< 1 minute readAs in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got anklosing spondylitis or anything. Like many people, we have a soft spot for Monty Panesar. Firstly, he lent his name to our assistant. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, he was for a time exceptionally good at bowling spin for England. Now he’s back. Back
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Most of the County Championship starts fairly soon!
< 1 minute readThe wind is tearing the blossom from the trees and depositing it on the dirty wet earth. Men and women in thick winter coats turn their pallid faces to the skies, scrutinising the clouds for tip offs of impending rain showers. Firewood is gathered. Thermostats are turned up. It is
Continue readingA committee of cooks designing a horse for broth
2 minute readThey’ve had a meeting about renovating the entire structure of county cricket. They’ve resolved to repaint one of the bedrooms and maybe replace some of the sealant around the bath. In 1890, it was suggested that county cricket be divided into first, second and third classes with eight teams in
Continue readingFaf du Plessis at Lancashire – a window into South Africa’s present?
3 minute readIt’s almost two years since Graeme Smith played his last Test. More than that since Jacques Kallis retired. Their departures left Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers as South Africa’s senior batsman and all this time later, Amla and de Villiers remain the senior batsmen. Things haven’t moved on. Two
Continue readingCor! Strength! (and core weakness)
< 1 minute readIf bowlers didn’t require torsos, Sussex might have been all right. Side strains, pectoral injuries and dodgy spines meant that Chris Jordan played six matches, Ajmal Shahzad played five and Tymal Mills just two. It’s hard to win much without your pace attack and relegation has ensued. If they can
Continue readingA straightforward easy-to-follow climax to the County Championship
< 1 minute readNo, really. No totting up bonus points in matches you had assumed were irrelevant. No poring over the rules to find out when exactly those bonus points are earned. No keeping track of all of this across three different matches. For once, it’s simple. Unless we’ve missed something (highly likely)
Continue readingIn the cold September rain
< 1 minute readApparently it’s been slatting it down all day in the South-East. Bad news for Surrey, who are pushing to become second division ‘champions’ in one of the few matters left unresolved this domestic season. We use inverted commas around ‘champions’ in much the same way as if we were saying
Continue readingGeraint Jones slashes to great effect
< 1 minute readIf, as a cricketer, you’re going to be remembered for just one moment, you might as well make that moment the climax of the most exciting passage of sport many of us will ever see. Even if it wasn’t the hardest catch, for safely taking it England fans will forever
Continue readingYorkshire take the second of a hat-trick of County Championship titles
2 minute readIt’s oddly reassuring that Yorkshire should win the title again. It provides the kind of clarity that is rarely seen in English domestic cricket. We can state with some conviction that they are the strongest county at the minute – stronger even than Herefordshire. When a team does well one
Continue readingPromotion day in the County Championship
< 1 minute readThere are still two matches to go in the second division of the County Championship, but somehow we already know both the counties who will be promoted. What this basically means is that the other seven teams in that division were sufficiently crap that they failed by a distance. There
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