open365
International Vice-Captain
This article is my favourite piece of cricket related writing,closely followed by rain men,a book on ageing village cricketers.
whats yours?
whats yours?
Not bad.open365 said:This article is my favourite piece of cricket related writing,closely followed by rain men,a book on ageing village cricketers.
whats yours?
Don Bradman will bat no more against England, and two contrary feelings dispute within us: relief, that our bowlers will no longer be oppressed by this phenomenon; regret, that a miracle has been removed from among us. So must ancient Italy have felt when she heard of the death of Hannibal.
AA Thomson : We want JessopHeroes in fact die with one's youth. They are pinned like
butterflies to the setting board of early memories - the time when skies
were always blue, the sun shone and the air was filled with the sounds
and scents of grass being cut. I find myself still as desperate to read
the Sussex score in the stop-press as ever I was; but I no longer
worship heroes, beings for whom the ordinary scales of human values are
inadequate. One learns that as one grows up, so do the gods grow down.
It is in many ways a pity: for one had thought that heroes had no
problems of their own. Now one knows different !
That innings of Jessop's . . . It was not an innings. It was a
glamour; it was witchery; it was thunder and lightning. The Croucher bent
almost double. The steel spring snapped viciously. The ball sped, as
though hurled to everlasting punishment. It was not Ajax defying the
lightning. It was Ajax catching the lightning and insolently flinging it
back in the face of heaven. Fieldsmen who, a moment before, had been
practically leaning against the bat's face, went scurrying back to the
boundary-edge. They were at the mercy of elemental force. For thirty-three
minutes the might of Yorkshire was impotent. Rhodes was a schoolboy. Hirst
a village-green trundler.
Old men will show you the marks on the face of the pavilion
clock which Jessop's second sixer shattered. They will point out the exact
spot in Copperbeech Avenue where the hansom cab was standing at the moment
when Jessop's third stupendous sixer fell through its roof. That crowded
half-hour was hardly cricket; it was divine madness. The telegraph-board
moved like a cinema-film....
Michael Parkinson : War of the rosesGimblett went out with Arthur’s spare bat. At lunch Somerset had been
105 for 5, then very soon afterwards 107 for 6. Morris Nichols was
pinging them down, faster than anything this Boy from Bicknoller had
ever seen before. Reg Ingle was wishing he’d never won the toss. The
customers were retreating in increasing numbers to the beer tent.
The 20-year-old newcomer hit 101 out of 130 in just over the hour to
win the Lawrence Trophy for the fastest century of the season. At the
time he also didn’t know about such an award, though significantly he
was later to name his only son Lawrence. He was out for 123 in 79
minutes; he hit three sixes and 17 fours.
The Smith googlies made no impression on him. Nor did Nichols when he
came back with the new ball. Harold had probably never played
previously in a match punctuated by the ritual of the new ball. He
soon lost the big, bronzed Wellard, and then dared to score even
quicker than the mightly slogger, even if the sixes were less
spectacular in altitude.
I once asked him about Tattersall, and he said: "Tha'
could reckon he'd bowl one bad ball a year. I were t'spotter for t'leg
trap. I fielded at backward short-leg so I could see where Tatt was
going to pitch it. If it were short I'd shout 'duck lads!' and they'd
know to get out of the way.
"One Pancake Tuesday Tatt bowled a long hop. I spotted it but I
thought I'd have a bit of fun so I didn't call it. Well t'batsman got
hold of it and gave t'ball a terrible thump. Tha' should have seen
Jack Ikin's face. He didn't speak to me for three months."
"Did it hit him?" I asked. "No, he caught it," Malcolm said.
Tapioca said:Couldn't find any *really* good ones by Cardus online. My favourite is a piece about George Gunn which is part of a larger article about Trent bridge. Don't know which book it is from. There is something by Cardus about Gunn online but it is nothing like the other article.
Btw, I forgot about Mailey, or would have included it in my list.
Tapioca said:Mailey is here - http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/ARTICLES/TIMELESS/TRUMPER_VS_MAILEY_1958
Don't think I have read the Parkinson article..
Well, yes. 5'4" makes you a very little reader indeed.Tom Halsey said:Can you tell I'm not a big reader?
We don't see a lot of the Indian writers here in Aust. but I did enjoy 'Corners of a Foreign Field' by R. Guha. Although I thought he was a bit harsh on Lord Harrishonestbharani said:Among the present day writers from India, I like Rohit Brijnath. He has a good style and makes good points.
That wasn't bad for a scouser, actually.steds said:Well, yes. 5'4" makes you a very little reader indeed.
I read the Simon Hughes book, very funnysledger said:anyone read ed smith's book ? or the one by simon hughes ? think it was called a hard lot of yakka or something..
If you liked "Many a Slip" you may like 'Any Old Eleven' by Jim Young with a forward by Gideon HaighChubb said:Gideon Haigh is the best though. Mystery Spinner is brilliant, Many A Slip is hilarious.
It actually made me like Australian cricketers... that's quite something. I wish he'd write another book about South Yarra CC.
Have you a book coming out Neil?Neil Pickup said:Would like to think that in sixty years time, I'm getting mentions on these sorta threads...