- Adam Mountford
- 16 May 08, 06:37 PM
Possibly the most famous moment ever broadcast on Test Match Special was, of course, the late great Brian Johnston reduced to a fit of giggles after Jonathan Agnew told listeners that Ian Botham "couldn't quite get his leg over" when describing Beefy's unusual dismissal in the 1991 Oval Test against the West Indies.
It is fascinating to hear the behind-the-scenes story of that moment. Johnston was actually really annoyed that he lost control on the air and only saw the funny side the next morning when the engineers at the ground played him the clip.
Continue reading "Who's Rod?"
- Jonathan Agnew
- 16 May 08, 06:17 PM
The elements are conspiring to make it difficult for either team to win this game. Bad light dogged the second day, while the forecast for the third looks bleak indeed. Shame, not merely for the paying spectators who have been forking out as much as £75 for the best seats at Lord's, but because the match has been moving along nicely.
New Zealand's 277 does not look much of a first innings total, and England are well set in reply, but the tourists will be relieved to have recovered from their perilous 104 for 5. Jacob Oram eventually fell to Ryan Sidebottom after 2 hours and 20 minutes at the crease.
Continue reading "Bad light, bad luck"
Should there be permanent floodlights at all Test grounds in England?
Bad light has always been the bane of both players and spectators, and with ticket pricing going up by the series (I understand a single Ashes ticket at one ground next year could cost £103 just for a seat), is it now time to bring in permanent floodlighting so that spectators get better value for money?
Continue reading "Permanent daylight"
After the solemn realisation at the age of 12 that I might not be good enough to play cricket for England I decided that the next best thing, writing about cricket, would have to suffice as a career.
I fell in love with the game as an eight-year-old at Headingley in 1981 and was at The Oval in 2005 when we won the Ashes for the first time in 18 years.
In my spare weekends, my unpredictable leg-spin is sometimes required for my village team, Turville Park.
I am also steadily attempting to introduce three young boys to the game - but sometimes feel I am fighting a losing battle against the rival appeals of Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton and Cristiano Ronaldo.
I have been a sports journalist for more than a decade and have been a fan of cricket since I used to go to watch my best mate's dad open for South Shore in Blackpool when I was a young girl (he very much batted in the Tavare/Boycott mould).
I was acting sports editor of the Blackpool Gazette when a young whipper-snapper called Andrew Flintoff was making waves at St Annes and saw him make his debut for Lancashire in 1995.
Reagrding playing cricket, I am not a very good batsmen or bowler but a very good fielder and played rounders in a county league.
A love of cricket was instilled in me early in life during numerous garden games with my father and grandfather and I later became 1st XI captain at my senior school, an honour which owed less to my talent than it did to a lack of obvious alternatives.
My proudest moment was leading the team to victory in the end of year Pupils v Masters game, having put 10 fielders within five yards of the bat as their number 11 took strike (he swiped, missed and was bowled) and I once took seven wickets in a house match by yelling appeals Merv Hughes would have been proud of into the face of a teacher who didn't understand the lbw rule.
Outside of school, I played for Geddington CC at village cricket level for several years am proud to boast that I was the most dilligent boring batsman in our league, having once occupied the crease for the entire 48 overs of an innings and only reached 50 in the last one.
I have worked for the BBC for almost 20 years and was proud to be cricket editor of this website from 2000 to 2007.
