Fuji Cricket on the cheap - the Fuji 50-230 at the crease

Lightmancer

Legend
Location
Sunny Frimley
Name
Bill Palmer
Here's something for those who think of cricket as slow and boring...
39149422.d47e1312.1600.jpg

Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 15 Ansari
par Lightmancer, on ipernity

I went to the Surrey vs Derbyshire match on Sunday at my local ground, Guildford. It was a perfect day, sunny and clear with just a little wispy cloud overhead. Now I know that this is an international audience and that some of you may be unfamiliar with the game of cricket, particularly if you are across the pond - but if you think of baseball played with more skill and with two bases instead of four, you will be heading in the right direction.

Cricket is often thought of as a slow and deliberate game and the test matches in particular are spread over five days, but in the one day form - 50 overs per side - it is quick, brutal and action packed. The Guildford ground is relatively small and we had seats in the second row on the boundary so it paid to keep your wits about you when the batsmen opened up.

I took two lenses with me, the Samyang 300mm and the 50-230. The Samyang was just too damn fiddly to maintain focus, so all the shots you see here are with the 50-230; this lens never ceases to surprise me. It is cheap as chips but punches well above it's weight in terms of image quality. Many of these shots were taken on single-shot, some on the CH setting, but focus was on the wicket in pretty well every instance. That white thing you see in a number of the shots is the ball, by the way...

Enjoy!

Top edge:
39149368.44412a9e.1600.jpg

Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 3 Davies
par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Sangakara on the way to his century:
39149376.2b93dfb2.1600.jpg

Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 6 Sangakara
par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Bottom edge:
39149378.de2ca83b.1600.jpg

Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 7 Davies
par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Get down on it:
39149414.4b2cb393.1600.jpg

Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 11 Davies
par Lightmancer, on ipernity

A bit of bowling action...
39149416.3b9f7169.1600.jpg

Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 12 Curran
par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Taming the spinners:
39149418.9a087579.1600.jpg

Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 13 Ansari
par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Aggression:
39149428.ccfed4c7.1600.jpg

Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 17 Ansari
par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Not out:
39149430.3de30ac4.1600.jpg

Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 18 Curran
par Lightmancer, on ipernity
 
I never thought it slow and boring. I have zero knowledge of how the game is played and not many places in my geographic location that actually play it.

I like the images you've captured here, though! Thanks for sharing.

Agreed. I have never heard of a game being played here. I would be interested in attending a game, but simply would have no idea of how its played.
 
It's really very straightforward...

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

See? ;)
 
I don't really have a clue what's going on in a cricket match, but I'd be interested to learn if it was played around me much. I sort of equate it to American baseball, which used to be our national pastime until more brutal and violent games took over. It's a game with seemingly a lot of very very slow stretches with sudden bursts of real action, whether a great play by a defensive player or a great hit by a batter. To fully enjoy it, you really have to learn the subtle strategies involved and then you realize there's a LOT happening on every pitch and it gets really fun to think along with. But if you don't get the subtleties, it can be like watching grass grow. I suspect that's true of cricket too, but I'm still in the "grass growing" level of appreciation.

Bicycle stage racing is similar IMHO - to the uneducated viewer it can be an incredibly boring sport to watch except for the occasional sprint finish or mountain climbing attack. But there's an incredible amount of overall strategy and moment by moment tactics that, once you understand, make for a hell of an interesting viewing experience. Not to mention all of the incredible scenery in the Tour de France and Giro de Italia! And if you ride, you appreciate just how insanely fast they're going. It doesn't always look like it on TV, but if you've ever ridden with high level amateur racers (who couldn't hang with the pros for long at all), you realize that trying to keep up with these guys on their "easy" days would put most of us in the hospital after about 10 minutes...

Great photos too - they really convey the action of the sport, even if we don't have a clue what that action is about...

-Ray
 
It's really very straightforward...

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

See? ;)
lmao....clear as mud.

Seriously though, there is some good info in there.
 
I'm funnin' with you. That description of the "laws of cricket" is quite well-known and is available as a poster and printed on tea-towels. The entire pun comes from the fact that when the batsman is at the crease, facing the bowler, he is "in". When he is removed (bowled, caught, stumped, run out, leg-before-wicket, retired, declared etc) then he comes off the field and in to the pavilion.

...actually I am not sure that I am helping... ;)
 
It's really very straightforward...

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

See? ;)
Sounds like the Cricket version of the classic Abbot and Costello routine about American baseball, "Who's on First". It's worth teying ro find on YouTube if you've never seen it...

-Ray
 
A major difference to baseball (other than running in straight lines) is that the ball bounces before getting hit - making it much more unpredictable (and dangerous)

I prefer playing to watching
 
Not always ;) I used to play, back in the last century. I captained a team and batted at #3; couldn't bowl for toffee though! I enjoy watching - there's something quite Zen about watching a good batsman in full flow, and I enjoy the psychology of the game. I also enjoy listening to Test Match Special (except when Boycott is wittering on...)
 
It's really very straightforward...

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

See? ;)

Well, Bill, you've done this to yourself; you've presented me with a high lob over the net. Unable to resist, I step deftly forward and borrow something from another well known bit:

"So cricket's about a bit of the ol' in-out, in-out, eh squire? (nudge-nudge, wink-wink, grin-grin)"

Cheers, Jock
PS -- Nice pix! Have you done something unusual to them? There's something about the quality that I can't quite put my finger on . . . perhaps the lightness of the grass compared to the contrast of the batsman. . .
 
Hi Jock, there is a long and (dis-)honourable tradition of awful puns in cricket, I'm afraid ;) Read down the Test Match Special link for some howlers.

Actually, these are SOOC jpgs - I am time-poor at the moment. All are at the top end of the 50-230, and most are cropped to a 300mm fov equivalent. To be honest they are a little "crispy" for my taste (I inadvertently had sharpness turned to +2 in-camera from a previous shoot). All metering is spot, and off the batsman's black flannels. The crowd in the background would be about 30-40 feet away so there is a fair amount of telephoto compression!
 
I have to say, I can actually see myself selling the 55-200 to help fund the new superzoom, and keeping this one for the times when I want to travel light and fast...
 
Yep. Like I said before, it's a little less forgiving for me on exposure than my primes - it has to be within 1/3 stop of "right" or things begin to degrade - but I can manage that very easily with the WYSIWYG electronic viewfinder.
 
It's really very straightforward...

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

See? ;)

And just to make it simple, if all the above hasn't happened within five days, there's no result :)

To fully enjoy it, you really have to learn the subtle strategies involved and then you realize there's a LOT happening on every pitch and it gets really fun to think along with.

Yup!

Bicycle stage racing is similar IMHO - to the uneducated viewer it can be an incredibly boring sport to watch except for the occasional sprint finish or mountain climbing attack. But there's an incredible amount of overall strategy and moment by moment tactics that, once you understand, make for a hell of an interesting viewing experience.

Funnily enough, stage racing and test cricket are the only sports I bother watching :)

(Actually thats not true, I'll happily watch the one-day Classics too)
 
Last edited:
Funnily enough, stage racing and test cricket are the only sports I bother watching :)

(Actually thats not true, I'll happily watch the one-day Classics too)
Yeah, I like the classics too, although it's a vastly different sort of thing to watch because how well you recover for tomorrow's race just isn't a consideration. Although it's nice that you really can't win by riding defensively. I still love basketball too. And I'm fully addicted to American football, but it's an addiction I hate. I've accepted it - I've never been able to quit it, but it's really a terrible sport...

-Ray
 
I can't resist pointing out that the highest "scorer" in Australia's first innings at Trent Bridge this morning is "Extras"... For the non-cricket speaking among you this means that the England bowlers have given away more runs than any one Australian batsman has managed to score :cool:
 
Back
Top