SCOTLAND’S GEOFF CROSS WINS BEARD OF SIX NATIONS POLL
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with the most hirsute Six Nations rugby Championship ever now concluded, a key contest, the Beard of the Six Nations, has also found a winner.
Scotland’s Geoff Cross beat Wales’s Leigh Halfpenny by several pitch lengths in the on-line poll.
Cross’s beard has been a significant hirsute presence throughout the Six Nations although according to the authoritative Sport BeardWatch, Cross is set to shave his beard for charity, prior to retiring from rugby to become a GP.
The impact of beards on the field has meant that even noted pogonophobes such as Clive Woodward who argued in 2013 on the BBC that he wouldn’t select players with beards, have remained silent on the matter this year.
What a contest the Six Nations Rugby has given us today. I’ve just got my breath back after England’s extraordinary game against France. England won 55-35, a remarkable scoreline at this level, but just not quite enough to win the title.
Going into today’s final round of three games, Wales, Ireland and England were all level on six points, having won three games each. England were on top on points difference but Wales and Ireland had easier opponents, in Italy and Scotland respectively.
The day started with Wales demolishing Italy by 61-20 to give both Ireland and England a lot to do to catch up. Ireland responded by thrashing Scotland 40-10 which put them top with an even bigger points difference. To win the title England had to beat France by 26 points or more.
It was a tall order and, I thought, a shame that the competition was going to be decided by the scale of the whipping delivered to the weakest teams, rather than a head-to-head between the top ones. Of course the fixture list was compiled months ago before anybody knew the results of the earlier games, but it turned out that the script for this particular drama had been written perfectly!
England gave it everything in their match again France. The game contained great rugby, lots of errors, and breathless end-to-end excitement. They might have done it on another day but that last converted try just eluded them.
So congratulations to Ireland, who actually beat England earlier and are worthy champions. The lesson for England is clear from the table: they’re scoring enough points but need to concede fewer if they are to be serious contenders for the World Cup which takes place in the Autumn.
The last day of the Six Nations comes this year immediately after the Vernal Equinox, which happened last night at 22:45 GMT, both sporting and astronomical calendars telling us that spring is here. I hope England’s cricketers put up as much of a fight against the Aussies this summer!
Today marks the start of this season’s RBS Six Nations Rugby, which kicks off at 8.05pm at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff with Wales versus England. The town will be buzzing in the evening, overrun with rugby fans in various states of drunkenness but with that extra special atmosphere that makes this such a fantastic place to be on such occasions, even if you’re not in the ground. It promises to be a bit chaotic, but it’s always an extra special day in Cardiff when the old adversaries meet. I’m heading off this afternoon in order to get there in time, and spending the weekend in Cardiff.
The Six Nations is a difficult competition to predict, but I think Wales must be strong favourites to win this particular match as England have had to cope with a number of injuries to key players. However, there is one battle whose outcome you can bet your bottom dollar on, and that’s the crowd singing. That one is always won by the Welsh.
Get a load of this example, from a few years ago which at least gives some idea what I’m talking about. This is the stirring Welsh National Anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of My Fathers). And if you feel like singing along, here are the lyrics (in Welsh, of course):
Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi, Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri; Ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mâd, Tros ryddid gollasant eu gwaed.
Chorus: Gwlad, Gwlad, pleidiol wyf i’m gwlad,
Tra môr yn fur i’r bur hoff bau,
O bydded i’r heniaith barhau.
Hen Gymru fynyddig, paradwys y bardd; Pob dyffryn, pob clogwyn, i’m golwg sydd hardd Trwy deimlad gwladgarol, mor swynol yw si Ei nentydd, afonydd, i fi.
Chorus
Os treisiodd y gelyn fy ngwlad dan ei droed, Mae hen iaith y Cymry mor fyw ag erioed, Ni luddiwyd yr awen gan erchyll law brad, Na thelyn berseiniol fy ngwlad.
Chorus
UPDATE: the Big Match didn’t turn out quite as I expected. Wales were all over England early on, taking a 10-0 lead. But once they had steadied themselves England began to claw their way back into contention. With the half-time score at 16-8 the game still looked to be heading for a Welsh victory. However in the 2nd half England’s more disciplined approach paid dividends. The English pack, compact and powerful, began to make deep inroads into the Welsh defence and gradually established a stranglehold on the game. Thirteen unanswered points in the second half gave England a memorable victory on a dramatic night. Wales 16 England 21.
Like any cricket fan I was horrified to hear last week of the death at the age of 25 of the Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, three days after he received a head injury on the field of play during a Sheffield Shield match in Australia on Tuesday. Let me start by expressing my deepest condolences to his family and friends at what must be a terrible time for them. My thoughts also go to the bowler, Sean Abbott, whose delivery ended up causing the fatal injury. He should not be blamed and I’m sure he feels as bad as anyone about the incident.
What happened to Phillip Hughes is a reminder that cricket is a dangerous game. A cricket ball is hard – it is made of solid cork wrapped in leather – and can travel at speeds in excess of 90 mph when delivered by a fast bowler. When you get hit by one it really hurts. Thankfully serious injuries are relatively rare, but it nevertheless takes considerable physical and mental courage as well as great skill for a batsman to face up to fast bowling.
In this case it was Sean Abbott who bowled a short-pitched delivery (a “bouncer”) at Hughes. There’s nothing unusual about that – it’s a standard part of a fast bowler’s repertoire. Hughes saw it coming and got into position to play a hook shot, a cross-batted stroke played to a ball over waist height with the intent of sending it to the boundary. This is one of the most spectacular attacking shots in cricket but also one of the most dangerous. Often it involves playing the ball directly in front of the face, and if the batsman misses an injury is inevitable. On this occasion, Hughes seems to have misjudged the pace of the ball and went through with the shot too quickly. His upper body having swung around during the course of his attempted hook, when the ball missed the bat it thudded into the back of his head, underneath his protective helmet. The impact ruptured an artery and caused a massive flow of blood into his brain. He subsequently collapsed and was carried off the field, where he needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was taken to hospital, and a procedure carried out to reduce the pressure on his brain. Sadly he never recovered, and died three days later.
Of course the death of Phillip Hughes has led to a great deal of soul-searching in the cricket world. I think it’s quite right that a heart-breaking event like the death of a cricketer so make us redouble efforts to keep the game as safe as possible. I think that means looking very seriously at the design of the modern cricket helmet. Only this summer, England’s Stuart Broad was badly injured when he was hit by a ball that smashed through the faceguard on his helmet, which suggests to me that the design of the front of the standard helmet is faulty. The same type of helmet offers no protection to the lower part of the back of the skull, either. On the other hand, a helmet that was too bulky might restrict the movement of a batsman so much that it makes it more, not less, likely that they will get hit. One also has to try to maintain a reasonable perspective. The type of injury that killed Hughes – a vertebral artery dissection – is extremely rare, with only about 100 cases ever having been recorded at all, none which were on the cricket field. Not that long ago, nobody wore a helmet anyway; see below for an example.
Australians cricketers learn to play the game on pitches that are fast and hard, but generally of even bounce. That’s why the hook shoot is favoured more by Aussie batsman than by their English counterparts; pitches in England are generally slower and variable bounce is much more likely. Until relatively recently many English batsman didn’t play the hook shot at all, preferring instead to simply get out of the way of a bouncer than attempt to play it. After all, the ball isn’t going to hit the stumps if it’s bouncing around head height. Getting out of the way isn’t as easy as it sounds, however, because one’s instinctive reaction is either to try to protect your head with bat or gloves, to flinch away or try to duck. The proper technique, which requires practice to ingrain, is to keep your eye on the ball, drop the hands to keep the bat out of the way, and sway out of the path of the ball at the last minute. That may sound easy, but it certainly isn’t. I tried to do it in a school game years against a bowler a fraction of the pace of Sean Abbott, and ended up with the ball smacking me right on bridge of my nose. I had taken the “keep your eyes on the ball” advice a bit too literally…
Some have argued that bouncers should be banned. I think that would be a mistake. Part of the unique appeal of cricket is that the spectactors are aware not only of the skill of the players, but also their courage. A bouncer is a severe test of the mettle of a batsman, whether they choose to fight fire with fire by trying to hook, or simply standing firm and letting it go by. Some of the most enthralling passages of play I remember watching involved a demon fast bowler hurling down terrifying thunderbolts at batsman who could do little but get everything into line and try soak up whatever was thrown at him. Heroic defence is as much a part of the game as dashing strokeplay.
Take this example. Brian Close had been brought into open the England batting earlier in the 1976 series against the West Indies in an attempt to stiffen their resistance to the West Indian attack. He wasn’t the greatest player in the world nor the cricketing world’s most agreeable character, and as you can tell he wasn’t in the first flush of youth in 1976 either, but there is no denying his courage and determination. Here he is enduring a vicious battering at the hands of Michael Holding. One short-pitched delivery in this sequence came within a whisker of hitting him on the head; had it done so the consequences would have been horrendous as he was not wearing a helmet. As it was, he “only” had to take a succession of blows to his body. He scored 20 runs at Old Trafford, off 108 balls in 162 minutes, and was dropped for the next Test as was his opening partner John Edrich, although both had stood their ground and defended their wickets (and themselves) manfully.
Note that Michael Holding did get a warning here for excessive use of short-pitched deliveries, but the situation was very different from that faced by Phillip Hughes who was well set and trying to score runs rather than clinging on against a barrage aimed at his head and body.
The element of danger is not unique to the sport of cricket. Contact sports (e.g. rugby) also carry a risk of serious injury. Boxing is another, perhaps more extreme, example. Of course we should do everything we can to minimize the danger to the participants, but we can never remove the risk entirely. I’m not in favour of banning bouncers or boxing or other “dangerous sports”: as long as all concerned know the risks then they should be allowed to make the decision whether to expose themselves to those risks. In fact, everything we do in life carries an element of risk. If we’re not free to take chances, we’re not free to live at all.
R.I.P. Phillip Hughes (1988-2014).
POSTSCRIPT. In a touching gesture, the record of Phillip Hughes’s last innings has been changed to from “Retired Hurt 63” to “Not Out 63”.
Since there’s a Test Match going on right now at the Oval and I’ve got a few minutes before my next task, I thought I’d just do a brief post to mark the anniversary of a very special cricketing moment. On this day in 1964, also at the Oval, Sir Fred Trueman became the first bowler to take 300 wickets in test matches. In his test career overall he took 307 wickets at an astonishingly low average of 21.57. He twice bowled spells in Test matches in which he took five wickets without conceding a run.
Here’s a short video to remind us all of what a superb action Fiery Fred Trueman had:
p.s. Fred Trueman was born in Yorkshire which, as you all know, is part of the Midlands.
Important poll on the Beard Index for England’s cricketers..
My own vote went to Jimmy Anderson, a remark on whose performance yesterday by me on Twitter also led to me featuring on the BBC Sports Website:
Today is the 4th Day and England have just declared on 205-4, leaving India to score 445 to win in approximately 132 overs…
..and India close on 112-4. The ball is starting to turn and with another 331 to win off 90 overs (3.67 an over) the odds are firmly on England’s side.
UPDATE: And so it came to pass that England took India’s last 6 wickets for 66 runs in the first session of the final day to win by 266 runs.
Beard Liberation Front
Press release 29th July contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
Jimmy Anderson & Moeen split hairs in England Cricket Team Beard Index
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has issued an update to its England cricket Beard Index which shows Moeen Ali and Jimmy Anderson tied with Ian Bell and Alastair Cook moving up the rankings
Hirsute England players have only recently been a significant factor in the team’s performance but the campaigners say that facial hair on the pitch can have several, sometimes combined, impacts:
1] Beards can add gravitas and presence. Moeen is known as ‘the beard that’s feared’
2] Beards can influence aerodynamics both with bat and ball as a movement of the facial hair can cause subtle changes to air currents
This is a busy week in many ways and for many reasons, but the main activity revolves around Graduation at the University of Sussex. There are 7 ceremonies this week altogether; my School (Mathematical and Physical Sciences) is No. 4, which takes place tomorrow morning (Thursday).
Things are going to be a bit different this year. The Chancellor of the University, Sanjeev Bhaskar, is unable to preside owing to prior commitments (filming episodes of Doctor Who in Cardiff). This is sad because his informality and sense of humour usually brings an enormous amount to such occasions. After much discussion and debate it was eventually decided (on Monday) that the normal order of ceremonies would be changed so that the Head of the graduating School would stand in the centre of the platform, where the Chancellor would normally be situated, in order to shake hands with (and generally congratulate) the graduands as their names are read out and they cross the stage. Normally the Head of School simply reads out the list of names from a podium at one side, so it will be nice to be a bit more involved, although doubt that there will be as many students wanting to take selfies with me as there would have been had Sanjeev been there!
I also have the honour to present an honorary graduate at the ceremony, but I’ll probably say more about that in a future post.
This is a special graduation week for another reason too. It’s now fifty years since the first University of Sussex graduation ceremony in 1964. The University only received its Royal Charter in 1961 and there were only 38 graduates at the first ceremony. This week about 3000 will cross the stage.
Anyway, last night there was a special Commemoration Dinner to mark the 50th Anniversary in the Dining Room of Brighton Pavilion:
The decor is a little understated for my tastes, but apart from that it was a splendid occasion. We didn’t sit at the central table, which is covered with period crockery and cutlery, and was roped off; we sat at smaller tables situated in the space around it. Owing to some sort of administrative error I was accidentally seated at a Table 1, along with a host of important people and the Vice-Chancellor. This turned out well for me as I was seated near Asa Briggs (now Lord Briggs) a famous historian who was the second Vice-Chancellor of the University. He’s now 93 years young and a bit frail but wonderfully interesting conversation ensued. The opportunity to talk to a true Sussex legend added to the fine food and wine to make for a wonderful evening.
There’s another point worth commemorating in the light of the forthcoming centenary of the start of the First World War. One thing I didn’t know before this week was that during World War 1, Brighton Pavilion was commandeered for use as a hospital for wounded soldiers, many of them from India. In fact, the first ever recipient of the Victoria Cross from the British Indian Army, Khudadad Khan, recovered there from wounds sustained in action in Belgium in 1914:
In October 1914, the Germans launched a major offensive in northern Belgium, in order to capture the vital ports of Boulogne in France and Nieuport in Belgium. In what came to be known as the First Battle of Ypres, the newly arrived 129th Baluchis were rushed to the frontline to support the hard-pressed British troops. On 31 October, two companies of the Baluchis bore the brunt of the main German attack near the village of Gheluvelt in Hollebeke Sector. The out-numbered Baluchis fought gallantly but were overwhelmed after suffering heavy casualties. Sepoy Khudadad Khan’s machine-gun team, along with one other, kept their guns in action throughout the day; preventing the Germans from making the final breakthrough. The other gun was disabled by a shell and eventually Khudadad Khan’s own team was overrun. All the men were killed by bullets or bayonets except Khudadad Khan, who despite being badly wounded, had continued working his gun. He was left for dead by the enemy but despite his wounds, he managed to crawl back to his regiment during the night. Thanks to his bravery, and that of his fellow Baluchis, the Germans were held up just long enough for Indian and British reinforcements to arrive. They strengthened the line, and prevented the German Army from reaching the vital ports. For his matchless feat of courage and gallantry, Sepoy Khudadad Khan was awarded the Victoria Cross.
We were honoured last night by the presence at dinner of Sergeant Johnson Beharry who, in 2005, became the first recipient of the Victoria Cross for over thirty years for acts of extreme courage when serving as Lance Corporal in Iraq.
On 1 May 2004, Beharry was driving a Warrior tracked armoured vehicle that had been called to the assistance of a foot patrol caught in a series of ambushes. The Warrior was hit by multiple rocket propelled grenades, causing damage and resulting in the loss of radio communications. The platoon commander, the vehicle’s gunner and a number of other soldiers in the vehicle were injured. Due to damage to his periscope optics, Pte. Beharry was forced to open his hatch to steer his vehicle, exposing his face and head to withering small arms fire. Beharry drove the crippled Warrior through the ambush, taking his own crew and leading five other Warriors to safety. He then extracted his wounded comrades from the vehicle, all the time exposed to further enemy fire. He was cited on this occasion for “valour of the highest order”.
While back on duty on 11 June 2004, Beharry was again driving the lead Warrior of his platoon through Al Amarah when his vehicle was ambushed. A rocket propelled grenade hit the vehicle six inches from Beharry’s head, and he received serious shrapnel injuries to his face and brain. Other rockets then hit the vehicle, incapacitating his commander and injuring several of the crew. Despite his life-threatening injuries, Beharry retained control of his vehicle and drove it out of the ambush area before losing consciousness. He required brain surgery for his head injuries, and he was still recovering in March 2005 when he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
It’s humbling to be in the presence of such a courageous fellow. I only wish our mendacious politicians hadn’t engineered the conflict that made his actions necessary in the first place. Resplendent in his dress uniform, I’m glad to say that Sergeant Beharry seems fully recovered from his injuries.
I had forgotten to take my Blackberry with me when I left my flat to walk to the dinner so was unable to keep up with the World Cup semi-final. This came up in the conversation at the table. Lord Briggs concurred with my prediction that Germany would win comfortably. It was only when I left the Pavilion and walked past a pub on the way to the bus-stop that I saw the scale of the thrashing that Germany had administered. It was 7-0 when I stopped to look at the screen just in time to see Brazil score. I wouldn’t even describe it as a consolation goal. This amazing result will now be forever linked in my mind with the other events of the evening.
Anyway, must finish now. I have to write my speech for tomorrow’s ceremony!
I was asleep during last night’s dramatic World Cup game between Portugal and USA which ended in a 2-2 draw thanks to an equaliser in injury time from Portugal. That’s why I found out about the result from Twitter when I woke up this morning. I was struck by the fact that virtually all comments from Americans talked about their team in the singular (e.g. “USA has drawn against Portugal”) whereas on this side of the Atlantic we almost always refer to a team in the plural (e.g. “England have lost against everyone”).
Strictly speaking, the singular form is correct (as was Nelson with his “England expects..” message at Trafalgar) but that doesn’t mean that British English is necessarily wrong. This is an example of a figure of speech called a metonymic shift, whereby a thing or concept is referred to not by its own name but by the name of something associated with it. An example is found in the phrase “to boil a kettle”: obviously it is not the kettle that gets boiled, but the water within it, but this isn’t an error as such, merely a grammatical device. Metonymic shifts also take place when we refer to the Government as “Westminster” or the film-making industry as “Hollywood”.
When we come to the “England lose” verses “England loses” debate, the noun “England” can be taken to mean “The England team” (singular) but in British English the metonymic shift takes this to mean a collection of individual players (plural), i.e. the meaning is transferred from the “England team” to the “England players”. The use of a verb indicating a singular subject constitutes “formal agreement” with “team” whereas the plural form would be “notional agreement”.
I know that this usage is regarded as incorrect by American colleagues I have discussed it with, to the extent that it actually grates on them a bit. But I think “the team are fighting amongst themselves” is a better construction than any I can think of that includes formal rather than notional agreement. Moreover this kind of construction is correct in languages with more precise grammatical rules than English. The Greek term synesis refers to a grammatical alteration in which a word takes the gender or number not of the word with which it should regularly agree, but of some other word implied by that word, a device much used in both Greek and Roman poetry and also in rhetoric. The distinction between “the Government is united” and “the Government are divided” offers a particularly interesting example.
However, having done my best to stick up for “England” as a plural, I can’t help thinking that if they ever learn how to play like a team than as a collection of individuals they might not be so strongly associated with the verb “to lose”…
It is with great pleasure that I announce another outstanding result for the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS). While minor unexciting sporting contests go on elsewhere in the world, all true sports fans have had their eyes literally glued on events on Falmer campus. Sussex University’s annual Fit to Get CommittedCommit to Get Fit reached its final stages yesterday with the audience literally electrified by a thrilling Rounders competition. Team MPS didn’t win that event; although playing very well they were just a bit short of clichés, especially in the final third.
I wasn’t able to attend today’s lunchtime prize-giving event owing to a prior commitment. In fact I was on a course learning how to make legally fair disciplinary decisions. Fortunately this turned out to be an unnecessary precaution, as the MPS Commit to Get Fit team won all the awards!
Well done to Matt for winning Best Blog by an Individual and to Naomi who was presented with a Special Individual Achievement award for her dedication as Team Captain, her personal achievements and fundraising activities where she dressed up as a musketeer for the day, together with Matt, to raise money for the Rocking Horse Foundation. Together they managed to raise a whopping £210!
Last but not least, Team MPS scooped the top award with a trophy for Most Inspiring Team.
So once again the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences sweeps the board. Literally.
Just back to Brighton from a short break, part of which (Saturday) I spent at Lords Cricket Ground watching Day 3 of the First Test between England and Sri Lanka.
England had been put in to bat on the first morning and has wobbled early on, but had rallied strongy with young Joe Root scoring 200 not out as they reached 575 for 9 before declaring on Day 2. Sri Lanka batted, needing 375 to avoid the follow-on.
The morning of Day 3 found Sri Lanka resuming on 140-1. Conditions were a bit murky and it drizzled for much of the morning, but not to the extent that it interrupted play. Sri Lanka, especially the excellent Sangakkara, batted with resilience and resourcefulness, as the England bowlers struggled to take wickets on a flat and rather lifeless pitch. The swing of Anderson didn’t threaten as much as I expected in the overcast conditions. The all-rounder Ali was reasonably tidy as a bowler but didn’t cause many alarms, though he did take the wicket of Sangakkara. Broad and Plunkett were fast and aggressive but the latter was a bit unlucky only to take one wicket.
Fortunately at Lords there are plenty of distractions during the intervals or when the cricket is slow, including jazz from The Outswingers and a school band at lunchtime.
The batsman passed the follow-on target for the loss of only six wickets and as I headed from the ground the game seemed to be heading for a high-scoring draw.
Sri Lanka were eventually out for 453 on Day 4 and England, batting again, wobbled again, in deep trouble at 123 for 6. A fine hundred from Ballance and some good batting from the lower order took them to 267 for 8 at the close, a lead of 389. England declared overnight.
There was talk about Alastair Cook’s captaincy over this, some suggesting he should have declared earlier. For what it’s worth I would have done exactly what Cook did. Sri Lanka are a good batting side, and well capable of scoring 300 in a day on such a good pitch.
So Day 5 saw Sri Lanka needing 390 to win off the 90 overs to be bowled or, more realistically, to bat all day to draw the game. They showed no inclination to go for the runs but batted well defensively for most of the day. A draw looked inevitable in mid-afternoon.
But then, as is so often the case in Test cricket, there was a dramatic twist. Wickets started to fall. Suddenly Sri Lanka were 170 for 5, with both their best batsmen (Sangakkara and Jayawardene) out. More wickets fell, but time was ticking away. Then came the last over, with Sri Lanka on 201 for 8. After five relatively sedate days everything now hinged on the final six balls.
Broad struck with the first ball. Sri Lanka 201 for 9. Only one wicket needed for England to win. Could Sri Lanka hang on!
Broad bowled to the tailender Herath. There was an appeal for lbw. Up went the umpire’s finger. England had won with just a few balls left of the day’s play.
Or had they? No. Sri Lanka used a review. Herath had hit the ball. Not out. Sri Lanka survived. Match drawn.
It’s hard to explain to people who don’t know cricket how a game can last for five days and end in a draw, and that can be exciting. But great Test match like this one prove that it is true. Credit to both teams for playing their parts.
A Test Match is like a Symphony in which the slow movement is just as important as the finale. Without the five days preceding it, the drama of that final over wouldn’t have been anything like as intense.
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In the Dark 