2009 Ashes

[--------]

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Cos many of our ancestors got sent to Australia int' old days for being naughty?

If you read a good account of the early MCC tours of Australia - especially the Grace tours, you begin to wonder whether they actually sent the honest men out to the colonies and kept the crooks at home.

In 1873-74 (Grace's first tour) Harry Jupp (who was listed to open the batting with Grace) nearly missed the boat having slept in having got drunk the night before. Between Melbourne and Adelaide (a sea-crossing) he got at the brandy a second time, went into a spectacular fit of the DT's, and had to be incarcerated in a 'padded room' when they got ashore. Young boys, he claimed, were dancing on his head.

An England opening batsman lodged in a rubber room and wearing a strait-waistcoat, fantasising about young boys....

On the same tour, Grace's brother Fred first went AWOL in Tasmania (allegedly chasing skirt), then fell out big time with the Australian press, accusing them of ignorance of the game - 'no judges of cricket'. This was after he had been involved in a monumental bust up with an umpire over whether a ball had gone for 4. He claimed (falsely, lying in his teeth) that he'd fielded it. Everyone else in the ground but himself and W G knew very well he'd done no such thing.

W G Grace himself disputed umpires' decisions and bent the rules as far as he possibly could without breaking them (just). And on ALL his tours there were repeated suspicions of financial irregularities - the good doctor wasn't above laying bets with the local bookies regarding the outcome of matches he himself was playing in, or pocketing 'expenses' (he was an amateur and a 'gentleman', remember) to which he was only very dubiously entitled.

Not that he'd ever have thrown a match - maybe. But he'd certainly have dropped a couple of catches deliberately, or got himself out unnecessarily on purpose after the game was won, if it won him a wager....

On a later tour, Grace contracted for 14 matches at a set fee; then at the end of the tour set up an unscheduled 15th match with a local promoter - and guess who got the lion's share of the profits?

His arrogance on the first tour in 73-74 was one of the main reason that England-Australia cricket matches have been such ill-tempered and bad-spirited affairs ever since.

Another brother, Gilbert, also a cricketer, later did 28 days hard labour for theft, and was packed off as a remittance-man to Calgary.

Have you read Simon Rae's autobiography of The Doctor? Cracking read.

[heretoday]

I bow to your erudition Sir!

There is nothing like the game of cricket to be sure.

[heretoday]

To be sure!

[--------]

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I bow to your erudition Sir!

There is nothing like the game of cricket to be sure.

I just amuses me when folks who don't know the game imagine it's played by wimps and chinless wonders muttering things like "Oh, I say!" and "That's not cricket, sir!"

I can JUST remember when the MCC decided to do away with the distinction between 'players' and 'gentlemen' (or 'professionals' and 'amateurs') on the team lists. It was a bit like Roogby League and 'Ruggah' - you had the 'toffs' who didn't take wages (but were reimbursed their 'expenses' - usually a lot more generously than the professionals were paid), and the working chaps who played cricket for a living and were patronised by the 'toffs'. But unlike Ruggah and Roogby League, the toffs and the working chaps were all on the same pitch (though they didn't share dressing-rooms, of course....)

There was Public School and 'Varsity' cricket ('play, play up, play up and play the game...') on the one hand, and the Lancashire League and the like on the other. And then the County committees....

And the ever-present shifty wee men who'd happily take your money and give you odds on Truman taking 5 wickets in an afternoon, or Hobbs still being in at stumps.

But the penny dropped on me a long time ago that anyone who's prepared to stand up in front of 20,000 spectators or more and let Fred Truman or Michael Holding or Jeff Thompson or Glenn McGrath (or Marshall, Holding, Garner and Croft all in the one stiffin team) heave a cricket ball at him at 95 miles an hour six times in 5 minutes ain't no wimp....

You HAVE heard of the great Australian female fast bowler, of course?

Lilian Thompson.

[heretoday]

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I just amuses me when folks who don't know the game imagine it's played by wimps and chinless wonders muttering things like "Oh, I say!" and "That's not cricket, sir!"

I can JUST remember when the MCC decided to do away with the distinction between 'players' and 'gentlemen' (or 'professionals' and 'amateurs') on the team lists. It was a bit like Roogby League and 'Ruggah' - you had the 'toffs' who didn't take wages (but were reimbursed their 'expenses' - usually a lot more generously than the professionals were paid), and the working chaps who played cricket for a living and were patronised by the 'toffs'. But unlike Ruggah and Roogby League, the toffs and the working chaps were all on the same pitch (though they didn't share dressing-rooms, of course....)

There was Public School and 'Varsity' cricket ('play, play up, play up and play the game...') on the one hand, and the Lancashire League and the like on the other. And then the County committees....

And the ever-present shifty wee men who'd happily take your money and give you odds on Truman taking 5 wickets in an afternoon, or Hobbs still being in at stumps.

But the penny dropped on me a long time ago that anyone who's prepared to stand up in front of 20,000 spectators or more and let Fred Truman or Michael Holding or Jeff Thompson or Glenn McGrath (or Marshall, Holding, Garner and Croft all in the one stiffin team) heave a cricket ball at him at 95 miles an hour six times in 5 minutes ain't no wimp....

You HAVE heard of the great Australian female fast bowler, of course?

Lilian Thompson.

Excellent post which more or less sums it all up. I wouldn't like to face Lilian Thompson when she's got a bit of a dander up!

Funny you mention the "wimp" factor. Lots of people in this country consider Baseball to be just "Like Rounders".

Well I dunno but when I played Rounders at my posh school there wasn't a six foot ten bloke called Randy slinging a hard ball at over 90 MPH at my head!

I guess that's why they wear helmets!

[--------]

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Excellent post which more or less sums it all up. I wouldn't like to face Lilian Thompson when she's got a bit of a dander up!

Funny you mention the "wimp" factor. Lots of people in this country consider Baseball to be just "Like Rounders".

Well I dunno but when I played Rounders at my posh school there wasn't a six foot ten bloke called Randy slinging a hard ball at over 90 MPH at my head!

I guess that's why they wear helmets!

Clive Lloyd walking out at Lords in the first WC Final with Lilian in full flow, Fredericks, Kalli and Greenidge gone, score 3 for 50.

Is he bothered? Not really.

IIRC he was wearing a sunhat and whistling a happy tune.

Puts on 149 with Kanhai, own score 102 from 108 balls. Twelve 4's, two 6's.

THAT was intestinal fortitude IMO.


But what I'd REALLY like to see is one of those people (even now) trying to tell Merv Hughes he's a poof.

[JimBHibees]

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Given that our dislike of England isn't racist and is confined to our direct sporting rivalry at football and rugby, why do we want them to lose at cricket too?

Much prefer England to beat the Aussies at cricket to be honest. Cant stand the arrogance of guys like Ponting, Warne, McGrath et al, ad love to see them gubbed. Cant see England winning the last test but genuinely hope they do.

[JimBHibees]

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I just amuses me when folks who don't know the game imagine it's played by wimps and chinless wonders muttering things like "Oh, I say!" and "That's not cricket, sir!"

I can JUST remember when the MCC decided to do away with the distinction between 'players' and 'gentlemen' (or 'professionals' and 'amateurs') on the team lists. It was a bit like Roogby League and 'Ruggah' - you had the 'toffs' who didn't take wages (but were reimbursed their 'expenses' - usually a lot more generously than the professionals were paid), and the working chaps who played cricket for a living and were patronised by the 'toffs'. But unlike Ruggah and Roogby League, the toffs and the working chaps were all on the same pitch (though they didn't share dressing-rooms, of course....)

There was Public School and 'Varsity' cricket ('play, play up, play up and play the game...') on the one hand, and the Lancashire League and the like on the other. And then the County committees....

And the ever-present shifty wee men who'd happily take your money and give you odds on Truman taking 5 wickets in an afternoon, or Hobbs still being in at stumps.

But the penny dropped on me a long time ago that anyone who's prepared to stand up in front of 20,000 spectators or more and let Fred Truman or Michael Holding or Jeff Thompson or Glenn McGrath (or Marshall, Holding, Garner and Croft all in the one stiffin team) heave a cricket ball at him at 95 miles an hour six times in 5 minutes ain't no wimp....

You HAVE heard of the great Australian female fast bowler, of course?

Lilian Thompson.

During the Ashes series on Sky, they had an excellent review of the series Lillee and Thompson demolished England in Australia. Some of the footage was absolutely brutal with none of the helmets and padding they wear now. David Lloyd got a ferocious ball straight into his inadequate light plastic box, which split due to the ferocity of the bowl and dug into his leg, causing a deep wound.

They mentioned that there were so many English batsmen injured that Mike Denness called home for a replacement in the form of the ever so posh Colin Cowdrey, future Lord Cowdrey. Cowdrey was 'frightfully delighted' to help out. His first game he comes out and introduces himself to Jeff Thompson, 'Mr Thompson, I presume'. Thompson laughs and bellows, 'thats not going to ffing help you, Fatty'.

[--------]

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During the Ashes series on Sky, they had an excellent review of the series Lillee and Thompson demolished England in Australia. Some of the footage was absolutely brutal with none of the helmets and padding they wear now. David Lloyd got a ferocious ball straight into his inadequate light plastic box, which split due to the ferocity of the bowl and dug into his leg, causing a deep wound.

They mentioned that there were so many English batsmen injured that Mike Denness called home for a replacement in the form of the ever so posh Colin Cowdrey, future Lord Cowdrey. Cowdrey was 'frightfully delighted' to help out. His first game he comes out and introduces himself to Jeff Thompson, 'Mr Thompson, I presume'. Thompson laughs and bellows, 'thats not going to ffing help you, Fatty'.

Ah, Thommo and his old-world demon-bowler charm.

IIRC 'Fatty' didn't last long, either....

Puts me in mind of the way Fred Truman once introduced himself to a visiting team at Headingley.

He stuck his head round the dressing-room door, glowered at the assembled company, and announced, "I need nine wickets today, so you buggers better start drawing straws to see which one of you I don't get." And disappeared.

(He didn't get the nine, but he got a few. )

[Mibbes Aye]

Sounds like a fantastic catch from Katich off Bell - could the momentum change?