I don’t believe it! The not so serious side of the industry
©BBC A town called Albert ...
A small, uninhabited town in Texas has been sold on eBay, to a buyer in Italy for a little over $3m (£1.45m). The town, called Albert, is about 100km (62 miles) outside San Antonio and features a schoolhouse, a dancehall and a bar.
The town’s current owner said he sold the land after three-and-a-half years as he was ready to move on to his next project. The town’s population consisted of himself and a groundsman at weekends. The winning buyer will take
MCC in the pink ...
The days of the white ball in one day cricket could be numbered. Trials are due to begin on a pink ball being manufactured by Kookaburra in Australia.
over an icehouse created from the frame of the old general store, a pavilion, an 85-year-old dance hall, a tractor shed and a 3 bedroom house, together with peach and pecan orchards... and a groundsman!
A peach of a find ...
An Iron Age comb, the only one of its kind found in Britain, was unearthed by Russell Peach, a Worcestershire Groundsman, using his £1,000 detector. The copper-alloy comb, which dates from AD25 to AD75, is intricately decorated with an ‘armadillo’ motif similar to that on late Iron Age mirrors.
Its function is unclear. The widths of the teeth are quite stout, suggesting that it may have been used for horses. For the past eight years Russell has devoted about four hours or so every weekend to metal detecting. Having searched the same field countless times in the
past, finding little more than a few coins and buttons, he was about to head home one day when there was a particularly loud and high- pitched beep. As he peered down at his find, he thought its design was so modern that it must have been made during the last century. But he promptly reported it to Angie Bolton, The British Museum’s Finds Liaison Officer for Worcester and Warwickshire who said “Archaeologically, it’s priceless, a magic find.” Its monetary value is yet to be decided. In England and Wales, report discoveries to your local finds liaison officer (
www.finds.org.uk)
Do your bit for poverty ... and improve yore spelling
Free Rice is a website that is dedicated to feeding the starving ... and improving your spelling and vocabulary. Log on to
www.freerice.com and, for every word you get correct, the website donates 10 grains of rice through the United Nations.
Be warned, it is very addictive! So far I have fed
112
Botswana, Ethiopia, Tibet and most of Uzbekistan! Free Rice runs the site at no profit. The rice is paid for by advertisers on the site. So far Loz’s bowl is empty!
source of complaint for a number of reasons but, mainly, because it does not last 50 overs - kind of important in a 50 over game! It also loses its colour quickly and, therefore, becomes difficult to pick up under floodlights.
So the MCC, the game’s lawmakers, are trialing the pink thing at Lord’s indoor nets this winter and in Women’s cricket in Australia. Further trials will see ‘pinky’ being used in County 2nd XI and University matches in 2008.
John Stephenson
The MCC’s head of cricket John Stephenson said “Paint tends to flake off white balls. The challenge is to produce a ball which retains its colour. If the white ball is not working, let’s look at another colour - and pink was a pretty good compromise.”
In one-day internationals a mandatory ball change is now enforced after 34 overs because the white titanium dioxide dye rubs off the leather.
“My aim would be to use
the pink ball in Twenty20 cricket in 2009 and thereafter in one-day international cricket. But this will be dependent on trials and what the ECB thinks.” Mike Gatting, the ECB’s Managing Director of Cricket Partnerships, said: “This is a very interesting and a very wise development.” Former England bowler
The white ball has been a
Darren Gough, now Yorkshire captain, explained the change in balls normally favours batsmen and gave his backing to the trial. “There’s nothing worse than having a ball changed just when you’re getting a bit of rhythm.”
Service required?
The poor old gang mower. Much maligned for some reason and yet, if looked after well, they perform a more than adequate job on sportsfields, outfields and the like.
set of gang mowers that I think might need a service.” “Certainly, when can we call
round to collect them?” “Err, when I can find
them!”
Our editor, Laurence Gale, snapped this sorry set at a club that should remain nameless. You can just imagine the telephone conversation between this sports club and their local dealer:
“Good morning, I have a
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