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

Sometimes I think movies were a step DOWN from radio - the listener's imagination can create better images than anything Hollywood can show us on the screen. I have a great short documentary from the early days of talkies. Its a filming of the airing of a radio cowboy drama, showing how all the sound effects were done. This is WAY before tape decks, digital samples, etc. When the farm wife is talking while she washes dishes, they have a sink of dishes that someone is clinking. The out-of-breath chases, etc. required careful choreography to get the breath short and also the distance from the mikes. It was amazing to watch.

Two questions:

1. Bowled for 42 with his fourth ball. 42 is a low total for a big star, and he was now out - at least for that innings?

2. White Cap and Bails?

1, 42 is a low score for someone like Kapil Dev, and yes he was then out for that innings. The fourth ball bit was the bowlers 4th delivery I guess.

2, White Cap and Bails, a book by Dickie Bird. Dickie Bird was one of the most respected - by both players, administrators and fans - international umpires. He retired a while back and now goes out watching cricket and football (he's a Barnsley fan!) and giving talks and after dinner speaches. He is supposed to be a very good speaker with lots of anecdotes from his long career as an umpire.

Thanx for finding this for me Phil. I had done what you suggest but the posts from my first couple of months seem to have got lost. This certainly wasn't available to me. Nice to have it back

? I'm now confused here. (very easily done I will admit).

Count me as confused also ... and also easily done, but I'm getting used to it. I think the change of format has contributed to the confusion.

BTW, I continue to meet cricketers in Houston, Texas, USA, the last was a motel manager from India who had facial scars to show, also a son (maybe 16-18 years old) who is an active player. They enjoyed the story from this Forum about the NZ player (I think) whose helmet got knocked off by an Australian bowler. The helmet hit the stumps, the umpire immediately ruled out. Both father and son just nodded, a friend of the son looked incredulous (as I was at first).

They also emphasized an essential difference between baseball and cricket that I had not appreciated. In cricket, you can be done for the game (as a batsman) in one bowl. In baseball, you will generally get several chances to bat regardless of an out on your first pitch (bowl), via a caught fly ball or whatever.

- Steve K.

G'day Steve,

and about time we started talking cricket again...

As for the first ball thing, very true however if things are going well you could be batting all day

In fact, it's possible to get done for the game without even facing ONE ball.

Or you could try it in both innings and get a golden pair

at least that would be your own fault i suppose, not like being run out at the non-strikers end without even a chance to show your incompetence..

Uhhh ... getting out without facing even one ball? Lemme guess, the batsman at the non-batting end gets run out? (Not sure I'm using the correct terms here) So then he never gets to bat in that innings?

A friend was on a softball team which had a player ejected by the umpire before the game even started. Now, that's a fast way to the post-game beer cooler.

Correct re the run out.

As for the beer cooler, its a bit like getting sent off with 10 minutes to go in rugby to make sure you get hot water in the showers

From what I've seen of rugby, I would have been carried off on a stretcher long before the last ten minutes. I have a Life Magazine "Best Magazine Photos of the Year" (Spring 2000), the winner for sports was by Stuart MacFarlane, "Welsh rugby player Garin Jenkins gets an eyeful during a match with Argentina ..." An opponent has his index finger jammed into Jenkins' left eye. The text starts out, "It looks like a textbook bowling grip ..." and concludes "Jenkins has acquired a new nickname: Tenpin."

P.S. Jenkins got up, rubbed his eye and kept playing.

The New Zealander (Adam Parore) actually had his helmet knocked off by Brett Lee, the world's fastest bowler at the moment (over 155 km/h on one occasion) and the strap on the helmet came apart. There was controversy as to whether the delivery was a no-ball as it had to be above the shoulder ( above the shoulder is illegal in one day cricket) but it was hard to tell whether it was above his shoulder if had been standing properly as he was jumping and bending over at the same time trying to avoid the ball (I'd be scared too)

Sounds like cricket batsmen will end up looking like hockey goalies

Any celebration sof yesterdays monumental victory?
People are constantly talking down English cricket, but when something like us winning happens they conveniently brush it off as a one-off or some such.

Probably not much celebration here in Houston, Texas, USA - all the cricketers seem to be from India or Pakistan. But the London Times on the Web did have a front page picture, captioned "Andy Caddick celebrates England's quickest Test victory in 88 years". Must have been some good bowling? In baseball, a short game means the pitchers got most batters out in a couple of pitches (a "pitch" means throwing the ball .

Gooday Duncan Jones (Spearcarrier),

Of course people brush off England winning a test match as a one-off or some such 'cause that's what it is.

Walter.

Harsh, Walter

It's the second time England have beaten the WIndies this summer, and their second innings victory this season too, after the record margin over Zimbabwe. Something is definitely improving in English cricket, even if it only moves us ahead of the "new boys" and a team cynics might describe as a "spent force". Remember, they beat South Africa in the '98 series, too.

Nobody's claiming that England are going to walk all over the Aussies in the next Ashes series, but we live in hope that they will actually compete, and go in with *some* chance of winning. Cautious optimism seems like the right tone to me.

And to answer Steve's question: there were several factors that made this such a short match:
The bad batting surface (something which you don't get in baseball!) meant that any batsman, however well he was playing, could get a ball which would get him out.
The West Indians batted without any sense of purpose. Several of them got out playing attacking shots before they had played themselves in (got used to the light, pace and bounce of the ball). Their best batsman, Lara, was out LBW to a ball he didn't even try to hit, which can be quite embarrassing (the nearest analogy, I suppose, is the baseball batter who just watches three strike balls go through the zone).
The England bowlers did bowl very well. They made good use of the wicket's inconsistency by pitching the ball in the places where an unexpected bounce would do most harm.

Added to that, England's batsmen did a good job of getting more runs in their one innings than the Windies did in two. Their running between the wickets was excellent, and Vaughan and Hick put on a vital partnership on 98 to give England a big advantage (compare that to the 61 that the 11 WIndies batsmen made between them in the second innnings). Again, that was aided by some bad cricket from the WIndies - two of whose bowlers were very poor, and who made far too many fielding errors, too.

The West Indies are beginning to look like England have for the last few years - a team consisting of 50% makeweights, players who don't really have what it takes at test level, and the other 50% players of genuine ability but who either perform inconsistently or whose best efforts are wasted because the rest of the team don't back them up.

Bob help them when Walsh and Ambrose - two of the greatest bowlers of all time, who have been consistently brilliant all summer, but now about 37 and 34 years old respectively - retire.

GVI -

Thanks for the great writeup. It reminded me of my little "Bluff Your Way in Cricket" book, the description of the West Indies: "Lithe, lissom, spectacular. Capable of playing appallingly badly, but always with style ... Go out to bat as if they had just woken up ... Fielding: Magnificent, unless they are losing."

And yes, the years after stars retire can be ... gruesome. A great comment on a Houston team arriving for a game, "Did the first team miss the bus?" The crowd was so small you could hear everything the players and coaches said, for once. It was hilarious - trash talk, cursing, groaning ... and that was to their teammates.

Gooday Global Village Idiot,

Okay, maybe I was a bit harsh. But a team that has been shot out three times for less than seventy in test matches in the past twelve months, and lost what was it, ten straight in 1999-2000, is clearly no longer a power in world cricket. And Zimbabwe? The acid test for England, as always, will be the Ashes. I hope your cautious optimism is well-founded, but the form guide suggests it is going to be a long hard (Southern) summer for Hussein and his team - I predict 4 zip. Take care,

Walter.