h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

He's the world's first elbow spinner, isn't he?

I'm sorry, but I still find his action deeply suspicious.

B

'"Any part of the batsman that is not the bat."

'What sort of strange cricketers do you hang out with?

'B'

Okay, that was a little flippant, but leg byes can be given if the ball comes off the helmet. I expect LBWs work the same, although only the actual legs are likely to be in front of the wicket.

S is for Scorer - a team's best friend

(I'm one of those)

Good entry, must have been a massive job! Few pointers for you; the ones with a question mark are terms I think you should explain in addition:

The Ashes - hotly contested by Australia too, you know; did you see the last Test? Ask Brett Lee how much he cares....

All-rounder - is one of those rare, and very valuable, players who is equally proficient at both. Not necessarily equally. Many players will bowl a few overs in one day games, but would never be considered a serious option in the longer game. 'Proficient at both' would be better. Jonty Rhodes, incidently, was known as an all-rounder because of his exceptional batting and fielding - not his bowling.

Appeal - I think you need to re-do this one, it would sound a bit vague unless I knew what you were talking about.

Beamer - one of the reasons why many cricketers now wear helmets when batting. But the main reason is because of Bouncers, which you don't mention.

Carrying your bat?

Dead ball?

Delivery - is one ball bowled. What you're talking about is different types of delivery, which is different.

Interval?

Nelson - 111 is treated with superstition by many cricketers 4 Umpire David Shepherd is known for hopping whenever the score reaches a multiple of 111. Shep has, sadly, now retired and hops no more. The Australians are particularly nervy of Nelsons historically.

Pair - mention of King Pairs?

Pitch: the bounce of the ball on the ground, or the field itself. Also sometimes used to refer specifically the area between the wickets. - The pitch is *always*, according to the laws of the game, the area between the wickets or the bounce of the ball - never the field itself. This sounds very pedantic, but if it applied to the whole field things like 'running on the pitch' would be very hard to avoid!

Runner?

Seam?


Good work

Of course I saw the Test (*so* exciting!) but in the interests of longevity (and possibly humour?) I thought I'd go for the stereotype of England taking it terribly seriously and Australia winning effortlessly - much to my delight that is becoming increasingly inaccurate! I've been enjoying your write-ups btw, Skankyrich.

Thanks to everyone for loads of fab suggestions - sorry I can't reply to you all individually (the day job calls...) I'll try and incorporate as many of these as I can when I have a mo.

Hi Skankyrich,
According to the ICC website, David Shepherd umpired one of the ODIs between England and Australia last month. Is it just Test matches that he's stopped umpiring?
I'll leave the reference to him in for now anyway.
Cheers

Note to self:
Updated & to re-read later: Appeal, Delivery, Leg Byes, Nelson, Slips.
Still to do: Bat, Bouncer, Bunny, Dead Ball, Opener, Plumb, Rabbit, Runner, Scorer, Seam/seamer, Walk... and probably lots more!

Do you think there's any place for A2891478 ?

B

Oh I love that 'explanation'!
I'm sure I can find an excuse to squeeze it in (perhaps as a footnote under 'In' and/or 'Out'?)

Hi Ali,

His last international match was one of the ODI's. We have no more Shep, I'm afraid

Alas!
Oh well, I'd better put his hopping into the past tense... Thanks for letting me know.

How's the rest of it looking btw? I haven't managed to add all the suggestions yet (though I'm working on it) but some of them are there now.

Anyway, better get back to the real business of the day: TMS, here I come!

Being pedantic I have to point out that Australians fear the 'Devil's number' which is 87, 187, 287 etc - because it is 13 short of 100.
As this is a long way on I might be too late, but had you thought of subdividing this informative but way too lengthy entry into batting, bowling, fielding and general cricket related terms? I think you have bitten off significantly more than you can chew or that readers could read. I'm a cricket nut and I zoned out at L!! As a former scout I would be happier to recommend a series of connected entries rather than one monster entry. Good work tho
SBE

Thanks SBE,

Gosh, that's a tricky one. I'm very reluctant to sub-divide by category since this is intended primarily as a vocab reference for complete novices - who wouldn't have a clue whether they'd find 'yorker' under 'bowling', 'batting' or 'articulated lorry'.

Would it help to separate out by letter, eg. A-M and N-Z, or is that just a bit lame (and possibly pointless)? It might help if I got rid of the 'Also's, which don't add much other then some unnecessary scrolling - what do you think?

BTW, it was quite short when I first posted it...

"Bunny: a batsman who is repeatedly Out to the same bowler may be called that bowler's Bunny."
Are you sure about that? I thought a bunny was an Australina variant on 'rabbit'. The idea of a batsman being someone's bunny sounds a bit too much like a 'buckle bunny' to me
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-750-4572/life_society/stampede/clip6
http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/buckle_bunny/
I'd add a link for a buckle bunny thong ... but we're not allowed to link to sites which sell something. A quick Google search on buckle bunny ought to throw up the link, if you *really* want to see it

I think "Carrying His Bat" should be put into past tense, since it's rarely talked about until after the innings is over: "Gooch carried his bat through the innings".

"since the direction of the ball will be easier to control"
'since the direction of his shot'?

It's not only a team's innings which can be declared - a batsman can also declare his innings closed - one of the many ways of being out.

"giving themselves time to try and bat out the other team"
I think you mean 'bowl out the other team'.

Perhaps in 'Hat Trick' you could add that the three succesive balls don't have to come in the same over, or even in the same innings - during the Edgbaston test Flintoff was on a hat trick when he came in to bowl his first ball of the Aussie second innings because he had taken two successive wickets with his last two deliveries of their first innings (he missed but got a wicket with his second ball of the second innings )

"Howzat" There are some types of dismissal which can't be given by the umpire unless the bowler appeals for them with a Howzat! I think LBW is one. Even if the delivery is plumb, the batsman can't be out unless the bowler (or possibly any fielder) appeals before the bowler begins his run-up for the next delivery.

Is it allowed to link to Post articles in an edited entry?

"Lord's: the self-proclaimed home of English cricket"
'Lord's: the acknowledged centre of the cricketing world, often referred to as 'HQ', and named not after the people who sit in the upper house of the British Parliament, but the man who founded the ground - Thomas Lord"

"specifically the padding strapped to a batsman’s legs which is designed to protect his limbs from the ball"
'protect his shins and knees'

"Pitch: the bounce of the ball on the ground, or the area between the wickets"
"Pitch": the area of close-cropped grass between the wickets. Also the bounce of the ball on the pitch, as in 'The ball pitched on a length'.

Is 'length' in the entry btw?

"or hitting a Boundary, however, additional runs"
'or hitting a Boundary; however, additional runs'

"Run Out: another way to lose a wicket,"
'Run Out: another way to lose a wicket;'

Soul Limbo Nice

"despite the fact that the BBC haven’t"
'hasn't'

Am I right in thinking that in all of test history to date there have only been two tied tests?

How about something about 'gardening'?

The wicket is often reffered to as 'the timbers' or 'the furniture'. Since the 'wicket' section is already pretty complicated, I'd suggest putting that in the 'stumps' section, if you want to include it 'Stumps' also means the end of play for the day, when the umpires remove the bails, and the stumps are pulled out of the ground and lain down on the ground.

I did say that this thread might run and run

Good thought. I like the subdivision on alphabetical lines. I think it could work maybe A-L M-Z. BTW my favourite term is ferret - a batsman so bad he goes in after the rabbits
SBE

SBE - Thanks, I'll see what I can do there. Would something like the alphabet/links technique used at A834482 work?

Oojakapiv - Yes, I've noticed some people (eg. cricinfo) claim that bunny and rabbit are interchangeable but I'd never heard or seen 'bunny' used that way. I even double-checked my definition with my personal cricket guru (ie. the OH). Perhaps it's another English/Aussie distinction? Anyway, to avoid confusion, I'll add it as an alternate meaning.

I don't even want to know what a buckle bunny is!

Thanks for spotting the grammar slips. I'll fix them and tackle the rest asap. But not till after yoga (ohhhmmm).

Great Entry Ali Baba, very informative and well layed out.

I've mentioned cricket in an Entry I'm currently working on A4883600 (blatant plug) and now realise I have something wrong in that Entry, so I have a question

If the batsman is at the crease, where does the bowler bowl from?

Emmily

I think Lord's is more properly referred to as 'Headquarters', and only occasionally as HQ.

"If the batsman is at the crease, where does the bowler bowl from?"
The other crease

Thanks Emmily - I'm glad you liked it!

Enjoyed A4883600 enormously (chortle).

Should you want another cricketing anecdote for it, see TMS's Jonathan Agnew's biog - http://www.bbc.co.uk/tms/presenters.shtml#ja - he once sent his fellow commentator into fits of uncontrollable giggles by explaining that "Botham didn't quite manage to get his leg over" (over the wicket, in case you wondered!) It's a cracking piece of radio.

Great minds think alike, Ali Baba
F50359?thread=790428