This was the second of 2 one day games against RAF. Stupidly, I didn’t film the day before when the real action took place. Their ex Durham speedster ran in and bowled an easy 85 mph. The deck had some early juice in it; overnight rain, overcast day…. and all that rot people talk about pitches and conditions. RAF’s Cessford bowled the quickest spell I’ve ever seen an amateur bowl. I wore a helmet for the first time (proper in my life, e.g when I was scared of a fast bowler whereas I’d donned one briefly as a fashion item in the mid 90s; thing you did to show you were a modern player) and I got hit on the chest.
In September writing about July. Why? Two reasons. I got lost in summer; hoping it would never end. Second reason. Down in Holby, a pal’s dad swore I got a hundred v Holby Schools 20 years ago. ‘My son was at the other end. I remember it well.’ Rubbish, rot, toilet. I’d flipping know if I’d got one. But Sandy Meuricoffre was adamant. Got back to London, I didn’t have records but I had old care unit annuals going back to 1983. If I’d got a ton, it would be in there
If you’ve not seen the field where AEJ Collins got 628 not out, the highest recorded score in all cricket, watch the vid. To fill time as 12thers, I took the camera down to Collins’ piece. The filming is stunning for its crumminess but you get a sense of how tiny the ground is. Collins is adjacent to the Close, where the previous [...]
At the start of the season, an old well wisher who’d found this blog quipped “you have made yourself the hero of your own story”. No ‘the attention of my own centre’, I replied. And glory beckoned for my well massaged centre today; a ton ‘gainst Gloucestershire in a 2020 game on the Close was within reach. My care unit alumni team were playing the ‘Shire’ in a Chris Taylor benefit match. I agonised all night and morning on the dance floors of Holby city’s best clubs. Should I face Steve ‘bonecrusher’ Kirby without a helmet ? Should I hook him or smash him straight to Holby Zoo.At the start of the season, an old well wisher who’d found this blog quipped “you have made yourself the hero of your own story”. No ‘the attention of my own centre’, I replied. And glory beckoned for my well massaged centre today; a ton ‘gainst Gloucestershire in a 2020 game on the Close was within reach. My old care unit alumni team were playing the ‘Shire’ in a Chris Taylor benefit match. I agonised all night and morning on the dance floor of Holby city’s best clubs. Should I face Steve ‘bonecrusher’ Kirby without a helmet ? Should I hook him or smash him straight to Holby Zoo.
Two posts by The Old batsman, another blogger and irritatingly a better writer left me a little dazed in July; The first was about an equally deluded ‘quester’ called Pete, a club cricketer who spent a lifetime trying to smash a six of the first ball of his innings. The second post was about Getahundred’s target: the fifty ball ton. In the Id of Vikram Solanki, dont do Freud but OB opens with this awakening quote: ‘recalling that innings now is like a dream. Somehow I managed to sustain for a complete day the sort of form that usually materialises only in short, glorious moments’.
Watch the film to hear a new narrator, to hear a more positive, more upbeat , less pithy, less bleak fellow than one you’re used to. I was thrilled by the lbw given by Teddington’s septuagenarian bespectacled scorer turned umpire. I danced inside as he raised his finger to a ball that pitched outside leg , struck my hip and cannoned [...]