BS: cricketing quotes

Subject: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 21 Dec 14 - 05:47 PM

here is a COUPLE to start with.
"For God's sake, when you run, call," Sam Cook once begged Wells and back came the reply: "Heads."
and one from Fred Trueman
After the Rev. David Sheppard had dropped a catch off his bowling - You might keep your eyes shut when your praying, Vicar, but I wish you'd keep 'em open when I'm bowling.
Fred Trueman (1963)

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Dec 14 - 07:08 PM

The fiery Fred quote had me googling to reminisce, great character. I didn't see him play due to my age but did research his career when he was commentating. Wiki had this gem on his page.
       "On one occasion, a Cambridge University batsman, having just been dismissed, acknowledged him with the condescending compliment: "That was a very good ball, Mr Trueman". Trueman replied: "Aye, wasted on thee".[

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 21 Dec 14 - 07:41 PM

I always liked Ian Healy's comment to Phil Tufnell:

"Hey Tuffers, can I borrow your brain? I'm building an idiot."

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 21 Dec 14 - 07:56 PM

Many years ago at a Roses match (Lancashire V Yorkshire for the uninitiated) one chap in the crowd was applauding each wicket taken and each boundary scored irrespective of the side.

Eventually an old codger (elderly gentleman) said to him "where's tha from"

"Surrey" the man replied

To which the old lad said "well shut-it, its nowt to do wi' thee"

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: Musket
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 03:31 AM

I'll offer it, as nobody else has yet. Could have been Johnners? said in commentary;

"The batsman is Holding the bowler's Willey.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 04:17 AM

"The batsman's Holding...."

is however an urban myth. Johnners never said it.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 05:31 AM

yes he did, I heard him say it with my own ears and it has been confirmed by other sources check it out.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 05:34 AM

The story as I heard it was that he was challenged to say it by a fellow-commentator, who bet he wouldn't dare. So he did. Possibly a further urban myth about what was, as Dick sez, probably not an urban myth...

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 05:40 AM

Is there, I wonder, any truth in the tale of the bowler who triumphantly clean-bowled the great W G Grace.

"Not out," said the umpire firmly. "And you look here, young man. All these people have come here to see Dr Grace bat, not to watch your monkey-tricks!"

Probably another urban myth -- but nevertheless se non è vero, è ben trovato, eh?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST,Elfcall
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 07:32 AM

urban myth or no - I am sure it is the bowler's Holding the batsman's Willey

Elf

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 08:12 AM

correct the bowkers holding the batsmens willey, i heard him say it on radio 3 cricket commentary,
it is confirmed by henry blofeld
The oft-cited quote: "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey" occurred when Michael Holding of the West Indies was bowling to Peter Willey of England in a Test match at The Oval in 1976. Johnston claimed not to have noticed saying anything odd during the match, and that he was only alerted to his gaffe by a letter from "a lady" named "Miss Mainpiece".[11][12] According to Christopher Martin-Jenkins,[13] the cricinfo biography,[14] and the biography by Johnston's son Barry,[15] Johnston never actually made the remark. Barry Johnston says "It was too good a pun to resist...but Brian never actually said that he had spoken the words on air." This is contradicted by Henry Blofeld who claims to have been present at the time

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 08:35 AM

Cricket isn't broadcast on Radio 3, so just how good is your memory?

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 08:45 AM

yes it was,my memory is fine.
Robert Hudson was responsible for the launch of TMS, writing to his Outside Broadcasts boss Charles Max-Muller in 1956, proposing broadcasting full ball-by-ball coverage of Tests rather than only covering fixed periods, and suggesting using the Third Programme (as BBC Radio 3 was then known) frequency, since at that time the Third Programme only broadcast in the evening.[2]

TMS became a fixture on BBC Radio 3 on AM medium wave until Radio 3 lost its MW frequency in February 1992. The programme moved to Radio 3 FM that summer and the following summer the morning play was on Radio 5, switching to Radio 3 for the afternoon session. The start of Radio 5 Live meant that TMS moved to its present home on Radio 4 long.
johnston made the comment in 1976, so my memory is fine. meanwhile raggytash you are wrong .

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 09:15 AM

Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs!

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: Musket
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 09:24 AM

The highs and lows.

First I recalled it. Whether from hearing it or otherwise, I have no idea.

Then someone says it is urban myth.

Then perhaps not.

The only thing I can say with confidence is that I would most certainly have got Michael Holding and Peter Wiiley arse uppards in my original post.

I am sorry.

So sorry

You don't know how fucking sorry I am.




Look on the bright side. To my son, Willey was always an umpire.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 11:34 AM

In my not-so-humble opinion, the real problem is in a culture that invents euphemisms like 'willy/willie' (and many others)that have perfectly normal uses, and then giggles at naughty references to them.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 12:10 PM

I heard it, now lets move on to other quotes.here are two from tom graveney

        Tom Graveney bats, Kent v Worcestershire, Tunbridge Wells, 14 June, 1962
"I played fair all my life and never forgot that it is just a game" Bob Thomas / © Getty Images
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Players/Officials: Tom Graveney
Teams: England

I had no intention of playing cricket. When I was 20, I was in the army, posted as the sports officer at the base transit depot in the Suez. I was ranked captain, had three pips on my shoulder, and all I did was play sport. I had decided I was going to sign on as a regular in the army. My brother was playing at Gloucestershire and I played a few games when I was on leave. Charlie Barnett asked me what I was going to do and I told him I was going to continue in the army. He said it was a pity as they thought I could become a cricketer.

I was the 12th man for Gloucestershire against the Australians in my first season. They won the toss in Bristol. I tapped on their door and said to Lindsay Hassett, "The Gloucester boys are on the field." [Arthur] Morris and [Sidney] Barnes stood up and as they went to the door, Hassett said to them, "We don't want [to get out to] this fellow [Tom] Goddard". Goddard was a good offspinner, and he had taken 238 wickets in the season. He had hands like a bunch of bananas. At quarter to four in the afternoon on the first day, I was the fielding substitute for Goddard, who had bowled 32 overs, taking nought for 186. Those Aussies had sorted him out.

We were honest about the game. That doesn't happen anymore. It has got tougher, tighter, more professional.

It doesn't matter how fit you are; in fact, you can be over-fit. Cricket is a game of lasting - players train to run in the derby but they are in the Grand National; they have distance to go.

You can teach anybody anything, but the one thing a batsman needs to do on his own is pick the length of the ball. That is the secret of batting. Helmets give you a false sense of security. I remember tying a handkerchief to my forehead to stop the sweat from dripping into the eyes. We would never take our eyes off the ball.

Neville Cardus wrote about me when I got my 100th hundred. He said if everything disappeared from this earth with only me left, he could reconstruct the game [from] the way I behaved and the way I played. That was an enormous thing to say. I guess he went a bit over the top.

Frank Tyson was the fastest bowler I ever faced. But the nastiest pair I ever faced was [Peter] Heine and [Neil] Adcock in the 1955 series. [Len] Hutton had retired and I, unfortunately, got the opening spot. Heine didn't want to hit the stumps, he wanted to hit you. Not very friendly. The best bowler I faced was Raymond Russell Lindwall, who destroyed us in 1948.

If you look at his record, Andrew Flintoff is not great. His batting average is not great, his bowling average is not great. But he was a great talisman, a great team man. That was his real ability - he got people going.

In my day, five people did not walk, and everybody knew who those five were. Now it is the other way round: there are five who walk, the rest just hang around.

                        

If you look at his record, Andrew Flintoff is not great. His batting average is not great, his bowling average not great. But he was a great talisman, a great team man. That was his real ability - he got people going

                

Nineteen sixty-nine was my benefit year. It was the first year of the Sunday League and a sponsor had offered me ₤1000 to play. In those days we were serfs; we didn't get paid. I was 42 and couldn't afford not to have that money. Before the Test, I rang Alec Bedser, then chairman of selectors, who said I couldn't play the benefit. My final words to him were, "Don't pick me for the Test". But at lunchtime on Sunday I heard on the radio I was in the team. I went on and played the game against Bobby Simpson and Richie Benaud, had a good day and got the ₤1000. I was reported to the disciplinary committee and got banned for three games. At 42, I wasn't going to play much more. In those days we didn't have agents or solicitors looking after us. But I got 75 in my last Test innings.

....2 There is nobody who holds the bat the way I did. The top hand now is at the bottom. Mine was on the top and the bat was just a pendulum.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 02:55 PM

hi

One of the funniest quotes I heard on the cricket field was many years ago when I had just got into my club's First Team. We were chasing a big score and we still had many runs to get when the last man joined me. Geoff was a veteran who had played many years for the club.

At this time we didn't play overs cricket but by time. Geoff came to me in the middle of the field and told me to "shut up t'shop". He told me that we were to play for time so that the opponents couldn't bowl too many more overs.

There was a fast bowler who came off an extremely long run to bowl at him and as he ran up to bowl, Geoff walked away from the wicket and walked down the pitch and patted down an imaginary pitch mark. He did this a couple of times and did various other antics to slow down the play. With each ball the fast bowler was getting more and more annoyed. His line & length became erratic as his face got redder and redder.

As the bowler stomped back to his mark to bowl the last ball of the innings, Geoff shouted so the whole ground could hear it, " Hey Mike, I don't go that far for my holidays."

The bowler blew it chucked the ball straight a Geoff who ducked and it went over his head and to the boundary. The umpire who had had enough of this didn't call "no-ball , so we got 4 byes and drew the game.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Dec 14 - 06:04 AM

Readers of a delicate constitution should turn the page now. What I am about to write concerns a nasty little secret society where unhappy souls protect themselves from the real world by introspection and self-serving justification. I am talking about the misguided group of humans who call themselves professional batsmen in our county game.

Every now and then, six or seven of them are forced from their county dressing rooms and face public scrutiny for the five days of a Test match. They clearly do not relish the prospect. They feign maximum concentration which fools nobody but themselves. They are unable to convey even a hint of confidence, let alone a touch of bravado. Within minutes they are shown to be inadequate in so many ways that their imminent departure is a foregone conclusion.

Nevertheless, some of them become household names and live reasonably well on the basis that they are simply the best of a bad bunch. If you play a bat-and-ball game for a living there must be occasions when conditions are relatively easy and runs are scored despite these inadequancies.

Some spectators and critics are beguiled by these interludes, those moments of remission, into thinking that the worst has passed and a new dawn may be near. Those who can see clearly know that the dark ages are with us for the foreseeable future.

At Lord's, for the second Test, we were treated to three lapses of judgement within an hour and the batsmen, Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash, were picked to play again for their country within a fortnight. What that says about our national pride, or lack of it, is all too obvious.

The image of all three get-out shots is etched sharply in my brain for one particular reason. Each player somehow managed to get his back knee actually touching the ground at the moment of his self-destruction. Therefore, the three heads had obviously departed from their original elevation by feet rather than inches and that is a recipe for disaster.

No photograph or drawing in any coaching manual requires the back knee to touch the ground. It was an occasional characteristic of exuberant West Indian batsmen going for a square drive to an over pitched ball, but it was viewed with scepticism as to its place in major cricket.

The worst stroke of the three was definitely Butcher's, not only because of the timing in the last over before an interval. It was neither a lofted drive nor a front foot pull. The bat was neither vertical nor horizontal against every known precept of the game. And he has since been rewarded with the England captaincy!

Next worst was the Stewart smear to leg to a leg-side ball with the front leg splayed outside the line, leaving a clear path to the stumps. If a No 10 played the shot, he would be asked to reconsider his position. When England's opening bat does it, he is simply asked to front up with a good chance he will do it again.

The Ramprakash off-side slash was the least culpable, but only in the light of the other two.

My reading is that all these players became frustrated because their normal methods are not providing runs easily enough. So they are forced into desperate measures. Stewart has major foot movements before the ball is bowled. Butcher makes the same foot movement to every ball; and Ramprakash ducks his head at the moment the ball is released.

I long for the day when selectors plump for some little known name who announces what he is made of when he walks to the crease. In my dreams he will look as if he feels at home in front of the TV cameras. His stance will be relaxed with the back of the left hand facing mid-off rather than gully. As a result the bat will pick up straight with the blade facing cover rather than the ground.

He would move his feet sharply early in his innings and maintain a sideways position throughout the stroke with his back foot parallel to the batting crease. Thus his defensive play would flow naturally into run-scoring strokes with no need for sudden wild swipes to relieve the tension. Above all, his head will remain stock still until the ball is bowled.

Until all our batsmen take a clear look at themselves in the light of these time-honoured prinicples of a noble art, there is no hope.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Dec 14 - 06:05 AM

When I first played this wonderful game of ours, at least 40% of the players used their top hand.

Then we were faced with the problems of the bat manufacturers being unable to make light bats and we were forced to use bats which were far too heavy and the artistry of batting disappeared.

I remember coming back from Australia in 1973 and asking Duncan Fearnley to make a bat for me. As always, he made a beauty for me, but it was 2lb, 10oz. After 10 minutes in the nets my top hand and arm were aching and I was forced to pick the bat up with the bottom hand, so at the end of the backlift it was pointing to third man! This just makes batting very difficult.

There is little we can do about our present day players, but now it is possible to get lighter bats, I want all our coaches to teach our youngsters to take the bat back with the top hand. From there batting becomes simple.

A few years ago, I picked up a bat during an England XI v The Rest of the World game. Two very distinguished opening batsmen immediately said "How did you ever get any runs holding the bat like that?" I didn't tell them how many – it might have embarrassed them.

To clarify my grip, the back of my top hand faced between mid-off and extra cover and the wrist acted as a pendulum, the bat went back straight and came down straight – very simple.

Please, coaches, give our youngsters an alternative to the present fad of having the wrist almost behind the handle. If you get it right you are always playing with the full face of the bat.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 23 Dec 14 - 06:20 AM

Dick, how about putting names to the quotes you've cited. Ta

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Dec 14 - 01:36 PM

sorry first is ted dexter, second is tom graveney

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 23 Dec 14 - 02:47 PM

hi

Another Fred Trueman quote....

Fred was playing in the Yorkshire League and some of the home umpires were notoriously biased.

Fred was bowling at the opponent's "star" batsmen.

He bowled a fast delivery that snicked the batsman's bat to be caught by the wicket keeper. "Owzat" screamed Fred at the umpire. " Not out"

3 more times Fred appealed for decisions that he thought were out.
3 times the umpire refused his appeals.

Next ball he put everything he had into it and knocked the batsman's middle stump cartwheeling backwards.

"Eeeh" said Fred. " Nearly got him that time". !!!

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: David C. Carter
Date: 24 Dec 14 - 04:53 AM

Can any of you Gentlemen tell me of the moment when,I think it was"Aggers", made a comment about someone "not getting his leg over".

I heard it and was in stitches.If some kind person could give me the exact story I would be very greatful.

Thanks in advance.

David

Ps.Happy Christmas to all.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Dec 14 - 05:12 AM

The WG quote I heard it as WG who refused to walk when he was bowled out for a duck. Saying the words about people coming to see him not the bowler.

And Freddie Trueman used to pop his head round the door of the dressing room of the other side and tell them something derogatory to the effect he was waiting for them and would have them as soon as they got to the crease. Psychological warfare. Certainly not warfair.

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Dec 14 - 05:31 AM

On the second day of the 1991 Test match between England and West Indies at The Oval, Ian Botham tried to hook a bouncer from Curtly Ambrose. It was a bit too fast and Botham, struck on the body, lost his balance, went through an ungainly pirouette, and staggered towards the wicket. His last minute attempt to step over the stumps failed, and his right thigh flicked the bail. Christopher Martin Jenkins described his dismissal graphically.

After the tea break, when Johnston and Agnew were going over the details of the play, the latter analysed the hit-wicket dismissal with the words, "He just didn't get his leg over."

Leg over is the colloquial term for having sex, and considering the man in question was Ian Botham, the situation turned catastrophic. Johnston fought manfully against a fit of giggles for about half a minute, before falling into a helpless bout of laughter, from time to time squealing, "Aggers, do stop it." For several minutes, all that could be heard were muffled snorts, chuckles, giggles and laughter. It brought Peter Baxter, the producer, rushing into the box hissing through clenched teeth, "Will somebody say something?"

Johnston now struggled for composure and managed, "And Tufnell came in and batted for 12 minutes, then he was caught Haynes … England were all out for 419. I've stopped laughing now."

While Agnew thought he had successfully ruined his career just a few months into the job, the 79 year old Johnston was embarrassed by the niggling thought that he had been unprofessional. However, the next day mails flooded in with stories of traffic coming to a standstill with drivers in hysterics, several of them pulling up on pavements to get over their guffaws, men caught up on ladders, hanging on for dear life as they roared with laughter. There was a deluge of requests for dubbed cassettes. TMS had never been this popular.

I have stopped laughing n

Subject: RE: BS: cricketing quotes
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Dec 14 - 05:34 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k0qZDdfvZk