Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.
It's the birthday in 1899 of Perc Hornibrook, Australian cricket left-arm bowler. Other than Mrs. Hornibrook, who cares, right? Well how about this: on this day in 1974, Kanhai & Jameson add 465 for 2nd wicket, Warwickshire v Gloucs. That is also a cricket related event. I have no idea what it means. Cricket has always been a closed book to me. I enjoyed the book, Tom Brown's School Days as a youth, but had to skip the chapters describing the supposedly exciting cricket matches.
I tried reading the Wikipedia entry on cricket, which assumes basic familiarity with the game. Next I tried "Cricket for Americans" in which the author "takes a stab" at enlightening my darkness. So cricket is played on a big oval field. In the center is the long, skinny "pitch" where most of the action takes place. The bowler whips the hard leather ball at the batter's wicket. The wicket consists of three two foot tall sticks with two cross pieces set on top. If the bowler can hit the stumps, the little sticks will fall off and the batter is out. The batter has a flat bladed stick to defend his wicket. Sometimes he'll hit the ball into the field. If it's caught he's out. If he hits it far enough, he runs 66 feet to the opposite wicket. This scores a run.
There's another bowler and batter. They take turns bowling and batting. This can go on for hours and days and hundreds of runs will be scored. There are many more facets to the game. I watched a "Basics of Cricket" YouTube video. At the end, the narrator exhorted me to "teach your friends," which I'm trying to do here.
I would really need to have started watching cricket as a lad, because now I just don't care. I just spent the last month watching parts of several World Cup football (soccer) matches. I adopted first Sweden then England as my favorite team. Soccer has many rules I don't quite get. The object of the game is to put the ball into the other team's net. Three goals is considered a lot, so that makes it unlike cricket.
I admit soccer is exciting for short bursts, but I could not sit still to watch an entire game. I can no longer watch an entire game of any sport. even if I understand the rules. The games are too monotonous. At this point, I prefer the redundancy of life itself.
 |
| What's a sticky wicket? It's complicated |
Cricket is basically baseball on Valium.
ReplyDeleteRobin Williams
My first husband, Christoper was English and a "sticky wicket." Here's a definition I found that describes my marriage to him:
ReplyDelete"A sticky wicket (or sticky dog, or glue pot) is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance. It originated as a term for difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket, caused by a damp and soft pitch."
. . . Indeed, he was a dog, and other women seemed to "stick" to him as if he were a" glue pot." The 16 years I was with him were, indeed, "difficult circumstances." The "damp and soft"-- well, I'll leave to your gutterish imagination. Thanks for letting me vent a bit. JP Savage