Posted by Yorkshire’s Harry Brook is averaging 158.75 so far this season. But can he make runs in the WHITE HOT CRUCIBLE of a Roses Match?
This week’s WHITE HOT CRUCIBLE of a Roses Match is being played at the ground that is now – quite genuinely – known as Clean Slate Headingley. The county has India-based streaming platform Clean Slate Studioz to thank for this characteristically Yorkshire, on-the-nose sponsorship deal.
They’ve heard about subtlety over in Yorkshire, but long ago concluded: “Why risk it?”
> Life at Yorkshire and what we should be saying about it
Yorkshire are fourth in the County Championship table after one win and three draws.
Lancashire are third because the North-West is, and always will be, way better than the opposite side of the Pennines, no matter what happens in this week’s match.
We are nevertheless interested to see how Brook goes because he’s been a ‘thing’ for this website ever since he was first talent-spotted by a sickly, sofa-bound D Charlton back in 2018. (For what it’s worth, that report also covers England’s new director of men’s cricket chatting about Hitler with Russell Arnold on commentary.)
What does being a King Cricket ‘thing’ entail? Being a King Cricket ‘thing’ means you get a second article pioneering the concept of ‘the batting podium’ devoted to you a few months later. You are then mentally filed away as, “Is he the lad we wrote a thing about the other day?”
This week – having taken the trouble to do a site search for his name – we are extracting Harry Brook from the “Is he the lad we wrote a thing about the other day?” drawer and placing him in the “Yes, he is the lad we wrote a thing about the other day” drawer.
You may feel that 2018 does not qualify as “the other day,” but you would be wrong. Four years ago is actually a pretty typical timescale for “the other day” in these parts. “The other day” can, in fact, stretch back almost 20 years on occasions.
It probably won’t be another four years before we write about Harry Brook again. Not if he can make runs in the WHITE HOT CRUCIBLE of a Roses Match.
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Why is it a White Hot Crucible and not a Red Hot Crucible?
Sounds like you are Soft On Yorkshire, Soft On The Causes of Yorkshire…
Well clearly you only get the RED HOT CRUCIBLE of a Roses Match at Old Trafford.
And anyone who thinks that white is hotter than red has clearly never sat out in the sun too long.
McCullum bingo:
‘Positive brand of cricket’
‘Rebuilding job’
‘Stokesy’
‘Rooty’
‘Keysy’
‘Friendships put aside’
‘One game at a time’
‘Go out there and express themselves’
‘Home of cricket’
‘Jimmy and Broady’
‘Great battles down the years’
Good odds on a full house, we’d say.
Am right now preparing for my first day at cricket with Charley The Gent since 2019…
…when I say “right now”, I don’t mean ‘this very minute” as I am writing this comment this very minute, obviously.
Anyway, point is, lots to talk about when Charley & I take our seats at The Home Of Cricket later this morning.
And you might well get to read all about it here on this very web site once today becomes “the other day”, which, as all King Cricket readers know, might be in a few days, weeks, months or years time.
You missed my current favorite – “Red ball reset”
Think that’s been and gone. Pretty sure it was just the West Indies tour.
The ‘red ball reset’ cliché burned twice as bright but half as long.
You might be right, but it was a cliché that set my teeth on edge every time I heard it spewed into a TV camera.
Andrew Symonds!
This has been a really awful year for Australia.
I suspected HB was only near the ENG set-up because of a rumoured relative high-up in the echelons of power in ENG cricket (who they? Anyone know?) but now it appears he might actually be half-decent. Should probably be playing tests from the off this summer, or it’ll just be time to circle back to someone who’s a proven failure.