Well the football season has come to an end and it was not an anticlimax for me. The teams with the money seemingly always win trophy's and I guess our Harry will join one next season and the manager merry go round will now reset for another term.
It’s amazing that this lucrative job of football manager, can be revived at will. Managers don’t score goals or make great saves ,so what do they do to be great at their job and once sacked how do they simply get a new position with the drop of a hat and make even more money from their early dismissal and severance etc.
Footballers earn around £200k a week and move around clubs and get to retire at in their early thirties or until they can’t run anymore and then try a bit of management for bit and some can't even do that as well as they played the game.
Some footballers try to make more on top of their salary through betting on themselves to lose and surprisingly come back to their job to earn even more money from playing their games.
Some go from hero to zero and then there’s the odd one who ends up drunk and sectioned under the mental health act.
Do we care that the season is now over?
What now you may ask?
Well, it’s time for cricket of course and don’t we love it ?
It’s a game which is steeped in English history or is it?
Alright alright, I am asking a lot of questions here, but I need to explain that maybe cricket is not as English as we may think it is or is it?
I am certain that cricket was introduced by the English to likes of North America in the early 17th century, and in the 18th century it was dispatched across the globe, a world which was dominated by the British, who introduced the game to the West Indies, Australia and New Zealand.
But where does the heritage of cricket come from I ask and while I tell you, in this blog, just have a think - is this really true or is he just making it all up?
AD 450 to 1066
Cricket or Creag was played by the Saxons in the Weald (areas covering Hampshire, Warwickshire Surrey and Kent) and later adopted by the Normans after the Battle of Hastings. That was one in the eye for that Harry!
Between 1307 -1327
it is mentioned that Edward II, played “Creag and other games” Edward II is the only one of medieval Kings who knew how to swim for example and he liked other games. He liked to mix with common people and younger boys to practice with their skills.
He has gone down in history as England's worst King, eventually dismissed from his profession owing to lies and unnatural behaviors. His extreme partiality for the younger Piers Gaveston, was his downfall. Gaveston became hated by the King's Barons, mainly because Edward hired Piers, groomed him as his mentor and showered his lover with honours, money and lands. Rather like Phil and Holly I guess.
Even though he had married a twelve year old French princess called Isabella in 1308, Edward loved Piers more and had a room set up near to his marital bedchambers especially for him.
When he was crowned King in 1307, Edward made Piers the 'Keeper of the Realm', and it was Gaveston who carried in procession, (think Penny Mordaunt here), the sword of St Edward at the Coronation that year.
Piers was, though, captured in 1312 in Wales and executed by Nobles.
Was this why the term 'No Ball' or 'no balls' was coined in the game of Creag?
Robert the Bruce routed the English at Bannockburn in 1314, securing the independence of Scotland which is probably why Scotland are crap at Cricket!
Oh dear, Edward fell in love again, this time with a young man called Hugh Despenser; but, his Real Queen, Isabella, and her new lover Roger Mortimer deposed Edward as King in 1327 . They placed Edward II’s 14-year-old son as King, (yes btw he must have, I know what you thinking:) the son was also called Edward (the third one), so Isabella now being Rogered became England's regents deposing and locking up poor gay Edward II.
Edward though was still alive when the new King was crowned, this is not normal regal protocol as the King must officially die. However, in those days he was later found to be dead and later entombed in Gloucester Abbey.
Rumours about his death, were rife, suggesting that t he had in fact been murdered by Mortimer. Too dispel all and any rumours of foul play a Kings body is displayed to discourage any hint of poisoning, strangulation and/or stabbing, (which all would have left evidence as visible signs).
It is said, by historians that Edward II was killed by having “six hot pokers shoved up his arse” - now, who would have thought to examine the “Royal Rectum"?
In Creag, this is now a term of “hitting a six” ; where the ball goes across the boundary, without bouncing. Crossing the line.
It is generally believed that cricket survived as a children's game for many generations before it was increasingly taken up by adults around the beginning of the 17th century.
It was played on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the original implements may have been a matted lump of sheep's wool (or even a stone or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a crook or another farm tool as the bat; and a stool or a tree stump for a wicket.
After the English Civil War, (1648)
The new Puritan government clamped down on "unlawful assemblies", in particular the more raucous sports such as football.
During these times of Oliver Cromwell the laws demanded a stricter observance of the Sabbath which was the only free time available to the lower classes, hence cricket's popularity may have died a little. But, it began to flourish in public fee-paying schools such as Winchester.
There is no actual evidence that Oli’s regime banned cricket specifically and there are references to it during the period of time between the reign of Charles II and the gap of eleven years also know as the "interregnum"- so could this be the reason why cricket is a team sport or eleven players each and the interregnum ending or being OVER when the rule of Parliamentarians gave way to the new monarchy of Charles II?
1697 - 1728
Cricket had become a significant gambling sport by the end of the 17th century, as evidenced in 1697 by a newspaper report of a "great match" played in Sussex which was 11-a-side and played for high stakes of 50 guineas a side.
In the reign of George II, (1728), the Duke of Richmond and Alan Brodick drew up, for the first time the rules which were formally agreed and which determined the code of practice in what was now formally known as Cricket.
For example:
- 2d: That the wickets shall be pitched in a fair & even place, at twenty three yards distance from each other.
- 3d: A Ball caught, cloathed or not cloathed, the Striker is out.
- 4th: When a Ball is caught out, the Stroke counts nothing.
- 5th: Catching out behind the Wicket is allowed.
The pitch length of 23 yards may be an error in the original document, since the chain (22 yards) was definitely used as a unit of measure in 1727.
Now then, when all 10 wickets have fallen; that is, the other 10 players in the team have all been dismissed ("out"). We have the term “carrying one's bat" which dates back to the very early days of cricket.
Carrying Ones Bat
Initially it referred to any not out batsman, but by the 20th century the term was used exclusively to refer to opening batsmen.
The expression comes from a time when the team used to share bats so the outgoing batsman would leave the bat on the crease for the next batsman to use nowadays everyone has their own kit which includes their weapon of choice - the cricket bat.
The term may also be used in situations where one or more of these players are unable to bat through injury or illness, and the remaining players are all dismissed normally.
It is not used, however, in any other situation where the innings closes before all 10 wickets have fallen, such as when a captain declares their team's innings closed and a forfeiture occurs when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings without batting. That's now Law fifteen of cricket.
So that’s this blog, a bit of history and sport, the cricket season started mid-April and ends in September - now you know what it’s all about - get out there and play or go watch perhaps - football will be back in August don’t worry.
Poem
The time has come to say goodbye,
To Harry Kane and Michy Batshuayi.
To the few who lost their place in the team,
To those who we knew, and for new teams that dream!
Of managers with money and for those with the sack,
Of players with high wages not “carrying ones bat”.
For Craic, or Craig or Oli or Piers,
For the eleven of cricket and a six up their rears.
It’s time to refresh, reload and perhaps grieve,
It’s a time for those ‘reds’ who didn’t achieve!
For Gooners and Mooners and Bees and Eees,
Who gave it their all, but sunk on their knees.
To those few who now run those 22 yards.
Let us support those who manage huge cricket scorecards
Tis now the season for whites and not Lilywhites who botch
Let’s get Off to twenty twenty -there’s 40 overs to watch!