Apologists,
Was reminded the other day that CB Fry, test cricketer, raconteur, agent, who then took up a long career as a complete madman, always maintained that the best catch he ever saw in any form of cricket, was one he witnessed at the annual Women’s Match at Lords sometime in the late 1910’s.
So, call me mad or call me old fashioned, but found myself at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday for 22 overs of the women’s one- day international Australia v England.
All very civilized.
Delighted to find that they were not charging any admission fee after lunch, and that the trustee’s had the decency and sense to open the Members Bar to all comers.
For once in their lives the Blue Coats couldn’t give a rats who came into the members, although there were a couple stationed at the Members Bar entrances just to cast the disdainful, cursory glance and keep the riff raff out.
On breasting the bar and ordering a beer the barman said
“Will you be going outside, Sir?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Well, I’ll put that in a cold glass for you, Sir.”
Just the ticket.
The principal motivation for turning up was to see the child prodigy EA Perry in action.
Introduced to Elysse at the Lords Taverners charity lunch at the start of the season and she struck me as a normal, intelligent,
live-wire sort of teenager, self deprecating of her prodigious talents, but well aware of them and where they might take her.
She is the youngest ever Australian to represent her country at both cricket and soccer.
At the age of 17, a dual international!
No wonder there is a tug o’ war between the two for her long term services.
Her bowling action reminds me a bit of TA Alderman.
Off 12 paces with a spring-in-the-step mid way through, a compact delivery stride and a quickish right arm with a hint of sling in it, and while I was watching, she had the inswinger working.
At the upper end of medium pace viz a viz the men, but well quick enough for the competition.
She had one Pom opener plumb to one of those inswingers; never seen one that was more out, and then got the other opener with a pearler that made a mess of middle and off stumps.
Cry went up in the Members Bar, with me, another bloke, and the barman, yelling in unison “got him! all ends up!”
Then we had to politically correct ourselves briefly with a larf.
Surreal scene greeted me on entry to the ground about ten minutes before the end of the lunch break – the Australians out in the middle engaged in full scale, full tilt, fielding practice!
Struck by how considerably and noticeably smaller the ball is compared to the men’s ball.
It has a completely different sound, the thwack of leather on willow, and those who are good of hearing should be able to tell when they are going up hill and down dale and hear a cricket match in progress without being able to see it, whether men or women are playing.
Before the start of the England innings the umpires came into the bar on their way to middle and a couple of pommy blokes on their way to the test matches in New Zealand, gave the Bamfords some lip:
“eh, oompy, now keep yr fingers in yr pockets, ay oop, now won’t yu laddie?!”
One of the Bamfords replied “well at least there are no New Zealanders here”
Crowd about the same as you would get on a weekday Shield match, but more vocal, and fewer punters asleep.
Although, The Man & His Dog was nowhere to be seen, and believe me, people were looking for them.
Impressed by the captaincy of the veteran KL Rolton, rotated the bowling well, and scattered the chooks with ease, with a simple flick of the left arm at first slip, she could move the whole leg side field backwards and forwards by five to ten meters or so without so much as the blink of an eye as everyone was looking at her.
There is absolutely no doubting the grace and athleticism of the girls in the field, but the England batting appeared to be fairly artless most of the time, for mine.
Noted that the Bamfords were both men who happen to be well respected first class umpires, in GA Abood & RJ Tucker, and the SCG ground staff thought it fit to have two blokes on hand to drive the drinks cart out to the middle and back.
Was that a case of the best man for the job?
Whoops.
Politically incorrect, again.
Sorry.
