To Somerset, to Taunton, for help, for salvation from the finest craftsmen in the world. It was time to change bats, time to blame your old tools and get better, newer ones. I went to buy the most treasured object man can hold; a bat made by Millichamp and Hall.
They should call this place Cowdrey School for cricket. While I was batting- for a three ball duck- Cowdrey’s grandson was bowling, Cowdrey’s son was watching.
(click on v Crusaders to watch vlog)
To Cambridge, down Grantchester lane, past Geoffrey Archers gaff, past the Rupert Brooke, to play the first game of the season with Hassan my Jamaican, Welsh, Bengali and Irish mate. At 11.30, the start of play,156 days 3 hours 20 mins 15 sec had passed since my last knock. Two questions might have entered your head and in what order I’m not sure. They are does Hassan exist and is the time that’s elapsed since my last innings real? Which is more likely you think? That I’d be driven to a cricket match through quintessential Blighty with a quarter Jamaican, bengali. Irish, and Welsh man or that I’d be potty enough to have kept a countdown since my last bat. I hope I’ve suprised you by telling you that Hassan is real and that there’s has been no flipping countdown.
On the eve of the first game of the season, I should be labouring on a poetic, prophetic perhaps, sweeping possibly, opening statement but all I can think on is this picture I found on ‘Flickr’.
When Patrick Kidd of the Times’s Line and Length blog gives you a shout out you know you’ve arrived. April 15th 2009, a day to remember. I became a small, particle of dust small, footnote in cricket history. The history claim over eggs things a bit but who cares?
(click on 100 to 1 £10 bet to watch vlog)
William Hill gave me some odds to get this ton for charity. They’ve got a special bet department - for punters who want to wager their son ‘ll play for England etc - and after a busy Grand National weekend for them, I went in for a chat.
He said nothing of the sort but I thought I’d go tabloid for a headline. First the backstory. It had been a morgue of a week but there was some cheer today. I went to an early season jamboree; the Great Exhibition.
I stumbled on academic paper called Batting and Memory last year. I didn’t understand most of it but bits I did get resonated. One passage had me nodding, smiling and eventually laughing.
(click on Odds from… to read full post)
A nameless loved one has convinced me to get this hundred for charity.
“How do I do that” I said.