Neville Scott
@nevillescott.bsky.social
Freelance journalist (Times of London mainly). Writing about cricket and culture/history. Have wandered the uplands of 77 countries. https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/neville-scott/an-evasion-of-capture/paperback/product-1897k5z.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Stephen Fleming spent summer 1993 with the 2nd XI for Northamptonshire where I'd been ball-by-ball Cricketcall commentator. On an evening with the players, we soon realised that, even at 20, here was a man of high substance. Happily, time has confirmed the judgment: England have hired a good 'un.
Though Norfolf-born, a considerable part of Ms Arlott's family lineage is from Hampshire. Potential tenuous link to the Basingstoke Boy himself, then? The highest density of what remains a very unusual surname is still S Berkshire and adjoining N Hampshire. John would have relished any connection!
The Cricketer@thecricketer.com · 2w agoYorkshire have secured a coup with the signing of England seamer Em Arlott from Warwickshire.
Until about mid-1980s, the game here was not all about public schools and 16yo players poached from an upbringing and education in South Africa (or occasionally other countries) to become British after two summers 'residence'. Our masters then slowly let the game in the wider community die.
Brian Groom@groomb.bsky.social · 2w agoGeorge Best plays cricket with neighbours' kids while lodging on Aycliffe Avenue, Chorlton, Manchester, 1965. Photo by Bill Cross.
Absolutely no surprise that Saint Joe is being asked to shoulder Test captaincy until at least next June. Never a man to sidestep burdens. Shame ECB didn't act immediately last January to secure Andy Flower as coach. That post yet to be filled - but Bethell will probably take captaincy for Ashes?
Whatever else the ECB may contemplate, history and integrity must not be allowed to interfere with the glorious, instantly forgettable irrelevance of The Hundred. God forbid children should be corrupted by the maturity of the Ashes; school holidays are for mindless 100 trivia. "Let them eat pap"!
The Cricketer@thecricketer.com · 2w ago🏴 vs 🇦🇺 | 2027 ASHES FIXTURES 🗓️ The Men's and Women's Ashes will run alongside each other next summer.
Certain events resound. In 1966, nine days after England lifted the World Cup on our b&w TV, I saw West Indies win the series at Leeds: it was my first ever day of f-c cricket. Sobers, our god, bowled in the flesh before us. And astoundingy, 23 years later, I met and interviewed him. Now he has gone
What chance, when we return to real cricket, that either Rehan Ahmed plays (should bone-dry pitches be turning) or Sam Curran is included, each as the all-round replacement for Stokes in the Pakistan Tests? It is startling to be reminded that Curran us still only 28!
Read Orwell's essay "Charles Dickens", Hoppsy. Outstanding as much for the lucidity of its prose as for the acuity of its analysis. Gets precisely to the essence of Dickens. I have never understood the deep popular affection for his work. Unlike Hardy, he lacked a courage to move beyond sentiment
David Hopps@davidkhopps.bsky.social · 3w agoI have just learned that Charles Dickens once described Leeds as “odious”. In his defence, that description is a good deal more succinct than his efforts in writing David Copperfield. I have now been reading it for 400 pages and - despite its gilded reputation - I am slowly losing the will to live.😩
Middx's Caleb Falconer made 102 but Eng u-19 lost their last wicket with 8 overs left, S Africa u-19 taking the 'Test' by 46 runs. Left-arm seamer JJ Basson, still nine months from his 19th birthday, seized the game with 7-73. At 283-5, Eng needed 103 @ 5.28po but Basson claimed last 4 in 31 balls
Of their 15 UK players in the Champo this year, all but six were privately educated. And, even then, four of that half dozen were signed from other counties. Any genuine initiative (i.e. not a PR stunt) to widen access is truly to be welcomed - well done Sussex! But such a pity it's 30 years late.
The Cricketer@thecricketer.com · 3w agoSussex have launched a £1 million initiative designed to widen access to cricket for young people from state school backgrounds.
At last this season, modest progress. The fact that some of us have been banging on in print for 35 years about the critical narrowing of the game's social base whilst the authorites gave not a monkey's may be set aside. We can at least applaud some belated action - albeit several decades late
The Cricketer@thecricketer.com · 3w agoState school sides head for Headingley as carrot of Lord's awaits | @sharmojourno.bsky.social
Meanwhile, tea at Beckenham finds SA u-19s seven down but 328 ahead of Eng u-19s with (theoretically) 127 overs left. They may already have enough though Yorkshire's Brad Sylvester whipped out two in five overs with new ball. May prove able to dec before being dismissed? Eng defeat likely?
Indian declaration leaves England Women to make 457 @ 3.15 if all overs bowled. Or, realistically, to bat four sessions. Defeat looms, I fear.
McCullum: "Of course I'm gutted not to be continuing, but I respect the decision." Which of course means it wasn't his own. Silly of the ECB to put out the news under a "Brendon will step down as Test coach..." version. We badly need clarity as to what culture the side is now expected to embrace
Sadly I beat you by ten years, Harriet. Eng v WI, Leeds, Aug 1966. Well done on seeing a historic first. Are they letting you into the Long Room or is that MCC members only even for this match?
Harriet Monkhouse@harrietmonkhouse.bsky.social · 4w agoCelebrating my 50th anniversary of watching Test cricket (England v West Indies men at Old Trafford) at Lord's historic first women's Test! India are 122-3 at lunch. I am very grateful to past me for booking seats in the shady part of the Grand Stand. I'd forgotten I'd done this! #EngvInd #LordsTest
One of the highlights of the summer came yesterday, not from cricket but from the hammering of the USA's World Cup side, as personally selected by Coach 'Crazy Hair'Trump. Not since 1914 have so many British people rallied to the cause of "plucky little Belgium"! A come-uppance truly to be relished.
Defeat at last for Northamptonshire, but Essex's loss to Middx means the Steelbacks are now guaranteed a quarter-final place. They'll be looking for more than that, notably a home tie at Wantage Road - achieved by just a single further win - but they're definitely first into QFs in this year.
Should Northamptonshire beat Somerset at Wantage Road on Sunday they will be mathematically certain of a quarter-final place in this year's t20 - even with three of their dozen games still to play. As a supporter for 65 years, I'd much prefer Champo promotion. But, heh, I'd graciously accept both.
Given St Joe as interrim mentor, the long-term captain could surely only be Bethell, Abell, Barnard or Hameed. They won't countenance the last three - and, if sane, shouldn't consider Brook. Which means Bethell comes in - as English as planter's punch! But it's coach that's key: get Andy Flower!
Does this not now seem almost certain: St Joe is asked to see Eng through the Pak series and Bethell, even at 23 as he'll then be, is thereafter asked to take the test captaincy? Don't agree myself, but few other scenarios likely. The real, real key is the coach - get Andy Flower back, my masters!
One bloke, now battered black and blue, fights through 241 balls for 100 not out; another makes 21 from nine balls before an inane shot. It is the former who will win. One WK has the skill to stand up to the stumps to fast-medium pace; England scoff at specialists. They will lose.
"A structure that puts all that power into the hands of a wealthy and privileged few would be a betrayal of what the report states cricket should be: “A game for everyone that belongs to everyone”." ✍️ Thomas Evans
Do we conclude that they don't give a monkeys about the Test Championship, that they don't know the rules or that they believe themselves above such trivia? Decades ago, English commentators berated the West Indies for their over-rate. Now this fraud on the paying public seems to be loftily ignored
The Cricketer@thecricketer.com · 2mo agoThe ICC have deducted 12 further points from England's tally in the ongoing World Test Championship cycle.
The one element of the great "Stokes/Atkinson-in-Chelsea-nightclub" non-story that has never even been addressed is why were they accompanied by an ECB minder, anyway? Was this bloke unaware of the supposed drinking curfew or did he think he'd best stay with them regardless? Was going to shop them?
Listen to this remarkable programme from Radio 3 two years ago: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... Then hear the still more rivetting piece itself www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfT3...
BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Never Failed Me Yet
The story of Gavin Bryars' iconic composition, Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet.
bbc.co.uk
Cricket should be owned by its members. That's why we must oppose demutualisation, and keep county cricket owned by fans. Agree? Sign your name below: party.coop/campaign/cri...
Demutualisation: It’s just not cricket
party.coop
