The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #122088   Message #2673811
Posted By: Rasener
07-Jul-09 - 08:45 AM
Thread Name: BS: Bury 'The Ashes'?
Subject: RE: BS: Bury 'The Ashes'?
LOL
The oft cited quote:

" The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey "

allegedly 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".[3][4] According to Christopher Martin-Jenkins,[5] the cricinfo biography,[6] and the biography of Brian by Johnston's son Barry,[7] Johnston never actually made the remark. His son says It was too good a pun to resist...but Brian never actually said that he had spoken the words on air. . However, this is contradicted by an account [8] offered by Henry Blofeld, who claims to have been present at the time. It is perhaps worth noting though that, with Blofeld's recollection of the score being 81-7 when the remark was made, England had a healthy first innings, and in the second Willey was the fourth wicket.[9] A popular cricket website, Holdingwilley.com, has named itself after this well-known cricket anecdote, although the site is a general cricket website and doesn't focus on that incident alone.


Taken from Wikipedia

However I do like these 2 related to Brian Johnston

In one famous incident during a Test match at the Oval, Jonathan Agnew suggested that Ian Botham was out hit wicket because had failed to "get his leg over" (a British slang term meaning to have sex). Johnston carried on commentating (and giggling) for 30 seconds before dissolving into helpless laughter.

and

" There's Neil Harvey standing at leg slip with his legs wide apart, waiting for a tickle "

when Neil Harvey was representing Australia at the Headingley Test in 1961.