Learning about cricket
 

DH became interested in cricket when we were in England in 2009. We will be in Liverpool (June) and London (July) this summer. What is the best way to learn about cricket? DH wants to attend a "game" (I know that's not what its called). I heard somewhere that listening to a "game" on the radio is also a good way to learn because the radio announcers discuss and explain more than the television announcers.

DH doesn't necessarily want to attend a professional game, an amateur game would be fine. We will be traveling by train/bus.

Thanks,
(and, yeah, figure all of June in Liverpool and all of July in London)

Okay, there really and truly is a book called Cricket For Dummies. And you're right, it's NEVER "a game", it's "a match". I'd recommend a go at the book before you (or your DH) beginning listening to broadcasts of matches. And there are games going in all the good weather months, we watched one at a university while visiting our niece, who was studying abroad in the UK.

Yes, some cricket fans prefer to listen to the radio commentary while watching proceedings and replays on TV. Knowing a little about the history and rules of the game also helps - check out Wikipedia - and the cricket columnists for the major newspapers can be knowledgeable and entertaining. If you come across a match on a village green or sportsground get him to rock up and ask a few questions - chances are a local will be only too pleased to give a ball by ball explanation.

You'll be in London for a Test Match between two of the top national teams, England and India, at 'The Home of Cricket', Lord's from 21-25 July, which should be a cracker -

http://www.lords.org/tickets/informa...lability/#July

Cricket is a beautiful game.

There are a few different types of match played.
Pro county/International games.
1. Lasts up to 4 or 5 days,
2. One day. Can last up to 7 or 8 hours.
3. 20/20 This is a very fast version, lasts about 3 hours.

If you want to see any of these formats I would recommend 20/20 if your time is limited.

Any fan watching would be only too pleased to explain what is happening on the pitch I'm sure.

Other alternative would be to visit a local park, near to where you are staying there are often matches being played in local leagues. I used to play evening Cricket, it lasted a couple of hours only. Think it was 15 overs.

Look up county cricket near to where you are staying and go along.
But if you can get into Lords, as Farrermog suggested, you won't regret it.

I love it....Mrs Muck does too...(now :-) )

Muck

Liverpool absolutely doesn't have the global importance in cricket it has in football, horseracing, golf, Victorian buildings, Pre-Raphaelite painting, pop music, the invention of the modern world, intercontinental transport and just about everything else that matters in life.

Even though the main sponsor of the County Championship (the core institution, round which English - and Welsh - cricket revolves) is the Liverpool Victoria insurance company, few county games are ever played in Liverpool, and there's very little club (the amateur version) cricket played in the area. But on June 27-30, Lancashire (the old-style county which gives its name to the North West England's only professional cricket club) are playing at Liverpool's Aigburth cricket ground.

Lower-level cricket in England comes in two distinct packages. In the soft counties of the never-industrialised Midlands and South, there's a thriving network of amateur village and suburban clubs. In the harsher world of the now postindustrial north (especially Lancashire - which we'll pretend includes Liverpool, though we believe we're a separate country - and Yorkshire) there's a much grittier sport, based on largely amateur clubs in what were once mill towns,which allow a limited seeding of professionals. Almost inevitably, those professionals have a tradition of being non-British.

In the soft South, amateur cricket is based on the proud English tradition of fair play. In the Northern leagues, it's based on the older and prouder tradition of winning. The heartland of that tradition, East Lancashire, doesn't have terrific public transport from Liverpool (you usually have to get a train to Manchester, then change), but few places are more than an hour's drive, as long as you don't have to go round the M60 on any day of the week with an "a" in.

Details at http://lancashireleague.com.

If you've got a spare day in London, try driving to Broadhalfpenny Down (www.broadhalfpennydown.com)near Hambledon and close to the beautiful Meon Valley. Don't even think of trying to get there by public transport. Generally accepted as the game's birthplace, but astonishingly unspolit, there are matches many days in the summer (my own tiny village, like many around the world, has a regular fixture with them).

In London, cricket consists almost entirely of the two main counties (Surrey playing at the Oval, and Middlesex playing at Lord's), and international matches. Lord's tends to be the "home" ground for visiting South Asian teams: the Oval for the West Indies. Recent British immigrants are routinely expected to support the country of their, or their parents' origin - so matches involving the Windies, India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka playing on "their" ground often have an amazing atmosphere. Expatriate Australians, Kiwis and Saffrikers get anywhere, but are usually too pissed to be terribly interesting.

Lord's is the game's (as hinted above: English cricket is played by clubs, not teams, who play matches, not games: "game" refers to the institution of cricket) worldwide spiritual home: one of London's most important tourist attractions in its own right, and the crowds of tourists from the Indian subcontinent waiting to be photographed outside are often as great as, and infinitely better informed than, the giggling Americans doing that silly pose in front of the Tower of Pisa. If your husband hasn't visited it, the Lord's tours are essential to understanding the game's history and traditions.

As others have said: the traditional English way of observing a major cricket match is keeping Test Match Special on the radio all day. THE essential English background to gardening, decorating, driving and posting helpful advice onto web forums.

Here is the famous "tea-towel" explanation of cricket for baseballers and other non-Commonwealth members:

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

Believe it or not, that is accurate, but if you're still floundering (can't think why :) ) here is a slightly more understandable version for USAians:

Cricket Explained (An American Viewpoint) http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/AB..._AMERICAN.html

In your situation I suggest either a 20-20 match, which is basically a slog-fest over in a few hours, or a village match. Go for a drive in a rural district on a sunny weekend and you should see one in progress somewhere.

This is the official site of the England and Wales cricket board, possibly some browsing through that may help find a match that suits you: http://www.ecb.co.uk/stats/fixtures-...tml?m=6&y=2011

Cheers, Alan, Australia.
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com (Where Do You Want To Go and What Do You Want To Do and See?)

If he wants to get his ear in, so to speak, for the radio commentary, I believe people outside the UK can listen to the BBC's internet relay of radio broadcasts:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cric...es/7992843.stm

and not forgetting this fondly-remembered example:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/olmedia/ct...ms/legover.ram

Read wikipedia to get a gist of the rules, you'll pick up the finer parts of the game pretty quickly from watching a game.

20/20 will probably make for a more entertaining game.
test matches go 5 days are the most elite form of the game, but theyre not everyone's cup of tea.

I didn't know there were rules. It looks like they just twack it around, do some wind sprints and go home when the players get sleepy. No?

pretty much. but they stop for a nice lunch in the middle too.

And tea. Don't forget the tea. In some clubs, that's more competitive than anything that goes on at the wicket.

Damn you Patrick! I should have known better than to open that link. Tears running down my face and mascara ruined :))

I bought that very same tea towel 30+ years ago and it hung on my kitchen wall for ages.

My ex played on our village side (maybe we played flanner's village??) for the 4+ years we lived there. He was pretty smug -- thought cricket would be a dawdle and the strapping Yank would show them a thing or two. After all he was a four sport letter man in the States. But took him quite a while to master cricket (and no he never "mastered" it, but did get pretty good).

I want to thank you all for your help. DH and I have attended 2 cricket matches (although the captain of the Hampshire Royals called it a game)

We happened on a local match in Ramsbottom while riding on the East Lancashire steam railway. No charge, which was great. But it was Sunday and everyone (almost) were dressed up. We walked in and took the nearest seats and watched the show, both on pitch and off. DH was able to follow most of what was happening thanks to the great explanation to which Trav_Eller provided a link.

Last night we went to see the Hampshire Royals and Kent Spitfires at the Rose Bowl in a 20/20 match. Royals won easily. I was impressed with myself when I came back from getting some tea after the interval and saw that I had missed three wickets and Kent had only gotten 5 runs, and knew that Kent was already in trouble.

So thanks to all of you, DH and I had a wonderful time last night.

Barbara

The tea is the best bit!

"Last night we went to see the Hampshire Royals and Kent Spitfires at the Rose Bowl"

Had I known, I could have sta and explained it to you (I can see the floodlights of the Rose Bowl from where I am currently typing)

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

willit, Kent were rubbish lol Good result for HR

I saw Glamorgan v Somerset at Taunton on Sunday, they were rubbish too.

Quite a sparse crowd there last night?

I think the increase in home games this season is taking it's toll on the £ paying public.

I love it, which reminds me I have to see if Glammy game is on TV tonight. Can't afford to go down again :-(

Muck

>>the never-industrialised Midlands<<

Flanner! As someone who hails from The City of a Thousand Trades, the industrial metropolis that is Birmingham (twice the size of Liverpool, for the record), I take great exception to that!

Why?

No-one's saying the Midlands were never industrialised (least of all someone who's spent most of his life driving or training through them). What I'm saying is that:

- unlike the inane stereotypes the region gets from outsiders, huge swathes of the Midlands were never industrialised (ever tried driving through Northants, rural Leicestershire or rural Notts?)
- In some parts (like the Northern Cotswolds), it's precisely the lack of industrialisation (which destroyed its wool industry, which stopped any more development), that's made them idyllic places for modern part time cricketers to live and play
- And the myth that sort of rural pursuit is unique to the Deep South is absurd,

Usually, you Brummies are the first to kick up a whingeing tirade about victimisation if someone claims the Midlands are all smoke and call centres. Now you start moaning when someone points out that most of Midland acreage is lovely countryside.

What's a Brummie's favourite whine? None: anything he can think of is worth grumbling about.

>>What's a Brummie's favourite whine? None: anything he can think of is worth grumbling about.<<

And coming from a Scouser, that's a compliment.