Great piece, Nick. I've shared it with several Tasmanian friends. I'm not sure about younger Tasmanians today, but those of us getting along in age (moi!), remember well and pay homage to Jack's contribution to Tasmanian cricket in the day. Especially what he did in 1979 when captaining Tasmania to its first one day title against Western Australia. This was the catalyst that helped Tasmania get accepted into the Sheffield Shield competition. Jack was 'King of Tasmania' after this effort.
The tapping-and-dusting bit is the part that always looks ordinary until you have tried to explain it to someone who only watches Tests on television. Allan Donald running in is the headline; the square looking like a garden that has been bullied all afternoon is the actual story. You can hear it in the way the ball stops talking after a session of short stuff.
What I like in the piece is the survival register. Not a coaching manual, just the small jobs: dust, tap, stay out of the way of a man who wants the pitch to answer back. That is closer to how club groundsmen talk than most match reports.
If anyone is keeping a photo of a scarred length to show a junior why you do not water in the wrong hour, the picture is usually a phone snap with a footprint in the way. I would rather clean that one frame than restage the square. A one-canvas tidy such as https://imgtoimg-ai.com/ai-image-editor is enough to see the crack in the surface. The story remains the garden, not the tool.
Donald at full tilt still makes the rest of us look like we are gardening with a teaspoon. Fair.
Great piece, Nick. I've shared it with several Tasmanian friends. I'm not sure about younger Tasmanians today, but those of us getting along in age (moi!), remember well and pay homage to Jack's contribution to Tasmanian cricket in the day. Especially what he did in 1979 when captaining Tasmania to its first one day title against Western Australia. This was the catalyst that helped Tasmania get accepted into the Sheffield Shield competition. Jack was 'King of Tasmania' after this effort.
He talked - probably still does - about TAS and those times frequently. No coincidence that Boony's lad is called, Jack
Great yarn Nick. Thank you
Need to roll out the "swinggggger" yarn - the cricket variant! Different gravy
The tapping-and-dusting bit is the part that always looks ordinary until you have tried to explain it to someone who only watches Tests on television. Allan Donald running in is the headline; the square looking like a garden that has been bullied all afternoon is the actual story. You can hear it in the way the ball stops talking after a session of short stuff.
What I like in the piece is the survival register. Not a coaching manual, just the small jobs: dust, tap, stay out of the way of a man who wants the pitch to answer back. That is closer to how club groundsmen talk than most match reports.
If anyone is keeping a photo of a scarred length to show a junior why you do not water in the wrong hour, the picture is usually a phone snap with a footprint in the way. I would rather clean that one frame than restage the square. A one-canvas tidy such as https://imgtoimg-ai.com/ai-image-editor is enough to see the crack in the surface. The story remains the garden, not the tool.
Donald at full tilt still makes the rest of us look like we are gardening with a teaspoon. Fair.