Cricket

I was chatting with my Grandpa today about cricket. Ever the optimist, I was talking up England’s chances in the upcoming test matches. (You can read some of my opinions on the TMS message board.)
He told me about one of the greatest test matches he went to – in 1934 he saw Australia take on England at The Brit Oval. As an English schoolboy, he wasn’t too happy about Australia winning by 562 runs. However he relished watching the great Don Bradman at the crease – he put on a record second wicket partnership (451) with Bill Ponsford during the first innings. Those were the days.
Many years later, my Grandpa bought an original scorecard of the match – this is framed and has pride of place in his hallway.

Notice my use of the word upcoming above. It means occurring soon. Up-and-coming , by contrast, means showing signs of advancement.
On the BBCi advert when Gary Lineker tells us to “press the red button for details of up-and-coming fixtures,” he is talking rubbish. Up-and-coming artists or up-and-coming athletes, yes, but up-and-coming fixtures, no – you mean upcoming.
Where are the BBC’s editors these days?

Eleven modes of dismissal

In cricket, the eleven modes of dismissal are:

1. Caught – if a fielder catches the ball after the batsman strikes
   it, before the ball bounces.
2. Bowled – if a delivered ball puts down the wicket at the batsman’s end.
3. Leg before wicket (LBW) – if a delivered ball misses the bat and
   strikes the leg of the batsman, and the umpire judges that the
   trajectory would have struck the stumps; certain other criteria may
   also have to be fulfilled.
4. Run out – if a fielder puts a wicket down with the ball whilst a
   batsman is still running between the two ends.
5. Stumped – if the batsman leaves his crease in playing a
   delivery, voluntarily or involuntarily, but the ball goes to the
   wicket-keeper who uses it to put the wicket down before the batsman
   has remade his ground.
6. Hit wicket – if the batsman puts the wicket down with his own
   bat or body; either in playing a shot or in taking off for the first
   run.
7. Handled the ball – if the batsman deliberately handles the ball.
8. Hit the ball twice – if the batsman hits the ball twice, except
   in order to use it as a barrier from rolling and striking his stumps.
9. Obstructing the field – if a batsman deliberately hinders a
   fielder from attempting to field the ball.
10. Timed out – if a new batsman takes over three minutes to appear
    on the field to replace a dismissed batsman. (If the delay is even
    more protracted, the umpires may forfeit the match.)
11. Retired out – if a batsman elects to declare himself out.

On its main Cricket article, Wikipedia lists just ten modes of dismissal (omitting ‘Retired out’). On its Dismissal (cricket) article, all eleven modes are listed, including ‘Retired out’:

Law 9(b) : Retired

If any batsman leaves the field of play without the Umpire’s consent for any reason other than injury or incapacity and fails to resume his innings, he recorded as being Retired – out.

Only two players in Test history have ever been given out in this manner, Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene – both in the same match playing for Sri Lanka against Bangladesh in September 2001.

Some context from Wikipedia’s Substitute article:

Both instances were in the same match, where the Sri Lankan batsmen, retired out to save the Bangladeshi opposition further embarrassment. Each of these two batsmen had already scored more runs than the entire Bangladeshi team in the previous innings, and it is arguable that they deliberately gave batting time to newer teammates.

Football Grounds

I think these are all the UK Football Grounds I have visited. Quite a sorry little list:

White Hart Lane, Tottenham Hotspur
Boleyn Ground, West Ham United
Goodison Park, Everton
The Dell, Southampton
The Hawthorns, West Bromwich Albion
City Ground, Nottingham Forest
Kassam Stadium, Oxford United
Wembley Stadium, England

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!
My favourite football team have had a good start to the year. Spurs won 5-2 against Everton on Saturday, and last night they beat Manchester United 1-0. No: they drew 0-0. Pedro Mendes’ glorious shot from the half-way line, crossed the line, and then was disallowed. Oh well. My sporting hopes for the year:
1. Spurs qualify for Europe
2. England win The Ashes

Olympics 2004

I was going to write something earlier, but I like to include links to websites and Athens 2004 will not allow me to link to their website (see here). (By the way Sellotape do not allow links either – very odd.)

I enjoyed some of the coverage and I liked the choice offered by BBC Digital – but there were a few things that irked me:

1. The term ‘Team GB’ – irritating.
2. The use of ‘medal’ as a verb (as in ‘they have medalled at every championship this year’). I know some people say that any noun can be verbed, but again – irritating.
4. Colin Jackson – his general seating posture and facial expressions – irritating.
3. Commentators’ incessant talking – including the many ers and ums. You do not need to talk over every second of a race or an event. Compare with Channel 4’s cricket coverage – the commentators here are interesting and knowledgeable and allow ample time for the sport to tell its own story. But BBC Olympics commentators – irritating.