Timothy St. Ather, a leading figure in a fans’ rebellion at Lancashire, has had his lifetime membership of the club cancelled, writes Barry Turner. St. Ather was sent a letter of dismissal along with a cheque for £1045, the amount he paid for lifetime members’ status more than 20 years ago. The move is seen as an attempt to quash the rebels at the Lancashire Action Group which is stirring up unrest over the poor treatment of fans and members. Mr St. Ather planned to bombard the...
Red Rose Rebellion
It seems that emotions are running high at Old Trafford. And it’s got nothing to do with Jos Buttler’s prediction that test cricket could be extinct (with T20 becoming the only form of the game) in twenty years’ time. Here’s Barry Turner, a Lancs fan through and through, with the latest developments. The members are certainly restless … Angry fans at Lancashire have formed a pressure group over growing unrest about facilities at Old Trafford. The grass-roots...
County Championship Reform: Conferences or Divisions?
As everyone seems to be calling the NHS “our NHS” these days, I think it’s about time we renamed the championship “our county championship”. We all love it to bits but, like the NHS, it’s a bit sick. The ECB focus on T20 is pushing the competition to the fringes of the season and there’s a feeling amongst many supporters and players that there are too many teams. You won’t be surprised to learn that I instinctively dislike this argument. There...
Want To Join The New City T20 Board? Here’s How To Apply
Christmas might be over but here at TFT we just keep giving. In fact, we’re giving you ordinary plebs the opportunity to join (well, apply for) a position on the ECB’s shiny new T20 Board as independent directors. Here’s the Job Description which was passed to me by one of our many rebel spies inside cricket. His identity will remain anonymous lest he get lynched by the cricketing stormtroopers. The ECB’s new T20 Board will consist of two representatives from the...
A First Class Cock-Up
There’s no doubt that the sidelining of the county championship is playing a big part in England’s latest Ashes debacle. As I mentioned after Adelaide, my team Worcs will only have two championship clashes at New Road between early May and September next year. And when the new city T20 begins in 2020, things are likely to get worse. With the prospect of no championship cricket at all during the height of summer closer than ever, Media Penguin explores the anxieties and frustrations...
Another Rubbish Championship Finale
First class cricket is dead. It’s boring, predictable, and nobody likes it. In fact, the only way to save it is to make the players wear coloured clothing, play music every time there’s a boundary, and cut the duration of matches to two days. Oh, and scrap the counties and create artificial city-based franchises packed full of overseas ‘stars’ too. Then the bloody thing might become more watchable. Sorry about that. Tom Harrison suddenly hacked into my computer...
