what a magnificent Ashes series - so sad that Sid was not here to enjoy
it and I really miss the discussions we had on email, short but to the
point and always full of wisdom and insight as well as being fun.

I would love to have heard his take on the stumping controversy. Yes,
out, but not in the spirit of the game imo and I'll believe that until
my dying day. But drother didn't think so - who would Sid have agreed with ?

That was the only really sour part of the series, brilliantly fought
between 2 outstanding teams. Shame that the rain didn't allow a result
in the previous Test, but 2-2 against the World Champs is probably a
fair result, where at least 2 of the games could have gone the other way
with a slight change of fortune.

And what an emotional end. Broad getting a 6 off the last ever ball
he'll face and then taking the last 2 wickets after his playing with the
bails (checks spelling) trick. Magic.

I'm sure Sid's comment here on the series would be as follows, so I'll
leave it at that...

<MEGA-beam>

On Monday, July 31, 2023 at 6:37:23 PM UTC+1, BrritSki wrote:
> what a magnificent Ashes series - so sad that Sid was not here to enjoy
> it and I really miss the discussions we had on email, short but to the
> point and always full of wisdom and insight as well as being fun.
>
> I would love to have heard his take on the stumping controversy. Yes,
> out, but not in the spirit of the game imo and I'll believe that until
> my dying day. But drother didn't think so - who would Sid have agreed with ?
>
> That was the only really sour part of the series, brilliantly fought
> between 2 outstanding teams. Shame that the rain didn't allow a result
> in the previous Test, but 2-2 against the World Champs is probably a
> fair result, where at least 2 of the games could have gone the other way
> with a slight change of fortune.
>
> And what an emotional end. Broad getting a 6 off the last ever ball
> he'll face and then taking the last 2 wickets after his playing with the
> bails (checks spelling) trick. Magic.
>
> I'm sure Sid's comment here on the series would be as follows, so I'll
> leave it at that...
>
> <MEGA-beam>

Disclaimer: I lost my innocence with test cricket over the 1999 Match-fixing scandal and it's never quite been the same for me since. And anything that takes less time than a day's play feels more like entertainment than sport. So I can't say that I've really been enjoying first class cricket for a while.

But I used to love the enthusiasm and good humour with which you and Sid batted and bowled with each other. A post - or even a whole thread with the solitary word B E A M said it all. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with umra today. I really appreciate it and what lies behind it.

As for whether all the play in this series was in the spirit of the game, despite cricket being a synonym for fair play, there always seems to have been controversy at the top of the game. Not just this stumping, the previous ball-tampering episodes, that match-fixing controversy: it goes back to the Bodyline series - no, further back still. What about WG repeatedly refusing to leave the crease with mutters of "They've come to see me bat, lad."? I suspect they've been at something or other since almost the very beginning.

But despite all my cynicism, nothing has (yet) taken away my enjoyment of village cricket. On a warm summer's afternoon, out for a walk, I might stumble (fairly deliberately I should say) across two village teams batting it out between them and I might settle down to watch them for a couple of hours.. They might not be very good - or they might be surprisingly good, who can tell? But the honest pleasure of the players enjoying the game for no other reward than enjoying the game is, for me, a joy.

Thanks again Brritters.

Nick
nickodell49@yahoo.ca

On 31/07/2023 18:37, BrritSki wrote:
> what a magnificent Ashes series - so sad that Sid was not here to enjoy
> it and I really miss the discussions we had on email, short but to the
> point and always full of wisdom and insight as well as being fun.
>
> I would love to have heard his take on the stumping controversy. Yes,
> out, but not in the spirit of the game imo and I'll believe that until
> my dying day. But drother didn't think so - who would Sid have agreed
> with ?
>

In mitigation of the offence it was committed against a fellow
wicketkeeper who should have known better

> That was the only really sour part of the series, brilliantly fought
> between 2 outstanding teams. Shame that the rain didn't allow a result
> in the previous Test, but 2-2 against the World Champs is probably a
> fair result, where at least 2 of the games could have gone the other way
> with a slight change of fortune.
>
> And what an emotional end. Broad getting a 6 off the last ever ball
> he'll face and then taking the last 2 wickets after his playing with the
> bails (checks spelling) trick. Magic.
>
> I'm sure Sid's comment here on the series would be as follows, so I'll
> leave it at that...
>
> <MEGA-beam>
>

I feel that one comment Sid would have made is how little the final
result mattered compared with the entertainment value the matches had
given, and witht he way the series showcased two competing approaches to
the game of test cricket, the conventional and the Bazball, both equally
valid and both potentially winning strategies.

john

On 31/07/2023 21:19, John Ashby wrote:
>
> I feel that one comment Sid would have made is how little the final
> result mattered compared with the entertainment value the matches had
> given, and witht he way the series showcased two competing approaches to
> the game of test cricket, the conventional and the Bazball, both equally
> valid and both potentially winning strategies.
>
Indeed. Wonderful entertainment.

On Monday, July 31, 2023 at 1:37:23 PM UTC-4, BrritSki wrote:
> what a magnificent Ashes series - so sad that Sid was not here to enjoy
> it

The exact same thought crossed my mind. Not a day has gone by when I haven't thought of him.

The cricket has been a joy. It slipped out of my life a bit, partly from being on another continent and it being troublesome to follow (timezones, television and radio coverage - or lack thereof, and being generally busy. But my children are at the age where I'm able to pick up bat and ball and play in the garden, so they've invigorated my interest. And I've loved it.

Baz-ball? Well, some people say it's not test cricket, and maybe it isn't, or it wasn't. But it's entertaining! Scoring runs is good. Hitting sixes is good. Seems to me that everyone is finally playing like my all-time cricketing hero, Viv Richards. Hitting a six to the leg side from a ball bowled wide of off-stump? Yes please!

> I'm sure Sid's comment here on the series would be as follows, so I'll
> leave it at that...
>
> <MEGA-beam>

Quite.