The Cricket Thread

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NottinghamWhite
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by NottinghamWhite »

Pinched this from the YCCC forum I post on. Thinks it’s a great post.

When I began playing club cricket nearly seventy years ago not every playing member was there for the love of the game. There were a significant number of individuals who enrolled because, by the early fifties, they held a romantic yearning for the male comradeship of their armed forces days. As Ernest was to explain, he hadn’t the stamina to participate in a more energetic sport and, after all, cricket had a social life second to none.

His wife never quite grasped these reasons for her husband’s newly-found desire to join a cricket club. She spent the winter prior to his debut knitting him a long-sleeved sweater. On the first day of the1952 season he put it on. It was several sizes too big. “If any of you fellows feel cold”, he said on that blustery April afternoon, “just jump in here with me.” It was an invitation that remained unaccepted.

Ernest was no batsman. He went out to the crease dragging his bat behind him. You could almost see the eyes of the opponents' captain light up. Here was a rabbit for the taking! Every year he was to say with due solemnity, third or fourth match into the season, “I’m still in with a chance of my ten runs in May, you know…”

Ernest was no bowler. Net practice showed that he could only land the ball on the strip after it had first made contact with the roof or a side of the net.

Then…something happened…He began to spend less and less time batting and bowling in the nets. He was persistently nattering for someone to done the keeper’s gloves and join him in the outfield. There he would throw a succession of balls towards the gloved colleague, developing a powerful throw on a low but flat trajectory. The recipient would drop them on the ground, walk forty or fifty yards away, and the process would be repeated again - and again….

Towards the end of the season he explained it thus: “I realised I was never going to keep my place in the side as a batsman or a bowler. so I had to be a good fielder. I worked it out: fielding is a matter of stopping the ball and throwing it in.…” It was no accident that he made no reference to the significance of catching the ball…

So much for throwing it in; that left the matter of stopping the ball. A couple of months into the season we watched in bewilderment as, prior to our taking the field, he extracted from his bag the previous week’s copies of the Yorkshire Evening Post. These he folded methodically before stuffing the Monday to Wednesday editions down one long sock in front of the shin; Thursday to Saturday served to guard the other. Once in the field he never bent down to stop the ball. He simply leaned forward from the waist and let the ball, racing across the uneven ground, strike him on the boots or the shin. Picking up the now stationary object, he retuned it to the keeper with an accuracy and velocity that brought to mind a guided missile. Almost weekly was there a scorebook entry of run out that was down to Ernest.

Over two successive seasons Ernest received the fielder of the year award. The wartime spirit of make do and mend was alive and well..!
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NottinghamWhite
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by NottinghamWhite »

The 3rd T20I today at 13:30 certainly something to look forward to. Glad I’m not a gambling man as I’ve no idea how this will end up.
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ChilwellWhite
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by ChilwellWhite »

NottinghamWhite wrote:The 3rd T20I today at 13:30 certainly something to look forward to. Glad I’m not a gambling man as I’ve no idea how this will end up.
Forgot this was on, that’s my afternoon taken care of.
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by DominanceUK »

NottinghamWhite wrote:The 3rd T20I today at 13:30 certainly something to look forward to. Glad I’m not a gambling man as I’ve no idea how this will end up.
I take it you won't be watching Cheltenham then pal?! :lol:
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by NottinghamWhite »

Good news for me this morning


The Yorkshire County Cricket Club has signed a ten year agreement with Scarborough Cricket Club to continue playing First-Class and List A cricket at North Marine Road.
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by DominanceUK »

I've just witnessed one of the best 5 overs of batting in ODI from Stokes, remarkable. But as England we're cruising we lose 3 quick wickets, not like England!!
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NottinghamWhite
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by NottinghamWhite »

DominanceUK wrote:I've just witnessed one of the best 5 overs of batting in ODI from Stokes, remarkable. But as England we're cruising we lose 3 quick wickets, not like England!!
Fantastic viewing made a miserable Friday in lockdown bearable ;)
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DominanceUK
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by DominanceUK »

NottinghamWhite wrote:
DominanceUK wrote:I've just witnessed one of the best 5 overs of batting in ODI from Stokes, remarkable. But as England we're cruising we lose 3 quick wickets, not like England!!
Fantastic viewing made a miserable Friday in lockdown bearable ;)
As a Yorkshireman I'm delighted Bairstow got MOTM because if Stokes got the hundred I would imagine it would've gone to him - and probably rightly so. I still want to see Joe Root brought back in as he is capable of just ticking the scoreboard on without being aggressive.
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by PhoenixUnited »

DominanceUK wrote:
NottinghamWhite wrote:
DominanceUK wrote:I've just witnessed one of the best 5 overs of batting in ODI from Stokes, remarkable. But as England we're cruising we lose 3 quick wickets, not like England!!
Fantastic viewing made a miserable Friday in lockdown bearable ;)
As a Yorkshireman I'm delighted Bairstow got MOTM because if Stokes got the hundred I would imagine it would've gone to him - and probably rightly so. I still want to see Joe Root brought back in as he is capable of just ticking the scoreboard on without being aggressive.
What a run chase! All to play for on Sunday. Could go either way! :clap:
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Re: The Cricket Thread

Post by mapperleywhite »

DominanceUK wrote:I've just witnessed one of the best 5 overs of batting in ODI from Stokes, remarkable. But as England we're cruising we lose 3 quick wickets, not like England!!
These days I have trouble in continuously watching something like a game of cricket...usually it doesn't hold my interest long enough. But today I was riveted, the display of sixes by Bairstow and especially Stokes was tremendous - made the spin bowlers heads drop at one point. And to win chasing 337 with more than six overs to spare is remarkable.

Shame about Stokes dismissal and also I wonder if Roy will be giving our Jonny some stick for 'crossing' to avoid being run out....
Might have to take an interest in the Premier League now....
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