Who is Tom Helm?

1. Tom Helm bowled especially well in this match:

   http://ianlouisharris.com/2017/07/05/a-visit-to-edgbaston-mostly-for-warwickshire-v-middlesex-3-to-5-july-2017/

   …not that you’d be able to tell from the above match report.

   I rate him very highly but in truth I think he needs another decent season at least before international selection is a sensible suggestion.

   The journalists talk about him in “next cab off the rank” terms because he has played for (and done reasonably well for) the Lions.

   I cannot agree with KC’s cliché summary. Having seen Helm bowl a fair bit, in my view Tom Helm:
   * is about 1.93 metres tall;
   * has a repeatable action with nagging line and length;
   * bowls with pace and bounce.

   1. We were torn between ‘insistent’ and ‘nagging’.

      1. Hope he gets picked, does well and ends up taking over as captain.

         If only for the sake of the tabloid headline writers.

      2. Presumably we’d discover the Root of England’s problems shortly before his appointment.

      3. I can see what Sam is getting at, but he is an able seamer.

   2. Repeatable is the main quality I look for in a fast bowler’s action. So many great bowlers over the years have fallen on the basis of being able to deliver only one ball then succumb to the yips forever more.

      Cricinfo have young Helm as a ‘fast bowler who generates pace and bounce’ yet categorise him as RMF. So some much-needed variety from the battery of RFM currently available.

      The main criteria that appear to have fast-tracked him for selection can hence be summarised thus:
      – plays for Middlesex

2. A cricketer in a cast? Sort of like this?

   http://www.51allout.co.uk/2014-01-17-whatever-happened-to-the-unlikely-lads-45-derek-pringle/ian-botham/

   1. Nichael?

      Someone should be arrested for that development on the already-oft-misspelt name.

3. The hover captions have become more sporadic as time goes by, meaning that I look forward to them particularly when I can see them. Today’s belter did not disappoint.

4. More to the point, who is George Garton?

   1. On the plus side, if they’re now calling up people who’ve only played 9 more FC games than me I can’t be too far away from a phone call myself.

      1. Are you fit Daneel? That is a quality that would rule me out unfortunately as I too am only 9 FC games away from a call up by the same standard. Sadly though if you asked me to deliver 20 overs of slow military medium long hops i’d struggle with back issues… So in short, you, and possibly other readers of this site, are ahead of me in the taxi queue.

      2. Bradders, you truly are the next cab off the rank long-hop.

5. If Tom Helm has come out of left field, where the frigg have they found George Garton from?

6. I have seen George Garton bowl at Hove – the abandoned match we went to see at the end of the day written up here:

   http://ianlouisharris.com/2017/07/28/sussex-sojourn-part-two-monks-house-berwick-church-and-cricket-at-1st-central-county-ground-hove-28-july-2017/

   There is a link to the scorecard within. But no mention of George Garton whose performance that evening was less than memorable. The Sussex cognoscenti were talking about two of their young seamers in glowing terms that evening; the unfortunately named Jofra Archer being the far more impressive of the two on the night.

   1. As a further aside, the Sussex cognoscenti spoke very highly of Tom Barber, one of the Middlesex youngsters who by all accounts looked absolutely cracking in the nets warming up for that match, although in the end he didn’t play:

      http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/597655.html

      Tom, like Daneel, has yet to play a first class match. But he is signed for Middlesex, so I expect Tom has more reason to sit by the phone than Daneel, at least for now.

      1. Good luck to young GG. How many people with matching initials have ever played Test cricket for England?

         Martin McCague. Haseeb Hameed. Jeff Jones. Graham Gooch. Chris and Colin Cowdrey. Matt Maynard…

         Liam Livingstone waits by the phone.

      2. Alfred Archer, Bernard Bosanquet, Charles Coventry, David Denton, Frederick Fane, Francis Ford, Frank Foster, George Geary, George Gunn, Harry Howell, John Jameson, Martyn Moxon, Peter Parfitt, Paul Parker, Pat Pocock, Jack Russell (Robert), Sandford Schultz (actually SSS), Sam Staples, Ted Tyler, Willie Watson

         And these people who cheated by not using their proper names:

         Bob Barber, Billy Barnes, Billy Bates, Bob Berry, Bill Bowes, Bill Bradley, Bill Brockwell, Brian Bolus, Mandy Mitchell-Innes

         Does Raman Subba Row count?

      3. Tim Robinson was one of those sneaky ones, too.

Comments are closed.