The Googly

Grass roots cricket is the place to be

This is my farewell piece here for the Googly and it's hard to know where to begin or what to write.  With only one piece left, I wondered whether to continue with the off-stage antics of Shane Warne - thinking the tram-crash fest in Melbourne last week - or whether to write about something closer to home.

I've chosen home because I'm sure you all know about the other thing! So last weekend I went to our season opener. A triangualar tournament of Twenty/20s between Lossie, Elgin and Fochabers. What a day to open the cricket season. Minus about 10, no-one there but me and the prettiest ground in the north-east looking dreadful because all the trees are still in full winter mode.

A ground that delights in being situated beside the Spey and lined on all sides by lovely trees was left looking like a 12 year-old's football playground at the side of the A96!

It didn't matter - my team hammered the opposition to win their matches and to my surprise, enchanted with some damn fine cricket. The match I'd been to before this had been Australia v India at the MCG. Sitting in the sun there, I had been entranced at the sight of Ishant Sharma befooling the Aussies with his magnificant bowling, and equally been impressed by Gilchrist walking when palpably not out. Last weekend, everyone out walked before the umpires even gave them out. It was cricket as I know it.

There could be no greater contrast between freezing to death at Fochabers, and having to leave the MCG because it was too hot. Amateurs playing for nothing but the love of the game - professionals earning their livings, but there was something that made these two experiences the same. I was the fan at both matches. I cared. In fact I probably applauded my mate Dave with more enthusiasm when he got a wicket than I did Ishant.

This may be the end of The Googly, but it won't be the end of fans wanting to have a voice.

It's been great fun being part of this and I hope all readers will find their way to other sites. Here at The Googly we have directed readers to check out many up and coming England cricketers - so follow our stars. Last year Toots and I brought you all the news of the County Cricket and hopefully you enjoyed that. Keep the faith. County Cricket is not dead. Outside the Counties, not just here in Scotland, cricket is a fine place to be. See this little song from someone in Oxford:

If you go down to the Parks tomorrow, you’re sure of a big surprise,

If you go down to the Parks tomorrow, you’d better go down in whites,

For ev’ry fan that ever there was, will gather there for certain, because

Tomorrow’s the day the Oxford UCCE play Nottinghamshire

Ev’ry cricket fan who’s been good, Is sure to see 3

England

players,

Including a leading wicket taker, and lots of runs beside

Beneath the spires where nobody works, they’ll bat and field as long as they please,

Cos that the way the cricketers have their innings.

All the best to my readers. Follow the links and you'll find me elsewhere.

[Image: Getty] [mimitig}

Meet the Writer: Nesta Quin

A self-confessed cricket tragic, Nesta has been infatuated with cricket since sitting on his Dad's shoulders at the 1975 SCG Ashes Test. He still has the autographs that Alan Knott and Rodney Marsh kindly scribbled on the back of a pie wrapper after stumps. After that memorable day his still developing mind decided right then and there that he would be a wicketkeeper. He has now kept wicket for 25 seasons and has decided to continue despite the slowing reflexes and the weary hands. The sentimental pie wrapper sits framed on the wall of his mud-bricked study between a glossy poster of Bob Marley and a prized Sidney Nolan sketch of the Derwent River.   

Coached as a teenager by the late and great Barry Knight with the sporadic assistance of Doug Walters and Brian Tallon, Nesta excelled at youth levels and has played competitive cricket in every Australian state, England, India, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States. He will soon qualify for the Tasmanian Cavaliers and is training in anticipation of selection for their 2009 tour of the West Indies, North America and the British Isles.

Nesta's knowledge of cricket matters is vast and if you ask him, peerless.

When offered the opportunity to write a weekly column on Australian cricket for such a vibrant site as The Googly, Nesta was flattered to say the least. To write professionally on cricket is something he never envisioned but now that he has his chance I can assure you he will be playing his shots from the very first ball. It's the Australian way.

His column, The Thunder Downunder, appears each Tuesday and Nesta has asked me to add that he welcomes any and all comments and will endeavour to reply to each and every one.

[Image: Ruby Q]

Meet the writers: Carrie Dunn

I still can't believe that it's actually my job to write about sport, but there it is.  I've been a freelance hack for two years now, after dabbling in broadcasting, and among other things I write for the Times Online's over-by-over cricket blog, having previously been part of the Guardian's online sports coverage team.

Like the Trumpet, I confess to having a fondness for Kevin Pietersen - yes, yes, I know about all the negatives and the ego and yada yada yada, but I have never seen a cricketer like him and simply love watching the way he plays.  Of course, though, as a good Luton girl, and like every other English cricket follower, Monty Panesar is a joy for me to watch.

It's predictable, but my favourite cricket recollection has to be the last day of the Oval Ashes Test, 2005, which I went to as a fan, clutching a ticket for which I paid well over the odds in the anticipation that England would reclaim the urn for the first time in my living memory.  It was worth every single penny.

The Ashes just gone, however, when I worked on Christmas Day to bring the full horror of the unfolding debacle to the masses, would rank fairly low on my list of best-ever moments.

I feel very fortunate and flattered to have been invited to write for the Googly - I hope that doesn't sound too sycophantic - and look forward to proffering mockery and sarcasm where it is due in the months to come. [Carrie Dunn] [Image: Getty]

Meet the Writer: The Tooting Trumpet

Spending my days writing balls-achingly dull stuff for my employer is tempered by the people with whom I am fortunate enough to work and the students (of whom I see less and less - but that just makes it sweeter and sweeter when you see the fruits of their labours). Fooling myself that I was really doing industry-research (and better still, fooling the management) I would follow the GU OBO coverage, occasionally venturing an e-mail - okay, a bit more than occasionally, but I can handle it - yeah, I can handle it.

I started a little late night GU SportsBlogging with the Aussies during the Ashes and found that I enjoyed that more than watching Harmy bowl or Flintoff bat - much more. Then I wrote a bit for the mighty Pseudscorner, under its noble leader Lord Ebren, sometimes in cahoots with The Googly's very own Mimitig! Now I write the Performance of the Day post here and occasional musings  - I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

Favourite cricketer: KP - there... I've said it now.

Best cricket moment: Running in to bowl at Bootle with my Dad watching. He had first watched cricket at Wadham Road in the late Forties and he never thought his boy would play on that ground, just 15 minutes walk from Goodison Park.

Worst cricket moment: Realising that it was actually going to happen in Adelaide. Australia's bowlers were going to take just 14 wickets in the match, but England were still going to lose the Test and the Ashes. To have 551-6 on the scoreboard in the first innings of a Test and get beaten is an all-time sporting calamity. Better stop, the blood pressure's on the climb again just thinking about it.

[The Tooting Trumpet]

Meet the Writer: Clare Davies

There I was, innocently blogging away on GU and perhaps not so innocently making my name as Queen of the OBO, when into my in-box pinged an email. Would I like to write for The Googly? Took all of 5 minutes to say yes. After all, why not earn a groat or two from what I had been doing for free? Deadlines, what are they? I spent most of my professional life in Science and Medical publishing working to writing, design or print production deadlines. No sweat. I thought.

Didn't quite understand how it works! A beautifully crafted piece on say, just to pluck a name out of the air, Flintoff, goes down the pan because he gets injured! You pick another target, Vaughan maybe, and damn, injured again! Still all good fun.

My favourite (current) cricketer: Ian Bell - someone has to love him

Best cricketing moment: as a child watching my dad play club cricket

Worst cricketing moment: Steve Harmison, Brisbane 2006 - I'm following on TMS and OBO and on the phone to my friend in Melbourne who has the pictures. She describes the wide. I cry. 5-0.

Meet the Writers: Lee Calvert

I am the editor of The Googly, a position I gained through a combination of luck, cheek and an inability to keep my opinions to myself.  I have been writing on the internet for a number of years, on subjects ranging from Coronation Street and rugby to The X Factor.  I finally managed to get paid for my ramblings in January '07 -  a development which pleased and confused me in equal measure.  I have always loved cricket and it is something of a wonder to spend a significant portion of my day writing about it.

In my spare time I do a proper job and play drums in a band.

Favourite cricketer: Neil Fairbrother

Best cricket moment:  Hitting overseas pro, Aftab, for a six over midwicket in a 1994 league match

Worst cricket moment: Aftab laughing as his next-ball yorker ripped middle and leg out of the ground.

Meet the writers: Carrie Dunn

I still can't believe that it's actually my job to write about sport, but there it is.  I've been a freelance hack for two years now, after dabbling in broadcasting, and among other things I write for the Times Online's over-by-over cricket blog, having previously been part of the Guardian's online sports coverage team.

Like the Trumpet, I confess to having a fondness for Kevin Pietersen - yes, yes, I know about all the negatives and the ego and yada yada yada, but I have never seen a cricketer like him and simply love watching the way he plays.  Of course, though, as a good Luton girl, and like every other English cricket follower, Monty Panesar is a joy for me to watch.

It's predictable, but my favourite cricket recollection has to be the last day of the Oval Ashes Test, 2005, which I went to as a fan, clutching a ticket for which I paid well over the odds in the anticipation that England would reclaim the urn for the first time in my living memory.  It was worth every single penny.

The Ashes just gone, however, when I worked on Christmas Day to bring the full horror of the unfolding debacle to the masses, would rank fairly low on my list of best-ever moments.

I feel very fortunate and flattered to have been invited to write for the Googly - I hope that doesn't sound too sycophantic - and look forward to proffering mockery and sarcasm where it is due in the months to come. [Carrie Dunn] [Image: Getty]

Meet the Writer: The Tooting Trumpet

Spending my days writing balls-achingly dull stuff for my employer is tempered by the people with whom I am fortunate enough to work and the students (of whom I see less and less - but that just makes it sweeter and sweeter when you see the fruits of their labours). Fooling myself that I was really doing industry-research (and better still, fooling the management) I would follow the GU OBO coverage, occasionally venturing an e-mail - okay, a bit more than occasionally, but I can handle it - yeah, I can handle it.

I started a little late night GU SportsBlogging with the Aussies during the Ashes and found that I enjoyed that more than watching Harmy bowl or Flintoff bat - much more. Then I wrote a bit for the mighty Pseudscorner, under its noble leader Lord Ebren, sometimes in cahoots with The Googly's very own Mimitig! Now I write the Performance of the Day post here and occasional musings  - I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

Favourite cricketer: KP - there... I've said it now.

Best cricket moment: Running in to bowl at Bootle with my Dad watching. He had first watched cricket at Wadham Road in the late Forties and he never thought his boy would play on that ground, just 15 minutes walk from Goodison Park.

Worst cricket moment: Realising that it was actually going to happen in Adelaide. Australia's bowlers were going to take just 14 wickets in the match, but England were still going to lose the Test and the Ashes. To have 551-6 on the scoreboard in the first innings of a Test and get beaten is an all-time sporting calamity. Better stop, the blood pressure's on the climb again just thinking about it.

[The Tooting Trumpet]

Meet the Writer: Clare Davies

There I was, innocently blogging away on GU and perhaps not so innocently making my name as Queen of the OBO, when into my in-box pinged an email. Would I like to write for The Googly? Took all of 5 minutes to say yes. After all, why not earn a groat or two from what I had been doing for free? Deadlines, what are they? I spent most of my professional life in Science and Medical publishing working to writing, design or print production deadlines. No sweat. I thought.

Didn't quite understand how it works! A beautifully crafted piece on say, just to pluck a name out of the air, Flintoff, goes down the pan because he gets injured! You pick another target, Vaughan maybe, and damn, injured again! Still all good fun.

My favourite (current) cricketer: Ian Bell - someone has to love him

Best cricketing moment: as a child watching my dad play club cricket

Worst cricketing moment: Steve Harmison, Brisbane 2006 - I'm following on TMS and OBO and on the phone to my friend in Melbourne who has the pictures. She describes the wide. I cry. 5-0.

Meet the Writers: Lee Calvert

I am the editor of The Googly, a position I gained through a combination of luck, cheek and an inability to keep my opinions to myself.  I have been writing on the internet for a number of years, on subjects ranging from Coronation Street and rugby to The X Factor.  I finally managed to get paid for my ramblings in January '07 -  a development which pleased and confused me in equal measure.  I have always loved cricket and it is something of a wonder to spend a significant portion of my day writing about it.

In my spare time I do a proper job and play drums in a band.

Favourite cricketer: Neil Fairbrother

Best cricket moment:  Hitting overseas pro, Aftab, for a six over midwicket in a 1994 league match

Worst cricket moment: Aftab laughing as his next-ball yorker ripped middle and leg out of the ground.