lords for big occasions you can feel the atmosphere walking from the tube and once in the ground it is almost tangible. On this occasion the lack of anticipation of history in the making, either way, and almost no atmosphere in the ground was surprising.
In the event, as everyone knows, England put in a professional and clinical performance and took all five wickets in the morning session. Haddin went in Flintoff’s first over and Clarke never rediscovered his touch from Sunday. Once again I found myself wondering why Australia had taken the light on Sunday evening. Both batsmen were well in and scoring freely. If they had batted the remaining twelve overs they would have progressed the score by about fifty. That would have left them 150 to win on Monday and the ball would not have been new. It seems that batsmen will do anything to avoid batting.
Once Flintoff had removed Haddin and, in particular, once Clarke was bowled by Swann there was absolutely no need for Flintoff to continue bowling. The rest of the bowlers were well capable of removing the tail enders. Flintoff has not been fully fit for several years and had just announced his imminent retirement from first class cricket because he cannot bowl long spells. It was absurd for him to continue bowling for twelve overs. It could have jeopardized his appearing in any of the remaining Ashes tests.
I have never been on a test ground when the Man of the Match award was being made before and when Freddie appeared with Strauss it was apparent that he was going to get the award. This was incredible. He had taken five wickets which included two dubious decisions and two tail enders. Strauss had set up the victory with his magnificent 161. Freddie will be knighted before the end of the series.
It is now hard to see Panesar getting back into the test side unless Swann gets injured. It is a delight to see a thinking spinner bowling for England after the metronomic Panesar and his absurd histrionics.
The early finish enabled our party to lunch in Soho where Daryl Wyer and Chris Blaxall, who had just become a grandfather, treated Eric and me to a splendid Thai meal. I was able to embark on the long drive back in mid afternoon. It was a historic trip but a long way to go for just twenty one overs.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan has been struggling to find Middlesex matches to watch of late
I went to Old Deer Park for the 50 over match between Middlesex 2s and Kent. Middlesex won the toss and were soon in trouble at 40 for 2 (Kent captain Martin Saggers had 2 for 12 in 8 overs before going lame), but Sam Robson (65) and skipper Ben Scott took care to stabilise the innings before trying anything too ambitious and moved the score on to 124 before Robson departed. Scotty then took over and, with good support from Adam London (42), put on 122 for the third wicket. Ben cut loose towards the end and finished on 111* as Middlesex totalled 277 for 5. When Kent batted, they emulated Middlesex by falling to 40 for 2, but they failed to consolidate as Middlesex had done and continued to score at a good rate whilst losing wickets at regular intervals. Kent's 20 year old James Hockley briefly looked dangerous, but it was 18 year old pace bowler Tom Hampton who dominated proceedings as he took the first four wickets for 38 as Kent descended to 71 for 4. Nineteen year old Andrew Smith, who had a mediocre season for Durham 2s in 2008, was the only visiting batsman to shine as he made a good looking 45 before being brilliantly run out by a direct hit on the stumps at the bowler's end by Kabir Toor from square leg. Most of the Kent side looked as if they could bat, but they threw their wickets away carelessly and were all out for a mere 152 in 28.3 overs, leaving Middlesex the victors by 125 runs. All scores are approximate owing to the random number generator that is the Richmond scoreboard.
After six weeks with precious little cricket to watch, I had been eagerly looking forward to the return of Championship cricket with the visit of Surrey to Lord's. Unfortunately, however, the first three days were quite disappointing, with neither side looking as if they wanted to win the match. Middlesex's first innings of 385 extended into the 131st over, but Surrey managed to beat that, needing the 135th over to complete their total of 392. The villains of the piece were Billy Godleman who took 200 balls over his 48 and Mark Ramprakash who needed 306 balls for his 136, but credit went to Owais Shah for his 159 in 252 balls and to the aggressive Andre Nel (4 for 59) and to Murali Kartik (5 for 65) for his controlled left arm spin. Some blamed Kartik, however, for bowling over the wicket and trying to find some turn on and outside the right-handers' leg stump, which allowed the patient Ramprakash to pad the ball away with monotonous regularity. It was grim stuff at times and things did not improve as Middlesex made another slow start to their second innings. On day four, however, Middlesex showed much more enterprise and Shah, with 61 off 63 balls and Dawid Malan with 30 off 32 balls indicated that Middlesex were willing to set a target for Surrey to chase. Even Nick Compton, who had been short of runs and who had started nervously and slowly, played himself into form and finished on 100* as Middlesex declared on 246 for 5, setting Surrey 240 to win in 44 overs. Some felt that this target was quite gettable as the track was still good and the Middlesex attack had been enjoying little success in recent matches, but Surrey lost Jon Batty to the second ball of Steve Finn's opening over and thereafter showed no interest in chasing the target. Middlesex, however, kept up their hopes by reducing the visitors to 55 for 5, but the immovable Ramprakash (49*) found a sound partner in Chris Jordan (30*) and they secured the draw, which had always looked likely as Middlesex gave up their attempt to force victory after 40 overs had been bowled with Surrey on 99 for 5.
What can you say about the Leicester debacle? It must be one of the most humiliating defeats the club has ever suffered and makes the stuff written in the Panther look embarrassing nonsense, which it was. Far from challenging for promotion, we are favourites for the wooden spoon. The opening batsmen are not good enough: Billy averages 17.8 and Compo 27.7 (even after that 100*) and while Dexter's record is not much better, he has more catches than anyone other than Nash and has also picked up a few wickets. Many of the bowling averages do not look too bad, but there is no depth there and sometimes no penetration either. Toby and Gus don't have any influence, so it must be Shaun for the chop, unless they blame the second team coach again?
South Hampstead Matters
My first year at South Hampstead was 1963. I went along to Colts nets at the end of the school term in July and played a few matches in the thirds. At this stage I had no idea of the club’s history or of its standing in London cricketing circles. I also had no idea that the club had partly by design and partly by chance assembled an extremely powerful first eleven. It was also one of the last seasons of traditional club cricket before the changes of the sixties brought fundamental changes to the social fabric which had inevitable impacts on club cricket.
In 1963 South Hampstead, like other clubs, created its own fixture list. It played against other clubs in the south east on the basis primarily of tradition. There were some clubs where intense rivalry persisted and there were other clubs that you wouldn’t play against on principle. For example South Hampstead would not play against either Finchley or Hampstead who both fielded two first elevens on the grounds that you wouldn’t know who you would be playing against from one year to the next or indeed whether the side turning out was indeed their first eleven. Equally if an opposition played in a manner contrary to the spirit of the game they could find themselves dropped from the fixture list in future.
At the end of the fifties South Hampstead was in the post Henry Malcolm period and the club was captained by Alan Clain and Allan Huntley. In 1961 Bob Peach took over and he had a backbone of home grown players: John Weale, Roy Phipps, Don Wallis, Bruce and John Tutton. To these were added Len Stubbs, an Army colleague of Peach’s, and Terry Cordaroy who joined from Queensbury CC. In 1961 the club won only a third of its matches which was the same success rate as 1960, but the following year this leapt to 60%.
In 1962 Alvin Nienow had defected from Shepherds Bush and in 1963 Bill Hart and Robin Ager had joined from Turnham Green and Old Grammarians respectively. In 1963 it was still a requirement at the club that to be a first choice selection for the first eleven you had to be available to play both days at the weekend. This led to some astonishing appearance statistics. The side had forty five matches during 1963 in which four of side made over forty appearances and no less than eight played in thirty four or more games.
The batting strength of this line up was awesome and Peach often manipulated the order to enable good players to spend time at the crease. A typical batting order would be: Cordaroy, Ager, Weale, Stubbs, Nienow, Peach, Tutton B, Tutton J, Hart, Phipps and Wallis. Both Tuttons were accomplished batsmen but got few opportunities at seven and eight in this side. Hart, Wallis and Peach did the seam bowling whilst Phipps was the principal spinner supported by Weale, Stubbs and the Tuttons. The club’s strength at this time is exemplified by the sidelining of Richard Brookes who was to go on to keep wicket for Oxford University and Somerset.
I have written in these pages before about the wicket at Milverton Road where the ball rarely deviated and didn’t bounce above stump height. If a side predetermined that a draw was a good result it was extremely difficult to bowl them out. The strength of this side was becoming legendary and wins, particularly at home, were harder to come by. The side won 44% of its matches in 1963 but over 50% in the next two years.
These reflections were prompted by the statistical work carried out by Bill Hart and Allan Cox who have reformatted the scorebooks and produced annual summaries and averages for the period 1960-75. Bill Hart ([email protected]) is happy to supply a CD version of this information to anyone who would like a copy.
Surrey Matters
The Great Jack Morgan reports from south of the river
I went to the Oval for the Championship game against Kent. Surrey won the toss and batted much more attractively than they had at Lord's with Mark Ramprakash leading the way and surprisingly losing his wicket on 86, while Michael Brown (55 before being criminally run out by his ex-Middx team-mate Ramps) and Chris Schofield (54) were equally impressive, although it was hard to keep track of the score because the scoreboard on the Harleyford Road side was out of action throughout the match. Amjad Khan and James Tredwell were the best of the Kent bowlers with three wickets apiece and one had the feeling that they had done well to get Surrey out for 386 on a very good pitch. This was emphasised by openers Joe Denly and Rob Key who set a new record for Kent against Surrey by putting on 247 for the first wicket. Surrey then enjoyed an unlikely spell of success as four wickets went down for 22 as, astonishingly, both openers were run out for 123 and Geraint Jones and Darren Stevens were both out c Batty b Collins for nought. However, Kent's superiority was quickly re-established by Martin van Jaarsfeld and Justin Kemp in a stand of 214 for the fifth wicket and Kent became the first team ever to inflict four centuries on Surrey in a first class match. Van Jaarsfeld fell for 110, but Kemp (who should pay me large sums of money to watch him as he gets a hundred every time I see him no matter how poor his form has been beforehand) enjoyed another good stand of 123 with Tredwell (60) before being dismissed for 183 (a Championship best). Kent declared at 620 for 7 with a lead of 234 and one felt that they would not have enough time to bowl Surrey out on such a good pitch.
This proved to be the case, despite a rare failure by Ramprakash as Mark Butcher (60*) led Surrey to the safety of 170 for 3 off 62 overs. All ten Kent fielders enjoyed a bowl at some stage in the match. Chris Schofield and Wayne Parnell both retired from the match with unknown injuries or maladies and among the substitutes used it was surprising to see Andre Nel, who had looked awful in the field at Lord's and who had been left out of this match because of a "tight hamstring". On day 3, I was surprised to be joined on the gasometer terrace by two foxes who took only a passing interest in the match, being more concerned with hunting for food, but they hung around for a while before Butcher's bowling changes baffled them to such an extent that they departed in search of further snacks.
I went to Guildford for the Championship match between Surrey and Essex, who won the toss and soon lost opener Varun Chopra. However, ex-Middlesex man John Maunders and South African Test player Hashim Amla added 51 for the second wicket, but there was clearly plenty of movement available to the Surrey seamers, so it was not such a shock that Essex suddenly found themselves in trouble on 116 with the top five batsmen out. However, this brought in Ryan ten Doeschate, a very useful South African who represents the Netherlands because of his Dutch ancestry and passport, and with the support of James Foster in a stand of 98, Graham Napier in a stand of 83 and James Middlebrook in a stand of 61, Ten Doeschate (who is another who gets runs every time I see him) took Essex to a respectable total of 401 and an excellent personal score of 159* (his best for Essex). Pace bowlers Tim Linley (4 for 77) and Chris Jordan (4 for 84) were the pick of the Surrey bowlers and both recorded the best bowling performances of their short careers. When Surrey batted, they too found themselves struggling on 66 for 3 (Ramprakash falling for nought) before a stand of 222 between Stewart Walters (142, more than doubling his previous career best) and Usman Afzaal (116) put them on top. Afzaal is a cultured batsman who has often impressed me, but Walters, whom I have seen several times in both the first and second teams and who until now had never looked close to being good enough (and this view is supported by the fact that he had reached the age of 26 with a batting average that had still not risen as high as 21), was a revelation as he looked totally at home at a level that had always looked beyond him. Perhaps Chris Adams's surprising decision to elevate Stewart to the captaincy in the absence of Mark Butcher finally gave him the necessary belief to succeed at this level? David Masters, with 4 for 86, was the best of the Essex bowlers.
On day one, Test players Chris Adams, Martin Bicknell and Alec Stewart were strolling around the boundary and it amused me that there was a queue of young and old autograph hunters clamouring for Alec's signature, while there was nobody at all interested in obtaining a scribble from Chris or Martin: I suppose a handful of caps is just not good enough, but how many Test caps are necessary to make an autograph worth collecting? On day two, a gang of Guildford arseholes chose to stand right in front of where I was sitting, blocking more than half of the pitch from view and despite polite invitations to them to jolly well move on, they declined all such requests and a nasty incident was only avoided by the timely arrival of the tea interval; the foxes at the Oval get my vote every time. The rain on day three meant that an overnight declaration by Surrey was necessary to restore the match to life, but the art of the enterprising declaration is a dead one, Surrey batted on and the match suffered a predictably slow death, with Surrey earning their seventh draw in nine matches. Sometimes I wonder how we are expected to retain our interest in the damn game. Spectators found it hard to know what was happening on day four (nothing was) because neither scoreboard was functioning.
Backing Up Matters
I continue to be copied in on the correspondence between the Professor and Douglas Miller
The Professor: Some critical questions for the Master:
1. How many times in Test matches has a batsman been caught "unawares" and had the bowler "whip the bails off" in the way you describe?
2. How many times since the War?
3. How many times has this happened in County cricket since the War?
4. How many times does this happen each year in any form of cricket in the UK?
Douglas Miller: I am not too sure how often it has happened, but from memory Mankad did it to Bill Brown and Safraz also did it in Test cricket, I think to Hilditch.
It hasn't happened because of the convention of warning batsmen, but in the more cut throat atmosphere of much cricket today I fear it might. So a Law that prevents the worst excesses seems sensible. I am not strongly against some additional law to restrain the backer-up.
It's all a bit like patting the ball back to the bowler after blocking it. Fortunately it is very rare for there to be an appeal, but I have heard of a league batsman being given out for chucking the ball back, and hitting it back is no different. Either way it is obstructing the field, though I would be very quick to say that the ball was dead.
I umpired a match the other day when a batsman hit the ball back over my head and a marvellous catch was taken at long off. My colleague at square leg then signalled no ball on the grounds that the peak of the keeper's helmet was in front of the wicket. I thought that this exemplified poor umpiring on his part.
The Professor: In other words...this is a solution in search of a problem.
Douglas Miller: It was you who had a problem with the batsmen backing up too far was it not?
The previous Law was untidy partly because the convention of giving the batsman a warning has grown up without any force of law. Similar tidying up is now to be found in such laws as those covering when the ball is dead. The Laws are better for most of the changes introduced in my humble opinion.
On the matter of how often a run out of this kind has has happened, from another e-mail circle a member has quoted the Wisden Book of Records for test cricket:
Mankad got Bill Brown twice that way in 1947-48 (once in a Test). That was the first instance in a Test. Since then Griffith/Redpath, Chatfield/Randall and Hurst/Sikander Bakht have been Test instances (up to 1997)
I was wrong about Sarfraz and Hilditch - but this dismissal stemmed from one of these instances:
Hilditch was given out handled the ball and became the only non-striker to have been given that decision. Hilditch picked up a wayward throw that had dribbled onto the pitch and handed the ball back to Sarfraz Nawaz who appealed and the umpire had to give Hilditch out. This fracas was quite possibly in retaliation for an equally unsavoury incident earlier in the day when Pakistan's No. 11 Sikander Bakht was run out by Alan Hurst at the bowler's end whilst backing up too far - the fourth such instance in Test cricket. Asif Iqbal, who played in the match, said: "I do not want to be associated with such incidents. There was no need for us to stoop so low as to appeal against Hilditch for handling the ball as a non-striker."
I see from my own old copy of the Wisden Book of Cricket records that there 18 such dismissals in first-class cricket from the end of the War until 1982-83 including Wilf Wooller. But is this really the point? The Laws are not just, or even primarily, for the first-class game. They are for all of us who play at a lower level. It is also of some interest to see the extent to which domestic cricket in Pakistan dominates dismissals from Hit Ball Twice, Handled the Ball and Obstruction. Now, if appealed to in a repeat of the Hilditch situation, I would give the batsman not out.
Is the number of times something happens in any case really germane to the argument? There have not been many instances of teams being denied runs as a penalty for running on the pitch, but the provision in the Laws is still a good one, albeit it caught the commentators on the hop when umpire Hair applied it against Salman Butt.
The Professor: I think you're right - we shouldn't let the "number of times something happens...(be) germane to the argument".
Indeed, why not let's have laws for things that never happen at all?
I propose that it should be illegal to take three balls onto the field and juggle at deep extra cover, or keep wicket stark naked facing the wrong way and try to catch the ball in between the cheeks of your bottom. The point is, that the change in the law has created a greater problem than the (almost) non- existent one that it sought to "cure".
That is not good law-making.
Douglas Miller: I think the curious factor is that the change in the Law has led to batsmen taking liberties. They remain at risk of being run out just as they were before. And arguably that risk remains that the bowler is not a gentlemen and gives no warning. Not that much has changed except that it has now become harder for the non-gentleman to take full advantage of his rights under the Laws.
I concede that you have a point, but I still champion the change to the Laws. Incidentally they do cater for umpteen most unlikely events. Do you understand the principles involved in 'stealing a run'? I bet you have never seen that happen. Have you come across the deliberate running of one short?
Hamburger Matters
It has been a breath of fresh air having Hamburger join the Sky commentary team. He has actually played the modern game and so can make pertinent comments on it. It really is time that Gower, Botham, Allott and Willis were retired. Nass is still in touch with what is going on and should be joined by the excellent Nick Knight and Ian Ward.
Incidentally Hamburger is almost unrecognisable. He is now a tall slim athlete. What has got him fit now he has retired from playing?
Proctor Matters
I hear from Bob Proctor every so often and I am pleased to report that in a recent missive he asked me:
“To give my regards to those who remember me at the Old Danes reunion and add that currently I have a clean bill of health and going along very nicely.”
Modern Batting Matters
The Professor responded to my notes on modern club scoring in the last issue
On the subject of runs in club cricket, this week WGCCC scored 316-5 and Slough responded with 252-5. There was some feeling that Slough "didn't really go for them". How do you set about knocking off 316 in an afternoon? It seems that they only needed about 7 an over and there was an expectation that a few switch hits, reverse sweeps and "Dilshans" could have been employed...It's cricket Jim, but not as we know it!
WGCCC has been suffering this year (at 1st XI level) from not being able to bowl out sides, principally because we have three opening bowlers, all with recent 1st Class experience, but all fashionably unfit. The result is that we are languishing in the bottom part of the table and in great need of a couple of wins. I'm sure you are right about the high scoring in club cricket. I don't believe that batsmen have improved since the 1960's but that all bowlers have mysteriously got worse. The great change has been in the playing surfaces which have improved beyond recognition with professional staff and equipment, particularly the use of heavy rollers...and then there are the bats.
Whilst the Great Jack Morgan added
You mention the number of overs bowled in Middlesex League matches, but you do not see this as one of the reasons for the high scoring. Bush league matches in the early seventies were (almost) all half-day affairs where the number of overs per innings was around 40 or 45 overs, whereas today you quote teams receiving as many as 72 overs in an innings, which might be as much of an increase as 80% on the number of overs in some of our afternoon matches, not an insignificant factor. I admit that the Bush were involved in many low scoring matches in those days and the number of overs per match might not be typical of all clubs.
Roger Pearman
Bob Peach adds some further notes on Roger Pearman who died earlier this year
The recent sad death of Roger Pearman at the age of 66 saw the passing of one of the most influential characters in Middlesex Club cricket during the 1960’s and early 70’s. On the field he was arguably the best batsman in London cricket across many years and an inspirational captain of Hornsey for a decade. From 1958 to 1974 he scored over 20000 runs for the club at an average of 45 with 32 centuries and holds the record for most catches. As the opposing South Hampstead captain in our intensely competitive twice a year Bank Holiday games I remember many of these only too well- and his match winning innings in 1968.when Hornsey beat us in the first Middlesex Clubs KO final at Lords. Roger played several matches for Middlesex County Cricket Club between 1962/4 averaging 26, Bedfordshire and the Minor Counties ; and also captained the Club Cricket Conference.
Off the field we were both on the founding committee of the Middlesex County Cricket League of which he subsequently became Chairman. Still in his early thirties he moved north on business and joined Alderly Edge CC before becoming Chief Executive of Derbyshire CCC. Although now over 30 years since he was part of the Middlesex cricketing scene his well attended funeral service included many players from both Hornsey and other clubs from that era.
Football Matters
The manager of Kelvin West’s Ladies Team, Andrew Baker, like most of us, is feeling the pinch these days and so when he signed on some new players for the coming season he was delighted that he didn’t have to supply them with kit as they arrived with their own.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 80
August 2009
Caption Competition
Freddie Flintoff: I love playing for England.
Matt Prior: But you have just announced your retirement from Test cricket.
Freddie Flintoff: I am still going to play in ODIs and Twenty20. You only have to bowl in four over spells in that cricket.
Graham Swann: But you just insisted on bowling an eleven over spell at Lords that could have stopped you bowling for the rest of the series.
Freddie Flintoff: Yes, but if I got five wickets I got on the honours board.
Stuart Broad: So you put personal glory above playing for England?
Freddie Flintoff: Well if you put it like I suppose I do. Well that and the Indian shilling.
Out and About with the Professor
One of the small pleasures in life is introducing acquaintances; people who have never met, but who have common interests and you rather suspect will get on.
So, it was with some enthusiasm that I arranged to meet two Googlies readers at lunchtime on the first day of the Lord’s test.
We met by the “Batsman” behind the Compton stand, and I did the honours:
“Peter meet Douglas; Douglas – Peter”.
A bit of chit-chat – how well Strauss was batting, what has happened to Johnson’s form, etc., and then I made an observation. (It might be as well, at this point, to indicate that both parties had, shall we say, enjoyed several years of retirement.)
“I’m surprised,” I said, “That you two don’t know each other. You are both keen cricket watchers and both MCC members”.
Douglas: “Well there are 18,000 MCC members”, (Douglas is pretty up on facts) “and we have not met before”.
“Still”, I said, “It is easy to get into conversation in the Pavilion, and Peter has spent a lot of time there since he retired as Head of Sherborne School”.
Douglas: “I did have a long conversation a year or so back with someone who said he was the former head of Sherborne”.
Peter: “Well, that was me!”
Some chortling now, and a few “well-I-nevers”.
Bit more chit-chat, and then,
Peter: “Do you follow a County, Douglas?”.
Douglas: “Why yes, I’m a Gloucestershire man”.
Peter: “I’m a life-member of Gloucestershire”.
Douglas: “Well, I’m a life-member of Gloucestershire”.
Well-I-never, well-I-never, etc.
Peter: “Last time I was at Bristol I had a long conversation with another life-member about the redevelopment work”.
Douglas: “Well, that was me!”.
And so on… A few more pleasantries, a refreshing ale, and then back to the cricket.
It seems to me, on reflection, that I have at last discovered one, perhaps the only, good thing about advancing years – all experiences are fresh and new. No matter that we have had them before, and especially quite recently, they come to us as happy new revelations.
Ashes Matters
In the pre-season period when I was planning this year’s cricket days with friends Eric Tracey offered me an MCC Rover ticket for the fifth day of the Lords test. There was, of course, no guarantee of play on the fifth day but since I didn’t have any tickets for Cardiff or Edgbaston it was my only opportunity to get to see any of the first three tests.
I started listening to the test on the Thursday in Chicago early in the morning whilst Eric was listening late at night in Australia. By Friday I was watching the second day highlights at home courtesy of Sky. Over the weekend I followed play on the television as it happened. By Sunday lunchtime it looked distinctly like my trip to London would not be necessary when Australia had slumped to 138 for 5 but then Clarke and Haddin played superbly and were still there at the close. I phoned Eric who had returned over the weekend and we arranged to meet in the Warner Stand.
Getting up at 4.30 am with jet lag is not the ideal way to start the week but my journey south went well and I was in the ground by 9.15am. If the weather was fair and the batsmen could survive the early onslaught I quite fancied an historic Australian win. At Lords for big occasions you can feel the atmosphere walking from the tube and once in the ground it is almost tangible. On this occasion the lack of anticipation of history in the making, either way, and almost no atmosphere in the ground was surprising.
In the event, as everyone knows, England put in a professional and clinical performance and took all five wickets in the morning session. Haddin went in Flintoff’s first over and Clarke never rediscovered his touch from Sunday. Once again I found myself wondering why Australia had taken the light on Sunday evening. Both batsmen were well in and scoring freely. If they had batted the remaining twelve overs they would have progressed the score by about fifty. That would have left them 150 to win on Monday and the ball would not have been new. It seems that batsmen will do anything to avoid batting.
Once Flintoff had removed Haddin and, in particular, once Clarke was bowled by Swann there was absolutely no need for Flintoff to continue bowling. The rest of the bowlers were well capable of removing the tail enders. Flintoff has not been fully fit for several years and had just announced his imminent retirement from first class cricket because he cannot bowl long spells. It was absurd for him to continue bowling for twelve overs. It could have jeopardized his appearing in any of the remaining Ashes tests.
I have never been on a test ground when the Man of the Match award was being made before and when Freddie appeared with Strauss it was apparent that he was going to get the award. This was incredible. He had taken five wickets which included two dubious decisions and two tail enders. Strauss had set up the victory with his magnificent 161. Freddie will be knighted before the end of the series.
It is now hard to see Panesar getting back into the test side unless Swann gets injured. It is a delight to see a thinking spinner bowling for England after the metronomic Panesar and his absurd histrionics.
The early finish enabled our party to lunch in Soho where Daryl Wyer and Chris Blaxall, who had just become a grandfather, treated Eric and me to a splendid Thai meal. I was able to embark on the long drive back in mid afternoon. It was a historic trip but a long way to go for just twenty one overs.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan has been struggling to find Middlesex matches to watch of late
I went to Old Deer Park for the 50 over match between Middlesex 2s and Kent. Middlesex won the toss and were soon in trouble at 40 for 2 (Kent captain Martin Saggers had 2 for 12 in 8 overs before going lame), but Sam Robson (65) and skipper Ben Scott took care to stabilise the innings before trying anything too ambitious and moved the score on to 124 before Robson departed. Scotty then took over and, with good support from Adam London (42), put on 122 for the third wicket. Ben cut loose towards the end and finished on 111* as Middlesex totalled 277 for 5. When Kent batted, they emulated Middlesex by falling to 40 for 2, but they failed to consolidate as Middlesex had done and continued to score at a good rate whilst losing wickets at regular intervals. Kent's 20 year old James Hockley briefly looked dangerous, but it was 18 year old pace bowler Tom Hampton who dominated proceedings as he took the first four wickets for 38 as Kent descended to 71 for 4. Nineteen year old Andrew Smith, who had a mediocre season for Durham 2s in 2008, was the only visiting batsman to shine as he made a good looking 45 before being brilliantly run out by a direct hit on the stumps at the bowler's end by Kabir Toor from square leg. Most of the Kent side looked as if they could bat, but they threw their wickets away carelessly and were all out for a mere 152 in 28.3 overs, leaving Middlesex the victors by 125 runs. All scores are approximate owing to the random number generator that is the Richmond scoreboard.
After six weeks with precious little cricket to watch, I had been eagerly looking forward to the return of Championship cricket with the visit of Surrey to Lord's. Unfortunately, however, the first three days were quite disappointing, with neither side looking as if they wanted to win the match. Middlesex's first innings of 385 extended into the 131st over, but Surrey managed to beat that, needing the 135th over to complete their total of 392. The villains of the piece were Billy Godleman who took 200 balls over his 48 and Mark Ramprakash who needed 306 balls for his 136, but credit went to Owais Shah for his 159 in 252 balls and to the aggressive Andre Nel (4 for 59) and to Murali Kartik (5 for 65) for his controlled left arm spin. Some blamed Kartik, however, for bowling over the wicket and trying to find some turn on and outside the right-handers' leg stump, which allowed the patient Ramprakash to pad the ball away with monotonous regularity. It was grim stuff at times and things did not improve as Middlesex made another slow start to their second innings. On day four, however, Middlesex showed much more enterprise and Shah, with 61 off 63 balls and Dawid Malan with 30 off 32 balls indicated that Middlesex were willing to set a target for Surrey to chase. Even Nick Compton, who had been short of runs and who had started nervously and slowly, played himself into form and finished on 100* as Middlesex declared on 246 for 5, setting Surrey 240 to win in 44 overs. Some felt that this target was quite gettable as the track was still good and the Middlesex attack had been enjoying little success in recent matches, but Surrey lost Jon Batty to the second ball of Steve Finn's opening over and thereafter showed no interest in chasing the target. Middlesex, however, kept up their hopes by reducing the visitors to 55 for 5, but the immovable Ramprakash (49*) found a sound partner in Chris Jordan (30*) and they secured the draw, which had always looked likely as Middlesex gave up their attempt to force victory after 40 overs had been bowled with Surrey on 99 for 5.
What can you say about the Leicester debacle? It must be one of the most humiliating defeats the club has ever suffered and makes the stuff written in the Panther look embarrassing nonsense, which it was. Far from challenging for promotion, we are favourites for the wooden spoon. The opening batsmen are not good enough: Billy averages 17.8 and Compo 27.7 (even after that 100*) and while Dexter's record is not much better, he has more catches than anyone other than Nash and has also picked up a few wickets. Many of the bowling averages do not look too bad, but there is no depth there and sometimes no penetration either. Toby and Gus don't have any influence, so it must be Shaun for the chop, unless they blame the second team coach again?
South Hampstead Matters
My first year at South Hampstead was 1963. I went along to Colts nets at the end of the school term in July and played a few matches in the thirds. At this stage I had no idea of the club’s history or of its standing in London cricketing circles. I also had no idea that the club had partly by design and partly by chance assembled an extremely powerful first eleven. It was also one of the last seasons of traditional club cricket before the changes of the sixties brought fundamental changes to the social fabric which had inevitable impacts on club cricket.
In 1963 South Hampstead, like other clubs, created its own fixture list. It played against other clubs in the south east on the basis primarily of tradition. There were some clubs where intense rivalry persisted and there were other clubs that you wouldn’t play against on principle. For example South Hampstead would not play against either Finchley or Hampstead who both fielded two first elevens on the grounds that you wouldn’t know who you would be playing against from one year to the next or indeed whether the side turning out was indeed their first eleven. Equally if an opposition played in a manner contrary to the spirit of the game they could find themselves dropped from the fixture list in future.
At the end of the fifties South Hampstead was in the post Henry Malcolm period and the club was captained by Alan Clain and Allan Huntley. In 1961 Bob Peach took over and he had a backbone of home grown players: John Weale, Roy Phipps, Don Wallis, Bruce and John Tutton. To these were added Len Stubbs, an Army colleague of Peach’s, and Terry Cordaroy who joined from Queensbury CC. In 1961 the club won only a third of its matches which was the same success rate as 1960, but the following year this leapt to 60%.
In 1962 Alvin Nienow had defected from Shepherds Bush and in 1963 Bill Hart and Robin Ager had joined from Turnham Green and Old Grammarians respectively. In 1963 it was still a requirement at the club that to be a first choice selection for the first eleven you had to be available to play both days at the weekend. This led to some astonishing appearance statistics. The side had forty five matches during 1963 in which four of side made over forty appearances and no less than eight played in thirty four or more games.
The batting strength of this line up was awesome and Peach often manipulated the order to enable good players to spend time at the crease. A typical batting order would be: Cordaroy, Ager, Weale, Stubbs, Nienow, Peach, Tutton B, Tutton J, Hart, Phipps and Wallis. Both Tuttons were accomplished batsmen but got few opportunities at seven and eight in this side. Hart, Wallis and Peach did the seam bowling whilst Phipps was the principal spinner supported by Weale, Stubbs and the Tuttons. The club’s strength at this time is exemplified by the sidelining of Richard Brookes who was to go on to keep wicket for Oxford University and Somerset.
I have written in these pages before about the wicket at Milverton Road where the ball rarely deviated and didn’t bounce above stump height. If a side predetermined that a draw was a good result it was extremely difficult to bowl them out. The strength of this side was becoming legendary and wins, particularly at home, were harder to come by. The side won 44% of its matches in 1963 but over 50% in the next two years.
These reflections were prompted by the statistical work carried out by Bill Hart and Allan Cox who have reformatted the scorebooks and produced annual summaries and averages for the period 1960-75. Bill Hart ([email protected]) is happy to supply a CD version of this information to anyone who would like a copy.
Surrey Matters
The Great Jack Morgan reports from south of the river
I went to the Oval for the Championship game against Kent. Surrey won the toss and batted much more attractively than they had at Lord's with Mark Ramprakash leading the way and surprisingly losing his wicket on 86, while Michael Brown (55 before being criminally run out by his ex-Middx team-mate Ramps) and Chris Schofield (54) were equally impressive, although it was hard to keep track of the score because the scoreboard on the Harleyford Road side was out of action throughout the match. Amjad Khan and James Tredwell were the best of the Kent bowlers with three wickets apiece and one had the feeling that they had done well to get Surrey out for 386 on a very good pitch. This was emphasised by openers Joe Denly and Rob Key who set a new record for Kent against Surrey by putting on 247 for the first wicket. Surrey then enjoyed an unlikely spell of success as four wickets went down for 22 as, astonishingly, both openers were run out for 123 and Geraint Jones and Darren Stevens were both out c Batty b Collins for nought. However, Kent's superiority was quickly re-established by Martin van Jaarsfeld and Justin Kemp in a stand of 214 for the fifth wicket and Kent became the first team ever to inflict four centuries on Surrey in a first class match. Van Jaarsfeld fell for 110, but Kemp (who should pay me large sums of money to watch him as he gets a hundred every time I see him no matter how poor his form has been beforehand) enjoyed another good stand of 123 with Tredwell (60) before being dismissed for 183 (a Championship best). Kent declared at 620 for 7 with a lead of 234 and one felt that they would not have enough time to bowl Surrey out on such a good pitch.
This proved to be the case, despite a rare failure by Ramprakash as Mark Butcher (60*) led Surrey to the safety of 170 for 3 off 62 overs. All ten Kent fielders enjoyed a bowl at some stage in the match. Chris Schofield and Wayne Parnell both retired from the match with unknown injuries or maladies and among the substitutes used it was surprising to see Andre Nel, who had looked awful in the field at Lord's and who had been left out of this match because of a "tight hamstring". On day 3, I was surprised to be joined on the gasometer terrace by two foxes who took only a passing interest in the match, being more concerned with hunting for food, but they hung around for a while before Butcher's bowling changes baffled them to such an extent that they departed in search of further snacks.
I went to Guildford for the Championship match between Surrey and Essex, who won the toss and soon lost opener Varun Chopra. However, ex-Middlesex man John Maunders and South African Test player Hashim Amla added 51 for the second wicket, but there was clearly plenty of movement available to the Surrey seamers, so it was not such a shock that Essex suddenly found themselves in trouble on 116 with the top five batsmen out. However, this brought in Ryan ten Doeschate, a very useful South African who represents the Netherlands because of his Dutch ancestry and passport, and with the support of James Foster in a stand of 98, Graham Napier in a stand of 83 and James Middlebrook in a stand of 61, Ten Doeschate (who is another who gets runs every time I see him) took Essex to a respectable total of 401 and an excellent personal score of 159* (his best for Essex). Pace bowlers Tim Linley (4 for 77) and Chris Jordan (4 for 84) were the pick of the Surrey bowlers and both recorded the best bowling performances of their short careers. When Surrey batted, they too found themselves struggling on 66 for 3 (Ramprakash falling for nought) before a stand of 222 between Stewart Walters (142, more than doubling his previous career best) and Usman Afzaal (116) put them on top. Afzaal is a cultured batsman who has often impressed me, but Walters, whom I have seen several times in both the first and second teams and who until now had never looked close to being good enough (and this view is supported by the fact that he had reached the age of 26 with a batting average that had still not risen as high as 21), was a revelation as he looked totally at home at a level that had always looked beyond him. Perhaps Chris Adams's surprising decision to elevate Stewart to the captaincy in the absence of Mark Butcher finally gave him the necessary belief to succeed at this level? David Masters, with 4 for 86, was the best of the Essex bowlers.
On day one, Test players Chris Adams, Martin Bicknell and Alec Stewart were strolling around the boundary and it amused me that there was a queue of young and old autograph hunters clamouring for Alec's signature, while there was nobody at all interested in obtaining a scribble from Chris or Martin: I suppose a handful of caps is just not good enough, but how many Test caps are necessary to make an autograph worth collecting? On day two, a gang of Guildford arseholes chose to stand right in front of where I was sitting, blocking more than half of the pitch from view and despite polite invitations to them to jolly well move on, they declined all such requests and a nasty incident was only avoided by the timely arrival of the tea interval; the foxes at the Oval get my vote every time. The rain on day three meant that an overnight declaration by Surrey was necessary to restore the match to life, but the art of the enterprising declaration is a dead one, Surrey batted on and the match suffered a predictably slow death, with Surrey earning their seventh draw in nine matches. Sometimes I wonder how we are expected to retain our interest in the damn game. Spectators found it hard to know what was happening on day four (nothing was) because neither scoreboard was functioning.
Backing Up Matters
I continue to be copied in on the correspondence between the Professor and Douglas Miller
The Professor: Some critical questions for the Master:
1. How many times in Test matches has a batsman been caught "unawares" and had the bowler "whip the bails off" in the way you describe?
2. How many times since the War?
3. How many times has this happened in County cricket since the War?
4. How many times does this happen each year in any form of cricket in the UK?
Douglas Miller: I am not too sure how often it has happened, but from memory Mankad did it to Bill Brown and Safraz also did it in Test cricket, I think to Hilditch.
It hasn't happened because of the convention of warning batsmen, but in the more cut throat atmosphere of much cricket today I fear it might. So a Law that prevents the worst excesses seems sensible. I am not strongly against some additional law to restrain the backer-up.
It's all a bit like patting the ball back to the bowler after blocking it. Fortunately it is very rare for there to be an appeal, but I have heard of a league batsman being given out for chucking the ball back, and hitting it back is no different. Either way it is obstructing the field, though I would be very quick to say that the ball was dead.
I umpired a match the other day when a batsman hit the ball back over my head and a marvellous catch was taken at long off. My colleague at square leg then signalled no ball on the grounds that the peak of the keeper's helmet was in front of the wicket. I thought that this exemplified poor umpiring on his part.
The Professor: In other words...this is a solution in search of a problem.
Douglas Miller: It was you who had a problem with the batsmen backing up too far was it not?
The previous Law was untidy partly because the convention of giving the batsman a warning has grown up without any force of law. Similar tidying up is now to be found in such laws as those covering when the ball is dead. The Laws are better for most of the changes introduced in my humble opinion.
On the matter of how often a run out of this kind has has happened, from another e-mail circle a member has quoted the Wisden Book of Records for test cricket:
Mankad got Bill Brown twice that way in 1947-48 (once in a Test). That was the first instance in a Test. Since then Griffith/Redpath, Chatfield/Randall and Hurst/Sikander Bakht have been Test instances (up to 1997)
I was wrong about Sarfraz and Hilditch - but this dismissal stemmed from one of these instances:
Hilditch was given out handled the ball and became the only non-striker to have been given that decision. Hilditch picked up a wayward throw that had dribbled onto the pitch and handed the ball back to Sarfraz Nawaz who appealed and the umpire had to give Hilditch out. This fracas was quite possibly in retaliation for an equally unsavoury incident earlier in the day when Pakistan's No. 11 Sikander Bakht was run out by Alan Hurst at the bowler's end whilst backing up too far - the fourth such instance in Test cricket. Asif Iqbal, who played in the match, said: "I do not want to be associated with such incidents. There was no need for us to stoop so low as to appeal against Hilditch for handling the ball as a non-striker."
I see from my own old copy of the Wisden Book of Cricket records that there 18 such dismissals in first-class cricket from the end of the War until 1982-83 including Wilf Wooller. But is this really the point? The Laws are not just, or even primarily, for the first-class game. They are for all of us who play at a lower level. It is also of some interest to see the extent to which domestic cricket in Pakistan dominates dismissals from Hit Ball Twice, Handled the Ball and Obstruction. Now, if appealed to in a repeat of the Hilditch situation, I would give the batsman not out.
Is the number of times something happens in any case really germane to the argument? There have not been many instances of teams being denied runs as a penalty for running on the pitch, but the provision in the Laws is still a good one, albeit it caught the commentators on the hop when umpire Hair applied it against Salman Butt.
The Professor: I think you're right - we shouldn't let the "number of times something happens...(be) germane to the argument".
Indeed, why not let's have laws for things that never happen at all?
I propose that it should be illegal to take three balls onto the field and juggle at deep extra cover, or keep wicket stark naked facing the wrong way and try to catch the ball in between the cheeks of your bottom. The point is, that the change in the law has created a greater problem than the (almost) non- existent one that it sought to "cure".
That is not good law-making.
Douglas Miller: I think the curious factor is that the change in the Law has led to batsmen taking liberties. They remain at risk of being run out just as they were before. And arguably that risk remains that the bowler is not a gentlemen and gives no warning. Not that much has changed except that it has now become harder for the non-gentleman to take full advantage of his rights under the Laws.
I concede that you have a point, but I still champion the change to the Laws. Incidentally they do cater for umpteen most unlikely events. Do you understand the principles involved in 'stealing a run'? I bet you have never seen that happen. Have you come across the deliberate running of one short?
Hamburger Matters
It has been a breath of fresh air having Hamburger join the Sky commentary team. He has actually played the modern game and so can make pertinent comments on it. It really is time that Gower, Botham, Allott and Willis were retired. Nass is still in touch with what is going on and should be joined by the excellent Nick Knight and Ian Ward.
Incidentally Hamburger is almost unrecognisable. He is now a tall slim athlete. What has got him fit now he has retired from playing?
Proctor Matters
I hear from Bob Proctor every so often and I am pleased to report that in a recent missive he asked me:
“To give my regards to those who remember me at the Old Danes reunion and add that currently I have a clean bill of health and going along very nicely.”
Modern Batting Matters
The Professor responded to my notes on modern club scoring in the last issue
On the subject of runs in club cricket, this week WGCCC scored 316-5 and Slough responded with 252-5. There was some feeling that Slough "didn't really go for them". How do you set about knocking off 316 in an afternoon? It seems that they only needed about 7 an over and there was an expectation that a few switch hits, reverse sweeps and "Dilshans" could have been employed...It's cricket Jim, but not as we know it!
WGCCC has been suffering this year (at 1st XI level) from not being able to bowl out sides, principally because we have three opening bowlers, all with recent 1st Class experience, but all fashionably unfit. The result is that we are languishing in the bottom part of the table and in great need of a couple of wins. I'm sure you are right about the high scoring in club cricket. I don't believe that batsmen have improved since the 1960's but that all bowlers have mysteriously got worse. The great change has been in the playing surfaces which have improved beyond recognition with professional staff and equipment, particularly the use of heavy rollers...and then there are the bats.
Whilst the Great Jack Morgan added
You mention the number of overs bowled in Middlesex League matches, but you do not see this as one of the reasons for the high scoring. Bush league matches in the early seventies were (almost) all half-day affairs where the number of overs per innings was around 40 or 45 overs, whereas today you quote teams receiving as many as 72 overs in an innings, which might be as much of an increase as 80% on the number of overs in some of our afternoon matches, not an insignificant factor. I admit that the Bush were involved in many low scoring matches in those days and the number of overs per match might not be typical of all clubs.
Roger Pearman
Bob Peach adds some further notes on Roger Pearman who died earlier this year
The recent sad death of Roger Pearman at the age of 66 saw the passing of one of the most influential characters in Middlesex Club cricket during the 1960’s and early 70’s. On the field he was arguably the best batsman in London cricket across many years and an inspirational captain of Hornsey for a decade. From 1958 to 1974 he scored over 20000 runs for the club at an average of 45 with 32 centuries and holds the record for most catches. As the opposing South Hampstead captain in our intensely competitive twice a year Bank Holiday games I remember many of these only too well- and his match winning innings in 1968.when Hornsey beat us in the first Middlesex Clubs KO final at Lords. Roger played several matches for Middlesex County Cricket Club between 1962/4 averaging 26, Bedfordshire and the Minor Counties ; and also captained the Club Cricket Conference.
Off the field we were both on the founding committee of the Middlesex County Cricket League of which he subsequently became Chairman. Still in his early thirties he moved north on business and joined Alderly Edge CC before becoming Chief Executive of Derbyshire CCC. Although now over 30 years since he was part of the Middlesex cricketing scene his well attended funeral service included many players from both Hornsey and other clubs from that era.
Football Matters
The manager of Kelvin West’s Ladies Team, Andrew Baker, like most of us, is feeling the pinch these days and so when he signed on some new players for the coming season he was delighted that he didn’t have to supply them with kit as they arrived with their own.
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