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#90517 12/30/02 01:04 AM
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stales Offline OP
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(Ha - I knew THAT subject title would grab your attention Hev!!)

I've been watching the mighty Aussies give yet another international team a flogging over the past week or two. Noted that the commentators regularly refer to a full length delivery on the on side (a couple of cricketing terms thrown in just to bamboozle the non-cricketers!) as being, "Right in the block hole!"

What's a block hole / blockhole?

stales


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When in doubt, ask Aunt Fanny:

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/crickgl.htm


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stales Offline OP
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Whoa - I'm happy for you to kill this thread Faldage - it is a worthy sacrifice for THE best cricket site I've ever seen. Ta muchly!

(Certainly a better site than the one that stated "BLOCK HOLE" could be "Cured with a good Sri Lankan curry".)

stales


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wwh Offline
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Dear Faldage: Is Fanny Bush pseudonym for Pubic O'Hare?


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Is Fanny Bush pseudonym for Pubic O'Hare?

No.


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Pooh-Bah
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Stalesy, could have told you about the block hole if I'd seen this earlier, but my time on the Board is now extremely limited. The entry alluded to by Uncle Bill and (indirectly) by Faldo the Great is for Bush, Frances Jemima and is a bit of a laff.

There was a period in the sixties (when I wer't a lad) when umpires disliked yorkers so much that they would get the groundsman to do something about the block hole during the lunch break. That seems to have died the death during the intervening years. Even worse is wear on the pitch from fast bowlers' feet. If you get a left-arm fast bowler who goes around the wicket, you get footstep depressions for a few feet beyond the crease. These are just made for medium-pace and slow bowlers and spinners who put up a good length. Half the time the ball will shy away from the batsman, but the other half of the time the ball can cut back in towards the wicket at a truly wicked and unpredictable angle, especially for a well-delivered seamer ...

- Pfranz

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THE best cricket site I've ever seen.

I went from knowing nothing of cricket worth talking about to being able to explain baseball reasonably well to Rhuby using compare and contrast with cricket by having read The Don's Farewell to Cricket with Aunt Fanny's little dictionary at hand. Farewell to Cricket would have been totally incomprehesible without Aunt Fanny.


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There was a period in the sixties (when I wer't a lad) when umpires disliked yorkers so much that they would get the groundsman to do something about the block hole during the lunch break. That seems to have died the death during the intervening years. Even worse is wear on the pitch from fast bowlers' feet.

This explains why our home matches are nearly always played on the artficial wicket. I and a few other bowling team members enjoy pitching yorkers. Pitching them into the block hole dents a real wicket and the batsmans parry does much the same damage rendering the wicket unusable for several weeks after the game. So we part-timers get the astroturf - which just can't get the bounce or the spin.


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Pooh-Bah
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I shouldn't be responding to this - bed beckons - but Rubrick's comment put me in mind of Ewan Chatfield, who bowled slow/medium pace for NZ for many years. In a test match he'd bowl over after over at the batsmen using exactly the same line and length, which were such that if the batsman failed to at least block the ball it would take the middle stump out every time. Frustrating for the batsmen and neophyte cricket watchers, because it required absolute concentration from the one and looked as dull as dishwater to the second. But if there was one lapse in concentration ... Every so often, however, Ewan would bowl up a yorker, i.e. he simply changed the length. I won't say it got the batsman out every time, but after being mesmerised by Ewan's consistency for a few overs, it often completely bamboozled the batsman, who would be on his way back to the clubhouse saying "What happened? What happened?" before he even realised he was out!

- Pfranz

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hev Offline
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(Ha - I knew THAT subject title would grab your attention Hev!!)

Well I declare, I'm a bit slow off the mark. Guess I'll have to duck in here a little more regularly, so I don't have to miss out on all these extras.

It's onto the front foot for me then... Time to go put the TV on to watch a few overs. It's been a while since there's been a good cricket thread around here. Thanks stales!


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