Anza Magazine Article - Spin it to win it

Spin it to win it

When you explain cricket to someone new to the game, the description is fairly simple. One player stands at one end with a piece of wood (the batsman) and his aim is to hit a round ball being hurled at him by another player (the bowler) from 22 yards away and continues to do so until the batsman is out. However, once one delves a little deeper and begin to play the game, one discovers that the game is hardly that simple. One obvious thing that makes the game more difficult is that the bowler does not have to bowl the ball the exactly the same way in every delivery.

Throughout the history of cricket, while seam bowlers have been seen as the most effective means to get a wicket but, due to the variable movement and bounce, batsmen have always had trouble playing spinners, and leg-spinners in particular. Shane Warne is the best known exponent of this art in the modern era and proved time and again that even the best batsman can be undone by the turning ball. Many batsmen, including the writer, no doubt feels annoyed that bowler’s don’t have to send the ball down in a straight line but the ability to turn it around corners and other such variations has left them utterly exasperated.

For the club, Champs leg spinner Dave “Rev” Goodwin has also proven this on a regular basis, becoming the leading wicket-taker in Singapore’s 4th division in 2009 with more than 20 wickets at an average of 12.4 (no doubt irking his bowling rival in the Champs, John “Disco” Dick) and easily topping ANZA’s own league wicket-taking ladder. The Rev’s well-flighted (some might even say loopy or pie-like) leg spinners, in unison with the steepling bounce he manages to extract from even the flattest pitch, have routinely gotten the best of batsmen in his time in Singapore and put him head and shoulders above the rest to be ANZA’s SunSense Man of the Month for October. Thanks to the strong leg-side play of most batsmen in the local league, many wickets coming through testing a batsmen’s patience. Most of Dave’s wickets have come through outfield catches taken in the ‘V’ between the square leg and midwicket region.

Since his brief sojourn to Cardiff and London to watch the Ashes this year, however, the Rev has regularly been able to deceive opponents in the flight before seeing them bowled, given out leg-before, or 4s keeper Chiro “Jimmy – son of Kerry” Gupta working quickly to take a stumping. While there, Dave claims to have become Shane Warne’s leg-spinning apprentice (although he seems to have missed the poker lessons) and apparently continues to receive texts from the spin wizard and although he’s been invited for beers at our sponsor Harry’s, he seems reluctant to share the wisdom with his teammates (we suspect this may be due to misdirected texts from the ‘Sheikh of Tweak’). The Rev also apparently found the advice of England tweaker Graeme Swann and former Australian PM John Howard highly useful to his game, although as one is an off-spinner and the other struggles to get the ball to the other end of the pitch, his teammates continue to wonder how this advice may have been of use. Regardless, this advice has helped his already impressive results on the paddock to progress in leaps and bounds, taking 15 wickets in the 4 games since his return, including two “Michelle’s” (Pfeiffer = 5-fors). On top of this, Dave has also been more than useful with a bat in his hand, regularly contributing at the top of the order and has successfully managed to average more with the bat than the ball. This in turn has helped him quickly move up the grades and finish the season opening the batting in the 2nd division and flummoxing batsmen on a regular basis.

Interested in playing cricket?
To new arrivals and those looking to return to the fray, ANZACC is always on the lookout for members. Although the league season has come to an end, ANZA continues to play social matches throughout the off-season giving players (old and new) plenty of time to dust off the cobwebs. We train at Ceylon Sports Club on Thursday nights (6.30-8.30pm) throughout the league season (January through September). So if you fancy returning to the cricketing fold and are well versed in the art of sledging (of teammates) send an e-mail to join@anzacc.org.sg for more information. Phil McNicholas