THE GOOGLY: CRICKET EVERY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON – WHAT BLISS!

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This was meant to be the century of leisure, but actually we seem to have less time to pursue our own interests than ever before.

Cricket has become a casualty of this.

Who remembers Wednesday afternoon (not evening, actual afternoon) cricket?

I assume this was a countrywide phenomenon rather than just London/South-East, but a friend has specific recollections of that area of the nation.

“Wednesday used to be a half-day for a lot of people,” Sean Gardner tells me. “Everyone would have a Wednesday-afternoon team, quite often different from their weekend teams. I played for Mead Wanderers, and we would have a huge fixture list. Horsham, Lloyds Register, IBIS, Civil Service, Lloyds and Midlands Banks, Banstead Pawnbrokers, Merton… we used to play against the GLC (Greater London Council) and the BBC - I remember Alan from Grange Hill (actor George Humphries) playing for them at their ground in Motspur Park (later bought by Fulham Football Club). There were also lots of wandering teams.”

It will probably never happen again... but it did sound fun...

Cricket’s latest attempt to get down with the kids seems to be going well. The England and Wales Cricket Board’s All Stars programme, unveiled this summer, is proving quite popular according to letters and emails sent to The Cricketer.

But just as the launch of T20 in 2003 was a repackaging of something that had already been around a long time (midweek evening matches, either 20 overs per side or 15 eight-balls) the All Stars kit is something borrowed (not to mention something blue).

The blue and orange plastic bat and ball (part of the kit introduced in 3,500 primary schools) brings back memories of Kwik Cricket.

Invented in 1988, at one stage 60,000 five- to 11-year-olds were bashing balls about with those sky-blue bats.

“Those blue stumps and placcy bat were a childhood icon for me!” says reader Duncan Struthers. “I will never forget the hollow sound those bats made.”

It is funny how often cricket reinvents the wheel…

Two Norwegian teams contested what they believe to be the longest game in ice hockey history – eight and a half hours, with eight overtimes.

It was not until 2.32 am before Storhamar Dragons were finally able to celebrate victory over Sparta Warriors in the Norwegian League play-offs.

While they undoubtedly showed stamina, they still have a long way to go to beat cricket, though. South Africa and England drew the fifth ‘timeless’ Test at Durban between March 3–14 in 1939 after 10 days (although one was rained off) and 46 hours of cricket, with the tourists having to call off their chase so they could catch their boat home (the threat of war meant available ships were in short supply).

For further reading, try John Lazenby’s Edging Towards Darkness. It has received excellent reviews (like his other books).

In this week’s Moral Maze…

A club under-12s game. One side scores 100 for 7. The other team, who have been struggling all season, are 20 for 8. The two best players are bowling. One has just taken a hat-trick and has figures of 5 for 4 in three overs. The other, the captain, has taken two wickets. One coach believes the duo should carry on bowling and go for the kill. He wants the team to finish higher up the league, and feels no chances should be taken. The other coach says it is a chance for two people to bowl who did not bat. He is also coming under pressure on the boundary from the opposition coach and supporters, who say their team is being humiliated.

What would you do?