Ashes Journalism

[Dogwatcher]

The latest Colliver delivery:

http://issuu.com/riverlandweekly/docs/r ... ayout=grey

[Gozu]

I thought this was pretty funny.

The Steve Waugh Question:

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/chappell/200 ... -question/

[CK]

ha ha - Fishman.
Mo wasn't on that tour and the other players wouldn't have gone near him would they?

I'm not the sort who would pot a writer, but Roland Fishman is possibly the worst writer in the history of modern sports writing. I still haven't fully gotten over his Greg Matthews biography "The Spirit of Modern Cricket". Needed a sub-editor desperately to make it into something vaguely cohesive. Sentences that ran for lines with nary a spot of punctuation, given names without capitals, sentences that made no grammatical or common sense whatsoever, and a patent inability to translate some very interesting stories into anything slightly interesting for the novice reader.

Absolutely ghastly display of the written word that ruined a potentially very interesting story. Now and again, I get it out to read and nearly throw it aside after trying to wade through it. It makes a ransom note sound like Shakespeare.

That's before we even get to his dubious "ethics"....

[Adelaide Hawk]

Roland Fishman is possibly the worst writer in the history of modern sports writing. I still haven't fully gotten over his Greg Matthews biography "The Spirit of Modern Cricket". Needed a sub-editor desperately to make it into something vaguely cohesive. Sentences that ran for lines with nary a spot of punctuation, given names without capitals, sentences that made no grammatical or common sense whatsoever, and a patent inability to translate some very interesting stories into anything slightly interesting for the novice reader.

To be fair, he may have been attempting to paraphrase Greg Matthews

[Dogwatcher]

[Dogwatcher]

http://www.riverlandweekly.com.au/Threa ... ?tid=20697

[Lightning McQueen]

I've taken a liking to David Lloyd, he teams up well with Warnie and Michael Holding, he is the least bias commentator on the panel that has an affiliation with any side, he gets just as excited when the Poms lose a wicket as he does when the Aussies do.

[am Bays]

LMc those that listened to TMS in 89, 93 and 97 will remember Lloyd commentating, he was very good back then too.

[rogernumber10]

Just reading the wrap ups of the fourth Test, this guy posted an unbelievable stat in his blog of the Test match.

Posted by Andy Zaltzman 16 hours, 14 minutes ago
A quick Sunday stat


How low can England go? Answer: very low


As I write, Broad and Prior are launching a spectacular Headingley-81-style fightback – a blazing partnership that has so far brought 22 defiant runs in just 20-odd minutes. Whether this develops into the 350-plus stand that might give Graham Onions a chance to do a Bob Willis remains to be seen, so, with the game still poised so delicately in the balance, here is a statistic for you.

England’s number 3, 4 and 5 have in this game posted the worst ever Test performance by and England 3-4-5. The worst. In 890 Tests. Even counting matches when nightwatchmen have broken up the 3-4-5. Even in 19th-century games when the wickets sometimes literally had snakes in them. Ouch. (Counting only games in which numbers 3, 4 and 5 have been dismissed twice, which seems fair in the circumstances.)

Bopara, Bell and Collingwood mustered 16 runs between them in their six innings. Even by the most positive-taking of modern standards, this was ‘a bit disappointing’ and ‘something that needs building on’.

In fact it was the equal third worst performance by numbers 3 to 5 in the batting order in all Test history (excluding South Africa at Melbourne in 1931-2, when they used a completely different 3-5 in the second innings, to spectacular effect – Bell, Mitchell and Cameron managed to double the 5 runs accumulated by Christy, Taylor an Viljoen in the first).

South Africa can proudly claim both first and second place in this list of shame. They managed 12 in a Test in 1888-89, at a time when they still pretty much pitched up at the ground and asked passers-by if they fancied a game of cricket for a couple of days. And, least triumphantly of all, Keith, Endean and McLean – not the worst 3-5 in Test history by any measure – amassed 6 runs in the 1955 Oval Test. Scores of 5, 0 and 1 in the first innings paved the way for three second-knock ducks as Laker and Lock filled their spinny boots on a turning wicket.

So at least Bopara, Bell and Collingwood can claim to have done 166% better than the 1955 South African 3-to-5. A small consolation as they take their place in English cricket’s slightly embarrassed history books.

[A quick update – Prior is out. I daresay the odds are now even longer the 500-1 England defied 28 years ago. But Broad has just been dropped by Siddle. Could that be the crucial turning point? No. No. No. It could not.]

For English masochists, those who dislike England for whatever reason, and those who simply love the statistics of failure, here is a list of the worst ever performances by an England 3, 4 and 5. Please ignore if you are of a sensitive disposition, or closely related to the three batsmen involved. Thanks be to Statsguru.

[RustyCage]

Bopara, Bell and Collingwood mustered 16 runs between them in their six innings. Even by the most positive-taking of modern standards, this was ‘a bit disappointing’ and ‘something that needs building on’.