And as Laker closed in on his final few victims - an extrordinary emotion beset the crowd. Unpatriotically they wished with all their will that the Aussies would survive the biting spin of Tony Lock and then it would be all on again - willing each delivery of Laker to be the one that would take the next wicket."
Some time in the late 50s my Dad, who unlike me wasn't a bad cricketer, played in a charity/benefit match which had an evening do afterwards - There were a few blokes on either side who played bit of county cricket but Tony Lock was the special guest. He announced as soon as he arrived that while he was happy to play if anyone so much as uttered a word about Old trafford in '56 he'd up and leave - he then proceeded to go on about it from time to time throughout the day and evening with, of course, nobody actually daring to respond - my Dad said he was adamant he'd been unlucky and was clearly more than a little bitter and that, effectively, it could just as easily have been him who got the 19Gun article - you and the staff writers seem to find the perfect topics to discuss.
I have long been fascinated by that bowling performance. And read a wonderful description of it as a youth by memory part of it was
You can have as many as you want now Jack, as long as there are no more than two behind square - the post Laker change which limited it to a maximum of 5 was an experimental law that, initially at least, applied only to county cricket - the history of the development of the laws is one of the more impenetrable subjects I've come across, and short of wading through every year's Wisden since 1956 I'm not sure how many times the law was tinkered with or whenIt mentions in the article about the five fielders on the legside. I thought that was only in ODI cricket? Aren't you allowed six in Test cricket?
Or was it changed back?
How the **** do you know that?1990 was also the year of your first divorce iirc, Tangy.
As the executor of your will, it's important that I know these things.How the **** do you know that?
I knew I'd seen that ****ing monkey's face somewhere before ..............also benchmark00 was your first wife