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My first Big Bash game, ten years on

December 30 2011: My first attendance at a BBL game, my only game in the Big Bash League’s first season, and my first to a T20 match in almost six years. Sydney Thunder versus Melbourne Renegades at ANZ Stadium (as Stadium Australia was known at that period). It was scheduled for the evening of what would have been the fifth day of the Boxing Day Australia versus India Test, which thankfully ended in four.

There was never any doubt in my mind about which BBL team I would seek to support. The Sydney Sixers’ glitzy narcissistic image was a turnoff from the start, so despite the blandness of the name and the logo, Sydney Thunder it was.

Despite my pre-match protestations that I wouldn’t be tweeting from the game… I did.

Stay till end for the Fox Sports News report on the game.

(In case this page loads slowly because of all the embedded tweets, they can all be read on one Twitter page within this search range.)

My first comment about pyrotechnics at BBL games, a proud tradition that I have expanded ten years later into the hashtag #saynotopyro
Fidel Edwards finished with 4-0-30-1, the most expensive of the Thunder bowlers.
Abdul Razzaq joined Shahid Afridi at the crease for the Melbourne Renegades.
Ronald (Andrew) McDonald would later join the Sydney Thunder to become part of their BBL05 championship squad.

Sydney Morning Herald match report: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/afridi-sparks-surprise-win-for-renegades-20111230-1pfxb.html

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Don Bradman’s eleventy-first birthday, a thread

On the occasion of the 111th anniversary of Donald George Bradman’s birthday – August 27 2019 – I searched up a number of unusual non-cricketing items about The Don from contemporary newspapers, with thanks to the National Library of Australia’s glorious Trove database:

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Dennis Lillee at 70, a thread

A thread I posted to Twitter to commemorate Dennis Lillee’s 70th birthday on July 18 2019:

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Sydney Thunder pre T20 era XI

As part of a debate that developed downstream from a team listing put together by Brad Hodge and tweeted by @7cricket a few days ago (see below), I have assembled a hypothetical Sydney Thunder squad of players from the pre-T20 era.

Criteria for inclusion:

  1. They must have played for a club (or a predecessor) that competes in the Thunder Conference of the 2018-19 Kingsgrove Sports T20 competition in NSW Premier Cricket (that is: Bankstown, Blacktown, Campbelltown-Camden, Fairfield-Liverpool, Hawkesbury, Northern District, Parramatta, Penrith, Sydney University, Western Suburbs, ACT, Central Coast)
  2. They must not have played in a major T20 tournament since the birth of the format in 2003. (I have included the ICL in this definition, which disqualifies Michael Bevan)

Continue reading “Sydney Thunder pre T20 era XI”

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The Seventh Test Sydney 1971

On Wednesday August 1 2018 at Edgbaston an England team walks on the field to begin a Test match for the 1000th time.

Among the reflections, the listicles and the shallow on-line polls, people have been choosing their greatest and/or favourite Test matches of the previous 999 (actually 1004 if you count washouts and cancellations). Headingley 1981 and Edgbaston 2005 are both, quite rightly, very popular selections. Lack of television footage and eyewitness recollections from The Oval 1882 have prevented it from polling as high.

I’ve chosen a different Test as a personal favourite, an eventful match that occupies a seminal place in England’s Test cricket history. I give you 1970-71’s Seventh Test against Australia.

Continue reading “The Seventh Test Sydney 1971”

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Yesterday’s Papers Today: the Adelaide Test 1932-33

Third Test, Adelaide, January 13-19 1933: England 341 and 412, Australia 222 and 193. England won by 338 runs.

One of the most infamous Test matches in the history of contests between Australia and England began on Friday the Thirteenth of January 1933. The timeless Test ended the following Thursday in a decisive England victory and the unfolding of an international incident. Continue reading “Yesterday’s Papers Today: the Adelaide Test 1932-33”