The Wisden dictionary of cricket PDF
Preview The Wisden dictionary of cricket
The Wisden Dictionary of Cricket Third edition The Wisden Dictionary of Cricket Third edition Michael Rundell A & C Black (cid:2) London www.acblack.com First edition published 1985 by George Allen & Unwin Publishers Ltd Second edition published 1995 by Oxford University Press Third edition published 2006 by A & C Black Publishers Ltd A & C Black Publishers Ltd 38 Soho Square, London W1D 3HB © Michael Rundell 2006 Photographs © Patrick Eagar (www.patrickeagar.com) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the permission of the publishers A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN-10: 0 7136 7915 8 ISBN-13: 978 0 7136 7915 1 eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-0161-2 This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. Text typeset by A & C Black Printed in Spain by GraphyCems Foreword Can any sport have a richer vocabulary than cricket? Equestrianism must be a contender (there are more than 50 different types of bit you can stick in a horse's mouth) and maybe motor racing - but surely no other ball game? Even baseball has only three or four ways of actually hitting the ball, whereas cricket has a couple of dozen at least, and new ones keep being invented. For the definition oframpandflamingo, look within. And the differences between many of these strokes is a matter of arguable nuance. I remember once spending an afternoon at a rather dull county match discussing how to describe the precise difference between apulland a hook. In addition to all its other arbiters, cricket obviously needs a kind of fifth umpire: a professional lexicographer. And in Michael Rundell it has found the man. Twenty-one years ago, when hisDictionary of Cricketfirst appeared, he took us on a journey of extraordinary erudition fromACBto yorker. This new edition, published under the Wisden umbrella, still starts from ACB, although these days the initials have only historical significance, but our new destination iszooter, a word that only came into common parlance with the advent of Shane Warne. There are a great many points of interest for anyone who enjoys cricket to stop off en route and linger a while. Rundell's dictionary works both for the tyro follower of the game (perhaps a bit confused by commentators' terminology) and the supposed expert. There can be hardly anyone alive who has not read Rundell and is aware thatmiddle-wicketis not remotely the same asmid-wicket. The explanation is here: the book is peppered with potted histories of the game's terms that will fascinate anyone who relishes cricket in all its richness. When I was asked to write this foreword, I became very enthusiastic - as a fan of the first edition - and anxious to make a few contributions from my years in the press-box. For instance: dot-jobn (usually effing dot-job) A cricket match so close that even the journalists present have to start making a note of every delivery, including the dot balls. He got very sniffy, did Rundell, and told me there was a big difference between language and in-group jargon. Most new cricketing terms seem to emanate from professional cricketers themselves, then spread from the dressing room via the media to the stands and the village green. Dot-job has not made this journey. I was also keen to add my tuppence-worth to cricketing etymology. The J section of this edition has been expanded to include bothjaffaandjag backwhich did not make the earlier version. Rundell's first sighting of jaffa is from 1994. Yet I am sure I used the word in its present cricketing meaning inThe Guardiana good ten years earlier, in connection with a fast bowler of the time, now a famous commentator and a good friend. Infuriatingly, I can't find the reference in my own files. AndThe Guardian has not yet digitised its archives for the early 1980s, which would make it possible to do a word-check of this nature in seconds. There is a further complication. Though jaffa is a compliment to a bowler, the context on that occasion was less favourable. I think I said something about finding the odd jaffa in a bowl of rotting golden delicious. Human nature being what it is, you can be certain that the bloke concerned would remember the (quite unjust) insult in every detail. I am too much of a coward to ask him. But some day fully computerised news archives will add even greater scientific exactitude to the next edition of this already awesome book. Do read, and enjoy. Matthew Engel Herefordshire, September 2006 Acknowledgements It’s a privilege to have my dictionary published under the Wisden colours, andIamgratefultoChristopherLane(Wisden’spublisher)formakingthis possible. But it’s a big responsibility, too. Luckily for me, Matthew Engel hasreadthewholetext,andhismanyinsightfulcommentsandsuggestions –madewithpatienceandgoodhumour–havehelpedtomakethisamuch better book, and one that is, I hope, worthy of the Wisden name. I’m grateful, too, to Andrew Delahunty for his witty and entertaining essay on cricketing nicknames. Special thanks are due to my three favourite cricket-watching companions, from whom I’ve learned so much over the years:myfriendsTonyJeffryesandTonySkillenandmysonRaphael(all, unlikeme,propercricketers).Finally,ithasbeenmygoodfortunetowork with the publishing team at A&C Black, and it’s a pleasure to thank everyone there who has contributed to the book in one way or another, especiallyHeatherBateman,RobertFoss,KathyRooney,LaurenSimpson, Nicky Thompson, Edmund Wright, and the brilliant Katy McAdam. MR Cricket.fm Page 1 Tuesday, September 19, 2006 9:27 AM A AACBCB abbr Australian Cricket Board, the former name of Cricket Australia (qv) AACCACCA abbr Anglo-Corfiot Cricket Association aaccoucntcount n —open one’s account to score the first run or runs of one’s innings; get off the mark: ‘Each batsman opened his account with a single in Sharma’s next over’ (Berry 1982, p 145). aacroscs ross adv, prep 1. (of the ball) moving away from the batsman at a considerable angle to the line of the wickets: ‘Gooch and Gatting had both played against him [Whitney], and they reported that he … only slanted the ball across; they had not seen him swing it in’ (Brearley 1982, p 113). Compare AWAY, BACK adv 2 2. (of a batsman) striking or attempting to strike the ball with the bat held horizontally or at an angle, so that the bat intersects the ball’s line of flight: ‘Ganguly …fell immediately after tea to Razzaq, playing across to a delivery that held its line to be trapped in front’ (S. Dinakar, The Hindu 2 February 2006). See CROSS BAT AACSCS abbr Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians aactiocn tion n the manner in which a bowler delivers the ball, especially with regard to such features as the height of the arm and the ‘fairness’ of the delivery: ‘By the time I left school … I could bowl fast-medium with a high action, swing the ball late from leg and break it with shoulder-and-finger action from the off’ (James 1963, p 43). ‘That winter Lock worked on his action, and from then onwards it was only his occa- sional faster ball which offended’ (Frith 1984, p 131). ‘His [McGrath’s] chest-on action has preserved his back and his easy run has saved his knees and feet’ (Haigh 2005, p 194). aactiocn-brteakion-break n break imparted to the ball by a fast or medium-pace bowler, either as a ‘natural’ product of the bowling action or by means of ‘cut’ produced by drawing the hand rapidly across the seam. This distinguishes action-break from break produced by finger-spin or wrist-spin. (old): ‘There are two kinds of break, known as “finger-break” and “action break”’ (Ranjitsinhji 1897, p 75). As Ranjitsinhji explains, at the point of delivery a right-arm bowler ‘flings his body, right arm, shoulder, and leg forward, but rather across towards the left. This action gives the hand a sweep across the ball, making it spin in its flight outwards from left to right’. AACUCU abbr Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers, an organisation representing umpires and scorers worldwide aadjacdentjacent adj directly in front of the wicket when hit on the pads, and therefore liable to be given out lbw. This cricketing use of ‘adjacent’ – first popularised by Tony Grieg in his TV commentaries – is a somewhat counter-intuitive extension of its more normal meaning of ‘next to’ or ‘adjoining’.
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