CategoryNostalgia

I suppose that Henry Blofeld has often divided opinion. You could almost describe him as the Jeremy Corbyn of the commentary box – a sobriquet that is deliberately facetious as I think it would be stretching credibility to suggest that Blowers is hiding even a hint of red under the bed. He might have a picnic hamper, perhaps, and maybe a jeroboam or two, but Mao’s little red book? I...

Here’s a trip down memory lane from new guest writer Lee Payne. This submission got my attention because I remember U19 World Cups fondly. Enjoy! Remember when you were young? Remember when it was so easy to get obsessed with something? Sport wasn’t something I enjoyed until I was about 9 years old. Until then, it was nothing more than an interruption to my weekend cartoons. Dad would...

I turn 40 this week. Don’t worry, this isn’t a Brian Johnston style appeal for cake. I won’t suddenly be sending out “thank yous” to Mrs. Cholmondeley in Upper Piddle for delivering a rather nice chocolate sponge with strawberries on top. But cake or no cake, these type of milestones do tend to focus the mind – firstly on where the last 20 years have gone and more critically on where the...

I am conscious of my own personal preponderance to wallow in nostalgia of late. Something I should give up based on the adage that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. Too many backward glances down the old barely lit paths of the mind – at best a dodgy incursion into loose slabs and hidden potholes. It’s fun in moderation but gets a bit Victor Meldrew if you linger too long...

Can it really be a quarter of a century since the late Martin Crowe opened the 1992 Cricket World Cup with a stunning century at Eden Park to dramatically bloody the nose of the defending champions on the opening day of the tournament? This piece by Hector was originally written in preparation for the 2015 World Cup but not completed until recently. It seemed rather fitting to publish such a...

My childhood was eons ago. It was a world before the internet, blanket media and instantaneous access to information. A world that my kids think is somewhere between the Jurassic period and Victorian England. A dystopian world where dinosaurs routinely knocked down buildings and feasted on mangled chimney sweeps. My oldest son once participated in a school project that featured a picture of a...

Back in those hard hitting and intoxicated days before Christmas and the New Year – a mere stitch back in time when the elastic on my trousers was relaxed and my liver chipper and fighting fit – I wrote a morose piece on Why Red Cards Have No Place In Cricket. I promised or threatened, depending on how you look at it, to write a follow up on why day/night Ashes Test Matches are akin...