Cricket

Like Ben Stokes & Richard O'Brien.

Who looks like Sir Geoffrey!



Although not all the time:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21788238

 

He was very good in Man About the House.

 

Local man.

Born in Chiswick.

Interestingly, Man About The House & The Rocky Horror Show both started in 1973.

 

Paula Wilcox or Sally Thomsett, RD?

Yootha Joyce was the star turn, of course.

 

Good to see Channel 4 have struck a deal with Sky Sports to show the final live.

Personally, I'm going to stick with Sky as I like the pundits/commentators.

 

Nasser for Prime Minister.

 

Mr O'Sullivan has called a dead heat.

 

Paula for me, any day of the week.

 

Extraordinarily, she is married to the son of Nelson Riddle, the bandleader who gave us the Batman theme.

 

And worked with Sinatra, Nat King Cole etc.

Good "seven degrees of" game to be played there.

 

Interesting. Are they binning off the British GP then?

edit: nope they're stopping Cricket coverage in the middle for the GP.

Seems Like a bit of a weird decision to me. Both companies showing both events.

 

Is that right?

I'd read (can't remember where) that they were moving the GP to E4.

If we bat first and 79 all out then the switch to the GP will be welcome.

 

It's not quite the hold the front page FTA experience implied.

Some obscure channel near C4 Welsh & the porno section.

 

Nope, moving the cricket to More4 while the Silverstone yawnfest is on.

Hoping for a little bit of:


Although of course it is not as good as:

 

Can't beat a bit of Booker T & the MGs.

Always reminds me of the late Richie 'What a marvelous delivery that was' Benaud and the 1981 Botham Ashes - still maintain his 118 at Old Trafford was the best innings I've ever seen, it was like a T20 innings.

 

No argument from me there. His bowling spell was also magical.

Difficult to say, parenthetically, whether the 2005 Ashes was a better series than 1981. Suspect both will be better than this year's, but you never know. Aussies will be looking for some revenge after yesterday...

 

Sky don't have anything to do with that, other than the bits where they're stood in front of their sky screen. It's all broadcast by the ICC's broadcast company so Channel 4's coverage will be exactly the same.

 

I would say 2005.

Collingwood's Series.

The 20 year drought sharpened the experience.

 

Lou's 1930s moustache is presumably the girl bait.

Edit: You have to look at Keighley's original post.

 

Actually, 2010-11 was the most impressive performance.

I watched almost every ball of that one.

From London.

 

I have rarely been as nervous about any sporting event as on the final day at the Oval, especially around the time when KP came out to bat.

I had to go for regular walks, clean the kitchen, potter in the garden etc. Fortunately Mrs Keighley was at work. We had only been married for a couple of months and she might well have wondered what she had let herself in for. Or, at least, wondered sooner than she did.

I think this reminiscence is making me look forward to next month...

 

Calculating the runs/overs trade off was comforting & sickening.

Somewhere in the middle of the Gilo stand it became obvious we had done it.

But then we were valiant challengers, hanging on.

In 2010-11 we were Smoking Joe Frazier. The only scrape was in the first test. Sir Alistair's 235*, with the Strauss & Trott tons, was imperious.

 

2010/11 was hugely impressive but it was too one-sided to be a great series like the other two.

Not that I was complaining.

 

Yes. That Boxing Day morning was unbeatable. Telly on early morning. England about 120 for no wicket. Bloody hell that’s good. Not many runs for late in the day, must’ve been rain. Took about 45 mins before I found out the Aussies had already batted and we’d bowled them out for 98. Fabulous.

 

2005 was great, but 18 months later we had our arses handed to us in a whitewash.

I wonder if Glenn McGrath hadn't got injured at Edgbaston whether we'd have won that series.

The reason I loved the 1981 series was you basically had 22 overweight men playing the game...ok that's not the sole reason.

For me it was a 'Rocky' type story. England were in the doldrums coming off the back of a disastrous Windies tour where their manager died.

England lost the 1st test, drew the 2nd with Botham out of 'nick' getting a pair. The pressure got to him and he resigned as captain.

Then came Headingly and that glorious 149 innings and the famous Bob Willis spell of 8/43 as the Aussies needing 129 to win were bowled out for 111 - I remember that vividly.

Edgbaston next and Botham took 5 wickets for 1 run in a devastating spell.

Old Trafford secured the Ashes with Botham hitting 118 off 102 balls. An Ashes victory that never seemed possible with all the turmoil.

So for me, the 1981 Ashes will always be special as it cemented Botham as one of my sporting idols.

 

Again, I can’t argue with this.

My Dad and I were driving through France, trying to get my French up to O level standard, in ‘81. We had heard the close of play score on long wave radio on the Saturday evening (I think?) and decided not to bother that much thereafter. Much chuntering from my Dad, Freddie Trueman style.

There was a rest day on Sundays in those days. We idly tuned to R4 LW on the Monday evening, just to hear the news really, and were surprised at England’s recovery. Still, we didn’t think much of it. Dad damn nearly crashed the car when we heard the result early on Tuesday afternoon.

That Test, and the next two, are the basis of my love of cricket, really. That and a WI v Somerset match at Taunton in ‘80. At which I was privileged to see Richards, Garner and Botham vs Lloyd, Gomes, Holdng et al.

I still maintain that no other sport has the monumental shifts in storyline that you can get in Test and first-class cricket, with individual episodes forming part of a greater whole.

 

You know I competely forgot about the Sunday rest day, can you imagine the loss of revenue.

I remember that phenomenal Somerset team, they always won the one day trophies but nearly always finished near the bottom of the County Championship.

 

Half the country was talking about the Headingley Test in 1981 including non-cricket fans. You don’t get that now with the Ashes on Sky.

 

Sign up to Sky & ‘be part of the conversation’.

Please let’s end this gormless meme that Sky is some weird private club.

If you like cricket, it is still extraordinary value.

If you want to freeload, I recommend David Coleman on the BBC.

 

True but the cost of a monthly sky package including the sports channels is still a significant cost for some over a year. Some just need to spend that money elsewhere.

 

I’ve been a Sky subscriber for 20 years, ever since the Mooney team got promoted to the PL, but it’s just a fact that in ‘81 people with no usual interest in cricket were talking about Botham and the Ashes. You don’t get that now.

 

And in 2005, tbf.

 

3-1, as in 81.

To win away is formidable. To come back from the drubbing at Perth was exceptional.

Vs Oz, I’m less concerned about a finely balanced sporting fixture.

I just want to win each game.

A frustrated ambition for most of my 50 years watching England.