Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Lord Bonkers' Favourite XI: 4. Violent Bonham-Carter

4. Violent Bonham-Carter
Something of a rough diamond, Violent was always an innovator in batting technique. One hears much nowadays of ‘pinch hitting’ and of Kevin Pietersen’s ‘reverse sweep’, but how many of today’s young people know that both were invented by my second selection?

If a short leg fielder came too close or the umpire looked poised to give her out lbw to one that had straightened a bit, then they were likely to find themselves on the business end of one of these novel approaches.

As Violent herself would have put it, she made the cricket pitch ‘her manor’ and anyone who tried to take her wicket was ‘out of order’ and ‘needed a slap’.

Earlier selections
  1. Len Hutton
  2. C.B. Fry
  3. David Steel

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