great cricket commentaries of our time

[realthog]

Warning: not for those of delicate sensibilities.

Just now, from Cricinfo's ball-by-ball commentary on the England v. South Africa One Day International:

Anderson to Parnell, no run, slower bouncer from Anderson, Parnell was through with his shit before the ball arrived . . .

I mean, how slow was that bouncer?

Comments

[mylefteye.livejournal.com]

That doesn't sound like something Trevor Bailey would say.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

He may very well have said worse. There's a compilation I've heard of some of the worst Test Match Special howlers, many of which make this one seem positively innocuous.

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

If you want great cricket commentaries, look no farther than BBC Radio's Brian Johnstone.

"The batsman's Holding, the bowler's Willie." from a 70's test match against the West Indies :)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was the bowler who was the great WI quick Michael Holding ("Whispering Death") and the batsman who was the England player Peter Willey.

As I said to Mike Stone above, there's a compilation available somewhere of the Test Match Special classics, including the one you cite. My fave is probably the Aggers one where Ian Botham (I think it was) had trodden on his own stumps: "He just couldn't quite get his leg over."

Commentary actually ceased for about a minute and a half after that.

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

I don't know about you, but it's listening to the commentators trying not to collapse in a fit of hysterical laughter after they realize what they just said that I find most entertaining :)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

it's listening to the commentators trying not to collapse in a fit of hysterical laughter after they realize what they just said that I find most entertaining

Aggers implies the same in talking of the legover incident:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-460818/The-team-seasons.html

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

As a graduate of the same university as Michael Holding, I know the following:

A young man from Barbados named Sobers, arrived at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, in Jamaica, and discovered that being ragged in his first week of residence was a less-than-entirely-pleasant process. He made the mistake of wandering from civilised country (Irvine Hall) into the barbaric realm of Chancellor Hall, where the seniors, sensing fresh meat pounced on him and demanded his name. Discovering that he was named Sobers they handed him a bat and told him that he needed to face the bowling of a freshman of theirs. "Freshman Holding," they said, "bowl to freshman Sobers!" So, obediently, computer science student Michael Holding bowled to young Sobers (whom I knew, I was a third-year student in Irvine when he was a fresher). Holding, being a sensible chap, did not unleash his trademark fastballs on the hapless Sobers.

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

Hey, you . . . congrats on the inclusion in ED's Best of Horror!

Who's the silent one now?

I take back my Santa remark. Actually, your icon looks more like Father Christmas.

heh

the biotch