Cricket

My grandparents lived in Herne Bay and we saw Derek in 1963 in his first season with Alan Knott behind the stumps. Think it was Dover or Folkstone but it could have been Canterbury. Very sad.

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Iconic photo

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Marvelous - as @Eoink points out some fine athletes there: Milburn, Cowdrey, Graveney, haha.

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I remember seeing Derek Underwood hit a 6 (!) - a big one at that - over the stand at Bradford Park Avenue in the early 70s. Also seeing him bowling that match with Knotty behind the stumps. Great memories and a fine player - RIP.

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It may not be cricket as we know it, but the IPL saw something very special today from the 'Royals, the primary contribution in chasing coming from Jos Buttler. The scorecard betrays the drama in the chase.

Indian Premier League: Jos Buttler hits 107 not out to lead Rajasthan Royal to victory off final ball - BBC Sport

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Yes, I just watched that. It didn’t look possible. Extraordinary innings.

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One of those innings where his team were collapsing around him…and then he ate his spinach :grin: I was listening more than watching – you could sense the karma with the 5-run wide!

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Think we’ve seen the last of Jofra Archer and it appears while he may try to make the T20 WC he won’t be playing test cricket again.

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I saw :eyes: it, an amazing chase

The IPL seems to leave me cold these days, though I watched the England ladies at New Zealand :new_zealand: and thoroughly enjoyed it.

So not so much the format more the IPL itself

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Sad to hear about the death of Raman Saba Row … a path finder.

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Very sad news. I went to the same secondary school as Derek and can still remember to this day our headmaster announcing at assembly that he had been awarded his first England cap.

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He comes over very well

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Bairstow on fire in the IPL.

Serious number of high scores in the IPL . Really good pitches. However, go and play a Test match in India and you play on a scarified cabbage patch.

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About time for YJB, as he’s had thin pickings prior to this. The dominance of bat over ball in the latest IPL isn’t very encouraging though.

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The IPL continues to diverge from the sort of cricket I want to watch. I wouldn’t bother even if it were free to see in the UK. However the crowds and the money seem to follow it. I don’t see the balance being shifted away from batsmen any time soon.

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I think that is a bit harsh. The wickets in the last India v Enland series were good sub-continent surfaces. They allowed good batsmen to score especially on the first few days and they developed and changed through the 5 days to support spin etc. Nothing unfair, no matches that were effectively decided by the toss. The whole progression of surface, ball and conditions throughout a match, the ebb and flow of momentum is utterly missing from T20, and what remains is ersatz and unfulfilling for me.

Bruce (Dinosaur)

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At least they’ve tried to curtail the length of the matches – I think Bumble said on commentary a few years back that he’d been to shorter 50-over ODIs! Most of the wickets do appear to be the ‘sit up and beg’ type, having just enough bounce for batsmen, but no pace or high bounce to encourage some batting circumspection.

You can but admire the skills of the batsmen nowadays and I’d love to play with the newer bats, and to understand how hard the white balls are, as they exhibit a ‘ping’ from the bats which I’ve never heard from even a new red ball.

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That’s one of the positives about The Hundred , a set time , sometimes the IPL goes at the speed of a 1970s snooker match , Cliff Thorburn took less time considering some shots than deciding which sort of ball to play, what speed and how to set the field .

I usually watch the Hits segment rather than the full match

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As it was Sunday yesterday I was in my local and there was a copy of Private Eye on the counter; apparently Ian Hislop had been in. It’s not a regular read for me but I used to enjoy reading EJ Thribb; here is his tribute to Deadly.

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Shocking news.

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So sad, no cause given

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