Bugger Boris!: A cricket team of initials
BUGGER BORIS
I got such joy out of my last endeavour to ‘beat the bat’ of the cricket experts that I thought another teaser would not go astray.
Had already had my thoughts on what would be a ‘sticky wicket’ when Boris Johnson MP decided to name his new son WILFRED LAWRENCE NICHOLAS Johnson.
Not to be deterred I now give cricket fanatics the chance to ‘hit a six’ or two by correctly naming this World XI with all their spare time. Thank you Coronavirus.
Just a couple of clues:-
Except for the 12th man I have seen all players perform
There are 5 Australians, 3 West Indies , 2 South Africans , 1 England and one multi-purpose.
This is a very well-rounded and balance team in batting order.
Please send your responses to [email protected] and Bob will post them to the comments page in a few days time.
Good luck:
J.H.B.
M.T.G
I.V.A.
D.C.S.
S.P.D.
F.M.M (C)
A.T.W.
M.H.N.
A.M.E.
N.A.H.
S.C.G.
12th man S.M.J.
As usual I will donate my book Heart & Soul – A history of the Lang Lang Football Club 1895 – 2020 to the first correct entry.
Read John Harms’s piece on cricket initials:
Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.
Do you really enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE
One-off financial contribution – CLICK HERE
Regular financial contribution (monthly EFT) – CLICK HERE
About Bob Utber
At 84 years of age Citrus Bob is doing what he has always done since growing up on a small farm at Lang Lang. Talking, watching and writing sport and in recent years writing books. He lives in Mildura with his very considerate wife (Jenny) and a groodle named 'Chloe on Flinders' and can be found at Deakin 27 every day.
MHN Walker was included in both teams Citrus. Another interesting team would be those who played Test cricket and VFL football. Max would be in that team as well! I did send a team to you as well.
Good job Citrus. Viv at 3 and MacGill at 11 with the most appropriate set of initials for a NSW cricketer! He is a very good fit at 11 too. No case for promoting him up the order.
No love for the best set of initials in the game in VVS?
Thanks.
Matthew Thomas Gray Elliott v good player and bloody top bloke
You’re not playing by Bob’s rules here folks.
Excellent, testing team CB. Have submitted my response, very confident of 11 of the 12, number 10 might be my undoing.
Swish, I’ve just moved the instruction to make it more prominent!
Keep them coming in gentlemen and women (KB & YW ?).
Thank you to my adjudicator “Swish” for alerting people to the correct procedure.
Some of the selectors need to reappraise their selections and name at least 11 players.
Mickey – spoke with my Indian colleague Bharat this morning who said that the Indian players often ttake the name of their village as a name and it is not a christian name. Anyhow how could it be a christian name if they are a Sikh or whatever?. By the way “Bharat” means India and Mickey he is one of your mob nowadays.
Several others come to mind: NAM McLean (Nixon Alexei McNamara), KCG Benjamin (Kenneth Charlie Griffith), CEL Ambrose (Curtly Elconn Lynwall), PIC Thompson (Patterson Ian Chesterfield), GRJ Matthews (Gregory Richard John), PJS Alley (Philip John Sydney), PJL Dujon (Peter Jeffrey Leroy), NH Fairbrother (Neil Harvey), AIC Dodemaide (Anthony Ian Christopher).
And most of all, WPUJC Vaas (Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda).
As for SCG MacGill, let’s not forget that he’s from Western Australia. He played for the Sandgropers before switching states. His father Terry and grandfather Charlie also represented WA.
Yep apologies didn’t notice re instructions and bloody outstanding,Luke
APE Knott would have been a good one Citrus
GAR Lock also comes to mind (Graham Anthony Richard). He was better known as Tony. He took one wicket in a particular Ashes Test of 1956 while his spin partner took the other 19 wickets!
TBA May was another quirky one.
It’s also quite a coincidence that Neil Harvey Fairbrother turned out to be a left-handed middle order batsman, as Neil Harvey was.
Strangely, Mike Hussey was listed as ME Hussey for several years, before his second middle name (Killeen) was eventually discovered/revealed.
I don’t think Kenny Benjamin had the same level of pace or hostility as his middle names (Charlie Griffith).
Come to think of it, I forgot to mention WKM Benjamin (Winston Keithroy Matthew).
Apparently, Nixon McLean’s dad was heavily into politics, hence the middle names Alexei McNamara.
Another fun fact is that MEK Hussey and NAM McLean batted left-handed but were born right-handed. Hussey wanted to copy Allan Border, and McLean changed to left-handed because it was too easy to hit the ball into the windows when batting right-handed as a youngster.
Love it, Citrus.
Smokie – i keep getting all these non-entries. Are our cricketing folk to frightened to put pen to paper? That should read fingers to computers!
Well here it is and LUKE REYNOLDS ‘the bush Bradman’ picked the 12 players in batting order:
J.H.B Waite (SA)
M.T.G Elliott (A)
I.V.A.Richards (WI)
D,C,S,Compton (Eng)
S.P.D. Smith (A)
F.M.M.Worrall (WI) Captain
A.T.W. Grout (A)
M.H.N.Walker (A)
C.E.H.Croft (WI)
A,M,E,Roberts (WI)
S.C.G.McGill (A)
S.M.J.Woods (12th man) Played for both Australia and England and also represented England in Rugby
Many thanks to all those who threw in a myriad of names but only one correct team.
Some great names amongst them and now back to the footy with a “real teaser”
WHOOPS I made a mistake in sending the team
N.A.H. Adcock (SA was in Luke’s winning team and not Colin Croft.
Dan Hoban got of to a great start by naming the 12th man but also had Colin Cowdrey in the three he named. M.C.Cowdrey (no 3rd christian name.
Smokie, Dan, Rulebook, Swish, Mickey R bobbed up with a few names but no teams and LIAM HAUSER named at least 20 players but no team.
Seems that being a selector is hard yakka.