King Cricket

June 1, 2015 England / New Zealand

England’s most influential player puts his hand up and comes to the party

< 1 minute readSometimes the crowd are said to be a 12th man. Sometimes the 12th man is a 12th man. At times, in England, persistent drizzle is the 12th man. Even Brendon McCullum at his most innovative couldn’t get the better of the United Kingdom’s damp, maritime climate today. “What if I

May 31, 2015 England / New Zealand

BJ Watling – not just a weirdly-named man in an oversized jumper

< 1 minute readBradley-John. BJ stands for Bradley-John. We’d have gone with Brad. Or John. Or Bradley. Or Bradley-John. BJ went for BJ. As for the surname, we can’t hear ‘caught Watling’ without thinking it’s some sort of archaic crime. As in: ‘Broad was caught watling behind the keep and was sentenced to

May 31, 2015 England / New Zealand

Adam Lyth and a big noise in Yorkshire

< 1 minute readAfter day two of the second Test, the important question is this: Is Michael Vaughan getting louder? Maybe he was always like this, but it seems to us that he’s crossed the speaking-shouting threshold this season. At the start of Channel 5’s highlights programme, when he’s standing in the middle

May 30, 2015 England / New Zealand

A series of things for which it’s quite hard to come up with an appropriate headline

< 1 minute readQ: What do you call a donkey that was born in New Zealand, grew up in Australia, got a snorter first ball in his first Test but survived and went on to make 88 off 70 balls? A: A Ronchi It’s probably not the greatest joke, but that’s not what

May 28, 2015 England

England are playing

< 1 minute readSo are New Zealand. It’s a Test match. You’ll probably have something to say. Leave your comments on this post while we busy ourself desperately trying to come up with something insightful and pithy to say about the first day’s play. If you’re interested in our thoughts while the match

May 27, 2015 Match report

Lancashire v Middlesex in the County Championship – match report

3 minute readGed writes: It was the last day of the cricket season and I was working that day – mostly from home. I got urgent stuff out of the way first thing, with a view to going to the gym mid to late morning, ahead of my one meeting of the

May 26, 2015 England

England have a new coach!

< 1 minute readHe’s called Nigel or something. We’re not sure. We haven’t really been paying attention. From what we can tell, he’s been coaching a club in South Wales and he once appeared in an episode of Knight Rider. He seems well qualified. Jason Gillespie had of course been the favourite for

May 25, 2015 England / New Zealand

Like that dumpling from the Caribbean place last week, this match may well take a day or two to digest

< 1 minute readImagine going back in time and trying to tell cynical, world-weary you from a week ago about this match. “England were 30-4 inside the first hour of day one,” you’d say. “Yeah, that seems about right,” Earlier You would reply. “And they then conceded 523 in New Zealand’s first innings,”

May 24, 2015 England

Ben Stokes: Brutal Deluxe

2 minute readThere are times for thoughtful analysis and there are times for giddy enthusiasm. Today is clearly the latter. At the peak of his powers, if you said the name ‘Flintoff’ to someone during a match with the right look in your eye, that person would immediately drop whatever they were

May 22, 2015 England / New Zealand

New Zealand have something atop their spine

< 1 minute readLooks like we’re gonna need a bigger skull. A year ago we wrote about how New Zealand’s first few vertebrae – the batsmen at three, four, five and six – needed to be (metaphorically) full of brainy gloop to make up for shortcomings at the top. After a 148-run opening