King Cricket

April 22, 2016 England

Robert Key, the ruddy-faced southern me

5 minute readThis article was first published on Cricinfo in April 2016, but they seem to have deleted it so we’re republishing it. For a fair few years, from the early Nineties onwards, there was a phenomenon in British newspapers where Australian opinions of England cricketers were given greater weight. Seasoned cricket

April 20, 2016 County cricket

A surprisingly small proportion of this last week’s County Championship cricket actually amounted to much

< 1 minute readThe batsmen (and bowlers) of Middlesex, Warwickshire, Yorkshire and Hampshire busied themselves scoring hundreds and double hundreds. Nothing of any real consequence came about as a result of this behaviour. The players representing Lancashire and Nottinghamshire stuck to double figures and that game therefore reached some sort of meaningful conclusion.

April 19, 2016 Extras

A Rob Key themed cryptic crossword

< 1 minute readAlmost certainly the finest Rob Key themed cryptic crossword you will encounter today. Compiled by Bert. As ever, there are no fantastic prizes. You can also download a PDF version here. Click here for the answers.

April 18, 2016 England

This is how you share a Rob Key picture with the world, you bloody idiots

2 minute readRob Key has retired. It is a sad day. We’re going to don a black cardigan instead of a beige one by way of mourning. We will wear it for 221 minutes in tribute to the number of runs Rob once made in a single Test innings. Adam Gilchrist’s highest

April 18, 2016 Match report

England v Australia at Lord’s, day three – match report

3 minute readGed writes: I prepared a splendid picnic, though I say so myself, for me and Daisy to enjoy on the Saturday of the Lord’s Ashes Test. Breakfast muffins stuffed with juicy coriander prawns was the centrepiece of the midday feast. The main event, though, was focaccia-wiches, containing Big Al deLarge’s

April 16, 2016 England

Points mean prizes

2 minute readOr, more accurately, points “may” mean a presentation ceremony (at which something would presumably be presented). This is the barely-reported story that England are looking to implement a points system for the two tours this summer, meaning an all-formats winner could be crowned for each. The Times ran something behind

April 15, 2016 County cricket / England

Is Gary Ballance back?

2 minute readIt’s a reference to a headline pun that’s overused on this website but which isn’t itself a pun. Jokes don’t come much weaker than that. Except for all our other ones. Is Gary Ballance back? Sport is brutally cold and England won’t go into the first Test of the summer

April 14, 2016 County cricket

Let’s keep tabs on Jake Ball

< 1 minute readThere was a phenomenon in Premier Manager 2 where all of your team’s young players would improve by about 20 per cent over the summer break. If you stacked your side with teenagers and managed to avoid the sack, you were all but guaranteed promotion the following season. Has something

April 13, 2016 Cricket books | reviews and recommendations

Test Cricket by Jarrod Kimber – book review

3 minute readFull disclosure: We went to Jarrod’s wedding and were also sent a free book to review. However, we did also have to pay £3 in bail money to release said free book from a Royal Mail prison after it had been charged with insufficient postage, so we pretty much balance

April 12, 2016 England

James Taylor has a literal heart problem

2 minute readIf James Taylor’s public pronouncements betray an admirable desire to retain a sense of humour about things, his retirement from cricket at the age of just 26 due to arrhythmogenic right ventricular arrhythmia is anything but funny. It’s easy to point to his having had a job as a professional