Cricket terms - question - please help

[Helga]

Hello Everyone,

Just wondering if you'd have a moment to help me figure out a few cricket terms I came across in a story I am translating.
It's a short story by PG Wodehouse over 100 years ago. Curious, if the phrases cricketers used then are still in use today:

1. "He has strokes through the slips..." - does it mean, that the batsman is really skilled and can make a shot even when slips (players, fielders) obstruct him? How many slips can be there in the field at the same time and are they allowed to obstruct the batsman?

2. take specs = play 0-0 - do you still say "to take specs" or "a pair of specs" when the score is 0-0?

3. Head ball - does this stroke still exist, or is it now called differently?

Thank you kindly for your answers and best of luck to all cricketers!

 

[fredfertang]

Hello Everyone,

Just wondering if you'd have a moment to help me figure out a few cricket terms I came across in a story I am translating.
It's a short story by PG Wodehouse over 100 years ago. Curious, if the phrases cricketers used then are still in use today:

1. "He has strokes through the slips..." - does it mean, that the batsman is really skilled and can make a shot even when slips (players, fielders) obstruct him? How many slips can be there in the field at the same time and are they allowed to obstruct the batsman?

2. take specs = play 0-0 - do you still say "to take specs" or "a pair of specs" when the score is 0-0?

3. Head ball - does this stroke still exist, or is it now called differently?

Thank you kindly for your answers and best of luck to all cricketers!

1. Yes, up to nine

2. A pair of spectacles was an expression used when a batsman scored 0 in each innings - it doesn't mean the score of 0 runs for no wickets, and hasn't been used for years

3. Dunno that one - you'll need to ask psmith

 

[Helga]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much!

All the best in 2016!

 

[cnerd123]

Can you use Head Ball in a sentence? Need some context. Sounds like a way to describe a beamer.

 

[Helga]

Head ball in context

Can you use Head Ball in a sentence? Need some context. Sounds like a way to describe a beamer.

Hi!
Here are the sentences the "Head ball" is used in:

"I go and argue with Grake, our slow man, to prevent him experimenting with his latest head ball. He is always inventing a new ball, and it is a safe four to the batsman every time."

I believe, it is a slow bowler's way of throwing a high ball, perhaps. What do you think?

 

[indiaholic]

Hi!
Here are the sentences the "Head ball" is used in:

"I go and argue with Grake, our slow man, to prevent him experimenting with his latest head ball. He is always inventing a new ball, and it is a safe four to the batsman every time."

I believe, it is a slow bowler's way of throwing a high ball, perhaps. What do you think?

Sounds like he is chastising a bowler for cooking up new deliveries in his head? Rather than doing stuff that is proven to be true?

 

[cnerd123]

I think the head ball is like Jeremy Snapes 'moon ball' - a really slow ball thats tossed up so high that on its way down it passess the batsman's head on the way to hitting the stumps.

Atleast that's the way I visualise it.

 

[indiaholic]

Maybe. The only reason I went with my meaning was because the sentence seems to imply that this was not the first time he has come up with the head ball. Probably wrong. I like your answer better.

 

[Helga]

I think the head ball is like Jeremy Snapes 'moon ball' - a really slow ball thats tossed up so high that on its way down it passess the batsman's head on the way to hitting the stumps.

Atleast that's the way I visualise it.

Hi Guys!

I think, this description fits! This is ball invented by a slow bowler. His balls are quite easy for a batsman and he keeps inventing new ones, but with no luck.

Thank you for your help!

Good luck in 2016!

 

[fredfertang]

Lob (underarm) bowling was not quite extinct in Wodehouse's time, so he may be referring to that

 

[91Jmay]

"He has strokes through the slips"

That could be a reference to a player being skillful but it also could well be a reference to him being lucky (sort of a rueful comment) as it is rare that a player would aim to get the ball through the slips, it is generally a field position that the bowling side loads up with players to draw a catch from an edged shot.