Photo: Vin Maskell
About Vin Maskell
Founder and editor of Stereo Stories, a partner site of The Footy Almanac. Likes a gentle kick of the footy on a Sunday morning, when his back's not playing up. Been known to take a more than keen interest in scoreboards - the older the better.
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Vin,
That looks like a classic County, circa 1983. Still in use in the middle? How many runs has that produced?
Vin
I have the same County cricket bat, given to me by Peter Colin Martin, with Gregory Stephen Chappell’s autograph on it. (very neat writing) I hardly used mine in anger as one of the Uni Fourths kit bats was possibly the finest wand ever manufactured: a 1981 Slazenger polyarmour. (Whatever happened to polyarmour?)
I suspect the extra 1mm of polyarmour contributed to more nicks to the keeper. Linseed oil was preferable. (Tongue encheeked).
My County bat is circa 1990 or so and was my soul-mate during my short but illustrious career as a tailender for the Newport fourths. My highest score was 13. I was once, though, part of a 55 run opening partnership when we reversed the order late in the day. My contribution was 5. These days my County bat (bought from a fishing and sports store in Newport that is now a lolly shop called Snowballs) sees occasional action during driveway Test matches, where the only shots on offer are straight drives for four across the road and into the neighbour’s driveway or off-drives into the bushes under the fig-tree.
JTH
Sense, taste and practicality happened to polyarmour.
I don’t see beer. Truly, I looked and looked again. Vin, you say “essential”. In my one season with North Fremantle and many seasons as a hanger-on to a friend who played for Mount Lawley, there was always beer. In fact, late in the afternoon, our slips cordon spent more time discussing beer that the fine art of the gentleman’s game. Cheers
Beer and cricket? Who’d have thought? That’s why my illustrious career was cut short: I don’t drink beer or wine or…I’m also vegetarian which, in Australian cricketing circles, was taboo until Peter Siddle changed diets and thus gave an unimaginative 1970/1980s leg-spin bowler/ commentator something to harp on about (insert Skull laugh track).
Cheers.
In fairness, Rick, Vin never said the items in the photo were an exhaustive list.