The Shorter Wisden 2013
Page 26
PRESS ASSOCIATION
June 17
Three nine-year-old boys were injured when a tree fell on them on a windy day as they waited to use the nets at Spencer CC in south-west London. The senior team were playing against Cheam when the incident happened. Cricketers and spectators freed the boys before an air ambulance arrived. The boys were named as Lewis Gaston, Aidan Oakley and George Roberts.
BOLTON NEWS
June 19
Elton and Edgworth of the Bolton Association played each other at first- and second-team level on Sunday, and both games were tied. In each case, the chasing team needed two off the last ball, but could manage only a single.
HEYWOODCC.CO.UK
June 21
Heywood fast bowler Humza Naeem had figures of 5–3–9–8 in an Under-18 match against Oldham, who were all out for 15. Heywood won by 127 runs.
DONCASTER FREE PRESS
June 22
Rossington Main CC were banned from the South Yorkshire Senior League until the end of 2013 because players had abused league officials on Twitter.
TIMES OF INDIA
June 23
An animal-rights group has lodged a legal complaint against the Indian Test-player-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu after he arrived at a court hearing on an elephant.
THE CRICKETER/CLUB-CRICKET.CO.UK
July
Left-arm pace bowler Gareth Fisher had an analysis of 4–1– 4–9 for Colchester & East Essex in the Essex Premier League, news that might have delighted the former England left-armer John Lever – had his son James not been playing for the opposition. The young Lever was one of seven Woodford Wells batsmen out for nought in a total of 24 after they had reached ten without loss in the first over. Fisher’s figures, which included four in four balls, and six lbws, beat the 45-year-old club record of nine for five, held by the former Ipswich footballer Ted Phillips. Almost the only spectator in 2012 was Ray Hollingsworth, who was operating the scoreboard when Phillips achieved his feat in 1967.
DOWN RECORDER/CRICKETEUROPE
July
Dundrum’s Indian professional Raviraj Patil hit six sixes in an over in the Ulster Shield for Dundrum at Sion Mills. In all, 39 came off the over: three deliveries were called wides as the bowler, Andy Lucas, tried to stop Patil getting near the ball. The previous day he had scored 53 from 15 deliveries, and team-mates had started goading him into trying for six sixes. This time he scored 167 off 78. The Sion Mills ground is best known as the scene of West Indies’ humiliation in 1969, when Ireland bowled them out for 25.
DAILY MAIL
July 1
England team members could be investigated by HM Revenue and Customs as part of an inquiry into the use of image-rights companies by the players. According to the Companies House register, 11 of the 13 contracted England players had companies of this kind.
CLUB-CRICKET.CO.UK
July 2
The Club Cricket Conference have asked members for ideas about how to deal with flying cricket balls after Dymchurch CC in Kent became the latest club to be ordered by a local council to erect high nets – or move.
ESPNCRICINFO
July 3
The record for the longest continuous match has been broken again, this time by Loughborough University staff, who battled atrocious weather for 150 hours 20 minutes. One substitute fielder was allowed per side. “We had torrential rain and hailstones the size of golf balls but, in true British tradition, we kept calm and carried on,” said organiser Chris Hughes.
ESPNCRICINFO
July 4
Eleven-year-old Kieran Gray of Maidenhead & Bray’s Under-13s took the first six Taplow wickets in an over – and was then taken off to allow his team-mates to bowl. His figures thus remained 1–1–0–6. His first five victims were bowled, the last caught at cover. Taplow, 21 all out, lost by 131 runs.
LANCASHIRE TELEGRAPH
July 17
The Worsley Cup quarter-final between East Lancashire and Enfield, supposedly a one-day game, stretched for more than a month owing to continual rain. East Lancashire captain Ockert Erasmus finally settled the game by 11 runs with a hat-trick on July 12, just when Enfield appeared to be heading for victory, 33 days after the match should have started. This was the 12th scheduled day and the fifth actual playing day of a match staged on two different grounds – along the way it was switched to Enfield, which was slightly drier. The Warwickshire all-rounder Keith Barker began the game playing for his home club Enfield and took an early catch but, when it rained after four overs, had to leave – and could not be replaced.
NORTHERN STAR, LISMORE
July 18
A father and son took five wickets each in an innings for Goonellabah Workers Sports against Southern Cross University at Bexhill, New South Wales. Michael Mansfield, 56, took the first five wickets for five. He was replaced after his maximum five overs by his 17-year-old son Kody, who claimed the remaining wickets for 16. The university were 51 all out and lost the 30-over match by 29 runs.
COLOMBO PAGE
July 19
A teachers’ union protested when 117 schools in Hambantota postponed exams because of two one-day internationals between Sri Lanka and India being held in the town.
COURIER-MAIL, BRISBANE
July 24
The former Test batsman Dean Jones, 51, dislocated his finger when his golf club hit a tree root in his first tournament since he gained his professional card to compete in the Australian senior tour. He popped the finger back in and carried on. His caddy was Graeme Hick.
MUMBAI MIRROR
July 26
King’s Circle in Mumbai was closed for an hour as bomb disposal units and dogs examined a cricket ball embedded with the dial of a watch which had been left by a tree. It turned out to be an IPL souvenir.
DECLARATION GAME
August
With the weather so wet that play was obviously impossible, Bournemouth and Oxford decided to settle their British Universities & Colleges quarter-final without either side travelling. The tie was decided by a long-distance bowl-out, staged in their own home-town indoor schools, and watched by umpires who kept in contact by mobile phone. Bournemouth won.
MALVERN GAZETTE
August 27
Liz Hurley and her partner Shane Warne are believed to have bought Donnington Hall, a £6m mansion near Ledbury, Herefordshire. “I think Shane would get a game for us,” said Jim Sandford, chairman of nearby Eastnor CC.
THE SPIN
September 12
Rock star Alice Cooper, 65, visited the Test Match Special box at Lord’s during the South Africa Test. On being introduced, Geoff Boycott shook hands with Cooper’s wife.
THE GUARDIAN
September 18
Officials at Trent Bridge strategically wheeled a sightscreen into position to protect Nick Clegg, the unpopular deputy prime minister, from protesters when he arrived for a meeting with colleagues.
THE INDEPENDENT
September 19
Lifeboats had to rescue 11 people and a dog after the annual Brambles cricket match in the middle of the Solent. The sandbar pitch, normally exposed for about an hour at the lowest tides of the year, remained waterlogged because of a strong westerly wind, and the match had to take place with the players, from two rival yacht clubs, at least ankle-deep in the sea. One boat ran aground, and another had engine trouble on the return journey.
MAIL ON SUNDAY
September 23
The England fast bowler Graham Dilley, who died of cancer in 2011, aged 52, left nothing in his will once debts and outstanding matters had been settled. Dilley, twice divorced, had hoped his money would be divided equally between his four sons. One of them, Paul, said: “Money was never part of our relationship. He was a top-class bloke and was there when you needed him.”
DAILY MAIL
September 26
Former England opener John Edrich, 75, said he was cured of cancer by injections of mistletoe extract recommended b
y Stefan Geider, a doctor near his home in Aberdeenshire. Edrich was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2000, and five years later appeared close to death. Seven years after that, he was back playing golf three times a week and saying he felt on top of the world. The plant has been known for decades to have some anti-cancer properties, but researchers say it can have terrible side-effects, and even Dr Geider admits: “It does not work for everybody. It’s not a miracle cure.”
ESPNCRICINFO
October 12
Jade Child from Launceston, Tasmania, set a world record for the longest net session, batting for 25 hours and facing 15,701 deliveries from a bowling machine and local bowlers. The previous record stood at 12,353 balls.
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
October 17
Australian prime minister Julia Gillard made Sachin Tendulkar an honorary member of the Order of Australia on a visit to India, but the award came under fire for not meeting the rule that such awards for non-Australians should reflect “extraordinary service to Australia or humanity at large”. Independent MP Rob Oakeshott said: “I love Sachin, I love cricket, but I just have a problem with soft diplomacy. It’s about the integrity of the honours list.”
THE HARVARD CRIMSON
October 25
The United States’ two most famous universities, Harvard and Yale, met for their first-ever cricket match, under floodlights in front of a crowd of 15. Although Harvard had a team in the 19th century, Yale did not, and Harvard cricket had been moribund for more than 80 years. Harvard won by 177 runs.
THE INDIAN EXPRESS
November 1
Nine-year-old Aman Tiwari may have been saved from losing an arm because he was hurt when playing cricket. Though hit by only a tennis ball, he was in extreme pain, and doctors were able to diagnose bone cancer far earlier than would have otherwise happened.
THE TIMES
November 2
Charles Fenton, 92, and believed to be the oldest umpire in the country, may be able to continue in the job in 2013 after all. He was originally forced to announce his retirement after 61 years officiating in the Derbyshire and Cheshire League because without an extra premium insurers refused to provide cover for anyone over 85. However, publicity-minded bookmakers Paddy Power offered to pay the extra. “What kind of skipper declares with his batsman on 92?” said a spokesman.
HINDUSTAN TIMES
November 2
Bone-density tests initiated by India’s cricket board, which are supposed to be able to measure young people’s age accurately, have shown that many Under-16 players are over-age. Of 32 probables for Mumbai’s Under-16 team, 11 were said to be ineligible; similar numbers were reported elsewhere.
SUN HERALD, SYDNEY
November 11
Sydney High were bowled out for nought by King’s School in a Fourth XI match, with King’s bowler Brad Thomas taking six wickets, his victims forming two separate hat-tricks. King’s hit the winning run off a dropped sitter first ball. The sides then split into two scratch teams and played a far more satisfying Twenty20 fixture.
THE TIMES
November 17
The pavilion at Malpas CC, on the outskirts of Newport, South Wales, achieved an unbeatable niche in political history when it was used as a polling station in Britain’s first elections for police commissioners, and no voters at all turned up. Council officials waited in vain for 14 hours for any of the 8,278 electors in Bettws Ward to exercise their democratic rights. Turnout nationally was about 15%, a record low.
DAILY TELEGRAPH/THE GUARDIAN
December
Andrew Flintoff had an operation to repair a torn shoulder ligament after his first fight as a professional boxer. It was unclear whether the injury was sustained during his points victory over the American, Richard Dawson. Flintoff took a standing count in the second round, but held firm to win a narrow decision. The bout, much-hyped and much-criticised, looked, said The Guardian, “more like two burly farmhands trying to fend off a swarm of invisible bees than a boxing match”.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
December 10
A 15-year-old was allegedly beaten to death by two of his friends after dropping a catch in a game at Lakhimpur, near Lucknow, police said.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
December 12
Civil servants in the Department of Communities and Local Government accessed leading websites 54 million times in the previous month, according to a survey by officials. This included 383,000 hits for ESPNcricinfo.
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
December 19
Australia’s Transport Accident Commission defended their choice of Shane Warne to front a road-safety campaign less than a year after he was involved in a road-rage dispute with a cyclist.
BURY TIMES
December 27
Brooksbottom won their 50th anniversary Boxing Day match against Tottington St John’s by nine wickets. Alan Fletcher, who started the fixture in 1963, bowled the ceremonial first ball. “We were really lucky with the weather,” said Tottington official Kieran Coe. “It stayed dry and mild until we had finished playing, then it poured down.”
MUMBAI MIRROR
December 28
Thirteen-year-old Bhupen Lalwani of Don Bosco School, Matunga, became the latest addition to the list of players who have made extreme scores in Mumbai’s annual Giles Shield. Lalwani scored 398 out of 715 for five against IES Modern English School (Dadar), who lost by an innings and 590. He said “it hurt” to miss a quadruple-century.
We welcome contributions from readers, especially items from local or non-UK media. Items from club or school websites are also accepted. Please send newspaper cuttings to Matthew Engel at Fair Oak, Bacton, Herefordshire HR2 0AT (always including the paper’s name and date) and weblinks to almanack@wisden.com
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
from Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1914
NOTES BY THE EDITOR [Sydney Pardon] On the whole one may look back on the season of 1913 with keen satisfaction. Before the season began there was certainly reason to feel apprehensive... at a private meeting eleven of the leading counties had agreed among themselves to support a proposal by Lancashire to reduce the scope of the Championship by excluding from the competition four or five of the weaker clubs. On the face of it this seemed an unsportsmanlike proceeding, and naturally there was an outcry.
NOTES BY THE EDITOR [Sydney Pardon] As I have said more than once in Wisden, it was not until Association Football became such a power in the land that people began to think county cricket could live on gate money. The various committees are now recognising that it is to a larger membership they must look for security. One point, generally overlooked by those who cry out about bad times, is that the expense of running a county club has in these days increased to an extent out of all proportion to the amount of money paid by the public for admission to the matches. For the time it lasts cricket is the cheapest amusement I know of, and there is no safe way of making the general public pay more than they do.
NOTES BY THE EDITOR [Sydney Pardon] With regard to England’s position in the cricket world at the present time things could not be better... there is no denying the fact that we are just now very strong. In Hobbs we have, I think, the best bat in the world, Bardsley being at the moment his nearest rival, and in Barnes, beyond all question, the best bowler. That our strength is so largely professional is matter for regret, but this is a state of things that may soon change.
PUBLIC SCHOOL CRICKET IN 1913 Of general interest to school cricket... is the influence of swerve in modern bowling, and the danger of its overcultivation at the expense of spin and length among Public School bowlers. More than once this year I have heard the lament by a cricket master, “Oh! So-and-so was a most promising bowler with a good action and command of length and spin, but he learned to swing, and since then he has lost his length and direction, and has done nothing except get an odd wicket in the first over or two, or after the 200.
THE AUSTRALIAN
TEAM IN AMERICA From the end of May [1913] to the end of September an Australian team toured in America. The trip was quite unofficial in character and had no connection whatever with the Australian Board of Control, the side being got up and managed by Mr Benjamin. A huge programme of over 50 matches was completed, the Australians winning nearly all of them and only losing one... Bardsley, Macartney, and J. N. Crawford were in the Australian team, Macartney making seven scores of over a hundred, and Bardsley six.
KENT v WARWICKSHIRE, AT TONBRIDGE, JUNE 19, 20, 21 [1913] The resumption of fixtures between Kent and Warwickshire after a lapse of 14 years yielded the most remarkable day’s play during the whole of the season... Warwickshire were left with a lead which looked certain to decide the match in their favour. Blythe and Woolley, however, making the most of the conditions, actually dismissed Warwickshire in 45 minutes for 16, the two famous left-handers being quite unplayable, but after this startling achievement, it was impossible to believe Kent would be capable of hitting off 147 runs. Before lunch Humphreys and Seymour were disposed of for 16, 18 wickets so far having fallen in the day for 60 runs. Afterwards, however, Woolley hit away with such dazzling brilliancy that, under conditions which still placed batsmen at a marked disadvantage, he scored 76 in 80 minutes, Kent gaining a truly memorable victory by six wickets.