Thursday, July 22, 2010

To er.. is human

Readers with a keen interest in matters spiritual (a Mrs Trellis of North WGGrace) will be expecting me to comment on the momentous individual achievement that happened in the world of Test Cricket today. Cricketers of earlier years would be hard pressed to believe the landmark reached today. Of course, much more cricket is played these days, but it would be churlish not to applaud today’s record-breaking feat.


For those of you not abreast of the latest news, I refer, of course, to the achievement of Bob Willis in becoming the first man to say “er..” 750,000 during a commentating career. This attainment is all the more remarkable given that Bob is no longer a regular commentator on Sky during test matches. How such professionalism can be overlooked is beyond the understanding of most of us. There seems to be unwarranted prejudice in favour of those who are articulate, avoid the monotone, have something to say, and fail to use clichés three times in every sentence. Willis has been delighting us for years with his references to “the cherry” and “the blade”. 


I have to finish here, I feel strangely anaesthetised.

9 comments:

Tim F said...

It's because of his slavish devotion to the music of Mr Zimm-er-man.

Dave said...

Unfortunately I can't think of a cricket player/commentator called Devine, otherwise I would finish your title for you.

Christopher said...

I would like to meet that Mrs Trellis. I feel we might have a lot in common. Could this be arranged?


*eschews temptation to invent a certain Ascoigne Hartley Devine (Northants. CCC, 1888-94) simply to pander to the padre's paradiddles*

Vicus Scurra said...

Tim. A little unfair on Mr Dylan. Despite the repeated use of "Yes" in his version of Blowing in the Wind.

Dave. I will manage, thank you.

Christopher. Just as well, there are scores pandering thus already.

Richard said...

I served him once at the World's Greatest Tolled River Crossing. I remember he drove a grey Mercedes coupe with a personalised number plate and didn't want to engage in conversation, which made him more boring than Nerys Hughes in the league table I kept. When I was playing top class village cricket, we used to imitate his run-up and bowling action. In fact, what with Gladstone Small, Warwickshire were a rich vein of comedy bowling actions to mine. Somebody tried Murali once and almost broke his arm.

Rog said...

"Yesun" not "Yes" in Blowin in the Wind,

40 Pounds of Cricket Headlines.

Geoff said...

His picture's in the window of the Indian restaurant in the road in which I work. I think he ordered the tark er dal.

Vicus Scurra said...

Richard. Please assure me that you will never adopt his presentation style.
Rog. You are correct, of course.
Geoff. I love you.

Anonymous said...

Cricket, churlish...I feel so American. sigh.