Cricket

Plenty of rich kids playing cricket out in Surrey. The difference in general technique by the time they are 12 years old between state school and prep school kids is the scary thing, for the boys at least. Seeing some of the "Tier 1" juniors climbing into cover drives was something to behold when my 10 year old daughter ended up in a very one sided under 11's cup game a week or so back.

The big problem for England is how you fit Bairstow and Brook in the same team.

Bairstow's keeping cost us that match, and he bats better when not keeping...so it seems crazy to have him in as WK. We need Foakes back - and he's not exactly useless as a batsman.

Brook is one of the most talented young players out there, so I'm not sure how you drop him either.

Maybe just toss a coin and one of Bairstow and Brook get the nod. That would be my only change for the next one.

Yep very much this. One of the first team at our club has just gone to be Head of Cricket at the private school. Head of Cricket ffs. My oldest boy gets 2 hours a week of PE at comprehensive school and that’s mostly playing dodgeball.

We pay for our 2 to attend coaching weeks in the holidays and nets by a private company through the winter, but so do most of the parents of talented private school kids so you just cant catch up.

2 very talented kids at the club have been scouted at Northants by private schools and given scholarships which their parents have accepted as they know that’s the only way their kid is going to get a chance to go all the way, despite one of them finding the whole private school thing abhorrent. Don’t think I could do it.

I went to an independent grammar school in Worcester

We had a head of cricket and my English teacher was one Timothy Curtis.

Both my kids are at state schools. Aged 7 and 12. Neither have had any cricket coaching or opportunities.

between state school and prep school kids

Yeah, at some of the coaching my daughter goes to the private school girls are getting in trouble for playing more than 4 times a week at school. "It's too much, I'll be writing to your Head of Cricket..."

Meanwhile they with a plastic bat and tennis ball at her state comp. No official wicket, they just use part of the playing fields (which are a mile from the school in a non-private park), but most of the time it is indoors. #ohthehumanity

It might be on the curriculum but youth cricket is far from accessible.

when i was at junior school last century one of the teachers was cricket mad and even looked like a Bedser with the side parting and wore cream trousers a lot. those kids in his class never got to play football or rugby it was cricket, cricket and more cricket. think the girls were occasionally allowed to play netball.

scouted

This happens around here for footy apparently, kids are sent to St Bede's fully paid for by Man City having been spotted down at Fletcher Moss. It is a golden ticket.

^ football thread >>>>>

Haha I think its the other way around in cricket though - Northants CCC can’t afford to cut the grass never mind send kids to elite schools. It’s the schools spotting kids at county age-groups and offering them in to boost their sporting chops. I guess it goes on the marketing budget.

I’m going to be in London next week for work and likely finishing in central around tea on day 1 of the Lords test. Is there anywhere that might be showing it, pub/bar/similar? Worth making the way nearer the lords ground?

At my school, we played with a chair as the wicket, a tennis racquet for a bag and a tennis ball. This was on the school's private playing fields in lovely leafy Surrey. I must have been rubbish, not everyone had tennis equipment

The rest of the Ashes are on terrestrial TV or free to view streaming here in New Zealand. But it's overnight, 10pm to 6am, so not really affecting other stuff. But all the Back Caps and White Ferns home stuff next summer will also be free, so pretty cool.

jumpers for goalposts.

Cricket was a big deal at my school, as was Rugby with good coaching from PE staff.

But my love for the game was during our long summer holidays (1979 - 1984) at a caravan park in Essex. We (brothers, cousins, mates) would set up in the camping field with only one set of stumps / bails, one stump at the bowling end, one bat, one well worn ball, no pads, no wk gloves, poor pitch. But some how managed to recruit kids, dads even mums to join in.

For ten years wicket keeper for the firm or ringer for other firm in Twenty20 evening format or for a pub team in local league. Rare occasions for Banbury CC ended up visiting a few stunning grounds in the Cherwell league. Haven’t played for a while, but always up for a game.

/csb

There are a couple of pubs reasonably near the ground that generally show the cricket (or at least did when I last went around 20 years ago), but anywhere with BT Sports should be showing it as it's not clashing with any football. I don't remember the pubs near the ground being all that great, tbh.

BT Sports

The Ashes is on Sky Sports.

Yep, my bad. Sky.

This is a sensationally boring post, for which I apologize.

I have Sky and to add Sky Sports it will cost me £23 a month. I would mostly just be watching via Sky Go on phone/iPad in HD vs the main TV. Ideally there would be a Sky Go app for Firestick so I could watch on a TV in another room, but there doesn't appear to be one.

My other option seems to be Now TV - which is £21 per month for six months, with only the first month including HD - and it would rise to £27 per month to continue including HD. There does seem to be a Now TV app on Firestick, so could get it going on the second TV - but not on the main TV, as there is no Now TV app on Sky.

What a silly mess. I think I'll do the Now route fwiw. Thanks for listening.

Annoyingly I had an old NowTV account, and so I didn't qualify for the cheap Sky Sports deal and had to go for the full £35/month version (plus boost at £6/month for HD). (It's only available for new accounts.)

I could probably have got away with creating a new NowTV account (in my wife's maiden name) but can't be arsed to game the system.

NowTV does mean I have Sky Sports on my iPhone and iPad now.

Is your main TV a smart TV? Some of them have a NowTV app on them. (I have BT TV which has a NowTV app so I can also get Sky Sports on the main telly from the same account.)

Annoyingly I had an old NowTV account, and so I didn't qualify for the cheap Sky Sports deal and had to go for the full £35/month version (plus boost at £6/month for HD).

Presumably they just look at which email account you signed up with, no? I had a NowTV account six years ago using my old email address, so I'm just going to use a new email this time and see what happens.

My NowTV account was also linked to my home address. Physical addresses are probably required for passing on to TV licensing people.

Hence the comment about creating a new account in my wife's maiden name. Any attempt to create another account under my name (and probably even just the surname) would probably flag up their "trying to sneak a new 6 month deal" code even if I used an vastly different email.

(It was also linked to my BT account as I signed up for the Sky Sports deal and didn't have to supply any form of payment info. I can now see it on my BT bill, and I was also able to access Sky Sports on the NowTV app on my BT TV box without having to provide any new login details.)

Physical addresses are probably required for passing on to TV licensing people.

Really? Didn't think you need a licence to watch NowTV. Why would they pass on details to TV Licensing when it's a mobile only deal?

https://help.nowtv.com/article/do-i-need-a-tv-licence

You can do it without but you need to tell TV Licensing that it doesn't apply to you. By default they'll be passing your name/address on.

Doesn't look like you can watch live sport without a TV Licence.

Ho hum. Hooky stream it is, then.

Lovely evening at the Oval for some bullying of those north of the river