Vaughan to play for Yorkshire in preference of IPL to hopefully regain an England Test place
The Independent has the story
RP
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Friday 30 January 2009
West Indies A V England
England's preface to what promises to be a year of fine cricket starts out as an as yet, unwritten book.
I do hope that the story of the West Indies 1st Test of 2009 isn't going to be entitled 'Something Wicket This Way Comes'
I say this because at the moment it all seems a little bit Agatha Christie: A Caribbean Mystery!
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
I do hope that the story of the West Indies 1st Test of 2009 isn't going to be entitled 'Something Wicket This Way Comes'
I say this because at the moment it all seems a little bit Agatha Christie: A Caribbean Mystery!
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Thursday 29 January 2009
Ouch!
West Indies A V England: 3 Day in St. Kitts: Day 1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/7859652.stm
Like I said - Ouch!
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/7859652.stm
Like I said - Ouch!
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
The Great Cricketer
The Great CricketerThe plaque outside Memorial Ground, Gloucestershire County Cricket Ground, Bristol reads
To commemorate
Dr.W.G.Grace
The Great Cricketer
Born 1843 - Died 1915
This tablet was erected
Outside his county ground
At the centenary of his birth
16th July 1948
Dr.W.G.Grace
The Great Cricketer
Born 1843 - Died 1915
This tablet was erected
Outside his county ground
At the centenary of his birth
16th July 1948
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Memorial Ground, Bristol
An empty board
Outside the Memorial Ground, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Bristol yesterday.
The pitch is in turmoil, upturned soil as far as the eye can see. Hopefully there will be a green, green grass at the home of Gloucester cricket in readiness for the start of the season...
Just found out that it is drainage ad irrigation works in the outfield [No Boundaries November 2008 issue 33 (the official magazine of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club]
RP
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Wednesday 28 January 2009
Credit Crunch Cricket
On a cold winter's morning where the nets hang with raindrops from the previous night's cold downpour, you could be forgiven for thinking that cricket is still some way off and reset the alarm, turn over and go back to sleep for a couple of months. However, there are stirrings. England are in the Caribbean hitting sixes, obtaining wickets and sustaining injuries. All this, in readiness for their 1st Test of the year which is; just over a week away! The papers are bristling with comment; will Lord Marland effectively challenge Giles Clarke for chairmanship of the ECB? What do we have to do to ensure Test cricket remains the 'pre-eminent' (thank you The Times, Monday 26 Jan 2009) form of the game? Will Flintoff's side injury be something or nothing? Yes, there are stirrings in the undergrowth, just off from the boundary. However, as the economy goes starts its free-fall swallow dive into the gaping maw of oblivion, it makes sense to me to look at how the cricket fan can make some economies.Reading Material
Whilst waiting for tangible play, now is the perfect time for reading. Newspapers, as previously mentioned are bristling with news (which is just as well as it is what they are there to do!) but saving on buying 4 newspapers a day, which is costly to both the environment and the pocket is a reasonable economy to make. So, why not combine the need for news with that mainstay of the British economy (which, let's face it, you are never going to give up); the coffee. Most coffee places have newspapers available to read, for free! You are going to have that coffee, I mean, there are cost cutting-measures and there are cost-cutting measures, steady on, It's like breathing isn't it? So, combine! Just make sure that you get there early so you don't miss out upon the papers you want to read and end up with dog-eared old rags.
Books also fall under this category. We are coming to the end of the 'sale' period but charity shops are your friend. No honestly, they are. Although Oxfam are wise to anything remotely collectable and will be displaying prices that look like they have been appraised by the team from the Antiques Roadshow, other charity shops are less 'upmarket'. I got a copy of England's Ashes. The story of the greatest Test series of all time. 2005. Telegraph. London. Originally £17.99, saw it for £6.50, bought a copy for £1.75! Mint condition! One careful owner! Now that's what I call a recession-beater.
Clothing
Now I know 'technical' clothing is the way forward, with 'wickaway' materials such as ClimaCool and far be it from me to halt the march of progress. If it means more runs then I'm all for it but 'the Cricket Jumper'. There is something about 'the Cricket Jumper' that no other jumper can sartorially aspire to. Its replacement, the thin, scrawny 'techno-jumper', impostor that it is, means that a genuine, all-wool 'Cricket Jumper' is damned near impossible to get hold of and if you do happen to get within a sheep-hoof of, you need a mortgage to purchase it, which you can't get hold of because of the credit crunch! The England cricket team get theirs (used to get theirs?) from some expensive shop in London but you can't buy one unless you play for the team. Various cricket companies like Gray-Nicols and Gunn & Moore still produce jumpers but they are acrylic. If you want the sheep's best friend you have to go to Smart Turnout who provide old school (that's 'Old School', not 'oldschool' but then again, 'the Cricket Jumper' is so oldschool now) and old regimental (I refused to look at the American jumpers on offer, it's just not cricket is it?) cricket jumpers, in wool but they are expensive! And we are talking credit crunch here. So, as a last resort I found this from Crew Clothing Company. You cannot get them instore, I tried in both Bath and Bristol but online, half price! 100% wool, only a few left, then gone forever. The beauty of it is, I don't have to impersonate an old school attendee or bang on about my old regiment down the pub (not that I'm ever down the pub you understand). It is also a dark colour so I'm less out of place in the depths of winter. I may succumb to a cream acrylic one just for the summer but for now - credit is well and truly crunched!
Tickets
Now unfortunately, tickets do not fall into the same category as the above items. You can't purchase from a charity shop or get them at sale prices and there is none of this '3 for 2' malarkey. On websites such as Seatwave, the prices just go up. However, fear not, be judicious. Local cricket is cheapest, one of the non-19 county teams will enable a cheaper fix. ODI tickets are still available, claim one for a birthday or anniversary. I have, England v West Indies, Edgbaston. Visiting relatives? Then visit the nearest ground to imbibe the anima loci, it's free to look longingly though the gates (not too long though, you don't want to be had up for loitering now do you?). I'm hoping to get to Old Trafford and Headingley Carnegie in the not to distant future.
So, there you have it. Just a few ways to get 'cricketed' up without going bankrupt.
'Maximum Cricket - Minimum Outlay'
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Tuesday 27 January 2009
My Side! My Eye!
Injuries dominate the news about England's performance in St. Kitts. It appears that some good bowling practice (great to hear Adil Rashid from Yorkshire get his first wicket) was obtained but at the expense of Owais Shah's eye.
Tour Match: St Kitts Invitational XI v England XI at Basseterre, Jan 25-27, 2009.
Jan 25, 2009: 424 for 8 424 for 8
Jan 26, 2009251 all out and 118 for 0
(Courtesy of Crickinfo)
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Tour Match: St Kitts Invitational XI v England XI at Basseterre, Jan 25-27, 2009.
Jan 25, 2009: 424 for 8 424 for 8
Jan 26, 2009251 all out and 118 for 0
(Courtesy of Crickinfo)
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Monday 26 January 2009
The Tiger Takes Guard on Radio 4
The discussion of Test cricket, whose importance is currently in the news with the recent review by the ECB (at Stapleford Park in Leicestershire last week) and how the IPL with its Twenty20 format affects this is discussed in the first part of former England captain, Mike Brearley's documentary on India's love of cricket on Radio 4.
Listen Again on iPlayer Radio Console [Part 2 next Monday at 20:00].
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Listen Again on iPlayer Radio Console [Part 2 next Monday at 20:00].
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Sunday 25 January 2009
Lovely Weather for Ducks
A forlorn scoreboard in the dark of a stormy afternoon
As the rain poured down and Bath wrestled with Toulouse in the mud born of a monsoon rain, set under steel floodlighting, against a gunmetal sky at The Rec, I couldn't help thinking of England in the sunny Caribbean. Bath Cricket Ground looked lost and forlorn, water pooling on the creases only a ball's throw from its sister (or should that be brother?) rugby ground.
Pooling on the creases
I had scoured Radio 5 Live and any other Medium Wave sports station I could barely pick up on the wonders of old technology but cricket didn't get a look in. I listened through interminable football commentaries (alright, we listened through interminable football commentaries) on the way home and still nothing. At home, I sat through the news, to the bitter end and still nothing. Then, I got to the BBC Cricket website! Noooo! But Crickinfo gave a brighter picture; Pietersen made a century!
Not a magnificent start - out for a duck but considering the weather we experienced walking around Bath this afternoon, it was lovely weather for it!
Tour Match: St Kitts Invitational XI v England XI at Basseterre, Jan 25-27, 2009. 424 for 8 off 91.5 overs (Courtesy of Crickinfo)
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Saturday 24 January 2009
The Outlook is Sunny
From a cold, albeit sunny day at the end of January, the pictures posted on the ECB website of the the England team, training on the sands in the Caribbean pull a little twinge of jealousy (however it is not as big a twinge as in my leg which has been keeping me up nights over the past few days). They have arrived and are no doubt adapting to the climate of a greater 'personal responsibility' and anticipated income increase from the IPL, should they be lucky enough to be bid for.
Newspaper coverage is good, I'm struggling to keep up with it but a debate that is growing in my head is; does the web version of events from the big four newspapers; The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, and The Daily Telegraph capture all of their paper-based output? Will I 'miss out' if I just go to the web and don't buy the newspaper? The verdict is still out but I'll let you know.
St. Kitts hosts an XI versus XI at Basseterre, St. Kitts starting tomorrow. The first strike of the ball will be heard some time after 2:00 in the afternoon (although the sound will have to travel a pretty long way for me to hear it as I look out of the window (that I now see needs cleaning) here in Wiltshire. I shall be avidly checking Crickinfo for all the updates.
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Newspaper coverage is good, I'm struggling to keep up with it but a debate that is growing in my head is; does the web version of events from the big four newspapers; The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, and The Daily Telegraph capture all of their paper-based output? Will I 'miss out' if I just go to the web and don't buy the newspaper? The verdict is still out but I'll let you know.
St. Kitts hosts an XI versus XI at Basseterre, St. Kitts starting tomorrow. The first strike of the ball will be heard some time after 2:00 in the afternoon (although the sound will have to travel a pretty long way for me to hear it as I look out of the window (that I now see needs cleaning) here in Wiltshire. I shall be avidly checking Crickinfo for all the updates.
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Official Sustenance
It's powering this blog as we speak!
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
There in Spirit...
The Armchair Crease - there in spirit, if not at every match or on the pitch.
The Armchair Crease sets out to provide a humorous look at County and International cricket from a Yorkshireman marooned in Wiltshire's perspective. It follows the fortunes of England and Yorkshire in 2009 from the comfort of the armchair.
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
A New Year, A New Obsession
A new year, a new obsession (or a new 'phase' as my daughter likes to put it): cricket!
I did play cricket at school. Notice that is 'at school' not 'for the school'. I distinctly remember a projectile (ball) being thrown at me and me defending myself with a weapon (bat). I must confess, I was never really a sporty person. I watched cricket at the local ground, up north in the town where I lived. I used to go with my Grandad on a Sunday and I can still remember the sunny days, the clouds racing past and the sound of cliche on cliche. Cricket is one of the truly great English spectacles. I had a cricket bat, I remember buying it but trying to keep oneself amused alone, with the trappings of a team sport is never going to work (no-one to bowl to you, no-one to catch you out, no-one to umpire, the list is endless!). I supported local football avidly, both 'home and away' (that's fixtures not the Australian soap) and followed England's roller coaster ride of death but in the end it is cricket that is England's quintessential game. So it is now, in the January of 2009 with England in the West Indies, dust still pluming around the captain/coach debacle, the Damoclean Twenty20's hanging over preparation for the Ashes appearing to be moved and no terrestrial TV coverage of England's matches that I walk from the virtual clubhouse, to take up my position on the armchair crease to follow a year of what should be 'first class' cricket.
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
I did play cricket at school. Notice that is 'at school' not 'for the school'. I distinctly remember a projectile (ball) being thrown at me and me defending myself with a weapon (bat). I must confess, I was never really a sporty person. I watched cricket at the local ground, up north in the town where I lived. I used to go with my Grandad on a Sunday and I can still remember the sunny days, the clouds racing past and the sound of cliche on cliche. Cricket is one of the truly great English spectacles. I had a cricket bat, I remember buying it but trying to keep oneself amused alone, with the trappings of a team sport is never going to work (no-one to bowl to you, no-one to catch you out, no-one to umpire, the list is endless!). I supported local football avidly, both 'home and away' (that's fixtures not the Australian soap) and followed England's roller coaster ride of death but in the end it is cricket that is England's quintessential game. So it is now, in the January of 2009 with England in the West Indies, dust still pluming around the captain/coach debacle, the Damoclean Twenty20's hanging over preparation for the Ashes appearing to be moved and no terrestrial TV coverage of England's matches that I walk from the virtual clubhouse, to take up my position on the armchair crease to follow a year of what should be 'first class' cricket.
RP
Copyright © 2009 THE GREEN ORCHARD Ltd. All rights reserved.All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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