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Articles by Douglas Heath

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About Douglas Heath

Douglas Heath began his lifelong love affair with cricket as an 8 year-old schoolboy playing OWZAT? Whilst listening to a 160s Ashes series on the radio. He later became half-decent at doing John Arlott impressions and is a member of Middlesex County Cricket Club. He holds no truck at all with the T20 version on the game. More Posts

Who Only Cricket Knows/David Woodhouse

This is a book prize-winning account of the 1953-1954 tour to the Caribbean led by Len Hutton and managed by Charles Palmer. The title is an adaptation from Rudyard Kipling by the Marxist writer C.R James which reflected one of the tensions of the tour – nascent Caribbean nationalism – [...]

July 31, 2024 // 0 Comments

County cricket‘s state of play

Though it would perhaps be going too far to say that county cricket is in crisis it certainly feels unloved and marginalised. I am particularly concerned for the county I support Middlesex. Between 1919 and 1947 Middlesex were the only county  of the south to win the Championship. Lancashire and [...]

July 24, 2024 // 0 Comments

Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes/David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts

This is the story of a classic Ashes series in 1961 in the context of two very different captains Peter May and Richie Benaud. Peter May (Charterhouse and Cambridge) was more patrician, a classical batsman but cold and distant from his men. Richie Benaud was an adventurous captain but also a [...]

July 8, 2024 // 0 Comments

Great cricket XIs

A friend of mine composed the best England Test team of his lifetime (he was born in 1959) which I will now share with you. Gooch, Cook, Root, Pietersen, Stokes , Botham, Knott, Swann, Broad, Andersen, Underwood. Having been born five years earlier, I might have included Ted Dexter, Fred Trueman [...]

May 6, 2024 // 0 Comments

First round of the Championship round-up

Sussex supporters are entitled to feel aggrieved that they only drew with Northamptonshire. Had the start been at 10-30am – and floodlights been switched on – neither of which happened, they might have beaten Northants who were 173-9 at close of play and only 64 runs needed for victory. [...]

April 9, 2024 // 0 Comments

Dead In the Long Room/Andrew Green

Dead In The Long Room is a novel which works on several levels: as a murder mystery, as a depiction of Edwardian literary life and as a description of the pavilion at Lords. The story is of a murder of an actor Harold Wilde during the Authors v Actors match at Lords. This fixture still takes place [...]

March 19, 2024 // 0 Comments

Coverage of the Third Test

Away from my TV, I have been following the Third Test v India on Talksport. You can see the difference from TMS even though the latter is more sanitised and diverse than in the past version. David Lloyd has joined the Talksport team. He knows his cricket at every level but overdoes the [...]

February 17, 2024 // 0 Comments

Indian cricket in perspective

The surprising aspect of the Second Test is that – given a wicket was prepared to deteriorate and encourage spin – it was the speedsters on both sides who dominated. Jimmy Anderson bowled really well but it was Jasprit Bumrah that was man of the match with his nine wicket haul. It was [...]

February 6, 2024 // 0 Comments

Thoughts on a great Test victory in India

In an era of Test match decline Ben Stokes has done so much to restore its status. The final day, resulting in an improbable England victory, was as exciting as it gets. So much so that I dared not leave the TV transmission for fear of missing something. Ollie Pope’s 196 put England back into [...]

January 29, 2024 // 0 Comments

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