Before the Next Ball Is Bowled
LONDON, January 8.—Mr. Mercer has spent the morning correcting gentlemen who depart before the last period. I should like to correct a quieter error: the tendency to mistake an appointment in the calendar for an entry in the result book.
The Sydney engagement between New South Wales and South Australia offers the next cricket chapter. Its historical programme includes January 6 and resumes on January 8 after the Sunday rest. The ASN calendar accordingly offers a second-day session today. Our replay, however, has not supplied an opening-day innings. We cannot begin the morning by inventing the score which the evening failed to provide.
The clubs, their cards and the conditions of the period must first be prepared. The overnight position must be established from an agreed starting point. A dated fixture tells us where to look; it does not tell us what our own players have already done.
There is also a basketball offering, Yale at Ohio State, awaiting a decision. The university record establishes the date. It does not, by itself, give us every player’s part in the contest. A few figures in an old result column cannot be made to carry the weight of an entire sporting set.
Meanwhile the new hockey league has three Monday appointments, and Fury has none. The completed Sunday contests remain completed. Nashville’s early game retains its proper date. I commend an orderly book to Mr. Mercer: it leaves him more room for disorderly opinions.
Monday schedule and preparation → · Historical cricket programme → · Ohio State historical record →