[lit-ideas] Naunton Wayne
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:22:33 EDT
Sticky Wicket
"Good companions" -- J. B. Priestly -- the musical, uses the
expression -- but it could refer to 'racing' there.
"Professional Philosopher and Amateur Cricketer"
In a message dated 6/10/2009 11:56:21 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
David Ritchie,
hurrying to draft a novel about the eleven maids of Bramley,
---
And great to hear S. Ward is in the mid of the cricket season.
The header is, if you believe (why not?) P. F. Strawson (I suppose) obit
for -- guess who, yes. H. P. Grice, in _The Times_ of London.
(published Aug/Sept 1988).
It goes on to define at some detail Grice's explorations of the game. He
played for Oxfordshire.
He would usually give 'cricket' references. Only recently, for example, he
was discussing, 'my love of cricket' as _not_ being a reason for doing this
or that. Odd example, but true.
His wife, Kathleen Watson Grice, recalls how she wondered how he would
_leave_ England so easily. "The cricket, I thought, would keep him in" (cited
in _Grice_, by S. R. Chapman).
In WOW (Way of Words), Grice uses 'cricket' as an example of 'represent' in
the etymological sense.
We do speak of 'representing' but we hardly know what it means. For Grice
it was clear. A team represents, yes, Israel, if the team does for Israel
what Israel cannot do for herself, to wit: engage in a game of cricket.
Grice learn to cricket at Clifton, his alma mater. Oddly when he joined
Corpus Christi, at Oxford, in the mid 1930s, his passion was temporarily,
'soccer', or 'football' and he was a member of the Football rather than the
Cricket Team.
I found the 'gent' vs. 'player' ref. in the Obit -- _fun_ in that ... who
wants to be a philosopher -- _professionally_? (No such thing!) So the whole
thing is a joke.
I have personally done quite some research on cricket. Andrew Graham-Yooll
(an Anglo-Argentine) has researched on cricket in Argentina, but that's no
fun. I have attended a few matches at the Hurlingham Club -- and am in
touch with the "Observer" of the cricket section in the Buenos Aires herald
(David Parsons).
More recently, I was studying sculpture, and wanted to know if sculpture on
cricket existed, since I had to have an item for each of the sports
represented in "The English Season" (by G. Smith -- he has a chapter on
Lord's).
So it was Lord's which got me. There is this sculptor who did the friese,
if that's what it's called, at Lord's. It's a modernistic thing, but cute.
It's bas-relief, rather than sculpture in the round, but pleasing to the eye
(This sculptor also did the theatres in London -- frieses too).
There is a rather tacky sculpture in the round of Grace -- not Grice.
Grice used to complain that his word processor would not recognise 'sticky
wicket'
One of the books I cherish in my swimming-pool library is a book of
quotations on cricket, which opens with Hughes's dictum, "Cricket should be to
the English boy what _habeas corpus_ is to the English man".
9 hits in the OED for "Sticky Wicket"
1 c1440 bat, v.1 b. to bat on a sticky wicket: see sticky a.2
2 a800 handle
1903 WARNER in H. G. Hutchinson Cricket 71 As a rule the hitting or ‘
long-handle game’, as it has been called, pays best under these circumstances
[sc. on a sticky wicket].
3 1754 poky, adj.
1891 W. G. GRACE Cricket 263 Against a poky batsman, on a sticky wicket, he
has often as many opportunities as point of bringing off a smart catch.
4 c1330 rattle, v.1 vii. 94 On the sticky wicket .. Hearne and
Poughet 'ratt
1898 G. GIFFEN With Bat & Ball vii. 94 On the sticky wicket..Hearne and
Poughet ‘rattled’ us out.
5 1831 spin, n.1 [etc.] .. on a sticky wicket.
1920 D. J. KNIGHT in P. F. Warner Cricket 42 Let any player who does not
believe in this dictum go and face such *spin bowlers as Barnes, Hearne,
[etc.]..on a sticky wicket.
6 1859 sticky, n. (b) a sticky wicket.
1954 A. G. MOYES Australian Batsmen 184 Again, the ‘sticky’ provides
plenty of excitement.
7 1735 sticky, a.2 t (or be) on a sticky wicket: to contend with
great diff
1882 Bell's Life in London 29 July 4/6
The ground..was suffering from the effects of recent rain, and once more
the Australians found themselves on a sticky wicket.
1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 14 Mar. 11/1
‘Do you think the bowler suffers much under the present law?’
‘Well, he does somewhat; but only on sticky wickets.’
1952 National News-Let. 24 Jan. 244
It must be clearly understood that Mr. Churchill was batting on a very
sticky wicket in Washington.
1957 P. KEMP Mine were of Trouble ix. 177
Until substantial reinforcements could arrive we should be batting, in the
language of Mr. Naunton Wayne, on a very sticky wicket.
1964 Language XL. 239
Enmeshed in these remarks, however, is a sticky wicket.
1971 Cabinet Maker & Retail Furnisher 24 Sept. 517
When it comes..to moulded plastics of various kinds, then the timber
producer is on a stickier wicket.
8 1929 walkies, n. alled Sternroc Sticky Wicket yesterday went
walkies with
1962 S. J. PERELMAN in New Yorker 11 Aug. 20/1 [A] well-groomed dog called
Sternroc Sticky Wicket yesterday went walkies with his mistress.
9 1296 wicket t (or be) on a sticky wicket: see sticky a.2 1c.
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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