Thank God It's Friday ... Chris 'Buck' Rogers in the 61ST (and first) century

A trip back to August 2013, and an Ashes series in England - some words on Chris Rogers' maiden test century at Chester-Le-Street.

It is only in the western world that we celebrate the end of the work week, and I am not sure that still applies - Friday being the end of the work week! In any case, the TGIF acronym and saying were coined when weekends belonged to individuals, and employers had to close for the weekend.

Today, being Friday (AEST - GMT+10), I thought I would share some topical reading from the SpeakingNick archives. I plan to feature this every Friday. My hope is - while ignoring work emails on a Saturday morning, you might enjoy some light reading with a coffee.

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August 2022 - Chris Rogers, aka Buck Rogers, is currently the Head Coach of the Victorian Mens cricket team. Having been in the job for close to two years, Rogers has had to navigate the world of Covid hubs and all that came with the pandemic. No easy task.

So why the travel back in time, nearly nine years, you ask?

Well, I ran into Buck Rogers last night at the Citipower centre, home base to Cricket Victoria (CV). I was doing some work with members of the CV U19 emerging players program, and he, Rogers, was casting a coaches eye on proceedings, as we do - those that know Rogers will laugh when I say he was merely observing! Rogers is a passionate cricket person who always has a point of view to project. As he should.

An interesting note: Rogers has me covered on counties played for - three to two!

Chester-le-Street is the northern most venue on the English test ground rota, a picturesque town situated in-between Durham and Newcastle, and home to Durham CCC. I happened to be there the day Chris Rogers made his maiden test century, it was August 10th, 2013 - Rogers finishing day two on 101* The test was eventually won by England, with Stuart Broad edging out Rogers as player of the match. The full scorecard is here.

My report on the day, and Rogers’ hundred is below. You can also find it here. Enjoy your coffee, and the read. And please leave a comment if you also have ‘a point of view’

A familiar scoring zone for the lefty!

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BUCK ROGERS IN THE 61ST (AND FIRST) CENTURY

August 11, 2013 for BackPageLead.

Chris Rogers guided Australia to almost first-innings parity with a magical maiden Test hundred on day two of this enthralling fourth Ashes Test.

Born in Sydney, raised in Perth and now residing in Melbourne, there will be many people around the cricket world that will be touched by Rogers’ effort.

Nicknamed ‘Buck’, after the cartoon space adventurer, life imitated art at Chester-le-Street on Saturday. Rogers the fictional hero was in a state of suspended animation for 492 years, a length of time that failed to diminish his physical or mental faculties.

Rogers the real-life hero has been at the crease for 74.4 overs – the entirety of Australia’s first-innings – in a similar becalmed state, and with no indication of physical or mental decline. It has been an astonishing feat such have been the number of times the ball fizzed past his outside edge, caught his outside edge and landed safely, or caught his outside edge and failed to be held in England’s slip cordon.

 Rogers was also saved by DRS after incorrectly being adjudged caught behind. To add further fuel to the review system fire, had he originally been dismissed for LBW, he would have had to walk.

As with every near miss in a redoubtable innings, Rogers shrugged off the incident with barely perceptible indifference, cleared his mind, and played the next ball on its merits. His was a study in concentration and clarity of thought as much as ball striking acumen.

Rogers debuted for Australia in 2008 against India in Perth making four and 15. After this he was in the limbo of First-class cricket in Australia and England until his recall at Trent Bridge.

The time spent between Tests was extremely productive for the compact left-hander.

Firstly he made the bold decision to leave Western Australia and move east to play for Victoria. He vocally challenged the WACA selectors for omitting him from one-day cricket. Since arriving at the Bushrangers he has scored heavily in all formats and finished the 2012/13 domestic season with 742 at the healthy average of 50. There was only Ricky Ponting and Mark Cosgrove ahead of him.

Never resting on his laurels he headed north each offseason, to Derbyshire and latterly Middlesex. Again he plundered runs in all forms of the game as well as captaining both Counties.

Rogers would be well received in the England dressing room. Graham Gooch, the current batting coach, has a penchant for “daddy hundreds” meaning big hundreds and doubles in normal speak. Rogers delivers these in spades, already registering a double and a 184 for Middlesex earlier in the summer. With a career best 279 for Western Australia in 2006, he sits second to Geoff Marsh on the WACA all time list.

The son of a First-class cricketer, he has been drilled on the importance of a watertight technique from an early age. The nets at South Perth CC took a pounding in the late eighties and early nineties. His father worked him hard, and Rogers enjoyed every minute of it. The result is a simple foolproof method that has his bottom half connected perfectly with his top allowing him to play the ball late, and under his nose.

His opponents in this series are as well prepared as any in world cricket. My bet is the name Rogers is now featuring prominently in any number of scenarios on the ubiquitous dressing room whiteboard. David Saker, who will have seen and most probably snarled at Buck Rogers first hand, will be racking his expansive cricket brain looking for holes to exploit. This will surely test him and his band of bowlers.

Credit must be given to the much-maligned selectors that gave him the opportunity to peddle his wares in the most pressurised series available to Australian cricketers. They should claim the good ones as they will always be pilloried for the bad ones. Prahran Cricket Club, where Buck plays his grade cricket, should also not pass without a mention.

So 35 going on 36 Rogers has time against him, but not to be deterred he has presented an obdurate barrier to the England bowlers and it is safe to bet that this will continue into the second half of the 10-game series in Australia and possibly beyond.

Welcome back Buck.

Have a great weekend, and as always, thank you for being here.