A New Season - a new gadget

Forget about the snickometer, hotspot, or even strategic time outs (and definitely forget the commentary of Danny Morrison): the latest innovation in cricket scoring since the box scoring system was invented by Charles Box (fact!) has arrived at Balliol Cricket courtesy of the 'Red-Haired Wonder' Simon 'Thwaiters' Thwaite - the electronic scorebook.

Here, for the first time, we can see the run rates required (without the agonising pain of mental arithmetic) on a ball-by-ball basis. Spikes, troughs, tough patches, maidens, collapses, gritty SR Waugh partnerships, the lot - all in one package. Above is the so-called worm graph indicating runs vs overs. Note in the New College innings (the Green line) that, at least according to the immortal commentary of Ravi Shastri "The worm is hungry and it has found food." A Citi Moment of Success for sheer commentary mavericity.

Before we examine another feast for the analytical eyes, a match report is perhaps, in order.

Wednesday was the traditional season opener: the Richmond vs Carlton fixture which is sure to set up the season with a bang. There is always some needle in the air (the perfect admixture of metaphors, to be sure) when New College and Balliol meet on the battlefield of Bradman, and the 28th proved no exception.

Phil Clark was stranded in the USA due to the omnipresence of the Imperial Icelandic Ash Cloud, and he was forced to follow the game on live over by over cricinfo updates. Well, Thwaiters hasn't got us linked to the web yet, possibly because there is no wireless in the pavillion (Plummer strikes back) and possibly because cricinfo have their hands full wrinsing Lalit Modi and pegging him to the rusty hills-hoist to dry on a balmy spring afternoon.

The Surgeon was not stuck in South Africa trying to sell point-of-entry visas to Slovenia, as was first thought, but it turned out he was stuck in Byron. Six inches deep in essays about the Big Man, to be precise. With Wino out at Worcester pushing for a place amongst the universities elite, and of course, practising the beautiful 'Blues Leave' (this is where you leave the ball, twirl the bat and really bring in the punters with your style and finesse - see

Sunday, May 25, 2008

First win of the season (Part 2/2)

for further comments) - it was always going to be an uphill battle. But the longest and strongest suit of Balliol has always been heart(s), and the band of XI brothers who took the field that bold April eve had more than enough of their helpings of Weetabix.

Arjun, who studies tigers don't you know, leapt into the fray (I've got about a thousand more den/cub/crouching tiger classics to go, so hang on tight) with a couple of early wickets. With Terry Alderman-esque swing he opted for the two leg slips as opposed to the classic 9 slips back in Lillee's day
(note the subtle cigarette advertising in the background). I only saw this photo recently, but I do remember seeing SR Waugh employ this field against Zimbabwe... I was in year 9 at the time, but I think I remember the commentators saying 'I guess that shows how little Waugh thinks of Mutandera'.


Anyway - Arjun was bowling inswing like Fred 'the Demon' Spofforth. I suppose I was then Jack Blackham

although without the look of a man who wishes to caress whatever he manages to touch.

VSS bowled with good flight, and despite succumbing to temptation with the potentially superfluous quicker ball, tied one end down and caused plenty of strife. Trav 'The Highlander' MacLeod flew downwind and was unlucky to finish without a wicket, but his parsimonious overs added plenty of Pascals. Shiv 'The Lawmaker' bowled at the death - courageous, sure, as a leg-spinner, but taking the pace right off the ball proved difficult to be got away. There were, as usual, some poor applications of the Laws of Cricket: the ball, to be adjudged a wide needs to be wide of the batsman in a normal batting stance, and wide of him when it PASSES him. There were mad free swings going on, playing over the top of the ball. Oh, we'll have a bonus run for that, cheers me ol' mucker. That makes me the happiest man in Christendom.

Jack Cox, not the bloke after whom the apple is named, nor the bloke after whom the inter-departmental Oxford cup is named, bowled some nice, Gary Larson esque dibbly dobblies on debut which helped keep the scoring rate down.

Sadly, Thwaiters, our very own Chris Harris (above) didn't get a crack with his reverse door-knobs.

A sharpish caught and bowled by Penfold and a couple of well-executed run outs did the trick. I should say that the runout credited Thwaite/Trudgian had precious little to do with me. The throw was sufficiently robust and precise that I could have used my gloved hands to rather clumsily brew a pot of tea while aiming a judicious deflection off the box onto the stumps. But you save those tricks for the big crowds.

Some of the wheels came off during the last 5 overs, but with Captain Kohnny promising a diabetic's delight in wine gums for next game, we can only get better. Either 'wine gums' is not in use in Australia as a term to describe chewable goo, or I have led a very Colgate-centric life.

Do feel free to click on the scorecards and photos for a closer gander.

Needing 191 to win from 40 overs, Ed and Jim got us off to a flying start. Sure, 20 odd runs came in the second over, mostly due to wides and byes, but you still have to run them. Ed 'Boony' Latter belted a few around the park for a quick fire 28 - an excellant start. Jim survived a sharpish appeal for caught behind, added a couple more, before being cleaned up by Buckfield, the pick of the bowling.

After almost heading off to the hospital for a finger scan, the courageous captain Kohnny steered Balliol into a commanding position with plenty of SR Waugh-esque slog sweeps to rattle along to a 49 off 42 banquet. After a couple of quick wickets, it was down to the redoubtable combination of TS Trudgian and VSS, two old hands who had seen it all before. 54 runs required from 10 overs. Doable, but with no fielding restrictions and a slowish pitch, some MG Bevan cool headedness was called for.

Our run-rate graph - notice the cruise-control mode after the fall of the last Balliol wicket.

In the end, after some lusty hitting (no Matthew Hayden Walk this time) - see

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Losing is problem that MacGyver himself can't fix

for more details - and some Linfordian running between wickets, we needed 6 runs from 7 balls. To be honest I had been hitting every ball in an arc between square-leg and mid-wicket, but inexplicably there were not legions of fielders placed there. VSS managed to play the ball on both sides of the wicket with equal force, and perhaps they confused us in appearance. Likely? Sure. I did have a brain melt after the antepenultimate over. I hit a four from the last ball and went up to Vidhu to talk about our game plan (I think we needed 18 from the last 12). After that I walked up ready to take guard for the next ball of the over. The captain looked at me and (I thought) said to the keeper "Did you see that last shot?" No reply from the keeper, so I inferred that the captain was talking to me "Did you see that last shot?" Well, I replied, as a matter of fact I did, wasn't it awesome? Ah, I see, you want me to change ends - fair play.

So, with 7 balls to go I got out the wide-punt pole mow across the leg side, which somehow quantum-tunneled under A Asher at forward short leg, and thundered away for four. A couple of lusty singles next over and it was done, with an MG Bevan degree of efficiency - too much in fact, we still had 4 balls to go. Below is the final Balliol scorecard.

A classic start. Tune in for more after the Cuppers match on Monday.