Posted by As the world’s foremost authority on ‘things with holes in which can carry multiple pints of beer at cricket matches’ we bring you news!
And not just any class of news. We bring you the very finest form of news: third-hand news.
Sam emailed to say: “Spotted at Taunton. Not my picture so I have no further information. But it speaks for itself.”
This is, of course, a distant relation of The Device – the robust beer-carrier that doubles as a secure, hands-free pint sanctuary once you are seated.
The Device was a 1990s creation of Special Correspondent Dad, yet it still draws admiring looks and enquiries to this day.
We haven’t bothered asking Dad his opinion of this latest version. We can still visualise him wincing any time anyone knocked a stump into the ground with the face of a bat, so we’re pretty sure he’ll be pretty damn squeamish about someone putting four ruddy great holes through one.
One can only hope that the bat in question was already fatally compromised before work got underway.
This is, however, not the first alternative Device we have reported on.
In 2017, Mike spotted a jingoistic supersized Device at Edgbaston and more recently, Chuck reported on, “a pale, somewhat commercial, and rather flimsy looking imitation of The Device,” that was being handed out at a Pixies gig.
But those are not the examples that came to mind upon seeing this.
Instead, we thought of these:
Ged spotted these in the beer garden bar of The Milk House in Sissinghurst, Kent.
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Saw a chap carrying one of these at the Lancs-Kent blast quarter final this year. And he was in the upper tier no less!
Excellent submission, Sam, but I’m afraid the photo most certainly does not speak for itself. Indeed, it raises far more questions than it answers.
What brand of bat are we looking at there and what is the mystery substance with which the bat has been treated? Those aspects are cruelly concealed by the angle of the photo and/or the beer-glass-holding cavities.
More importantly, who is the device-wielding gentleman and why is he wearing a hi vis tabard? Is the hi vis a fashion statement, a health and safety requirement, fancy dress, some sort of official uniform or an attempt to trick the authorities by appearing to be in uniform?
And who was the shady character taking the photograph, whose shadowy image in the photograph looks suspiciously like Sam’s outline, although Sam denies having taken the picture, so it cannot be him?
If only we had in our midst an on-screen TV journalist , based in the west country, who could investigate this important matter thoroughly, and report back to us with unbiased, evidence-based reportage.
Imagine not losing any wickets during your chase, scoring at over ten runs per over, and still losing your match…
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/women-s-continental-cup-2025-26-1506172/romania-women-vs-austria-women-1st-match-1506181/full-scorecard
Unlucky Austria.
Fun trivia: the captain of Romania, Rebecca Blake, is the former captain of France. Born in Romania to a Romanian mother and English father, moved to France as child and learned her cricket there, became a teen star for the French national team, but then moved to England to study which left her ineligible for selection. Since she was still eligible for Romania, she was able to resume her international career for them instead – but only once the federation had sorted a women’s cricket team out. Can’t be many players who go from captaining one national side to captain in another!
I have now moved from being in a state of ‘pre-ordering’ the book, to pre-ordering the book.
I suspect I’d have probably got the book more quickly by just waiting for the release day and going into The Big Waterstones In Town, but I am told that pre-ordering (and even plain old ‘ordering’) the book in advance is good for the book’s profile in terms of chart positions, signalling to retailers that they’d better order an extra copy or two, and so on.
I will admit I did get distracted by this post though, and nearly ordered one of these instead.
We are led to believe you are correct about placing orders before publication day and we thank you greatly. We also have no idea whether it’ll actually be in The Big Waterstone’s In Town. If you spot it, please let us know.
Prince Prefab worked in that Waterstone’s for a decade, up to and possibly after his first novel came out. We may have this slightly wrong, but we remember when it was released, they declined to put it on a table as ‘pick of the month’ or anything like that.
I think that’s a GM Maestro Superstar from 1997