2 minute readIn England, spin academies aren’t so much schools of excellence as institutions built to keep the weirdos away from the normals. Seam bowling is normal; not to be remarked upon. Spin bowling is other. If people see a lot of something, they become conditioned into thinking it’s the default. So
Continue readingCategory: County cricket
So the County Championship’s over then
2 minute readHonestly, you take the trouble to inform people how things stand in the County Championship and the damn thing only goes and gets itself decided five minutes later. Essex won their match by an innings and let’s not bother getting too mathematical about what Lancashire would need to do to
Continue readingWhat in the name of all that is good and pure is going on in the County Championship?
2 minute readNice bit of SEO there. Anyone searching “what in the name of all that is good and pure is going on in the County Championship” is now highly likely to end up on this page. In your face, Google algorithm. [Watches the ad revenue roll in.] Yes, it’s the time
Continue readingHaseeb Hameed might carry his bat
< 1 minute readEngland are still very much in the market for a Test opener, you feel. Mark Stoneman is making a fist of things, but they’d quite like another top order batsman or two to take to Australia. At the time of writing, Lancashire are four wickets down but Haseeb Hameed is
Continue reading2017 Twenty20 Finals Day – most of the story in scorecards
< 1 minute readWe rather love Twenty20 finals day, which has always seemed to strike a good balance between elite sport and village fete. A lot of short format competitions seem to be striving for the po-faced tribalism of football, but the annual climax of the original has always erred on the side
Continue readingArrow stopped play at The Oval
< 1 minute readAs a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t fire arrows at people – or indeed anywhere near them. It is what is known as “very dangerous”. Someone fired an arrow into the middle of the Surrey v Middlesex match today. Here’s the arrow. @surreycricket Incredibly some **** has fired an arrow
Continue readingShahid Afridi made a T20 hundred yesterday
< 1 minute readAnd everyone is, as usual, missing the point. Shahid Afridi is the least T20 cricketer to have ever graced the format. Here’s why.
Continue readingThe best part about Jack Leaning’s catch
< 1 minute readYorkshire’s Jack Leaning took a cool catch. It went like this. ICYMI @JackLeaning1 completed cricket with this stunning catch#Blast17 pic.twitter.com/KAmm239EB9 — NatWest T20 Blast (@NatWestT20Blast) 12 August 2017 But this was the best part. Also this guy. Yorkshire fans.
Continue readingKeith Pont benefit match report, Ongar Cricket Club, 1986
2 minute readChas and Nick write: Back in 1986, sister/auntie Susan worked in public relations for Rhône-Poulenc (now part of Aventis), in Ongar, Essex. She was asked by one of its cricket-loving executives to organise a cricket day for Keith Pont‘s benefit year at Ongar Cricket Club. It’s worth remembering how popular
Continue readingIt rains more at night
< 1 minute readThis is the conclusion we drew from last week’s round of pink ball County Championship fixtures. Only one of four matches in the first division ended in a result – and even that one saw only 23 wickets fall. Despite the experiment only resulting in the confounding situation where Essex
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