Revenge of Mr Dumpling

Geek. Faith. Punditry. Writing. Sport.

Posts Tagged England

Good Old Collingwood Forever

Jan 6

Posted by David in Sport | No Comments

In sad, but not unexpected, news today, Paul Collingwood has announced his retirement from Test cricket as of the conclusion of the SCG Test.

I have always been a huge Collingwood fan, not least because to me he epitomises the sort of player I would like to be, someone who who is not as naturally talented as others, but wrings every last drop from the abilities he does have. To me, that is far more admirable than the lazy but brilliant who just phone it in and often don’t fulfill their potential because when everything comes easy there is no incentive to work hard and go that extra mile.

I am sure many articles will be written in the next few days, and I will try and link to a few here, but as an England supporter I just wanted to express my appreciation of such a great servant of English cricket. From his dogged rearguards that saved series (the last Ashes, South Africa) to his exceptional fielding (perhaps only Jonty Rhodes has been better in the last 20 years) he really has been one of the big contributors to the successh tat England is now experiencing. At least we will still get to see him in ODIs and T20s.

EDITED TO ADD: A great piece here from Andrew Miller that says it far better than I could. What more could any player ask than to be remembered like that?

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Disgraceful indeed…

Jun 28

Posted by David in Sport | No Comments

Normally I consider Cricinfo’s Page 2 a complete waste of time, and a disgrace in itself, but occasionally it manages to make me laugh. This was rather amusing, actually.

I especially like the Stuart Broad one haha

UPDATED TO ADD: Some of the comments are worth reading for themselves. The ones from this post featured Sandmanesque, who I assume is named after this Sandman not the other that leaps to mind, who was particularly, and perhaps unfairly harsh. But, in the same comments I think the user TD_160 summed up the travails of any comedic writer in a nutshell when he said:

Nice one. Just as England, you too are in good form. Sometimes we get some fairly ordinary writing from you, but that is to be expected – it must be stressful to have to write a witty and interesting article twice every week; and I suppose there aren’t always interesting and witty observations to be made in the world of cricket.

I find it hard enough being funny on an amateur basis, I would hate to have the pressure being funny part of my job description! How do you set the KPIs for that?

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A good day in cricket

Jun 25

Posted by David in Sport | No Comments

FOR ENGLAND FANS (LIKE ME): England are dominating Australia at the moment. Nothing summed it up better than Stuart Broad working over Michael Clarke, resulting a short ball fending off to a close in fielder. Perfect planning, perfect field placement, perfect execution. I’m hoping for a 5-0 series result to make up for last years 6-1.

FOR TEST MATCH CRICKET FANS: Who would have thought that the BCCI would be at the forefront of protecting Test Cricket? The BCCI and Cricket Australia have agreed to turn a meaningless 7 ODI series into two Tests and three ODIs. I don’t like two test series, but it is certainly better than nothing. The BCCI are doing their part to protect India’s Test ranking and help Sachin Tendulkar extend his career aggregate, they have gone from having no scheduled tests in the short term to four coming up, and good on them. India’s Test suuccess will be the biggets factor in protecing the preeminence of Test cricket so long may it continue!

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