The summer draws ever nearer to its close and autumn beckons.
The latest marker of the turning season to rush past was the last match of cricket’s County Championship, which ended yesterday. It was a disappointing finale for my local team, Glamorgan, who had a chance of winning promotion to Division 1 having spent most of the season in second place in Division 2. However, after a feeble first innings batting performance against Derbyshire – and a lot of rain here in Cardiff – they could only draw their final game. Meanwhile, third-placed Worcestershire responded to a generous declaration by first-placed Sussex by scoring 306-6 in only 55 overs to win with time to spare. Thus, Sussex and Worcestershire (who got relegated last year) get promoted back to Division 1, while Kent and Essex (who were promoted last year) get relegated. Better luck next year for Glamorgan. Nottinghamshire, by the way, won the Championship.
In the end it was quite an exciting final day of the county season but since it’s now all over until next spring it seems appropriate to mark the end of the County Championship with one of the classic cricket poems, Close of Play, by Thomas Moult.
How shall we live, now that the summer’s ended,
And bat and ball (too soon!) are put aside,
And all our cricket deeds and dreams have blended —
The hit for six, the champion bowled for none,
The match we planned to win and never won? …
Only in Green-winged memory they abide.
How shall we live, who love our loveliest game
With such bright ardour that when stumps are drawn
We talk into the twilight, always the same
Old talk with laughter round off each tale —
Laughter of friends across a pint of ale
In the blue shade of the pavilion.
For the last time a batsman is out, the day
Like the drained glass and the dear sundown field
is empty; what instead of Summer’s play
Can occupy these darkling months ere spring
Hails willows once again the crowned king?
How shall we live so life may not be chilled?
Well, what’s a crimson hearth for, and the lamp
Of winter nights, and these plump yellow books
That cherish Wisden’s soul and bear his stamp —
And bat and ball (too soon!) are put aside,
Time’s ever changing, unalterable score-board,
Thick-clustered with a thousand names adored:
Half the game’s magic in their very looks!
And when we’ve learnt those almanacs by heart,
And shared with Nyren … Cardus ….the distant thrill
That cannot fade since they have had their part,
We’ll trudge wet streets through fog and mire
And praise our heroes by the club-room fire:
O do not doubt the game will hold us still!
Just a quick post to share a picture taken at last night’s Twenty20 International in Cardiff between England and Pakistan. We had the entire spectrum of Welsh weather to contend with, but the worst of yesterday’s rain was over well before the match started and the SWALEC stadium, just ten minutes’ walk from my house, was a fine sight under a variety of peculiar cloud formations and the floodlights, as you can tell from the picture I took on my phone.
Pakistan won the toss and batted first, but didn’t make a very good fist of it and were bowled out for a mere 89 from their 20 overs. England had a little wobble during the run chase but in the end won comfortably by 6 wickets.
Unfortunately, the crowd numbered only a few thousand so the atmosphere was a bit flat and Pakistan’s poor showing with the bat made it all a bit of anti-climax, but it was still a good way to precede a nice curry. I’ve heard various theories as to why the attendance was so poor, but I think it’s pretty obvious: at £45 for a game whose format ensures it can last no longer than about three hours, tickets for this match were just too expensive. I think the authorities should think again about their pricing strategy.
I don’t know why, but last week was my most popular week ever, at least in terms of blog hits! I was going to follow up with a foray into the role of spin in quantum mechanics, but decided instead to settle for a less ambitious project for this evening.
Yesterday I walked past the cricket ground at the SWALEC Stadium in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, during the Twenty20 international between England and Pakistan. There is another match of this type tomorrow night which I’ll actually be going to, as long as it’s not rained off, but I have too many things to do to go to both games. Anyway, England’s excellent off-spinner Graham Swann was bowling when I watched through a gap in the stands at the river end of the stadium. He seemed to be getting an impressive amount of turn, and I got wondering about how fast a bowler like “Swannee” actual spins the ball.
For those of you not so familiar with cricket here’s a clip of another prodigious spinner of the ball, Australia’s legend of legspin Shane Warne:
For beginners, the game of cricket is a bit similar to baseball (insofar as it’s a game involving a bat and a ball), but the “strike zone” in cricket is a physical object ( a “wicket” made of wooden stumps with bails balanced on the top) unlike the baseball equivalent, which exists only in the mind of the umpire. The batsman must prevent the ball hitting the wicket and also try to score runs if he can. In contrast to baseball, however, he doesn’t have to score; he can elect to play a purely defensive shot or even not play any short at all if he judges the ball is going to miss, which is what happened to the hapless batsman in the clip.
You will see that Warne imparts considerable spin on the ball, which has the effect of making it change direction when it bounces. The fact that the ball hits the playing surface before the batsman has a chance to play it introduces extra variables that you don’t see in baseball, such as the state of the pitch (which generally deteriorates over the five days of a Test match, especially in the “rough” where bowlers have been running in). A spin bowler who causes the ball to deviate from right to left is called a legspin bowler, while one who makes it turn the other way is an offspin bowler. An orthodox legspinner generates most of the spin from a flick of the wrist while an offspinner mainly lets his fingers do the torquing.
Another difference that’s worth mentioning with respect to baseball is that the ball is bowled, i.e. the bowler’s arm is not supposed to bend during the delivery (although apparently that doesn’t apply if he’s from Sri Lanka). However, the bowler is allowed to take a run up, which will be quite short for a spin bowler, but long like a javelin thrower if it’s a fast bowler. Fast bowlers – who can bowl up to 95 mph (150 km/h) – don’t spin the ball to any degree but have other tricks up their sleeve I haven’t got time to go into here. A typical spin bowler delivers the ball at speeds ranging from 45 mph to 60 mph (70 km/hour to 100 km/hour).
The physical properties of a cricket ball are specified in the Laws of Cricket. It must be between 22.4 and 22.9 cm in circumference, i.e. 3.57 to 3.64 cm in radius and must weigh between 155.9g and 163g. It’s round, made of cork, and surrounded by a leather case with a stitched seam.
So now, after all that, I can give a back-of-the-envelope answer to the question I was wondering about on the way home. Looking at the video clip my initial impression was that the ball is deflected by an angle as large as a radian, but in fact the foreshortening effect of the camera is quite deceptive. In fact the ball deviates by less than a metre between pitching and hitting the stumps. There is a gap of about 1 metre between the popping crease (where the batsman stands) and the stumps – it looks much less from the camera angle shown – and the ball probably pitches at least 2 metres in front of the crease. I would guess therefore that it actually deflects by an angle less than twenty degrees or so.
What happens physically is that some of the rotational kinetic energy of the ball is converted into translational kinetic energy associated with a component of the velocity at right angles to the original direction of travel. In order for the deflection to be so large, the available rotational kinetic energy must be non-negligible compared to the original kinetic energy of the ball. Suppose the mass of the ball is , the translational kinetic energy is where is the speed of the ball. If the angular velocity of rotation is then the rotational kinetic energy , where is the moment of inertia of the ball.
Approximating the ball as a uniform sphere of mass and radius , the moment of inertia is . Putting , cancelling on both sides and ignoring the factor of – because I’m lazy – we see that the rotational and translational kinetic energies are comparable if
or , which makes sense because is just the speed of a point on the equator of the ball owing to the ball’s rotational motion. This equation therefore says that the speed of sideways motion of a point on the ball’s surface must be roughly comparable to speed of the ball’s forward motion. Taking km/h gives m/s and m gives radians per second, which is about 100 revolutions per second. This would cause a huge deviation (about 45 degrees), but the real effect is rather smaller as I discussed above (see comments below). If the deflection is actually around 15 degrees then the rotation speed needed would be around 30 rev/s.
This estimate is obviously very rough because it ignores the direction of spin and the efficiency with the ball grips on the pitch – friction is obviously involved in the change of direction – but it gives a reasonable ballpark (or at least cricketground) estimate.
Of course if the bowler does the same thing every time it’s relatively easy for the batsman to allow for the spin. The best bowlers therefore vary the amount and angle of spin they impart on each ball. Most, in fact, have at least two qualitatively different types of ball but they disguise the differences in the act of delivery. Offspinners typically have an “arm ball” which doesn’t really spin but holds its line without appearing to be any different to their spinning delivery. Legspinners usually have a variety of alternative balls, including a topspinner and/or a flipper and/or a googly. The latter is a ball that comes out of the back of the hand and actually spins the opposite way to a legspinner while being produced with apparently the same action. It’s very hard to bowl a googly accurately, but it’s a deadly thing when done right.
Another thing also worth mentioning is that the rotation of the cricket ball also causes a deviation of its flightpath through the air, by virtue of the Magnus effect. This causes the ball to curve in the air in the opposite direction to which it is going to deviate on bouncing, i.e. it would drift into a right-handed batsman before breaking away from him off the pitch. You can see a considerable amount of such movement in the video clip, away from the left-hander in the air and then back into him off the pitch. Nature clearly likes to make things tough for batsmen!
With a number of secret weapons in his armoury the spin bowler can be a formidable opponent, a fact that has apparently been known to poets, philosophers and astronomers for the best part of a thousand years:
The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But Right or Left, as strikes the Player goes;
And he that toss’d Thee down into the Field,
He knows about it all — He knows — HE knows!
Strange day. After a few days dominated by departmental duties I actually started to get down to doing some research, or at least trying to remember where I was with half-a-dozen projects I haven’t looked at for a while. Hopefully I’ll get some of them finished in the next few weeks now that the students have gone for the summer, but inevitably my concentration’s disrupted a bit by the World Cup. It’s so tempting just to have a quick peek at the scores…
It was the turn of the department’s contingent of Italians to slope off to watch their World Cup match this afternoon. Strangely, though, they didn’t come back afterwards. Perhaps it was something to do with their team – the current holders of the World Cup – losing 3-2 to Slovakia and now being out of the competition.
After a somewhat disappointing start, the tournament is producing some smashing games – although perhaps not if you’re Italian! Tonight I watched a splendid performance from Japan, who beat Denmark 3-1 in great style. Many of my most recent research collaborations have involved scientists from Denmark, Italy and Japan. I know which group will be happier tonight!
More importantly, after an initial dearth it’s good to see a recent increase in the number of clichés being deployed by the comentators, especially in the final third and at the end of the day, defending deep and holding a high line. Tonight’s match even produced a mention of the Last Chance Saloon, which is one I haven’t heard for a while.
Coming home around 7pm I walked in the bright evening sunshine past the cricket ground at Sophia Gardens which is where England were playing Australia in a 50-over one-day international. In fact when I walked to work this morning, spectators were already arriving. That surprised me because the game didn’t start until 2.30pm. Quite a few Australians among them too.
I had toyed with the idea of going myself but never got round to buying a ticket. I’m not as keen on one-day cricket compared to Test matches so decided to give it a miss. As I meandered home through Bute Park, I did stop to watch a bit of the England innings from the Taff embankment from which I saw Monty hold off the Australians for a hard-earned draw at the end of last summer’s test match. The curious thing was that although the sun was shining, all the floodlights were on. I suppose that’s to get the players used to the lights in good time before they’re actually needed.
The other noticeable sign of a big cricket match was an extraordinary blend of food smells wafting up from the assorted purveyors of greasy comestibles surrounding the stadium. I can’t say the smell was particularly enticing, although it didn’t put me off my dinner.
I’ve waited to post this until the match finished, which it has now done. I could hear the roar from my garden as England won by four wickets with 5 overs to spare. No doubt the England supporters will be heading for the local pubs for a few drinks before closing time. Come to think of it….
My agenda for today was dominated by three events, each involving a different form of progression. The timing was a coincidence, I think.
First, this morning, a bunch of interviews with our first-year postgraduate research students. Like most universities, the first year of a PhD at Cardiff University is a probationary period so we get the students to write a report on what they’ve been doing and also get input from their supervisor. This is then followed up by a panel interview, with 3-4 members of staff, at which a judgement is made as to whether to allow them continue. This used to be a relatively informal thing involving supervisor and one other member of staff, but I’ve recently taken over as Director of Postgraduate Studies in the School of Physics & Astronomy and made the process a bit more rigorous, having the same panel talk to all the students. It all passed off pretty well apart from the fact that a couple of students are away and I’ll have to put them through the process later on in the summer when they get back from their observing trips and whatnot.
After a spot of form-filling and a quick lunch we went straight into another examiners’ meeting, this time for undergraduate students. We already went through the marks for graduating students a couple of weeks ago, but today we had to look at the results for our Prelim candidates, and Years 1 and 2. Here the focus for most staff is on their personal tutees, usually 4 in each year, checking they all progress as intended to the following year and presenting any special circumstances. This meeting can be quite fraught, but this year went smoothly.
Which brought us to the last issue of progression, and the one I was less optimistic about prior to the event. However, England did manage to win their game against Slovenia in the FIFA World Cup by the not entirely convincing scoreline of 1-0. That means they too progress to the next round, although how much further than that they can go is not very clear. Well done to the USA too, who beat Algeria to win the group and take their place in the last 16.
All in all, a busy but productive and satisfying day. Now I’m going to watch one more game of football and have a glass or two of wine before having an early night.
I was walking home a couple of weeks ago and noticed that there were several cricket matches going on in the Park, just over the road from my house in Cardiff. I stopped to watch a few overs, taking one or two experimental pictures with my phone, and was quite impressed at the standard of play. Two distinctly lively quick bowlers were causing the batsmen quite a few problems, though they were not just blocking but also taking every available opportunity to score. It was attritional, but absorbing stuff.
The use of these fields for cricket was interrupted in 2008 when the National Eisteddfod was held here in Cardiff, on this very spot. It tipped down with rain for the entire week and the fields turned to mud. It has taken the best part of two years for Cardiff City Council to repair the damage and get everything back to working order so that the many local clubs that use the fields here could resume their sporting activities. Of course they had nowhere to play for all that time, thanks to the fools at the Council who totally underestimated the time it would take, not to mention the amount it would cost. You can see in the foreground that some of the grass is still in need of attention.
Just a few hundred yards to the South (right in the picture) lies Sophia Gardens, and the SWALEC stadium home to Glamorgan Cricket Club, currently at the top of the Second Division of the County Championship. I hope the good weather stays with us long enough that I can actually get to see a decent amount of cricket once term finally finishes.
Incidentally, the view is roughly eastwards. The River Taff flows from left to right, concealed by the trees which are part of the landscaping performed by Capability Brown. They don’t show up too well in the photo, but they were clearly carefully chosen to provide a variety of colour and texture, especially in the changing light of the spring sunshine. Also hidden is a weir (Blackweir), where the Dock Feeder Canal is taken off the river to supply water to the docks at Cardiff Bay, and a small bridge. On the far side of the river is Bute Park and, further South, Cardiff Castle.
I may not have a very big garden, but it’s lovely having this beautiful park just a short walk from the house. I hope the Council learn their lesson and stop buggering about with it.
Just a quick post for the record. Today was the day that the last promotion from the Championship to the Premiership was decided at the Playoff final between Blackpool and Cardiff City. I couldn’t get into the local to see the match as there were so many crowded in there already, so I seized on the chance to do some shopping in the deserted Tesco nearby. It sounds like it was an exciting game, with Cardiff City leading twice, but it ended 3-2 to Blackpool.
I did have a look at the odds a few hours before the game started and found to my surprise that Cardiff were quite strong favourites, at 13/10 compared to Blackpool’s price of 21/10. Blackpool were clearly the form team so I decided to make an investment on the outcome which turned out to be successful. I’ll be having an especially nice bottle of wine tonight.
This was a match with huge financial implications for both clubs, of course, with an estimated £90 million at stake in TV and other revenues. Cardiff City FC’s money troubles are well documented, and promotion to the Premiership would have been a tremendous boost to the city as a whole too. However, it wasn’t to be and they’ll have to get their house in order and try again next season. I’m actually a little bit relieved that Cardiff City won’t be playing my team Newcastle United in the premiership next season – so I won’t have divided loyalties about that – but it would have been great to have the big teams playing in Cardiff. Of course I also feel sad for the local Cardiff City fans, especially those (including some from the department) who made the trip all the way to Wembley to watch the game. It’s going to be a long journey home.
As for Blackpool, they should be proud of what they’ve achieved this season. I certainly wouldn’t have picked them at the start of the season to get promoted, and I wish them well. I’m sure the players and their fans are ecstatic at this moment. I’m skeptical about their ability to survive more than one Premiership season – with an average home gate of just over 8,000 they don’t really have the resources to compete with the big boys – but I wish them well. I hope they enjoy their time in the sun.
PS. Before anyone asks, yes, I am old enough to remember Blackpool playing in the old First Division, about 40 years ago.
I’ve been a bit busy today so all I’ve got time to do is mark the news that by beating Plymouth Argyle, 2-0 away from home Newcastle United have won the Championship. In truth they only needed one point from their remaining three games to be sure of the title, but they passed the winning post in style with a comfortable victory that in fact condemns Plymouth to relegation. This may not mean very much to most readers of this blog, but I can assure you that being a Newcastle supporter is sometimes a thankless task and ‘m absolutely delighted to see the club return to the Premier League in such a surprisingly convincing way.
I was thinking of posting a little bit of music to celebrate, and this sprang to mind. It’s my favourite Scott Joplin rag and it’s called – appropriately enough – The Easy Winners. It was written in 1901 and the original sheet music is decorated with pictures of sporting events. It is also one of the few rags that the composer himself recorded as a piano roll, although I have my doubts as to whether this is actually that version..
Although it’s meant to be a holiday I’ve actually been in the department most of the day working on some research (or, rather, writing up some old research). Since I’ve been tapping away at the keys most of the day I haven’t got the energy to write much, and I’m looking forward to a drink and a spot of curry in a few minutes’ time followed by a crack at the jumbo-sized Guardian Easter crossword compiled by my favourite setter, Araucaria.
However, for the purposes of my own record-keeping – this blog is, at least in part, some kind of a journal – I thought I’d make a quick note of the day’s sport. Usually as we near the end of the football season I get into a state of nervous anxiety wondering what sort of mess my own team, Newcastle United, are going to make of the run-in. However, today I’m pleased to say they followed up Monday’s win against Nottingham Forest with another victory, 3-2 away at Peterborough. Although their opponents are the bottom club of the division at the moment, I always thought this would be a tricky game and so it proved if the press reports are to be believed. Peterborough in fact took an early lead, and Newcastle didn’t equalise until stoppage time in the first half. They then went 3-1 up, only to have one goal pegged back by a determined home team.
That result might have sealed promotion to the Premiership for Newcastle, had Nottingham Forest done the decent thing and lost to Bristol City. They didn’t lose, but only managed a draw. The gap between Newcastle and Nottingham Forest is now 15 points with Forest having five games to play while Newcastle have six games left. It’s extremely improbable that Newcastle will lose all 6 of their games and Forest win all 5 of theirs, so I think we’re pretty much guaranteed to go up. We need just one point to turn that into mathematical certainty.
Today was a big game here in Cardiff too, between Cardiff City and fierce local rivals Swansea. Police helicopters were circling the town all day and there was a heavy presence of uniformed officers trying to ensure there wasn’t any trouble at the match. This too was a close-fought game. With the score at 1-1 until stoppage time at the end of the match, Michael Chopra popped up to score a winner for Cardiff. They’re now hard on the heels of Nottingham Forest in fourth place, with 68 points to Forest’s 71. Cardiff might still have to play Swansea in the playoffs. That could be interesting..
And finally, it’s worth noting that today was the day of the annual Oxford versus Cambridge Boat Race in London. I’m not going to pretend that I follow this sport particularly closely, but the occasions on which I’ve been to watch the spectacle have been very enjoyable (even though Oxford has beaten my own Alma Mater every time I’ve bothered to watch it). It’s usually more of an excuse to have a few drinks while watching other people busting a gut than a genuine interest in the sport. Still, I do have a residual loyalty to Cambridge University so I was delighted to find out that they won today. If I’d seen the pre-race odds, I might have had a bet as Oxford were clear favourites.
Not at all a bad day results-wise. I almost finished my paper too…
Well, I’ve spent the evening working as well as following an important night’s football. My team – Newcastle United – were playing their promotion rivals Nottingham Forest at St James’ Park (in Newcastle). Going into the game Newcastle were at the top of the Championship, 10 points clear of third-placed Nottingham Forest with a game in hand. With 80 points from 38 games, and only 8 remaining to play, a win would virtually guarantee that Forest (on 70 points after 39 games) couldn’t catch them and Newcastle would therefore be in one of the top two positions guaranteeing them a return to the Premiership next season.
Although this was apparently a commanding position, I’ve been a Newcastle supporter for too long to take anything for granted; they’ve demonstrated their ability to throw away apparently unassailable leads far too often for me to feel complacent. Fortunately, they didn’t let me down. Two second-half goals (from Shola Ameobi and Jose Enrique) saw them win 2-0. Now 13 points clear of third place (with Forest only having 6 games to play), they are on the brink of automatic promotion. Mathematically they now need 6 points from 7 games to be sure, but they could seal it on Saturday away against bottom club Peterborough, if Nottingham Forest lose against Bristol City.
I confess that I get badly affected by nerves when following games on the radio or TV. I’d much rather be there in the flesh, but sadly that’s impractical. When the final whistle went tonight I was enormously relieved and more than a little bit elated, despite the heavy cold I’ve got at the moment.
Anyway, I thought it called for a bit of musical celebration. Newcastle United’s nickname is The Magpies, so I thought I’d offer the overture from Gioachino Rossini‘s Opera La Gazza Ladra(The Thieving Magpie). It’s not the greatest opera, but the overture is superb. Apparently Rossini had to be locked in his room and forced to write it as the deadline for the first performance approached. If that’s true, the pressure had a positive effect on him because what he produced is a cracker.
This performance is tremendously virtuosic – as you’d expect from the Vienna Philharmonic – especially in the accelerando part at the end, which is wonderfully exhilirating.
I’ve only known a few professional classical musicians at a personal level, but all of them, when asked, said that the composer whose music they most enjoyed playing was Rossini. I was always surprised to hear that, but listening to this piece I can certainly understand them. It’s got to be great fun playing this…
P.S. Another thing worth mentioning is that the current owner of Newcastle United Football Club bears more than a passing resemblance to Rossini!
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, the translational kinetic energy is 
where 
is the speed of the ball. If the 
then the rotational kinetic energy 
, where 
is the 
, the moment of inertia is 
. Putting 
, cancelling 
– because I’m lazy – we see that the rotational and translational kinetic energies are comparable if
, which makes sense because 
is just the speed of a point on the equator of the ball owing to the ball’s rotational motion. This equation therefore says that the speed of sideways motion of a point on the ball’s surface must be roughly comparable to speed of the ball’s forward motion. Taking 
km/h gives 
m/s and 
m gives 
radians per second, which is about 100 revolutions per second. This would cause a huge deviation (about 45 degrees), but the real effect is rather smaller as I discussed above (see comments below). If the deflection is actually around 15 degrees then the rotation speed needed would be around 30 rev/s.
In the Dark 