MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Yes ?
No ?
I can't so I'm a no
No - I might get one on target out of 60.
Yes.
Not fast anymore, back too stiff
Decent wrist spin and a (not so decent) googly delivered out of the back of the hand
I haven't even tried since I left school (it was a while ago, I'm 48) so I think I can but I probably can't
Yes when 19 played for Maidenhead & Bray. Not sure 30 years later if I throw so well now.
Yes, I am a Stella* bowler
* Reassuringly expensive, avg. 28 this season.
Dunno, i could certainly hit the stick things aged 11.
I saw Shane Bond (ex NZ quickie) bowl at a local club a few years back. A few of the better batsmen were netting with him. He was bowling well within himself and was well past his prime anyhow.
After a while the batter asked for a 'quick one'
Bond: 'You sure'
Bat: 'Yep'
Bond: 'Okay, it's coming full on off stump. I don't want to hit you'
Bat: 'No worries'
Bond runs in, bends his back. Batter hardly moved, off stump cartwheeling away.
Top sportspeople are so impressive when up close. They play a different game to most of us
Yes, had to come out of retirement twice to help club. Cricket player numbers are down and clubs are really struggling.
mefty - Member
Yes, I am a Stella* bowler
* Reassuringly expensive, avg. 28 this season.
Overly modest mefty
I'd settle for a bowling average of 28.
Come to think of it, I'd settle for a batting average of 28 too
Top sportspeople are so impressive when up close. They play a different game to most of us
I saw Mason Crane practicing with Mushtaq on the Nursery Ground, including towel, he pushes it through faster than our opening bowler off his long run.
Overly modest mefty
I can assure you not, this is low grade pub cricket and we play on a very bowler friend pitch - 170 off 35 overs is par.
Come to think of it, I'd settle for a batting average of 28 too
I dream - see above
Cricket was always a joke version of stickball for me growing up. Just played by left-leggers in Dublin and Belfast.
Then I tried playing it at university - the only people really into cricket on the team were some ****stani post-grads - I’d started watching some of it and following the few reports in the Irish Times (that’s not an Irish version of The Times). Having an eye for hitting a fast moving ball with a stick, we could just about bat (with our hands the wrong way round 😆 ) but jeez, as soon as they started chucking some serious balls down at us, we were bamboozled. Things got a bit better when we were shown how to hold the bat - not much.
None of us could bowl for shit though. 😀
After a while the batter asked for a 'quick one'Bond: 'You sure'
Bat: 'Yep'
Bond: 'Okay, it's coming full on off stump. I don't want to hit you'
Bat: 'No worries'Bond runs in, bends his back. Batter hardly moved, off stump cartwheeling away.
Top sportspeople are so impressive when up close. They play a different game to most of us
😀
I used to be OK. Fast-medium pace by professional standards, could swing and seam it when I had a groove on. But if I bowled at a reasonable pace my acuracy was terrible. Back off the pace and they were lollypops.
I could wrist spin it too, but never with any consistency.
Couldn't and can't bat. At all.
Never tried so put me down as a probably
No idea these days, used to be pretty decent when I was about 15, not fast but tricky... but wrong country for cricket really (my uncle played cricket for Scotland, I think the only requirement was owning some white clothes)
The Bond story is cool, totally agree.
Yes. not particularly quickly, but fairly accurate in a "you miss, and I hit" kind of way. Got a few of the better batsmen in our local pub league out through what I'm told was more than just luck, so I'm happy enough with that as the only thing I usually excel in when it comes to sports is being crap at them.
On the Bond story...
In said pub league, we generally took it pretty easy, often had younger teenagers playing as well as some ringers of ex semi-pro 'fame'. as such, we had nice rules like not being out first ball, and batsmen retiring at 25 runs. Usually it was all played very much in the spirit of being something to do on a Wednesday evening before all retiring to the pub.
On one occasion, we had an obnoxious old fart (OOF) at the non-striker's end giving the 12yo at the other end verbal for not hitting 'easy' balls from our 50-odd year old spinner. Anyway, after a couple of balls he runs a bye and puts OOF on strike for his first ball. Our 'spinner' casually walks off towards the boundary, and comes thundering in at great speed before removing OOF's middle stump without him even having chance to react. As you can't be out first ball, without a word, the ball is hurled back to our 'spinner' who does it again. OOF wanders off looking bemused and angry, spinner then resumes slow bowling.
Not so many people knew that our 'spinner' actually used to be a quick and nearly broke into Somerset firsts in the 80s until he did his back. So, I can only imagine just how good an international pro could be, when a bloke in his late 50s who nearly but never actually made it as a quick, and hasn't bowled much like that for 30+ years can produce two perfect and to normal people unplayable deliveries apparently out of nowhere.
University played one of the counties. One of our friends was opening bat facing an England player whose name escapes me who was supposed to be a fast medium. Our boy played & missed first two balls, clean bowled with the third.
We are discussing whether the bowler was really medium rather than medium-fast when our mate ambled over. We put the question to him. He said. " Couldn't tell you. I never even saw the ball."
wrong country for cricket
Not sure if it's true but I read once that Scotland has more cricket clubs per head of population than England. I went to a rugby school in the Borders and the few weeks before the summer holidays when we played cricket was the best bit of PE for me. The Neanderthals that played rugby couldn't get their heads round bowling so I did most of it. Some of us used to play cricket in the park using a litter bin as stumps, happy days.
Cricket's a pub game like darts or boules, right? I reckon I could fling that ball and hit the sticks.
I reckon Scottish cricket is almost all relegated to the English that migrate across the borders, and edinburgh.
I used to be a half decent bowler, but got bored with the game at 15 and took up golf instead. Half decent local bowler is all though! Was brought up with the game as my Dad was really keen, but it all took too long!
Yep, used to be able to bowl reasonable medium pace, now gentle finger spin. Cricket on a summer afternoon is a true pleasure.
At school I was a fast bowler, went to University to find I was slow/medium as we had a couple of bowlers from the Irish U21 team. Bowling in the nets was always faster than on the square. Living in Scotland meant I took up cycling/sailing.
Yes I can. I can’t bowl ‘fast’ and I can’t bowl spin though. My ‘run’ up is about 3 paces, I’ve never been able to run in, I either come to a halt to deliver the ball, or fall over flat on my backside. I do bowl on target, so if you miss I will have you (if the ball has enough pace on it to dislodge a bail 😳 😆 )
Yes, leg spin, badly.
I haven't played since I was a teenager though so it's probably really crap now...
It's been a few years, but yes. I could bowl swing. No idea how, but I could....
Nope, since losing the tip of my elbow years ago I can’t bowl - cricket or 10 pin.
Can’t golf
Can’t tennis
Can’t snooker or pool.
It’s like my injury was tailor made to exclude me from the things I don’t like 😉
Once took 7 wickets in a game with 'fast bowling'.
Most of the time though the ball would shoot down legside
flight and guile (ie non-spinning) finger spin. Most of my wickets were either caught at long-on or cow where people thought they should be able to hit me out of the ground, or occasionally stumped if they charged and missed.
But I was really a keeper, and I was actually half decent at that (the nickname Pans was ironic, honest)
I can fling a ball, can't hit much.
For some reason hardly ever got any time with the bat in school. The one time I managed to start an actual innings, I'd scored two singles and a four (my only ever four) Ray the groundsman came over to chat and decided he fancied a bowl. He was late 50s and had had polio as a child so limped a lot. He hobbled up and gave me my first ever spin ball which took out my middle stump. I was a bit pissed off tbh, the only time I'd ever actually batting properly and a grown-up ended it. Not really fair. No wonder I'm crap at cricket 🙁
Yes.
My daughter started playing last year and my wife this year, I’ve been helping out and taking my youngest to practice in the nets. Turns out I could still remember after around 30 years how to bowl. 😀
IN the sense that it would be a legal bowl yes
In the sense it might trouble you or get you out NO
IIRC my best figures were 6-23 of 5 overs. Once watch my dad bowl out blue circle factory team out for 8 (he was captaining the sunday ramblers while in the bedford first team, when wayne larkins was in the team) they let them have another go and my dad wouldn't bowl 😀
No, I can't throw at all. Not very manly, but my shoulder is so screwed from my last crash I can only do underarm throws 🙁
I'm in that "military medium" category - I can send a ball accurately and legally down the middle so if the batsman misses I'll have them, but if they're any good at all it'll be a gift of a four (or six) as there won't be any swing (or spin) to trouble them.
One of my sons decided this summer that he wanted to play. The pain of the first few deliveries was acute, but it turns out I can bowl accurately enough off a 2 step run up for kids practice. Better than not being able to help out, but not by much.
Yeah I can do a bit of spin. Helped that my dad used to play a bit so taught me from a young age. I never enjoyed the game so never played myself at school but have played a couple of games as an adult (where I worked at the time, the MD was a member of a cricket club and we used to have social tournaments against clients etc). I was okay against other amateurs - just pleased I could bowl straight on a full sized wicket and take a few 🙂
Yes
My cricketing claim to fame was to take a wicket for Bristol Uni 2nd XI 8) facts are my flatmate was captain and they where 1 short on on the day, I got a bowl and my “medium”pace is so medium I asked the keeper to stand up. Batter quite rightly saw I was hopeless charged me missed and was stumped ! I had the scorecard for ages but sadly lost somewhere.
"How do you play cricket Will"?
I can bowl, not fast or spin but I can get it in the right places. I haven't ever played cricket properly, but play in the nets with mates every now and then. A few of the lads I play with have played quite a reasonable level of cricket. One is about 6'5" and can bowl up in the high 70's still and has hit me a few times, I really wouldn't fancy one of the top bowlers throwing it down at me at 90 odd mph!!
As of a fortnight ago, I can say "yes, I still can - and surprisingly nippy considering I now play once or twice a year". I used to play a lot, to a reasonable standard, but fell out of love with the club game and how long it took every weekend during the summer.
Back in my late teens and early 20s I played against some proper cricketers and the big difference in the bowling for me wasn't necessarily the pace (although the higher the standard the quicker the bowling), but the bounce and movement.
A good length ball from a decent club bowler tended to pass by at knee height, the same ball from a pro would be at groin to belly button height and usually moved more laterally.
As Uni students we were given a lesson one day by Peter Hartley - then playing for Hampshire - we were on preseason tour and playing a few of the counties squads. He wasn't particularly quick - they had Nixon McLean bowling in the nets (he was quick, but thankfully didn't play). The thing about Hartley was that every ball pitched just outside off stump, moved laterally and climbed. At that time I was definitely quicker through the air than he was, but the keeper stood further back for him than ours did to me. The reason was that he was hitting the seam every ball and had a perfectly repeatable action. I have no doubt he could have bent his back and really put one through, but he didn't need to - not against a bunch of students anyway.
As with mtb - every time you get a bit chuffed with yourself you see someone else making it look very easy and you are back in reality.
yes when I was a kid
not so much when I was an adult
even worse since I separated my shoulder
Cant - bowling in the nets at school (some years ago....) ball went over the nets, bounced on the concrete path and in through a window (not previously open).
definitely to the step in class between good amateur and pro. I used to play a decent standard, enough that you'd run up against ex county pros, occasionally current pros (played a WI fringe ODI player one time, he was an all rounder but distinctly rapid by our counting. First ball of the game he went for a full ball, I got a thick inside edge and it ran off behind square leg for four, to resounding shouts of 'SHOT!' from my team mates in the pavilion. I didn't get another in my half for the rest of the game.
The best example of the gulf wasn't a game I played but the scorebook from a club we played down in Somerset on tour. The week before, they'd played a midweek knockout cup game against a local rival (long before 20:20) Max 4 overs per bowler. After 12 overs they were about 80-odd for 2 or 3 and looking at a decent total. 8 overs later they'd barely scraped 100 after Joel Garner came on and bowled back of a length taking 4 for 8 in his 4 overs. And these were DECENT club cricketers, Somerset league is pretty good!
Blimey, Big Bird in club cricket! Errr, no thanks.
A lad I knew who went Cambridge played a game against Worcs when they had Glenn McGrath. After a few overs of not getting anywhere near the ball he got out. He said he then went to the nets to try to figure out what had gone wrong and felt like he didn't know which end of the bat to hold after being so comprehensively worked over.
Thinking about this stuff just makes you appreciate how quick the guys who even test batsmen were 'apprehensive' about must have been.
Brett Lee
Shoaib Akhtar
Wasim
Waqar
Allan Donald
Devon Malcolm
Michael Holding
Malcolm Marshall
Patrick Patterson
Look how quick this is in real-time (Brett Lee with the Fremantle Doctor on the fastest pitch in the world). Make a mistake and there just isn't time to correct it.
No
Still play village cricket and open the batting. Bowling is getting harder with age though and the youngsters hit the ball so bloody hard
Was in schoolboy county squad - never good enough for full team - but faced Derrick Underwood in nets at Edgbaston. Spinner!!! Bloody zipped the ball down. First ball flew past my nose and this was pre helmet days. I was truly scared...
Derrick Underwood
Badged as a spinner, but really a bit of a niche bowler of cutters.
Lethal on uncovered wickets.
I’m ok, but I was always a WC and opening bat. I had nets session once with Walsh and Marshall, terrifying.
Still play village cricket and open the batting
Why am I not surprised ? Your wife is extremely understanding and I have no idea where you find the time 😉
Underwood was club level fast medium !
Underwood is one of the nicest guys in cricket too...
Actually this summer was poor for many reasons!!
Cricket is almost as anti social as golf. Get more pink tickets for a bike ride!
Played a team in Newcastle west who had a young ****stani lad playing for them, on the ****stani U19 team apparently. He was a medium pacer, I lasted 3 balls even though he was coming in from 3 paces. First one didnt even see it, only knew he had bowled it when I heard the thump in the keepers glove. right I thought, he's a bit nippy despite 3 paces, keep an eye out for the next one. Same again...3rd ball thought ok, he's quick despite the run up, just concentrate, 3rd ball came down a LOT slower, had 4 attempts at it before it took my off stump. They were all laughing, I got the feeling I was not the only one to be bowled that way.
Cannot remember the name (it was 20 yrs ago) but he went on to make his debut for ****stan full side that summer...
Sorry for the FB link, but this popped up yesterday
Cricket is almost as anti social as golf.
Which is basically the reason I packed it in. When child number two came along I went back to playing. Second game back I was stood in the outfield thinking "I'm not enjoying this". I'd always said to the lads that it was a leisure activity as far as I was concerned and would pack it in the second I stopped enjoying it. They were sceptical, but it turns out I was true to my word.
I wonder if I might go back to it when the kids are a bit older, but my recent experience made me realise that although I can still get the ball through bowling, my eyes have 'gone' when it comes to batting and fielding. One bloke hit a ball only reasonably hard past me at mid wicket at head height. Back in the day I would have given myself a 50/50 chance of catching it, this time I stood there like a mannequin with my hands out as it flew past. I did not see it at all, and it would have hit me flush in the gob had it been a yard to the left.
I wonder if I might go back to it when the kids are a bit older, but my recent experience made me realise that although I can still get the ball through bowling, my eyes have 'gone' when it comes to batting and fielding. One bloke hit a ball only reasonably hard past me at mid wicket at head height. Back in the day I would have given myself a 50/50 chance of catching it, this time I stood there like a mannequin with my hands out as it flew past. I did not see it at all, and it would have hit me flush in the gob had it been a yard to the left.
It gets you out of the house, I started again a few years ago, a bit of knowledge makes up for the decline in physical attributes. I play with a guy who has been paid to play in his youth - he is miles away from where he was but it still a great way to spend an afternoon.
Friday night 20 20s are also a great solution for the time poor.
BTW, that Somerset team did pretty well against Garner if they got 8 runs off 4 overs, his economy rate in International ODI isn't much worse at 3.09 (the best ever for a career)
My greatest sporting moment was in a cricket game at school. I used to bat eleven but i was pretty handy at leg spin. In year 8 we played an inter-school game versus year 10 and i was first change. Remember the 'ball of the century' from Warne to Gatting? I did that but better, pitching outside leg stump and bowling a year 10 opener behind his legs. Never got close to a ball like that again, but i was hard to pick. Part of me wishes i'd played more when younger as i stopped after my GCSEs.
No, could never bowl. Was able to bat a bit, but for some reason could never get the hang of bowling.
I recall watching Allan Donald playing for Rishton (vs Ramsbottom) in the Lancashire League, this would've been the mid 90s. Even though he was coming off a short run, I couldn't see the ball through the air. Amazingly, the Ramsbottom opener manager to score 50, though I think most of them were off the other bowlers. It was the only time I saw him wear a helmet.
There's a programme on BBC 4 this weekend about the West Indies players that played in the Lancashire league.
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b097bl89 ]BBC 4[/url]
BTW, that Somerset team did pretty well against Garner if they got 8 runs off 4 overs, his economy rate in International ODI isn't much worse at 3.09 (the best ever for a career)
You're right, my memory let me down - and amazingly there is online reference to it. It was 4 for 3