Staffordshire’s Finest
Yesterday BBC Radio 5 Live had a big day out at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium. Apparently, the warm up comedian was Heening Wehn, who describes himself as the German Comedy Ambassador to Great Britain. Then there was an edition of Fighting Talk.
One of the first questions was about who was Staffordshire’s finest sportsman.
The panel went on to choose the obvious, Stanley Matthews, the football legend.
But the greatest sportsman from the county only got a passing reference.
Sydney Barnes was an amazing cricketer, who many pundits reckon was the greatest bowler ever. This is John Arlott’s view of his bowling.
He bowled right arm fast-medium but also had what Arlott called “the accuracy, spin and resource of a slow bowler”. Barnes’ high delivery provided him with a lift off the pitch that forced even the best batsmen to play him at an awkward height. He was clever at concealing his pace and could produce deliveries that were both appreciably faster and slower than his usual fast-medium pace; and could bowl an effective yorker.
In other words, he could bowl just about anything. Even the Australian, Richie Benaud, included him in his greatest cricket team of all time.
Like Matthews he was still playing at an advanced age. I saw a documentary about Barnes in the 1960s and at the age of around 90, he was still working for the local council. He must have been a remarkable man.
What It Is About Stuart?
Broad, Lancaster and Pearce
Can we have ever had three England captains or managers with the same first name?
Fighting the Devil
Jonny Bairstow has effectively won the last one-day international for England at Cardiff tonight on his debut. England were up against it, when he started his innings, but 41 runs from just 21 balls got England home. At the end, Rahul Dravid, the former Indian captain, warmly congratulated him, for what he had done.
Cricket is a warm compact sport and I suspect that all the Indian players knew of Jonny’s father, David Bairstow, who took his own life in 1998.
India Goes Barmy
My next door neighbour was once a retired British Army Colonel. After visiting India and seeing the rehearsal for the Republic Day ceremony in New Delhi, I said it was the best military ceremony, I’d seen and that included quite a bit of the Guards in London.
He said it was debatable, whether the Indians copied us in this field or we copied them. It doesn’t really matter, as a good spectacle is always a good spectacle.
So now after a disappointing summer for their cricketers, Charaan Shetty has launched the Indian Cricket Dundee, which is talked about in the Times today as an Indian version of the England’s Barmy Army.
Brian Close on England
Brian Close made his debut for England a couple of years after I was born, so he’s seen a lot of cricket. He doesn’t rate the current England team as the greatest, but then he wouldn’t would he? They don’t contain enough Yorkshiremen for his liking I suspect.
I’ll give him this though. He played the bravest innngs I ever saw. Wikipedia describes the innings at Lords in 1963 to try to beat the West Indies like this.
Close was recalled to the England Test squad in 1963, and played his first full series of five matches, against the West Indies. His innings in the second Test at Lord’s remains his best known. When England were pressing for a last-day victory, Close took the battle to the fastest West Indian fast bowlers, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, daring to advance down the wicket to them. This was before body protection and helmets were in use, and time and again the ball struck Close firmly on his body. But he persevered. With no other England player but Ken Barrington scoring above 20, Close’s innings of 70 saved the game for England, and came near to winning it. Set 234 to win, England ended on 228 for 9, with Colin Cowdrey famously coming in to bat (for two balls at the non-striker’s end) with his broken arm in plaster.
Close had been dismissed going for runs to win the game, and his courage earned him many plaudits. His shirtless torso, black and blue with bruises where he had been hit, made the front pages of the newspapers the next day.
There has never been another innings like it. I don’t think that there has been any other batsmen, who would have attempted to do what he did.
The Indian Sense of Humour
I’ve worked with quite a few people of Indian origin over the years and have always found that they have quite a sophisticated sense of humour. Take this tweet on Cricinfo.
“Sehwag’s contribution to the 3rd test remains India’s contribution to the arithmetic world – ZERO,” says Saurabh.
It isn’t the sort of thing, we’d say about out cricketers, when they are losing.
My Indian doctor’s comment this morning was that someone has to lose.
Cricket Wins
England may have won the First Test at Lord’s yesterday, but I think the bigger winner was Test Cricket, when 28,000 spectators turned up to see the last day. Congratulations too, to the authorities, who let under-16s in free!
Oops! It was Murder, but it Smelled Phenomenal!
That was a quote from this story from Australia, where a container of expensive wine was dropped.
It all goes to show that their fork-lift truck drivers are like their cricketers!
They drop everything!
A Good Day For Wales
Yesterday, Swansea got into the Premier League at Wembley and the English cricketers turned a certain draw into an unlikely win at Cardiff.
I wish Swansea well at their new status. Their ground, the Liberty Stadium is certainly up to it, as I found last season. Perhaps, all it needs is a station of its own or better transport from the town centre.
Street 20 Cricket
They’re just talking about Street-20 cricket on the radio. Basically, it’s a shortened form of the game for kids and the Lords Taverners are taking it all over the country to places like run-down crime-ridden housing estates to give the kids focus. One guy who runs it, has just been named young coach of the year. They aim to find the next generation of England cricketers too.
