Posted by Okay, not strictly speaking a dog’s eye view unless (a) the dog has its eyes behind its ears or (b) there’s a tiny dog piloting the larger dog.
However, that genuinely is a blurry David Gower up ahead and he really is wielding a baseball bat, the thug.
Like almost all baseball-bat-wielding thugs, he’s standing in the middle of a field in the Cotswolds.
Here’s the dog rushing towards him to get an autograph or something.
In the ensuing melee, you can sort of tell it’s Gower – provided someone’s already told you it’s him and you know who to try and recognise.
Here’s another shot, for no other reason than that you can never have too many low quality stills of a man you’re taking it on trust is David Gower.
He has his mouth open in that last one, like he sometimes does when he’s masterfully anchoring cricket programmes on the TV.
The footage was from a police dog demonstration at this year’s Cotswolds Show that ITV saw fit to cover.
Thanks to The Guardian’s Ali Martin for drawing it to our attention, but not so much for demanding that we write about it. You all know our position on requests. Don’t the rest of you be getting ideas.
Please may we have a piece about a police dog showing indifference to David Gower?
That feels more in keeping with the spirit of this site.
Pretty please?
I now you don’t do requests, KC, but this is more a suggested variation on an existing piece than a request, per se.
Maybe. But only if you make the request no more than once and don’t say almost exactly the same thing again, correcting the obvious typo.
Foiled again by my little travelling tablet computer and its idiosyncratic ways. It really didn’t look as though the appeal message had gone the first time.
Sunny here in Edgbaston today. Today will probably be my last few hours of County Championship away cricket this season; the fixture list (and work schedule) panning out so very differently compared with last year.
So you can keep your Gower-indifferent dogs, KC, I have plenty else to do. I was only suggesting it to be nice.
Please may we have a piece about a police dog showing indifference to David Gower?
That feels more in keeping with the spirit of this site.
Pretty please?
I know you don’t do requests, KC, but this is more a suggested variation on an existing piece than a request, per se.
Oh oh, typo alert. I’m not normally the sort to correct people’s errors, but I think you meant to say “now” instead of “know”, as in the well-known Old English verb “to now”, meaning “to resent the fact that”.
What manner of a creature would set a dog on David Gower?
To you, JB, he’s a cuddly ex-England Captain, but too many urban dwellers adopt a soft-hearted attitude to Gower, who is foolishly seen as cute, cuddly and clever.
It is an outlook that can be seen in whimsical films such as the recent smash hit The Fantastic Mr Gower, based on the book by Roald Dahl.
Gower is an omnivore with a strong sense of his territory or ‘crease’– qualities that help to make him dangerous. In towns and cities, around a third of his diet comprises food he has scavenged from rubbish, with the balance made up of rats, mice, pigeons and other small animals he has hunted, as well as worms and insects. In certain seasons, he also eats fruit and berries.
But domestic pets can also be targeted, particularly as the large new wheelie bins make it more difficult for Gower to scavenge. Cats, birds, rabbits and even small dogs are all at risk.
I should add that personally I’m not a fan of Gower-hunting, as I find it to be unecessarily cruel, but he doesn’t do himself any favours by wandering round the Cotswolds brandishing a baseball bat.
I’ll be honest AP, I’d not thought of Gower like that before. Come to think of it my dog rolled in Gower’s faeces last month and couldn’t be allowed inside for a week due to the lingering stench. Being set upon by a pack of hounds is too good for the wretch.
Funny how a year changes your perspective on stuff.
Last year I would look at the Div 1 scorecards and think “there are far too many draws, this whole division is ludicrous and it must be doing harm to the reputation of first-class cricket in general”.
This year, I look at the scorecards and rub my hands in glee at all these mammoth partnerships and day-and-a-half-long innings. Days rained off. Daddy hundreds. Smashing stuff (so long as they are not against Essex). The only time I look at a match and think “I want someone to actually win this one” are if Essex are playing, or if one of the bottom two sides has a sniff of surprising one of the chasing pack*. Other than that, I’m backing the draw in every game.
* Not having any luck with that one yet. Though it’s nice to see that Essex have as many wins as the bottom five sides put together.
You feel like a better human being for it because you simultaneously are willing on almost every single batsman in the country – and even if you are hoping someone fails in this match, you’ll be keeping your fingers crossed for them to get a double once they are playing less Essexy opposition. It’s a nice warm happy feeling where you love everyone except the bowlers and the Sun God. The Rain God is a smashing fellow by the way, top rate chap.
I see that Charlie Shreck has retired. The list of professional cricketers older than me gets one shorter.
Cricket!
Tests!
Testing cricket!
Home of Corks!
Gary Ballance!
Liam Dawson!
What a time to be alive.
Roooooooooooooooooot.
Can anyone explain to me why Stokes comes in to bat above Moeen?
Moeen has a higher FC average, higher Test average, has opened for England and in county cricket, etc. He also has a lower strike rate than Stokes in Tests, which suggests you might prefer Stokes to be playing with the tail. Now obviously the stats are skewed by Moeen having batted higher in the order earlier in his career, and he knows how to hit a ball too so you don’t mind him batting at the end of an innings, but I’m still a little surprised Stokes bats first.
Because Ben Stokes.
The theory is that Stokes responds well to responsibility. Moe can (and does) play pretty much anywhere without impacting his scores too much. In the words of his Maj, ‘Yeah alright.’