adamchapman.bsky.social
Medieval historian interested in Wales, Somerset exile, inept cricketer, General Editor of the longest-running and largest local history project yet devised, the Victoria County History of England. Probably drinking tea.
5,932 posts
7,618 followers
2,828 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
Yes, that's true.
comment in response to
post
The TMS producer should probably shoulder the blame here, really.
comment in response to
post
I very much agree - though Norcross brings me out in hives: fines for bad impressions and mentions of Surrey need to be increased to punitive levels, and that might make him bearable. Perfectly effective commentator, but it's not only about him...
comment in response to
post
All wonderful bowlers to watch. I used to love watching Monty bowl. He action had all the elegance the rest of his game (much of his life, too, apparently), lacked.
comment in response to
post
We need an Andy Murray style interjection, unfortunately.
comment in response to
post
Ha! Yes!
comment in response to
post
The same could and must be said of all his interlocuters in that segment, too.
comment in response to
post
Quite. Agnew might well be called the BBC Cricket Correspondent, but the unspoken subtext is that he's the 'Men's Test Cricket Correspondent'.
He seems, finally, to have stopped talking about 'the women', or 'the girls', but that's not a lot, is it?
comment in response to
post
More of this sort of honesty is probably good.
comment in response to
post
Cheers James.
comment in response to
post
Righto - a fun job after my meetings. Watch this space.
comment in response to
post
The dominance of the Bishops of Hereford has numerous interesting consequences, that's all I'm saying. 'Sabbath is obviously unrelated. I enjoyed this though - lots of lovely '70s rock lifestyle details.
comment in response to
post
The menu looks astonishing. Sadly, I can't get to Brecon (still less Three Cocks) and back in time to pick up the kids from school, or I'd be tempted to down tools and do just that.
comment in response to
post
Reader: I made the appointment. I was consequently known in the archive so, ultimately, a win win, albeit at the cost of a fair amount of dignity.
comment in response to
post
Mine was the 'temporary' (it was there for about a decade) Norfolk RO round the back of Anglia Square/the old HMSO building by a flyover in the unloved corner of Norwich off Magdalen Street.
First time I went, I used a hospital letter as ID. The appointment it noted was in half an hour's time.
comment in response to
post
I had a notion who - or the sort of person, anyway - that might have been responsible for the naming.
And having looked it up, the only surprise is that the Royal Navy captain concerned was from Cornwall.
comment in response to
post
And seeing Warne bowl live…
comment in response to
post
I love that he saw and appreciated Viv, if only on TV. That’s magic, to me. Now, I hope my toddler will sleep, and maybe he’ll get to talk to his kids about Rew as I will doubtless bore him with Lara and Beaumont.
comment in response to
post
Expanding what’s meant to be a history of Taunton into rather a lot of Somerset CCC means losing Wellard. To my regret, another time, eh?
Pinter though, see below. Mike Selvey credited Wellard with teaching him to swing the ball, too, I think.
comment in response to
post
Who couldn’t warm to a man who scored 1/3 or thereabouts of his first class runs in sixes decades before it was fashionable? Or who was a friend of Pinter?
comment in response to
post
Cricket, like all good sports, is a form of competitive improvisational theater, done at different speeds and levels of skill...
I see Arthur Wellard has already been mentioned so I have nothing to add to this thread!
comment in response to
post
Cricket is great at stories - that's the advantage of the long days, it's a way of completing the time.
comment in response to
post
In contrast, I knew (mostly by sight), Botham's mum who was a governor at my infant school. Which means that I felt very old indeed when Jim Botham debuted for Wales...
comment in response to
post
I had a lovely chat with another VCH author (and my PhD supervisor's supervisor, as it happens), Tony Pollard, about Somerset in the '50s. Tony is from Taunton, you see - he saw Gimblett as an old pro', at the very tail end of his career, Arthur Wellard and Harold Stephenson.
comment in response to
post
Not a bad education. The current team are quite good fun (and incredibly frustrating), but don't quite have the same star power.
comment in response to
post
Would I do that? No. Do I admire the fact that someone else has? Yes.
comment in response to
post
It's only been published today, so it's early yet. And online ordering is possible...
comment in response to
post
The festivals are long things of the past - likewise the old Sunday League and that competition's use of outgrounds. Brian Langford's unbeatable figures of 8-8-0-0 were bowled at the top of the street I grew up on. I learned to ride a bike on the outfield before the club merged with Westlands'...
comment in response to
post
The festivals are long things of the past - likewise the old Sunday League and that competition's use of outgrounds. Brian Langford's unbeatable figures of 8-8-0-0 were bowled at the top of the street I grew up on. I learned to ride a bike on the outfield before the club merged with Westlands'...
comment in response to
post
Then I recommend that they get a copy (of course). Mathon will appear in the big book on Ledbury and Radlow Hundred. You can read a draft here:
comment in response to
post
... Editor's Prerogative. I have form.
comment in response to
post
PS - had I learned about them before going to press, they would have appeared in the book. The Red Book, however...
comment in response to
post
NB - these gates - featuring the opening bars of 'Paranoid' really ought to be listed (in my view).
comment in response to
post
The soundtrack to editing this book was decidedly eclectic.
This is quite fun (if a bit - inevitably - accidental Partridge):
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...