The Beamer

It’s a well held belief that cricket in the shire is strong particularly among the more parochial of us but how do we stack up against the best clubs in the South Wales Premier League? Believe it or not, I was going to write about this subject this week when by sheer coincidence an e-mail is circulated among clubs by county secretary Steve Blowes asking that any clubs wishing to compete in the Premier League (among other bits and pieces of information)  contact him or Tony Scourfield by August 14 th . So, how many takers would there be? My guess is not many due to the distances involved and the players they would come up against. Consider this before you make any decisions. Bridgend, one of the best teams in the Premier league have an opening attack that is quicker than most first class teams in the UK. At one end you have Simon Jones and at the other you have up and coming Glamorgan all-rounder Ruaidhri (Rory) Smith. Both bowl at over 90 mph when conditions suit. ...

It’s only natural for people to reminisce be they good times or bad. In popular society the trend is to look back 20 years to see how times have changed with the fashions for those eras sometimes coming back into fruition. During the last decade it was the 80’s that came into dominance and now the 90’s are having their time again. Forgive me for not knowing the exact date of the record but as the 80’s turned into the 90’s a chap called Rick Astley had a big hit called ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. Astley was a bit of a dude of the time, a reticent star but a star nonetheless with a penchant for swaying his hips as though they were on puppet strings. He certainly stood out, as did his big quiff. He was singing about love in the song, I’ve no idea who about but a few decades later, in 2013 to be precise, legendary Aussie fast bowler Glen McGrath used a similar phrase when presenting the baggy green to an unknown spinner from Western Australia called Ashton Agar. As he han...