WHAT IS 'DOG BEFORE WICKET'?

I didn’t want to call it that; it’s a compromise.

For a blog devoted to my cricketing reminiscences – and it is looking an increasingly safe bet to talk of playing cricket in the past tense – I had wanted the obvious: Dog Days. (NB: If you haven’t worked it out, my nickname used to be ‘Dog’, as in Scotty Dog.) Alas, it wasn’t to be; somebody had got there before me. So I plumped, reluctantly, impatiently, for Dog Before Wicket.

This blog is intended to be the place where I post any material related to my cricketing days that is not necessarily of wider interest beyond the people involved in the events recounted, be that directly or indirectly (players, officials or spectators from clubs in the same league, say).

As I have explained elsewhere, I have in mind five main headings for this stuff, each of which I will give a menu page as and when I begin them, and each of these menu pages will be linked here, on the first page, in this list below.

So, these projects are:

All We Need Is One Good Over

This is a series of match reports, written during the summer of 1995, and later collated into a ‘book’ (that is, they were cheaply bound and flogged for £10 each to 30-odd Moddershall members).

Moddershall: A Team of Four Cups

This is a poetic account of the hugely successful 1999 season, delivered (or performed) at the club’s Annual Dinner at the Stone House Hotel after I was asked to speak just a week before the function when the late Lester Meredith cancelled at the eleventh hour. If you’re used to the Homeric tradition of epic verse, this is the badher for you.

Underdogs, under Dog

An account of the unlikely title victory of 2008: inspired by Imran Tahir, yes, but not the result of his efforts alone. This project will provide a good opportunity to publish some of the ‘dossiers’ I compiled on our opponents and used to circulate to the team in the lead-up to games. I suppose I could follow the example of The Times and put these behind a paywall. Who knows, I could make enough for a round of drinks…

Champagne Moments

Self-explanatory, and taking in both my playing days – including Moddershall CC, Wollaton CC in the Nottinghamshire Premier League, Nottingham University, the NSSCL Representative XI – and even some memories from watching cricket, both on TV and live.

Bones of Contention

A series covering some of the more controversial or spicy occurrences of my cricketing days. I will resist the urge to run a trailer of these just now. Come back and check them out from time to time. 

All that remains to be said is by all means leave your comments. And if you have any issue with the accuracy, integrity or good faith of any of it, let it be known that I have an excellent legal team.