Cricket

I have spent the last two days at Hove watching Sussex play Worcestershire. Our season started well with a win over Hampshire. On Sunday Matt Machan, essentially a one day player, was called up with injuries to Chris Nash and Mike Yardy. He clearly decided to make his mark, reaching 50 in 27 balls [...]

Yesterday I attended an auction of the Robin Marlar cricketing collection at the Boundary Rooms Hove Cricket Ground. Marlar, 84 years young,  captained Sussex and was a figurehead in the revolution of 1997. He was an outspoken cricket correspondent and stood as candidate in full and bye elections. [...]

There is a film whose name escapes me of an American arriving at Victoria. Seeing a billboard “England in crisis” he asks the newspaper vendor what it’s all about and is informed it’s a test match against Australia. The American heads off to the Oval where a spectator, Miles [...]

Yesterday I went to the county ground at Hove for a coffee with Tony Cottey, the ex-Glamorgan and Sussex cricketer who now is charge of business development, to renew my subscription for the Players Club. Tony played for the county from 1999 to 2004 and it’s rather attractive that business [...]

Although I agreed with much of Tom Hollingworth’s wide angled perspective on UK sport, there is one group on whom it will fall on deaf ears, namely the English cricket supporters. As the wiseacres pontificate over the World Cup debacle I have not seen much sympathy for those who pay thousands [...]

Yesterday I attended the inaugural lunch for Luke Wright, the prolific one day batsman of Sussex, held at the Grand, Brighton. I have been attending such lunches for over 35 years and in that time the format has scarcely changed at all. The aim is to pack in as much in as possible to generate money [...]

I wonder why we perform so poorly in the one day game. The tradition of English cricket is county and test and unlike Sri Lanka we never seem to be able to adapt those forms of the game to the limited over format. It seemed to take ages to appreciate that Alastair Cook, a cautious run accumulator, [...]

Last might I went to Hove Cricket Ground as a member of the Sussex Cricket Society to hear a talk by Brian Scovell. I know Brian who worked as sport journalist on the old Daily Sketch and then the Mail, covering cricket and football for many years, and has written biographies of Brian Lara, Bill [...]