My only encounter with the shipping forecast was Mrs Bale’s ‘running gag’ preoccupation with reciting it on the comedy show “As Time Goes By.”
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Odds And Ends And Anything You Fancy
- Thread starter Eulalia
- Start date
My only encounter with the shipping forecast was Mrs Bale’s ‘running gag’ preoccupation with reciting it on the comedy show “As Time Goes By.”
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
In what European country are you likely to see something like this frequently?
Sverige
Are you saying that Swedes aren't so bright, Barb ?
Changing topic, it's a while since I was at a wedding, have fashions changed?
Cran
Governor
Hopefully.
old slave
FELIS RESPICIENS
Not also the forecast for Coastal Waters?
I love the lengths of coast the British Isles are divided up into, such evocative names:
- Great Orme Head to Mull of Galloway
- Mull of Galloway to Mull of Kintyre including the North Channel and Firth of Clyde
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
Poor priest!
"We are here together to join those two...
those two... those two people, let there be no misunderstanding,.. to join those two people in holy matrimony!"
'... and Carlingford Lough to Lough Foyle' If I'm awake after midnight - the coastlines either side the Mull of Galloway are near me.
It is a lovely 'found poem', and the different names go back to the many languages of the isles.
LittleSiss
Sorceress
So! Watch your blind spot!
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
I'm not sure what this is. But it's sure odd!
View attachment Japanese are at it again1.mp4
View attachment Japanese are at it again1.mp4
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
It's indeed not clear in what direction it will move!
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
Greatest Over Ever?
poem21045
Tribunus Plebis
Pop-over? Over easy??Greatest Over Ever?
Over there, over there. . .
Over and over and over and--
Greatest Over Ever?
Hard to say, as I'm expected to sign up to read the article, which I won't do. Maybe it's the greatest over ever seen by Boycott and Holding. What's the story, was Holding bowling to Boycott or were they both in the commentary box?
Reminds me of the classic piece of commentary involving Michael Holding and an English batsman by the name of Willey. It ran something like "The bowler's Holding the batsman's Willey" (willy being a British term for the male member)
For those who don't know an over is "six consecutive legal deliveries bowled from one end of a cricket pitch to the player batting at the other end, almost always by a single bowler." Overs are bowled from alternate ends of the pitch, with fielders changing position after each over.
Gibbs505
SERVORUM DOMITOR
AS I remember, the greatest over is one in which Donald Bradman whipped a English bowler by hitting every ball bowled to him all over the pitch.
Also:
Also:
That only applies to lower class games. For first class game an over is eight legal deliveries of bowls.
Yeah, it depends on your perspective, batsman or bowler
No, I haven't seen a top level 8 ball over since the 1970s, it's been six ball overs all the way up including all forms of international cricket for years.
The dress has changed too
ok, no, I do women's cricket a disservice. There are genuinely good players on the scene, none better than Australia's Ellyse Perry
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
It is March 14, 1981. A Saturday morning in Barbados. The Kensington Oval - a dilapidated delight of a cricket ground, a top-edged hook from the cruise ships and fishing boats that pockmark Bridgetown’s port - is throbbing.
Fans are scrambling through gaps in the wall and clambering up stands to perch precariously on their tin roofs, all in a desperate attempt to catch a glimpse of the second day of the third Test.
On the field, England are batting. Having dismissed West Indies for 265, they are - for once - in the game. At one end of the ground, Michael Holding, the world’s fastest bowler, stands with ball in hand. At the other, Geoffrey Boycott, the epitome of Yorkshire cussedness, is taking guard. He doesn’t know it yet, but he is about to face possibly the greatest over ever bowled.
Fast forward 40 years. Boycott - now a proud grandfather to little Joshua - is no longer padded up and Holding’s luxurious Afro has been replaced by neat, cropped grey hair, although he still looks younger than his 67 years.
United by technology that would have been unthinkable in 1981, the pair are about to relive that over together for the first time ahead of its 40th anniversary on Sunday.
Boycott is sat in his living room in Boston Spa. It has taken time to convince him to sit in the centre of the shot - as ever, his wife Rachael proves more persuasive - although it is a largely futile exercise because as the conversation begins he continually hops about in his seat, fending off the throat balls once more.
Holding, a more relaxed presence, is in the garden of his house in the Cayman Islands (he also has a home in Newmarket, where he can more easily keep an eye on his beloved horseracing). A palm tree is reflected in the window behind him, and the only background noise comes in the faint trill of birdsong.
Mutual respect abounds between old rivals stitched together by six balls which have taken on their own mythology in the intervening decades. Now, it is time to hear their story.
Ball one header
Holding drops on a line and length immediately. Boycott, surprised by the bounce, fends to second slip where the ball falls short of Viv Richard
Footage of Holding’s epic over has been viewed on YouTube more than a million times - proof of its own legend. Even so, watching it now is an unsatisfactory experience. There was no live coverage of the match, just a camera from a BBC news crew set up at long-on. The report only features three balls - the first, second and sixth - and the footage itself is so grainy and mucky that you can barely see the ball leave Holding’s hand, although that in itself was not a unique experience for batsmen of the day.
The news crew were in Barbados not for the cricket, but because the tour had been rocked by the Jackman Affair. The second Test in Guyana was cancelled after its government refused to grant a visa to Robin Jackman due to his links with South Africa. The fall-out was toxic, with the series effectively put on hiatus for three weeks as the authorities attempted to thrash out a compromise.
While Boycott recalls England’s players spending the time being “sat on our bottoms in Barbados”, Holding had work to do. He had lost his run-up in the first Test in Trinidad, going wicketless in the first innings before claiming 3-38 in the second as West Indies won by an innings.
It is hard to think of Holding, arguably the most graceful fast bowler to have ever lived, suffering a mechanical breakdown, but his problems were real.
“It had been giving me a problem for a year or so because I had a knee situation,” Holding recalls. “If you do not have confidence in your body it affects you physically and mentally on the field but [his opening bowling partner] Andy Roberts sorted it out. His knowledge and how he assessed people, even his own team-mates, helped me a lot.”
Holding’s respect for Roberts is obvious even now, and actually helps explain why he was even bowling to Boycott in the first place. As the senior bowler, Roberts took the first over, Boycott watching from the other end as Graham Gooch fended him off. Holding took over from what is now the Joel Garner End at the Kensington Oval (Garner was fielding at gully).
Gibbs505
SERVORUM DOMITOR
REally, then I stand corrected!Yeah, it depends on your perspective, batsman or bowler
No, I haven't seen a top level 8 ball over since the 1970s, it's been six ball overs all the way up including all forms of international cricket for years.
The dress has changed too
View attachment 981490View attachment 981491View attachment 981492View attachment 981493
ok, no, I do women's cricket a disservice. There are genuinely good players on the scene, none better than Australia's Ellyse Perry
View attachment 981494View attachment 981495View attachment 981496View attachment 981497View attachment 981498
There’s a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield,
And the ricks stand grey to the sun,
Singing: ‘Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover,
‘And your English summer's done.’
and then, of course ...
There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night --
Ten to make and the match to win --
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote --
'Play up! play up! and play the game!'