I read today the Guardian obituary of West Indies cricketer Joe Solomon, known for his excellent fielding. He it was who threw the ball (with only one stump to aim at) that ensured the runout that secured the first ever tie in Test cricket in a celebrated match against Australia at Brisbane in 1960.
A sufficient claim to fame you would think, but until I read it I had not realised he is the only cricketer (yet) to score a hundred in each of his first three first-class innings.
Joseph Stanislaus (Joe) Solomon: 24/8/1930 – 8/12/2023. So it goes.
One of the most distinctive cricketers of my youth, Bishan Bedi, has died.
A brilliant left handed spinner, he batted right handed but it was his headgear that made him stand out. He tended to wear patkas, a variant of the Sikh turban.
As a bowler he conceded only 2.14 runs an over in Test matches. Of those who took over 200 Test wickets only three other bowlers have better stats.
He eventually became India’s captain and showed his strength of mind by declaring a Test innings against West Indies early as a protest at their bowlers aiming more at the Indian batsmen than any attempt to get them out less dangerously. He made a similar decision in a one-day international against Pakistan.
Here he is taking 5 wickets (for 55) against Australia in Brisbane in 1977.
Bishan Singh Bedi: 25/9/1946 – 23/10/202. So it goes.
It may seem inconsequential in the light of everything else going on in the world at the moment but the game of cricket lost two of its luminaries within a day last week.
Hot on the heels of the news of the death of Rodney Marsh – one of the best wicketkeepers of my lifetime – came news of the death of Shane Warne, arguably the best spin bowler of the second half of the twentieth century (if not all time) and certainly in the top two.
Marsh made a formidable foil to the bowling of Dennis Lillee and also with Lillee’s strike partner Jeff Thomson. ct Marsh b Lillee is still the record for Test match dismissals by any combination of players.
Warne’s ‘Ball of the Century’ is still jaw-dropping.
He once held the record but is still the second highest wicket taker in Test history.
Rodney William Marsh: 4/11/1947 – 4/3/2022. So it goes.
Shane Keith Warne: 13/91969 – 4/3/2022. So it goes.
John Edrich was a batsman for Surrey and England at a time when I was fairly interested in cricket. Indeed his 310 not out against New Zealand was the eighth highest Test score by an individual in an innings up to that point and is still the fifth highest by an England player. In all he played in 77 Tests (plus 7 One Day Internationals) scoring 5138 runs (plus 223 in ODIs) and a batting average of 43.45 (37.16.) He was also instrumental in Surrey winning the County Championship in 1971, their first for 13 years. Overall in first class cricket he scored 39,790 runs (with 103 hundreds) and averaged 45.47. He also held 310 catches.
John Hugh Edrich: 21/6/1937 – 23/12/2020. So it goes.
Over England. In a form of cricket, a game which England invented, at which England are at present the best in the world.
(Well, not now. Now Scotland are surely unofficial World Number 1 in One Day International cricket.)
This is a stunning result, as far as I know the first win Scotland has had over England in any form of cricket.
It shouldn’t be a surprise. Cricket is not really alien to Scotland. There are many practitioners of the art throughout the country. (I was one myself once, playing not only for my school but also for Dumbarton Cricket Club way back in the day. Not in any great capacity; I was only really there to make up the numbers. My proud boast though is that I never scored a duck when batting for the club.)
But back in the nineteenth century Scottish cricket matches used to attract crowds in the 10,000s. J M Barrie (of Peter Pan fame) used to be a member of a travelling cricket side known as the Allahakberries. (Possibly not a name you could get away with these days.)
It’ll be a heady day or two until normal service is resumed.
The Australian PM is reported to be shocked and disappointed about the recent ball tampering by his country’s cricketers.
Has this guy never heard of sledging? As far as I’m aware it’s an Australian invention – or at least its designation is. And it’s essentially a form of cheating.
I can’t help feeling he’s coming over a bit Claude Rains as Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca.
Along with the long gone and lamented John Arlott, Richie Benaud was part of the sound of my childhood – at least when the cricket was on.
Benaud’s commentaries – especially his end of day’s play summaries – were always insightful and his voice was of course a godsend to imitators.
I remember reading once (in the late 60s or early 70s) that Benaud had witnessed – either as a player or commentator – somewhere around 70% of all the Test matches that had ever been played up to that point. Certainly well over half. In those days there were many fewer Test playing nations and the international schedule was lighter but it was still a remarkable feat and went a long way to explaining his deep knowledge of and love for the game of cricket.
The world always seems emptier when a figure who is redolent of a certain sphere of activity, who represents it in your mind – the first thing, the one above all else, I associated with the name Benaud was cricket – passes away. Present day players seem totally insignificant in comparison.
Richard “Richie” Benaud: 6/10/1930 – 10/4/2015. So it goes.
The access is up a small street which also houses the entrance to the now sadly defunct (again) McCowans Highland Toffee factory.
This is the “away” end. Every time I’ve been in there since it got covered over by a canopy the Sons have lost the game.
I go to the main stand now. It’s called the “Norway” Stand for some reason I forget.
The view from the stand is below. There used to be a stand like the one opposite the pavilion stand at Boghead over there but it’s been gone quite a while now. There’s a cricket pitch in the distance believe it or not. The town of Stenhousemuir boasts both a football and a cricket club.
A couple more photos of the ground are on my flickr.
Due to being at the game on Saturday and a family night out the same evening I more or less missed the sad news of the death of Basil D’Oliveira.
It’s not given to many sporstmen to affect materially the social organisation of their native (or any other) country – even inadvertently – but that is what Basil D’Oliviera did.
I remember him as a composed batsman, an elegant stroke maker, but it is his contribution to the unwinding of the apartheid regime in South Africa that will be more commented on. There had been protests against that system before but it was the refusal of the then South African government to countenance his membership of an MCC touring party with the certainty that the “coloured” D’Oliveira would have played in Test matches in the country of his birth – albeit for England – that crystallised for many the iniquity of apartheid and its eventual downfall through various sporting boycotts and isolation. For D’Oliviera seemed the epitome of the cricketing ideal, sportsmanlike and dignified on the field, and his banning by the regime an act of extreme petty spitefulness.
His actual age may have been older than many sources quote as he may have given the impression he was younger than he was in order to be chosen to play for England. His wiki entry quotes a source for this.
Basil Lewis D’Oliveira: 4/10/1931-19/11/2011. So it goes.
