Tag: Butterflies

All Time XIs – Colours

An all time XI, an auction announcement and a large photo gallery.

I cannot claim that the XI that forms the body of this post is an absolutely stellar one, but I have a specific reason for this piece of whimsy which I will explain later in the post.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Jack Brown (Yorkshire, England, right handed opening batter). A very successful opening batter for his county, and played two legendary innings in games of higher standard than county – a match and series winning 140 in the last match of the 1894-5 Ashes series and a spectacular 163 which helped the Players to chase down 501 against the Gentlemen at Lord’s in 1900.
  2. Bill Brown (Australia, right handed opening batter). A successful opening batter after the retirements of two other Bills, Ponsford and Woodfull and before the rise of Barnes and Morris pushed him out of the side.
  3. George Brown (Hampshire, England, right handed batter, ). A tough competitor, especially noted for his play against fast bowling.
  4. +Ben Brown (Sussex, Hampshire, right handed batter, wicket keeper). A little high in the order, but a very fine batter and keeper at county level.
  5. Cameron Green (Australia, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). A splendid all rounder.
  6. *Freddie Brown (Surrey, Northamptonshire, England, right handed batter, leg spinner, right arm medium pacer, captain). He was the youngest member of the 1932-3 Ashes tour party, and didn’t play much on that trip. His next visit to Australia came 18 years later as captain (Norman Yardley and George Mann were both unavailable for business reasons, and England weren’t quite ready for a professional captain, so Brown who had done well as skipper of Northamptonshire ended with the job, and had a respectable series as player and even in a well beaten side was acknowledged to have done a good job as captain. In first class cricket he scored over 13,000 runs and took over 1,200 wickets.
  7. Gordon White (South Africa, right handed batter, leg spinner). His test stats look fairly ordinary, but he was an important part of the SA teams of his day, and his FC averages were the right way around – 27.70 with bat, 20.05 with ball.
  8. Dougie Brown (Warwickshire, Scotland, right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). A good county all rounder, his presence at number eight gives the batting depth. His FC averages, like those of Gordon White are the right way round – 30 with the bat and 28 with the ball in his case. I have placed him below the South African because batting was easier in the 1990s than it had been nine decades earlier, which more than makes up for him having a higher batting average.
  9. Jack ‘Farmer’ White (left arm orthodox spin bowler, right handed batter). One of Somerset’s finest cricketers, and his accuracy and stamina were crucial to England’s comprehensive triumph in the 1928-9 Ashes. At Adelaide in that series he toiled through 124 overs across the two Aussie innings and emerged with 13-256 in the match.
  10. David ‘Butch’ White (Hampshire, England, right arm fast bowler, left handed tail end bat). The reason for this XI making its appearance. Part of a new ball pairing with Derek Shackleton which was instrumental in the winning of Hampshire’s first ever County Championship. Unplayable on his day, he took over 1,100 FC wickets at 23 a piece, though he gained only two England caps.
  11. George Brown (Sussex, Hampshire, fast bowler, right handed tail end batter). He played in the 1820s, and his speed was the stuff of legends – one story which clearly grew in the telling was of a dog walker walking close to the boundary behind the stumps when one of Brown’s rockets beat everyone including the keeper and was racing directly towards the dog, the dog walker attempted to stop the ball with their coat and the ball burst straight through the coat and killed the dog.

This XI is undoubtedly a little light on batting, though the number of all rounders there, highlighted by Dougie Brown being at number eight, is somewhat of a mitigating factor, and the bowling attack is superb. Butch White and George Brown the bowler opening, with Dougie Brown third seamer, Cameron Green fourth seamer, and Farmer White, Gordon White and Freddie Brown spin options (I can’t think of situation in which Freddie’s seam or George Brown the batter’s occasional quick stuff could be required by this team) make this team a serious bowling force.

A SPORTING MEMORABILIA AUCTION COMING UP

On September the 26th James and Sons will be having an auction of various items of sporting memorabilia, including some very old football programmes and a range of items of cricketana. The latter includes three balls with which Butch White performed great bowling feats and which have silver plaques affixed to them detailing the feats in question. Catalogues can be viewed here or here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Now for my usual sign off…

Surrey In Control Against Warwickshire

A look at developments in the Surrey v Warwickshire match in the county championship and a photo gallery.

I mentioned the opening stages of the match between Surrey and Warwickshire in the County Championship in yesterday’s post. Things have moved on dramatically since then.

DAY ONE

Ben Foakes racked up his 15th first class century, and there were 50+ scores from Sibley, Jamie Smith and Cameron Steel, the latter unbeaten, as Surrey closed day one on 339-4.

DAY TWO

When the last six Surrey wickets fell for 57 early on day two, Foakes last out for 125, it looked like they had missed out on a really big score, but Dan Worrall and Kemar Roach had other ideas. Warwickshire were two down in next to no time, and stubborn Barbadian opener Kraigg Brathwaite fell on the stroke of lunch to an uncharacteristically loose shot, making it 38-3, and 95-9 for the morning session. Two more wickets immediately after lunch left Warwickshire absolutely reeling at 39-5. Sam Hain and Michael Burgess then offered serious resistance, putting on 40 before Hain was dislodged to make it 79-6. Burgess and Danny Briggs have added 20 for the seventh wicket so far. Kemar Roach, yet another fine cricketer to hail from Barbados, has three wickets so far, Dan Worrall two and Jordan Clark one. Incidentally, the movement of players is not all one way – Laurie Evans of Surrey is currently in Barbados playing in the Caribbean Premier League. Surrey’s closest challengers, Essex, are currently struggling against Middlesex, but they are batting first in hot, dry conditions and have the best spinner on the county circuit, Simon Harmer, in their ranks.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

County Championship Action Resumes

A brief look at the resumption of the county championship, an account of a ‘Make your own pizza’ session arranged by the West Norfolk Autism Group and a photo gallery.

After a break for The Hundred and The One Day Cup the County Championship has resumed. I am following developments at The Oval where Surrey host Warwickshire (although at the moment only by way of cricinfo – I am listening to commentary on the third T20I between England and New Zealand.

THREE HALF CENTURIES FOR SURREY

Surrey are batting first, and are faring reasonably well. Ben Foakes has just become the third Surrey batter to reach 50, after an aggressive innings by Jamie Smith and much less aggressive one from Sibley, although 65 off 174 is not slow by the opener’s regular standards. I missed the morning session due having a commitment elsewhere, though it is fairly clear from what the commentators have had to say that Ed Barnard has been the best of the Warwickshire bowlers so far. Tea is now being taken, with Surrey 224-4.

MAKE YOUR OWN PIZZA

This morning the West Norfolk Autism Group had a Make Your Own Pizza session for adults, hosted by Pizza Express in King’s Lynn town centre. We started with a lump of dough which had been turned into a pizza base. This process was quite tricky, but I managed to get it done. Once the base was in the baking tray in which it would be cooked the next step was to create a barrier by elevating the edge of the base (as close to the very edge as possible). Then came the application of tomato puree, which was the one element with which I required a little assistance. Then came the selection of ingredients – in my case I said yes to mushrooms, pepperoni and olives and no to the rest (ham, chicken, two types of pepper, both too hot for my tastes, spiced beef and goats cheese), after which it was time add the mozzarella, which needed to be distributed as evenly as possible. Before the cooking there was on e more thing to do – to name our pizzas. I was very pleased with my creation and ate every scrap of it.

The pizza, ready for cooking
The cooked pizza.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A cormorant swimming in the pond nearest my house – not a regular haunt of these birds.

All Time XIs – Barbados Born

An all time XI of Barbados born players, highlighting the immense talent produced by that tiny coral island down the years. Also a photo gallery.

I have mentioned in some of my previous all time XIs posts the remarkable number of amazing cricketers produced by the tiny coral island of Barbados. Now I select an XI specifically to showcase the extent of the talent produced by this island with a population of under 300,000.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Gordon Greenidge (right handed opening batter). One half of the greatest opening pair the West Indies have ever had, and both hail from this island.
  2. Desmond Haynes (right handed opening batter). The other half of that legendary opening pair.
  3. *Frank Worrell (right handed batter, left arm medium fast bowler, captain). The total number of West Indies captains to truly overcome inter island rivalries totals two – this man and Clive Lloyd of Guyana. Worrell was a classy batter who scored his test runs at an average of 49, and his appointment as skipper ended one of cricket’s nastier shibboleths – the view that a mainly black team needed a white man to lead them.
  4. Everton Weekes (right handed batter). One of the most powerful stroke makers ever seen, but a firm believer in keeping the ball on the ground – he rarely hit sixes. He averaged 58.61 in test cricket, including a sequence at that level of five centuries in successive innings.
  5. Clyde Walcott (right handed batter, occasional wicket keeper, occasional medium pacer). Like Weekes a ferocious hitter of a cricket ball, and a colossal scorer even at test level (average 56). Additionally he once shared fourth wicket stand of 574 for Barbados with Frank Worrell, at the time an FC record for any wicket, though it was beaten only a few years later when Gul Mahomed and Vijay Hazare got to work for Baroda against Holkar, also for the fourth wicket, and that in turn was beaten by Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara for Sri Lanka against South Africa, when they put on 624 for the third wicket.
  6. Garry Sobers (left handed batter, left arm bowler of every type known to cricket). The most multi-skilled player ever to play the game.
  7. +David Murray (wicket keeper, right handed batter). Barbados’s finest ever keeper, and good enough to play for the West Indies.
  8. Malcolm Marshall (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). One of the greatest fast bowlers ever to play the game and a more than useful lower order batter.
  9. Wes Hall (right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter). A legendary fast bowler of the late 1950s and early 1960s and a good enough lower order batter to score a first class century.
  10. Joel Garner (right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter). An awkward proposition because of the immense height from which he released the ball (above the height of many sightscreens), and capable of useful runs at need.
  11. Manny Martindale (right arm fast bowler, right handed tail end batter). Not many test appearances, as he belonged to the early days of West Indies test history, but he took his wickets at that level at 21 each, and over a larger sample size at FC level paid 25 each for his wickets.

This side has a stellar top six, a keeper who could bat and four great fast bowlers, most of whom had at least some capability with the bat as well. The spin bowling is weak, with Sobers the only front line option in that department, but that reflects the fact that conditions in Barbados have generally favoured fast bowlers and not spinners. Still not many places with similar populations could offer up an XI that would come close to challenging this one.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Some my chosen XI moved away from Barbados, but all played for the West Indies. Four Barbadian born cricketers moved to England and have played for their new country: Roland Butcher (right handed batter), Gladstone Small (right arm fast medium bowler), Chris Jordan (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter and ace fielder) and Jofra Archer (right arm fast bowler). Of these four the only one who might challenge for a place is Archer, and his injury history counts against him. Having covered that I now deal with a player who I regard as deserving a paragraph to himself in this section…

CONRAD CLEOPHAS HUNTE

The third of the three unequivocally top of the range test openers to come out of Barbados. I left him out, because although I have little doubt that considered in isolation he outranks Haynes, and maybe even Greenidge I felt that proven effectiveness of Greenidge and Haynes as an opening combination meant that I had to pick them, which meant that I could not accommodate Hunte.

The spin bowling issue is problematic – leg spinning all rounder David Holford is not worth a place in either department, and the best specialist spinner that Barbados has produced, Sulieman Benn, has a very ordinary test record. One possible solution to getting a second front line spinner into the XI is to drop Martindale, drop Murray and the three remaining quicks a place each down the order and select Hayley Matthews, an off spinning all rounder with a great record for Barbados and West Indies women’s teams at number seven.

There are a stack of fast bowlers who could not be accommodated who would be instant selections in many another team: Wayne Daniel, Sylvester Clarke Herman Griffith and Charlie Griffith the four most obvious specialists plus a trio of all rounders – Jason Holder, Franklyn Stephenson and Ottis Gibson.

Some of you will have ideas of your own about players who could have been mentioned or selected – fire away with your comments.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – Closed Underground Stations

An all time XI all whom connect to defunct London Underground stations. Also a large photo gallery.

The main feature of today’s post is an all time XI every player of which can be connected back to a former London Underground station. In each case I elucidate the connection. Unfortunately a major rain interruption prevented the T20I between the England and Sri Lanka women’s teams providing as much news as seemed likely. England won by 12 runs on the DLS method, after SL’s innings was reduced to six overs (rain had reduced the match to 17 overs per side, and then 3.1 overs into the SL response more rain fell). The DLS adjustment, helped by England having scored incredibly fast in their innings, left SL needing 45 off 17 balls on the resumption and they never looked like getting them.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. *WG Grace (right handed opening batter, right arm bowler of various types, captain). His case for inclusion on cricketing grounds needs no stating. He gets in by dint of his first given name, William, which links to King William Street, the first northern terminus of what was then the City & South London Railway, which was abandoned in 1900 when the line was extended northwards.
  2. Frank Hayes (right handed opening batter). He scored 13,000 runs at 35 in FC cricket, though barring a debut century his test record was very ordinary. Between 1883 and 1885 the Metropolitan District Railway as it then was ran services to Windsor, and one of the intermediate stops was Hayes.
  3. Ernie Hayes (right handed batter, leg spinner). A fine all rounder whose Surrey career lasted three decades. His closed station is the same is that of Frank Hayes.
  4. Clem Hill (left handed batter). At the time his test career ended he had scored more runs at that level than anyone else, and was also an athletic fielder. One stop west of Ealing Broadway in the days of District services to Windsor was a station known by two names in its brief history with that line, Castle Hill, another which we will see later in this piece.
  5. Marcus North (left handed batter, occasional off spinner). He averaged 35 at test level and 40 in FC cricket with the bat and had his moments with the ball. North Weald station was on the Epping – Ongar section of the Central line, which became part of London Underground post WWII and closed in 1994.
  6. Paul Winslow (right handed batter). A notable big hitter in his day. In the days the expansionist Edward Watkin the Metropolitan Railway was extended many miles northwest of London. Beyond Aylesbury was a junction at Quainton Road, with one branch leading to Verney Junction by way of Granborough Road and Winslow Road, the latter of which gets him in. We will see the other branch later.
  7. +Gil Langley (wicket keeper, right handed batter). A great keeper in his day. Langley was on the Windsor branch referred to earlier in this piece.
  8. Charlie Dean (off spinner, right handed batter). An excellent spinner and a useful lower order batter. The other name by which Castle Hill was known in that period between 1883-85 was Ealing Dean.
  9. Wes Hall (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). A legendary fast bowler for the West Indies. Blake Hall was on the Epping-Ongar branch of the Central line, though it closed over a decade before the rest of the branch due to being so lightly used.
  10. Mark Wood (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). A very fine and very fast fast bowler. Wood Siding was one of the stations on the Duke of Buckingham’s private railway, which Edward Watkin bought for the Metropolitan Railway, of which it remained part from 1899 to 1935. The terminus of this line, Brill, is 51 miles from Baker Street, the furthest from central London any of the lines now part of London Underground have ever extended (Amersham, the current record holder, is a mere 27 miles out).
  11. Esmond Kentish (right arm fast medium, right handed batter). A fine bowler, but a genuine number 11. South Kentish Town, which gets him into this XI, was on what is now the High Barnet branch of the Northern line. In the 1920s strike action closed Lots Road Power Station temporarily, and that caused services on various lines not to be able to run. When services resumed South Kentish Town did not reopen.

This XI is not too bad given the criteria – a good top five, a great keeper and an excellent bowling attack – Wood, Hall and Kentish to bowl seam, Dean and Ernie Hayes to bowl spin, and Grace and North as back up options.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The One Day Cup Semi-Finals

A look at the semi-finals of the One Day Cup, which took place yesterday, and a large photo gallery.

These matches took place yesterday, and I only witnessed one of the four innings.

HAMPSHIRE V WARWICKSHIRE

This was the one I had not expected to catch any of, since it was an 11AM start, which meant that it was always more likely than not to be done before I was home from work. In the event it was over at 2:23PM, Warwickshire proving utterly spineless. Liam Dawson claimed 7-15 as Warwickshire were routed for 94. Hampshire then only lost one wicket knocking off the runs.

LEICESTERSHIRE V GLOUCESTERSHIRE

This one started at 2PM. By the time I was home from work the Gloucestershire innings was done, for a paltry 125, but it was raining. The rain eventually eased in time for a 6:15PM restart. Early on it looked like Gloucestershire might yet succeed in defending their low total. Leicestershire were 33-4 at low water mark. At that point Peter Handscomb, a former Gloucestershire player, was joined by Wiaan Mulder. This pair, slowly at first and more rapidly as their partnership endured, saw their side home to a six wicket victory. Thus Hampshire and Leicestershire will contest the final.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The Hundred Finals

A look back at yesterday’s finals of the Hundred and a huge photo gallery.

The final matches in this year’s Hundred took place yesterday. This post looks back at both matches.

SOUTHERN BRAVE V NORTHERN SUPERCHARGERS

Southern Brave recovered well from the loss of two early wickets, with Danni Wyatt playing a superb innings for them. They eventually managed 139-6 from their 100 balls, respectable rather than outstanding. Northern Superchargers struggled badly in reply. They didn’t hit very many boundaries, and they did an appallingly bad job of rotating the strike – Indian opener Jemimah Rodrigues, whose dismissal basically ended their hopes of success was out to the 73rd ball of the innings, and so badly had Superchargers failed at rotating the strike that she faced only 14 of those 73 balls. She was the only Superchargers batter scoring quickly enough to give her side a shot at chasing down the total, but her team mates simply could not get her enough of the strike. In the end Brave won by 34 runs, sending their skipper Anya Shrubsole into retirement on an appropriately high note. In 2017 Shrubsole was the star of the show when England won the World Cup final at Lord’s, where this match also took place. On that occasion Shrubsole took six Indian wickets to win England a game that looked to be going the other way for much of its duration. This time she was part of an excellent team bowling performance, and her team rarely looked anything other than 100% in control of the match. One other Brave player deserves special mention: wicket keeper Rhianna Southby, who was, as she has been for most of the tournament stellar behind the stumps. Highlights of her performance this match included three stumpings, at least one of which would have beyond most other keepers in this tournament. She is that increasingly rare player in the modern era – someone who gets picked specifically for her keeping skills – she was officially down to bat at number 10 had Brave lost that many wickets. Danni Wyatt’s sparkling 59 earned her Player of the Match, while Marizanne Kapp was named Player of the Tournament for the 147 runs and 11 wickets she managed.

OVAL INVINCIBLES V MANCHESTER ORIGINALS

This match featured one of the more astonishing turn arounds seen in a game of such short duration (long form cricket offers much more scope for truly spectacular turn arounds – check out Warwickshire v Hampshire in 1922 for a classic example). Invincibles were put into bat, no surprise given that Originals had made a chase of 196 look trivially easy only a day previously. The Invincibles were soon looking decidedly vincible, with the score reading 34-5. At that point Tom Curran joined Kiwi James Neesham and the turnaround began. This pair were still together at the end of the 100 balls, by which time they had put on 127 together, raising the total to 161-5. Tom Curran had 67* (34) to his name, and Neesham, only marginally less brutal, 57* (33). Originals made a bright start, but Invincibles’ three contrasting slow bowlers, Briggs (left arm orthodox), Sowter (leg spin) and Jacks (off spin) proved extremely hard to score off and picked up a number of wickets. Max Holden and Jamie Overton put on a good partnership for the sixth wicket, and then Tom Hartley continued the resistance in partnership with Overton, but Originals were hopelessly behind the required rate, and ended up 14 runs adrift. Tom Curran was Player of the Match, while Jamie Overton’s all round contributions (208 runs and 3 wickets across the tournament) saw him named Player of the Tournament.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a massive photo gallery today – I have been on two substantial walks today, and both proved bountiful sources of pictures…

The Hundred Finals Weekend So Far

A look at what has happened in The Hundred finals weekend so far plus a photo galley.

With the final of The Hundred (women’s competition) under way this post looks back at the the action from yesterday. Before I go into it a note about the Hundred’s qualification rules: it is an eight team league, and in order to ensure that only teams who have been provably better than average qualify for the KO stages only three teams make it through. The team who finish top of the group qualify straight into the finals, while second and third place play off for the right to join them, with second place having the advantage that if the match gets rained out they progress based on league position.

THE WOMEN’S ELIMINATOR

This match, between Welsh Fire and Northern Superchargers, was the first scheduled for yesterday. Fire batted first and had reached 104-2 from 75 balls when the weather intervened, and did not let up in time for the match to be resumed. This meant that Superchargers, having finished second in the group, joined Southern Brave in the final, the match currently being contested. It also meant that Alex Hartley’s playing career, highlighted by being part of England’s 2017 World Cup winning side came to an end. Had Fire made the final she may have had another outing, but as it happened her time as a professional cricketer ended on the bench, not having being picked for the XI.

THE MEN’S ELIMINATOR

Southern Brave had a chance to make both finals, being joined in this Eliminator by Manchester Originals, with Oval Invincibles awaiting the winners. When they scored 196-1 from their 100 balls batting first this looked more than a possibility. Phil Salt (47 off just 17 balls) and Jos Buttler (82 off 46) had other ideas, and with other useful contributions along the way Originals, who were never at any point not ahead of the required rate won by seven wickets with four balls to spare. Jamie Overton made the winning hit, a six which meant that 196 balls had seen 397 runs scored. In view of the scoring rates elsewhere the approach of Brave opener Devon Conway (51* off 38) has to be questioned. Therefore tonight’s final of The Hundred (men’s competition) will be between Manchester Originals and Southern Brave.

THE WOMEN’S FINAL

Southern Brave are batting, and after the loss of two early wickets are mounting a decent recovery – they are currently 64-2 after 54 balls, Danni Wyatt 39*, Georgia Adams 16*. They will need to up the rate, but they are in decent shape.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Gloucestershire v Lancashire

A look back at Gloucestershire’s win against Lancashire yesterday, some cricket related links and a huge photo gallery.

Yesterday Gloucestershire took on Lancashire for the right to claim a slot in the One-Day Cup semi-finals. This competition uses an interesting qualification system – the winners of each of the two groups qualify direct for the semi-finals, while second place in one group plays at home to third place in the either to qualify for the remaining semi-final places. Tomorrow will see Hampshire play Worcestershire to complete the SF line up, with group winners Warwickshire and Leicestershire already qualified. This post looks back at yesterday’s game.

THE LANCASHIRE INNINGS

I missed part of the Lancashire innings because I had a dentist appointment at 11AM. Lancashire were already four down with not a huge number of runs on the board when I tuned in. Wickets continued to fall regularly, although the eighth wicket pair (Tom Aspinwall and Tom Bailey) battled hard and prevented a total debacle. Still, 177 all out in a 50 overs per side match, even on a pitch offering a bit to the bowlers, should never be a defensible total.

THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE RESPONSE

There had been a brief rain interruption to the Lancashire innings, but no overs had yet been lost. However, the weather remained threatening, given Gloucestershire motive to look to settle things quickly. In the event they required less than half of their 50 overs to chase down the target. The chief architect of this destruction of Lancashire was Miles Hammond, who reached his maiden list A century off 82 balls, hitting nine fours and six sixes along the way. He added two more fours, the latter the winning hit, after reaching the landmark to end up on 109*. Gloucestershire had eight wickets as well as 25.1 overs to spare. It would appear that Gloucestershire have hit their straps exactly at the right time, and they will be tough for anyone to deal with now (direct qualification for the SF for group winners is IMO a double-edged sword – by the time the SF comes round they have had less recent practice than those who have to win an extra match to claim their places). A Lancashire bowling attack being helpless in the face of a Gloucestershire batter named Hammond is not unprecedented – about a century ago Walter Hammond in a county championship fixture absolutely took Lancashire apart, including starting a day’s play by hitting Aussie pacer Ted McDonald for five successive fours.

OTHER CRICKETING LINKS

This time last year I was making my cricketing trip through the alphabet. There are two more pieces to share to complete the set of selectorial posts:

THE LETTER Y

My full post about players whose surnames begin with Y can be seen here. There is a change to this XI since I posted it – Yashavsi Jaiswal has announced himself for India in no uncertain terms, which means that Martin Young, a respectable county opener, loses his place. The revised XI for this letter is thus: M Yardy, Yashavsi Jaiswal, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, GN Yallop, *NWD Yardley, +Saleem Yousuf, U Yadav, Waqar Younis, J Young, P Yadav.

THE LETTER Z

No changes to this one, which can be viewed in full here. The XI reads Fakhar Zaman, Ibrahim Zadran, Zubayr Hamza, Najibullah Zadran, K Zondo, JW Zulch, +Zulqarnain Haider, M Zondeki, Zia Ur Rahman, Zaheer Khan, Zahir Khan.

As well as the above I have a new blog to introduce. Brailly has opened up with a cricket themed post, reinventing the county championship as a red ball franchise competition. I am impressed by this effort, and in gratitude for getting an honourable mention I reciprocate by linking to it.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a splendid gallery to share with you today…

All Time XIs – England Every Decade

A quirky all time XI and some photographs.

Welcome to another quirky take on the all time XIs theme. This time I pick an England XI (plus twelfthy) in which every decade of test history is represented at least once.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Jack Hobbs (right handed opening batter, 1900s-1930s). At the time of his retirement he was the leading run scorer in test history, and he still holds the England records for Ashes runs (3,636) and centuries (12).
  2. Herbert Sutcliffe (right handed opening batter, 1920s-30s). The only England batter to finish a career that spanned at least 20 test matches with an average above 60 (60.73).
  3. *WG Grace (right handed batter, right arm bowler of various types through bhis career, captain, 1880s-1890s). Made his debut for England in the first ever test match on English soil in 1880, and although he was already 32 by then he remained a formidable opponent for the next 19 years.
  4. Ken Barrington (right handed batter, occasional leg spinner, 1950s-60s). Averaged just short of 59 with the bat, including a career best of 256 against Australia.
  5. Wally Hammond (right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler, ace slip fielder, 1920s-1940s). The first ever to score as many as 7,000 test runs. In the 1928-9 Ashes he scored 905 runs at 113.125, four years later he was joint leading run scorer for the series with 440 at 55.00, a performance followed up by scoring 227 and then 336* in two tests in New Zealand.
  6. +Les Ames (wicket keeper, right handed batter, 1930s). He averaged over 40 with the bat in test cricket and was also a top notch wicket keeper. Late in his career lumbago prevented him from keeping wicket, but he played on for Kent as a specialist batter, with Godfrey Evans maintaining the succession of great Kent keepers, going back to Tylecote in the 1880s.
  7. Ian Botham (right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler, ace slip fielder, 1970s-1990s). I have placed him in the position from which he scored both of his legendary centuries in the 1981 Ashes. His last bow at international level was the 1992 World Cup – he retired from all competitive cricket part way through the 1993 home season when he realized that England would not be picking him again.
  8. Jim Laker (off spinner, right handed lower order batter, 1940s-50s). Perhaps the greatest of all orthodox off spinners, most famous for his destruction of the 1956 Australians. It is also noteworthy, especially in view of the generally awful record of English off spinners down under, that he took 15 economical wickets for a thoroughly beaten England in 1958-9.
  9. Syd Barnes (right arm fast-medium bowler , right handed lower order batter, 1900s-1910s). 189 wickets at 16.43 in just 27 test matches makes its own case for his inclusion.
  10. Hedley Verity (left arm orthodox spinner, right handed lower order batter, 1930s). Even in a decade of doped pitches and Bradman’s batting he claimed 144 test wickets at 24 each, while in FC cricket he was an absolute destroyer, paying less than 15 a piece for his wickets.
  11. James Anderson (right arm fast medium bowler, left handed lower order batter, 2000s-2020s). England’s all time leading test wicket taker.
  12. George Ulyett (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, 1870s-1880s). The fast bowling all rounder was part of the earliest period of England’s international cricket history and could replace anyone save Ames without massively weakening the side – he once scored 149 in a test match, opening the batting, while his best bowling figures at that level were 7-36.

This side has a powerful batting line up, and a strong and well varied bowling attack. There is no front line leg spinner, and no left arm quick bowler, and no genuinely fast bowler, but nonetheless it is a pretty good side.

PHOTOGRAPHS

A two part photo gallery today…

We start with some images from work yesterday – lots 638-43 inclusive in the October auction.
We finish with pictures I have taken while out and about yesterday and today.