The Cricket Thread

[fundy]

No, they most definitely were not. I remember very well the sheer terror of being asked to field at short leg to the West Indian Test player Clayton Lambert when he played in the NYSD. The sound of the ball off his bat resembled a howitzer firing.

Worst I stood at short leg for was John Carr, just after hed retired from Middlesex to take up his job with what was then the TCCB and was playing for Radlett in the top Herts league. On an utter road, we had a young quick who bowled inswingers. Carr took guard almost facing me at short leg and hit almost every ball there. He finally got his man and rattled my lid with one. I gave the classy reaction of throwing the lid at our skipper and telling him if he wanted a short leg any longer he could xxxxxxx field there himself. Carr and a young Saffer called Voss put on close to 300 in 40 overs before declaring lol

 

[Billysboots]

Worst I stood at short leg for was John Carr, just after hed retired from Middlesex to take up his job with what was then the TCCB and was playing for Radlett in the top Herts league. On an utter road, we had a young quick who bowled inswingers. Carr took guard almost facing me at short leg and hit almost every ball there. He finally got his man and rattled my lid with one. I gave the classy reaction of throwing the lid at our skipper and telling him if he wanted a short leg any longer he could xxxxxxx field there himself. Carr and a young Saffer called Voss put on close to 300 in 40 overs before declaring lol

I rarely fielded at short leg. If you saw the size of me you’d realise why.

On one rare occasion I did I was unfortunate enough to be there with an opposition batter well set and our off spinner bowling juicy half volleys on leg stump. It was in the days before helmets, so all I had to protect myself were my cat like reflexes.

After a couple of near misses, eventually the batter middled a lovely half volley off his toes. Being rather partial to my teeth and chiselled good looks, I instinctively put my hands in front of my face and, as everyone else looked towards the boundary to see the inevitable four, I’m lying on the ground having somehow clung on to an absolute worldy.

Our skipper thought he’d unearthed a new long term short leg. I told him he could ram it. Never been so nervous on any field of sport in all my born days.

 

[fundy]

I rarely fielded at short leg. If you saw the size of me you’d realise why.

On one rare occasion I did I was unfortunate enough to be there with an opposition batter well set and our off spinner bowling juicy half volleys on leg stump. It was in the days before helmets, so all I had to protect myself were my cat like reflexes.

After a couple of near misses, eventually the batter middled a lovely half volley off his toes. Being rather partial to my teeth and chiselled good looks, I instinctively put my hands in front of my face and, as everyone else looked towards the boundary to see the inevitable four, I’m lying on the ground having somehow clung on to an absolute worldy.

Our skipper thought he’d unearthed a new long term short leg. I told him he could ram it. Never been so nervous on any field of sport in all my born days.

Our skipper thought little would get past my frame, irrelevant of the pain it would cause me lol

 

[ColchesterFC]

I recall playing against a West Indian team who’s opening bowler was nicknamed “the dentist” as he liked removing batsman’s teeth!

He wasn’t quick, just bowled short stuff all day so was easy to play

John Maynard? He came over from the West Indies to play in the Norfolk league many years ago at Vauxhall Mallards, the club I was playing at, and was known as the dentist. Not sure if it's the same guy as he was pretty brisk at that time. One evening at nets I was feeding the bowling machine and thought it would be funny to bounce him. The ball whistled past his nose and as he walked down the pitch with a big smile on his face his response was "just wait until you bat white boy". Sadly I developed a hamstring strain just before I was due to bat so never had to face him.

 

[fundy]

There were almost as many "dentists" as there were "mad dogs" in club cricket opening bowlers werent there?

 

[ColchesterFC]

There were almost as many "dentists" as there were "mad dogs" in club cricket opening bowlers werent there?

Not sure, but the one I knew played for Leeward Islands against England during a Caribbean tour in the early nineties. He got Thorpe and Hick in the first innings and Ramprakash in the second so he was fairly useful.

 

[Billysboots]

Not sure, but the one I knew played for Leeward Islands against England during a Caribbean tour in the early nineties. He got Thorpe and Hick in the first innings and Ramprakash in the second so he was fairly useful.

You may be referring to Vaughn “Hungry” Walsh. Played for Leicester Nomads and was by some distance the quickest bowler in league cricket in those days.

 

[Billysboots]

As Martin Johnson wrote on The Independent at the time;

“In one local cup match in 1991 at the Dog and Gun ground just outside Leicester, Walsh took nine wickets for two runs (both no balls), eight bowled and one lbw, and was only deprived of all 10 when the visiting No 11 decided that he would much rather remain in the pavilion, thanks all the same.”

 

[ColchesterFC]

You may be referring to Vaughn “Hungry” Walsh. Played for Leicester Nomads and was by some distance the quickest bowler in league cricket in those days.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_(cricketer)

http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1993-94/ENG_IN_WI/ENG_LWD_03-06FEB1994.html

 

[Grizzly]

Lordy this is bringing back memories. None of them good.

 

[Ye Olde Boomer]

A cricket ball and a baseball are both about 9" in circumference and are constructed similarly as well.
The baseball's cover is made of two #8 shaped pieces to make it more symmetrical, however, and we don't ever play with red ones.
Always white, except in the "softball" version of the game where high vision yellow is common as well. That latter ball is 12" in circumference and somewhat lower compression, thus "softball."

Just about every other team sport with a ball or puck is about attacking and defending goals under a running clock.
Our football, soccer football, league and union rugby, basketball, hockey, polo, lacrosse...all variations of the same game.

Baseball and cricket are different, so one would think that there would be more similarities between the two.

Yet I can watch cricket for hours and still not figure out a thing about what's going on.
You guys seem to figure out baseball ok, even though you don't like it.
I might actually like cricket if I could figure out what the hell they're doing, and if a match didn't take the better part of a millennium to play.

Is there a simple explanation of the game anywhere online/

 

[AmandaJR]

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

 

[AmandaJR]

Or...

https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-cricket-basics-explanation-gfx-20150215-htmlstory.html

 

[Ye Olde Boomer]

Or...

https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-cricket-basics-explanation-gfx-20150215-htmlstory.html

Thanks very much. The first explanation, I assume, was from Benny Hill, no?

 

[Ye Olde Boomer]

Hey, that's not so hard!

I guess the game doesn't have to last forever in matches of a certain type.

Small strike zone--the wicket is narrower than home plate (rubber plate fitted into the ground) so the bowlers must be very accurate.
The fielders catch that hard ball without gloves? Tough lot, they must be. With no functioning nerves in their hands.

Also, while our bat looks like a club that a mugger might use, your bat looks as it if were designed for hardcore S&M.

Willow instead of ash...interesting.
We're running out of ash and starting to make maple bats. The maple shards are sharp and dangerous, though, when they break off and go flying.

Amateurs often use either aluminum or composite bats which don't shatter, but wood is specified at all levels of professional play..

 

[fundy]

Bowling Rehan ?

 

[backwoodsman]

Well done Rehan - a fivefer in ones first match is an outstanding achievement !

 

[Imurg]

Has this become a T20..?

 

[paddyc]

England been told the last flight home before Christmas from Karachi leaves in 2 hours!

 

[IanM]

I say, this gung-ho approach will never catch on!

Blimey, as above, they must have a flight to catch or a 10am tee time tomorrow!