I’m parking off (relaxing) on Sunday afternoon watching the cricket and Mrs. S waltzes in and asks me if this is “still the first half”
Brilliant! Mrs. S has been to perhaps 50 cricket matches with me over the years but the analogy wasn’t “is this the first innings”
So, in the spirit of gender equality I now refer to the respective innings in one day internationals or 20twenty matches as halves, and why not?
I mentioned this to my mate Arthur today, he tells me about a Polish flatmate of his (a lady) who was introduced to cricket (via TV) and became quite an enthusiast.
After six months or so he tells me that she joined them at a game played at Centurion (Pretoria) she was apparently puzzled that the players swapped sides after alternate overs, of course she had only watched the game on TV where everybody appears to be bowling from the same end!
Women, you’ve got to love them.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Doh!
Well, yes, perhaps we are not entirely up to scratch with the niceties of The Game, Soutie; but some of us, in our youth, did a mean tea and lemon at ahem.. half time? 🙂
Evening Ara
“half time” I like it 🙂
There has to be more (not necessarily from the fairer sex) I thought that my example was a beut only to be topped by my mate’s!
Pretty good, but when is the bully off, Soutie? 🙂
Cricket is very pleasant to watch when you’re lying in the grass in the dappled shade of a tree on a hot day watching the chaps in white moving about in the distance, occasionally running, occasionally shouting. I’d always join in the occasional clapping. That was Witcombe Cricket Club in Gloucestershire in my youth. A perfect venue but still not quite as celebrated as the Cheltenham College Cricket ground where the young P.G. Wodehouse was impressed by the performance of Jeeves, a Warwickshire bowler and used the name for his new series of stories.
As you may have gathered, I understand very little. I never got the significance of “following on” and when DT man attempted to explain, I think I must have had a short nap or something because I can’t for the life of me remember.
Soutie, that’s a classsic! At Wimbledon tennis championships I can never understand why fans watch from the side of the court. Surely the TV armchair view, from behind the service line, is the only real view point that gives true pespective of the rallies. TV has thus conditioned me.
Bah, humbug! This is a proper game. 🙂
Brendano – do you know anything about “Unified rules” (I think) – a game played between Australia and Ireland, based on AFL and some variant of Irish football?
I believe it’s a yearly event.
Soutie, good evening.
Please ignore Brendano’s attempts to interest you in the aberrant form of shinty which they play in Ireland and which they call ‘hurling’. They call their stick a ‘hurley’ instead of using the proper term of ‘caman’ Said sticks are far too thick, in my opinion. Takes all the skill out of the game.
Every year. we have an International between the two forms of the sport with an agreed set of rules to bridge the differences. We’ve beaten Ireland at Croke Park you know, which does not often happen in any sport.
Oh, hang on a minute. Just remembered that we did it this year at rugby as well.
Only ever played shinty once. Cricket is a lot safer.
‘Halves’ works for me when it comes to Twenty20. I see you say 20Twenty. Is that the SA usage?
Morning all
Janh, there is very little reporting here of the English domestic leagues (or anybody elses for that matter) we do get up dates if our players are involved, surely you meant ‘Proctorshire’?
Howzit PapaG, pleased you enjoyed it, the homegrown slips are usually the best.
Nice one Brendano, do you have your own ‘World Series’ like the Americans do for there insular sports? I don’t however seeing it catching on here.
Having said that there are vast numbers of Irish living all over the world, funny that they didn’t take this part of their culture with them.
John I’m pleased that you like ‘halves’, I didn’t realise that there was an official abbreviation the simple ‘T20’ seems to be in vogue down here at the moment.
Brendano, hope you don’t mind I rather tongue in cheek referred to you as “TIWMNBN (the irishmen who may not be named)” over on Vado’s latest.
🙂
Stop them wearing all that girlie padding for a start, it may encourage the mummies boys to hit the ball every now and then.
How about some form of timed explosive on the ball? That might spice things up.
Bearsy, yes … I know about the International Rules series. I sometimes watch it on TV, and my son was at one of the tests once. It’s a hybrid of Gaelic football and Aussie rules (which probably arose in part from the football played by Irish immigrants).
The Irish tend to hold their own, although they are amateurs and the Aussies are pros … the latter tend to be bigger and more muscle-bound. The games are regularly marred by extreme violence on the part of some Australians (no doubt you’ll say that this is ‘whingeing’, but it’s true). Sadly there seems to be no sense of sportsmanship on the Aussie side … just a ‘win at all costs’ mentality. Many people here find it hard to see the point of International Rules.
John, you know how to slip a dagger in my heart. Oh well, there’s always the Heineken Cup semifinals. 🙂
As for shinty … I’ve never see it, but I believe it’s a kind of ground hurling. Perhaps it attracts crowds of 85,000, but I somehow doubt it. And I doubt that the hurlers take the ‘internationals’ terribly seriously. 🙂
Soutie, you may refer to me as anything you want. 🙂 You ought to tell Vado and Viajero Tranquillo about this site. Vado’s brilliant posts may as well be ignored here as there.
Hurling and Gaelic football are the main Irish sports. They are organized on a parish and county basis … much of rural life, especially, revolves around the local GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) club. The GAA is the largest amateur sporting organization in the world.
The All-Ireland championship in each sport is a very big thing every summer and autumn. Counties compete for it. Gaelic football is played in every county and hurling in about half of them, mainly the southern half.
Players represent their own counties … there are no transfers.
Proctershire, oh very droll Soutie. I’ve got a painting by Jack Russell. Does that count?
Hey just found this. A good read. Shame about the lack of paragraphs.
http://www.gloscricket.co.uk/news/1062–
Looks very much like Lacrosse to me
Can’t say I know anything about lacrosse, Pseu. This gives a good idea of some of the skills of hurling.
Sadly Brendano, I agree with you completely. I am not particularly fond of AFL, but I positively dislike the men who ‘play’ it. They cause a lot of trouble off the field, as well. 😦
… and, by the way, the answer is “Crumlin, where the Children’s Hospital is”.
Yes, Bearsy, I know Crumlin … I worked near by, in Dolphin’s Barn library, and a lot of Crumlin people used to come in … I may have stamped his books. 🙂
So long as you didn’t mark his card! 😆
“Cricket Explained
You have two sides one out in the field and one in .
Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out .
When they are all out the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out .
Sometimes you get men still in and not out .
When both sides have been in and out including the not outs , THAT’S THE END OF THE GAME !
HOWZAT !!!!!?”
Soutie, you might enjoy this … scored on his Spurs debut last night by Danny Rose, against Arsenal.