From my friend Vic Mills: “Hi Stuart, A relatively calm final quarter of 2022 by project standards, yet one not without its moments. There were eleventh hour kit donations from Sussex and Nottinghamshire; pictures of winter training sessions from beneficiary clubs; a (from behind the sofa) look at project finances; an insight into our kit…

Message from my friend Vic Mills: “Hi Stuart, I don’t know whether you’ve a copy of Battenberg, Bombay and Blag yet? Or, if so, whether you’ve got around to reading it? But if both are in the affirmative, I wonder if I might prevail on you to post a review of the book on Amazon?…

From my friend Vic Mills: “Hi Stuart, Greetings from a chilly Berlin. Another Covid-dominated quarter on the project front, but we battle on. We had hoped for a gallery of pictures with our beneficiary clubs and project kit to the fore. Unfortunately, many winter nets and coaching sessions have been cancelled. However, before the latest…

A message from my friend Vic Mills: “Hi Stuart, Greetings from Berlin. Hope all’s well with you. Alles gute here, although I remain chained to my laptop for another day or so getting the latest project news down the wires. So, yes, a little uplifting start-the-week reading in the shape of the Project Front Foot…

A message from my friend Vic Mills: “Hi Stuart, Greetings from Berlin. I won’t bother dressing this up. No point. This seemingly innocent email is in fact a far-from-cunningly disguised funding appeal. Over our twelve years of existence we’ve tried to absorb costs through voluntary support with friends providing cars, fuel, storage or simply time…

A message from my friend Vic Mills: “Hi Stuart, Season’s greetings from Berlin and Project Front Foot. The busy end to our project year is mirrored in the attached newsletter and includes: our annual kit appeal timed for spring 2020, a final airlift of equipment to Berlin, our most recent beneficiaries ranging from children in…

It has long been widely believed that “pom” – the not always well-intentioned Aussie term for somebody from England, and often joined with the adjective “whinging”  – was an acronym from “Prisoner of His Majesty” or “Permit of Migration”. But recently I came across a novel – indeed, sparkling – explanation for the word. Anthony…

The cricket season has started, which means that I spend more time at The Oval and Lord’s than a grown man should. I caught the last hour or so on Monday of Surrey’s 4-day match against Northamptonshire, which ended in a tame draw. As the players were leaving the field, I overheard Gareth Batty of…

Tim de Lisle and Lawrence Booth 128pp John Wisden £9.99 Lawrence Booth, who will edit Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack for 2012, has updated Tim de Lisle’s 2007 inaugural edition. Young Wisden “consists of 60 double-page spreads, divided into eight parts” (p.5). The “How to read a scorecard” spread would probably terrify a lot of people –…

My review of Gideon Haigh’s Sphere of Influence: Writings on cricket and its discontents has just been published by the Times Literary Supplement.