The Teesra

Category: over rates

  • Over rates…get on with it!

    “Get on with it!”

    All too often, as the over rate drops and the game drags, you will hear this cry from the stands, or the lone fielder stationed out on the boundary.

    I have railed against slow over-rates before, without ever setting out in any detail what I thought needed to be done. Shouting “get on with it”, whilst heart-felt, doesn’t actually help!

    Fines for slow rates, or penalty runs, can really only be applied when the game is run by independent match officials.

    So –  can anything be done by the players to speed up the game? (more…)

  • Over rates – part 2

    One of our Club XIs was missing both skipper and vice a couple of weeks ago, and I was asked to stand-in for the day.  After my post on dilatory over rates back in July, I had the unexpected opportunity to see if the Teesra could get a team through its overs at a decent rate.

    First innings – 51 overs in a little over 3 hours (17 overs/hour); second innings – 25 overs in 90 minutes (before the final hour’s play – a touch under 17 overs/hour).

    It can be done! (more…)

  • Over rates – why does everything take so long?

    When I started this blog, I set myself a little (unwritten) rule.  I would never write “it was better in the old days”…

    So I am going to struggle with this next post…but here we go.

    Why is the Club game so slow these days?  It wasn’t like this when I was a lad.

    (I said it was an unwritten rule.  Now it is broken.)

    I umpired a game last Sunday.  40 Overs a side.  Start time was 1 PM.  And we finally got in to tea at twenty to five.

    (more…)