SACUSA Office Bearers

President: Ted Branson

Vice President: Craig Thomas

Treasurer: Lynton Donisthorpe

Secretary: Michial Farrow

Committee members:

Max Bartlett ,

Geoff Sando,

Jeff King and

Tony Trist

Auditors: Bob Woods

and Simon Fry

Contacts

Secretary - Michial Farrow 0435 872 215

secacusa@hotmail.com

Sticky Wicket - Tim Pellew 0414 58 58 42

pellew@internode.on.net

facebook.com/sacricketumpiresandscorers

December 2012

It’s amazing to think that 2 months of the season

have already passed and we are on the home

stretch to Christmas. For many of us who

participated in pre-season commencing with the

Umpiring Launch in June cricket season has been

going for nearly 6 months already.

Congratulations and thanks are due to everyone

who has umpired the season to date and to our

numerous, 25 new umpires; We hope you have

found your umpiring rewarding in many ways.

Whilst we still have another carnival to come and

another 2 weeks of Grade Cricket everyone

should begin to focus on how we will spend our

break. Cricket often takes us away from our

family, our friends and our gardens. Use this

break to give special attention to all of these.

In the new year, Grade Cricket and Community

Cricket will continue, we have 5 more carnivals to

get through and before you know it, we will be

heading into finals.

Rest, Relax and Enjoy

The work has only just began

To you and your family

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

From

Sticky Wicket

On-field humour

In a match a week or so ago, the striker kept out an attempted yorker and the ball bounced off the pitch high above the bowler’s head. The bowler made an almighty leap into the air with legs and arms everywhere. He stopped the ball that would have scored 3 or 4.

Almost instantaneously the cover fielder sang out “Oh, what a feeling”.

Laugh, I nearly died!!!!

First Game Nerves

I stood in on my first game a few weeks ago, along with all the usual nerves, the reading of the laws, the rereading of the laws, the re-rereading of the laws, checking of the gear, arriving at the ground that little too early and the like.

So anyway, get out on the field, all is going well, tea rolls around and I walk off with my colleague and check that all is all right with the scorers. Then all of a sudden we are introduced to Max O'Connell, former test match umpire. The rational side of me knew the guy was long retired and not there to be at all in-terested in the umpiring, but the emotional side of me walked back out on the field going "There's a test match umpire watch-ing my every move": from then on, I’m sure my calling was a little clearer and my signals executed with much more 'formality'.

Thanks, Mike Lake; You never know who’s watching!

Was the ball dead?

The ball went through to the keeper and the player at short square leg called for the ball to return it to the bowler. The keeper however, while looking at this player, threw it back to where he thought the slip fieldsman was, but instead the fielder had moved and the ball rolled towards the vacant third man position. The non-striker called for a run but was sent back by the striker when another player chased the ball.

I was standing at square leg and had a good view of all this. I thought about what would have been the correct course of action if a run had been taken or there was a run out. It looked like the ball was still in play because the ball was continually moving, the keeper having decided to dispose of it immediately, but not to the player who called for it. By being a smart-alec and not looking where he threw it, did the keeper potentially give the batting side some runs.

The options are:

1. Was the ball dead? Law 23 states that the ball becomes dead when "it is finally settled in the hands of the wicket-keeper or of the bowler". Law 23, 1a(i)

2. The ball is still live and runs can be taken, which would be byes. In this case a batsman could be run out.

I talked it over with my partner, John Ketley, and we decided option 1 would be the case, because the keeper had considered the ball to be dead, his intention being to return the ball to the bowler.

Thanks to Ian Hill for this. Yes the ball was dead!

Batsman tonks 302 in 40-over match

The following is paraphrasing and excerpts from an article in Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper of 18 October, 2012:

Josh Platt, cricketer in the NSW town of Young, scored 302 from just 110 balls a few weeks ago in a 40-over match. His innings included 30 sixes and 18 fours, for 252 of his total.

His first 100 came after 15 overs, and his second 100 off 7 overs, giving only one chance on 180.

His team scored 3/458 off their 40 overs!

But wait ... the story only gets better. Platt is not even a batsman. He's a fast bowler, who normally takes the new ball. But with one of the team’s opening batsman injured, and his replacement running late for the 1pm start, Platt - a middle order blade at best - was told to pad up and fill in. “No worries” responded Platt. He hit a six off the first ball.

Asked bout the opposition bowling attack:

“They were all a bit disheartened after the first 10-12 overs, to be honest," Josh says. “It was a long day for the poor buggers”.

Thanks Cain Kemp for finding this story

Leopard Pitch

Second day B Grade match Glenelg v Southern Distrticts at “Glenelg” Oval a few weeks ago. Peter Laidler and Tim Pellew went to inspect the pitch about 1 hour before the scheduled start to find it looked like a spotted leopard, with hundreds of “round” damp spots averaging the size of top of a large drinking glass. A fingernail scratch across any left a wet, deep cut. The rest of the pitch was dry and rock-hard. We thought that a batting side may be concerned at batting on it and that the bowling side would welcome it. We thought that, with the new bylaw of having ½ hour available to extend the completion time for the match, it would be fairer to both sides if we delayed the start by half an hour. We called the two captains for a discussion about the matter and advise our thoughts. On advising them that there was the ½ hour extended play possibly, both accepted a delayed start, and further, under the laws of cricket, both captains were agreeable to set lunch and tea back by the ½ hour to retain the 3 normal periods of play.

The extra ½ hour’s sun certainly had a large effect in drying the spots and there were no surprise balls from landing on a spot; at the end of play at about 6.30pm, the leopard spots were still evident but were as hard as the normal pitch.

Para District News

Our season has begun smoothly with 12 of us officiating over the first two rounds. We are now pleased to welcome a new member, recently retired player, Bradley Ryall, having just completed his first 2 day game.

The PDCA Twenty/20 program began on the warmest day of the season to date, with the eight Grade 1 teams playing off for the honour of representing the association in later rounds of the SAMCA competition. This season two new clubs will be appearing in future rounds, Rose & Crown and Craigmore.

I thought you might be interested in the following – a certain long-standing Grade 1 player has earned himself a reputation over the years for taking his time to leave the field upon dismissal. We reckon we’ve now solved the problem – by deciding to give him out 3 balls early (or at least making it the last ball before tea or drinks)!

Why is it we always think of suitable come-back lines way after the incident? Merlin had a recent issue when, upon giving a batsman out LBW, the non-striker was heard to ask (rhetorically?) ‘Wasn’t that a bit high?’ The inscrutable Mer-lin, of course, did not respond . . . but what he should have said: ‘Yes, but I decided to give him out anyway!’.

Similarly, a (in)famous opening bowler, after his first ball of the season asked Merlin if his front foot was OK, and was told it as fine. Three overs later he overstepped and responded to the no ball call, ‘But you said my foot was fine!’ Merlin had to patiently explain (remember he was a fast bowler) how he had transgressed . . . but what he should have said: ‘That’s right, but didn’t you see me move the crease line back while you were walking back to your mark?’

And finally, a legitimate question from my own recent game: the batsmen run for a very sharp single. As the non-striker dives full length to make his ground, the ball being hurled in ricochets off his bat. According to sporting convention the batsmen do not run any more . . . but the ball ends up over the boundary. Where do I go from here? Did I get it right?

By the way, has anyone else read Darrell Hair’s latest book, giving his take on the ball-tampering incident in the England v Pakistan Test, and more importantly the aftermath? I’d be interested in your thoughts on the saga.

Bob Eldridge

True Love

I'll never forget how happy I was when I saw my missus walking down

the aisle towards me..............

My heart was beating fast and the excitement was unbearable. It seemed to take an age, but eventually there she was, standing beside me. I gave her a cheeky wink and said,

"Get that trolley over here love. They're doing 3 cartons of VB, for

the price of 2."

Canberra cricketer dies after heart attack

The Tuggeranong Valley Cricket Club is mourning the sudden loss of Glenn Thornton who died on the field during a fourth-grade match at Chisholm a few weeks ago. Thornton had a heart attack on the field and despite CPR attempts from players while waiting for the ambulance, he could not be revived.

One of Glenn’s sons, Tom, opens the batting for Adelaide University A Grade and he represented the Redbacks last season.

SACUSA offers its condolences to Tom and his family.

Sticky Wicket’s Roots

The original issue of our newsletter was in 1992 and was

known as On a Sticky Wicket.

Graham Slater (still umpiring!) was our first editor, and it was he who chose the title. Some of the suggestions at the time were “The Umpires Bull Sheet”, “Balls Up”, “Stumped”, Evil Finger” and there were many more.

Graham MacTavish was our President.

In the first issue(a single page, double sided) one of the questions asked” to increase your knowledge about the finer points of the game” was:

Q Are there any rules against using a four foot wide bat? (that’s about 1.2 metres for the youngsters amongst us!).

A NO, none at all, provided it is no more than 7 ¾ inches in height (about 20cm).

Issue no 2 dated February 1992 saw the double-sided sheet become an 8 pager! (What happened Graham?).

A cricket story from Issue 2:

“Bob Glovich, our hard working Social Committee conveyor, was umpiring a recent B grade match between University and Sturt when he turned down a run out appeal as the batsmen completed 3 runs. At the same time he signaled to the scorers that there was one run short. One quick witted player in the fielding team immediately asked “I hope he wasn’t short on the third.”

On a Sticky Wicket was still going strong, albeit back to 2 double sided pages, in season2001/02. Does anyone recall when the production became Sticky Wicket, thus saving typewriter ribbon and printing ink?

Submissions from Members

Many thanks to members for their submissions for inclusion in Sticky Wicket this month. If your submission is not here,

it will be because for once we had a full content. But things are kept on file for the future. Thanks again.

Keep them coming please.

Golden Time Had By All

Fun, Friendship and Fraternity is what the Golden Oldies

World Cricket Festival was all about. Many of our um-

pires joined in as Umpires, Volunteers and even players.

In fact without our umpiring group the festival would not

have been the success it was.

Thank you all for your efforts and hard work and I hope

you all enjoyed the experience.

Neil

Festival Director

Golden Oldies World Cricket Festival Opening Ceremony

Merry Christmas