SAMPLE EDITION SPRING13 2016 THE NightwatchmanTHE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN THE THE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY Nightwatchman Issue 13, out now, features the following: Cricket’s past has been enriched by great writing and Wisden is making sure its future Matt Thacker introduces the 13th issue of The Nightwatchman will be too. The Nightwatchman is a quarterly collection of essays and long-form articles and Benj Moorehead on the joy of county commentaries when far from home is available in print and e-book formats. Mark Eklid revels in the ground with the crooked spire Co-edited by Anjali Doshi and Tanya Aldred, with Matt Thacker as managing editor, The Nightwatchman features an array of authors from around the world, writing beautifully and Tim Wigmore remembers the birth of Durham CCC at length about the game and its myriad offshoots. Contributors are given free rein over Phil Walker owes his adolescent pleasures to Chelmsford subject matter and length, escaping the pressures of next-day deadlines and the despair of cramming heart and soul into a few paragraphs. Brian Halford looks back on Glamorgan’s triumph of 1948 There are several different ways to get hold of and enjoy The Nightwatchman. You can Gavin Pike played in Wally Hammond’s farewell game subscribe to the print version and get a free digital copy for when you’re travelling light. If you don’t have enough room on your book case, you can always take out a digital-only Stephen Bates on two blazered Hampshire officers subscription. Or if you’d just like to buy a single issue – in print, digital or both – you can Isabelle Westbury examines the women’s county game do that too. Take a look at the options below and decide which is best for you. Howard Horner considers the wicket-keeper he adores Emma John reveals why Lancashire won her teenage heart Full subscription Nicholas Hogg on how he came to wear Darren Maddy’s jumper Annual print Digital subscription The old timers The nineteenth-century county game, captured for ever subscription (with Annual e-book only free e-book versions) subscription John Stern explains Middlesex’s identity crisis £27 (+P&P) £10 Matthew Engel on why his heart sings always for Northamptonshire Click to Buy Click to Buy Richard Hobson recalls the Trent Bridge summers of Cairns and Lewis Paul Edwards loves and worries about outground cricket James Holland remembers an intoxicating time at Somerset Single copy Harry Pearson opens up his 1984 red hardback diary Single issue (with on why it has to be Sussex Digital single copy free with free Michael Simkins Single issue e-book version) Henry Cowen chats to a trio from Warwickshire’s glorious 1994 side (e-book only) £9 (+P&P) £4 Click to Buy Mike Beddow explains why New Road is a forever affair Click to Buy Ian McMillan reveals why time runs differently in Yorkshire THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN THE WIRELESS NETWORK From a sultry Italy, Benj Moorehead tunes in to BBC county commentaries Across the veranda the Mediterranean side of the rope. Synchronised tractor lies smooth and sparkling, come una driving. Course the one on the outside tavola – like a table, as Luigino the has to go slightly faster because he’s local boar hunter describes it. You got more ground to cover, going could fry calamari on the terracotta around a larger perimeter. Largest tiles underfoot. To one side the peaks circumference of the circle. Sounds of the Monte Argentario cut across like a question on a maths GCSE paper, blue sky, and all around in the pungent doesn’t it? If the playing surface has a pines the cicadas hit fever pitch. A radius of 60 metres, and two tractors retreat to the kitchen offers respite. do ten laps of the ground to clear the Stoop to fetch a cool roll of prosciutto water off the playing surface, how crudo. And then from somewhere much further has the outer tractor above comes a sound like an extractor driver driven?” Silence again. The fan. Then a distant, eerie public Lancastrian recovers himself: “You announcement. One or two lonely can tweet us your answers at…” claps. Silence. Suddenly, quite loud, a likeable male Lancastrian voice… It’s rather like bending an ear to a rusty pipe that passes up the Italian “Something’s being mentioned on the coast through Switzerland, France PA, but I suspect it will be raining a and under the English Channel, little bit otherwise they would have eventually periscoping somewhere on taken the covers off.” the Old Trafford outfield, where two commentators are handily placed. A Welshman replies. In fact the noise is coming from a laptop hooked up to BBC Radio “Yes, I think there may be a hint of Manchester’s coverage of Lancashire drizzle in the air, with Lancashire v Glamorgan in Division Two of the marooned on 16 for nought off 7.3 County Championship. overs. A couple of little tractors make their way around the boundary, either • • • THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET 5 SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN In 2012, just as the axe was falling on a didn’t take me and others long to realise Mr Glamorgan: He has presented a all. Thus deprived of “atmosphere”, whole range of BBC local radio output how therapeutic those recordings could variety of programmes on BBC Radio almost to the point of thinking the – including county cricket – the ECB be in the middle of the winter when the Wales, such as Weatherman Walking. commentators are drinking daiquiris in swooped in and tied up a deal with season seems so far away.” Derek has been to every corner of Cuba and making the whole thing up, the BBC to offer something we could Wales with a television camera in tow. the listener clings onto those strange have only ever dreamed of: online There is a glorious juxtaposition to noises that do filter through. Pitter- commentary of every ball of every match. listening to the County Championship Mr Lancashire (barely containing patter clapping. Sirens. Howling gales. In the County Championship alone, this in such uncrickety places as the himself): I feel like I’ve missed out. Howling appeals. A distant tonk of adds up to well over 3,000 hours of Monte Argentario, Norway, Texas. bat on ball (if you’re lucky). A passing commentary a summer. And they say It stirs the mind’s imagination. The Mr Glamorgan: Anyway, it is still raining… lunch trolley. The chime of an ice- county cricket doesn’t get the coverage scenes described are more vivid cream van. Airplanes. A drunk lunch it used to. On any given day from April and mysterious because they are so This is a service that, at times, is party. Various unidentified sounds. to September you can expect to find a remote. One moment you are in the catering for those who like their live broadcast, sometimes as many as local bar drinking grappa with some Weetabix without any sugar on top. In the match between Yorkshire and eight Championship matches at a time. garrulous old men who are cursing the There’s even one commentator whose Worcestershire at Scarborough last Skim through the scorecards, take your Italian government for collecting tax, default exultation is “Crumbs!” But it summer, there was a moment when pick. A bit of Trescothick at Taunton, the next you are back home listening is all the more exotic for its undiluted the commentators were drowned out perhaps? Or Sangakkara at The Oval? to Mr Lancashire and Mr Glamorgan charm. Test Match Special, the Amazon by seagulls. At Taunton in September, We might poke our nose into another still waiting for play at Old Trafford… of cricket commentary to which they were competing with the Leicestershire implosion at Grace Road. all these regional varieties are but hammering construction works on the Or shall we indulge in the obscurity of Mr Lancashire: Sixteen for none off 7.3 tributaries, is a completely different new pavilion next door. At Lord’s there Derbyshire v Gloucestershire? overs. We haven’t got in as much play thing altogether, wrapped as it is were days when the studied silence as we even managed on Wednesday. in a sort of honeyed hum that feeds was broken by the irritating yelps of Infinite riches, wherever you are. But for I suspect we’ll be off and on a little silkily into your ear. The online county children on a class outing. those of us, poor souls, who are drawn to bit. The weather for the weekend does commentaries, unceremoniously fed live in such cricketing wastelands as the not look great. from press boxes all over the country, Sport on the radio only works if you Monte Argentario, these commentaries are crude, untamed, unvarnished, can hear it happening, and there is just are a lifeline: a portal into an abandoned Mr Glamorgan: Talking of forecasts, I’ve tinny. All in all, imperfectly brilliant. enough of it on the BBC commentaries world far away. There appear to be been honoured this morning – I’ve been for us to believe that we really are quite a few of us. One commentator retweeted by @DerekTheWeather. • • • plugged into a county ground. recently counted 43 countries listed by his listeners. Neil in Norway who has Mr Lancashire: Oh, right. We’ll leave the commentators aside for a It is often the case that the effects just spotted an arctic fox. Anne who moment, because the essential witness mic is left on during breaks in play. works at the library of the University Mr Glamorgan: Derek Brockway, the to the cricket is a droopy phallic object Presumably this is to reassure us of Michigan and has just cancelled an BBC Wales weatherman.