Posted 5 months ago — by Rich Abbott
It’s clear from the tributes rolling in, that in Sir Alec Bedser the game of cricket has lost one of its greats. Yesterday’s news reminded me of a story Bedser recounted in Simon Hughes’ And God Created Cricket.
After the war Surrey were trying to find an amateur captain and there was this chap Major Leo Bennett that used to play for the BBC, he was pretty good at cricket. They offered him the captaincy. But before the season started another Major Bennett walked into the Oval. ‘Ah, we’ve been looking for you,’ they said, and they asked him to be captain. They got the wrong Bennett. He was Major Nigel Bennett, and ordinary club player. He must have had quite a thick skin because he accepted. But he was an absolute twot. They soon find out but they couldn’t take it off him and we had our worst season ever, came 11th.
Quite apart from excellent use of the word ‘twot’, this story, in the words of Hughes, makes you “wonder how England ever competed at anything, be it cricket, manufacturing or war.”
For a time, that England did manage to compete at cricket was largely down to Alec Bedser: Christopher Martin-Jenkins described him as “an oak tree among saplings in England teams in those years of post-war austerity”.
Cricket is good at remembering its heroes, and Alec Bedser was certainly one of those.
Posted last year, at the end of November — by Rich Abbott
Simon Hughes’s excellent book, And God Created Cricket, recently alerted me to a custom that existed in the game before being banished by the first incarnation of the laws in 1744. Namely, that the striker would be penalised if “he runs out of his Ground to hinder a Catch”.
Apparently, before this was officially clarified, it was not uncommon for a batsman to, in Hughes’s words, “literally assault a fielder as he was attempting to take the ball”. This conjours up images of an intruiging cricket-rugby fusion, as well as making jellybean disputes and that strange sideways point adopted briefly by Stuart Broad against South Africa in the World T20, look decidedly lame as distraction techniques in comparison.
The book is full of such gems, and is a must for any self-respecting Christmas list. And, if the ICC are looking for ways to jazz up World Cup 2011, (all 43 days of it), then the image of Jesse Ryder bearing down on a terrified silly point fielder does have a certain appeal…
Posted 4 years ago, at the start of March — by Will
Aside from his own Podcast, Rick Eyre mentions a couple of others: The Cover Drive and The Telegraph’s Simon Hughes. I like Hughes; he’s a really excellent writer, and his podcasts could be quite entertaining. I’m completely unconvinced about Podcasts…who has the time to listen to them all? Not I. I have an Ipod, but the whole “getting it on there” thing has me a bit confused. It’s not easy, and I’m not very clever. So until some genius makes it a simple case of plugging it in, leaving it for a minute, and unplugging then I can’t be naffed.
I’ll try Hughes’ out though…good on The Telegraph for being bold enough to try out a new technology, though.
Posted 4 years ago, at the end of February — by Will
My thoughts on Graham Thorpe’s autobiography (bleurgh) and Simon Hughes’ Morning Everyone (splendid) are over at the other blog for your reading delight.
Posted 5 years ago, mid-November — by Will
I get to review Simon Hughes’ new book, Morning Everyone – hurrah! Two days off and far too much to do, but hopefully will work my way through it. Looking forward to reading it.
Posted 5 years ago, at the end of October — by Will
Bugger. Just missed Simon ‘Yozza’ Hughes on the BBC’s programme Loose Ends, who was speaking to promote his new book (which will be good). He also mentioned he’s been working on a DVD with, guess who, Andrew Flintoff. You can pre-order it at Amazon for about £15. Flintoff must surely now be the most marketable English cricketer, certainly since Botham but perhaps of all time.
Who’s tiring of it/him then?! I just hope he can continue his cricketing-brilliance this winter, next summer and beyond – I don’t give a shit about all the houses he buys or whatever advert/product he wants to promote.
Oh, Hughes’s thing on the radio should be up on the Beeb’s site tomorrow.
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Posted 5 years ago, mid-October — by Will
My 3-set Ashes DVD (£14.99) has been dispatched by Amazon – a weekend of beer, pizza and cricket awaits some time in the next couple of weeks! Also, two other books of note:
1) Simon Hughes’ new book, Morning Everyone, is released on October 20 (Thursday). A lot to live up to after his previous two books.
2) Gideon Haigh’s Ashes 2005. One of the best writers around, this should be an excellent – and one of the better – accounts of this summer’s Ashes. Out, too, on October 20.
So rare to have a feast of cricket-DVD-and-book’age happening – and it’s far too long to wait for Christmas! – so get ‘em now like I have.
Posted 5 years ago, mid-June — by Will
With a title no doubt influenced by his Channel 4 colleague, Mr Benaud, Simon Hughes “The Analyst’s” new book (out in October) has a finalised front cover. Very much looking forward to reading it after his first two were so excellent.
UPDATE 21 October 2005. The book is now available at Amazon, priced £10.19. For more cricket books, see this tag.
Posted 5 years ago, mid-January — by Will
Pleased to note Simon Hughes, ex-cricketer, commentator and author has finished his latest book (think he finished it in the summer). Morning Everyone: A Sportswriter’s Life. Not out til October but worth pre-ordering. His other books, including Yakking Around The World on the right, are excellent too.
I like Hughes. He’s not a smooth operator as Mark Nicholas; doesn’t have the dry wit of Richie Benaud; is more sensible than the idiotic Dermot Reeve but has become a much respected “analyst” of Cricket with Channel 4 and knows his stuff.
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Tony Greig joins Channel 4 team
Tony Greig joins the Channel 4 team for this summer’s Ashes. Here are the following voices you’ll be listening to in a few weeks time:
Mark Nicholas, Richie Benaud, Mike Atherton, Geoff Boycott, Michael Slater and Simon Hughes