{"id":255842,"date":"2026-08-02T16:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T16:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/02\/cricket-has-always-had-its-dark-arts-brief-letters\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T16:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T16:12:13","slug":"cricket-has-always-had-its-dark-arts-brief-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/02\/cricket-has-always-had-its-dark-arts-brief-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket has always had its dark arts | Brief letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Regarding your editorial on cricket fair play (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/jul\/30\/the-guardian-view-on-sporting-fair-play-it-was-never-quite-cricket\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">30 July<\/a>), as an elderly cricket fan, I can remember being told as a small boy to watch a Yorkshire wicketkeeper who was known, when standing up to the bowler, to nudge the stumps with his toe when the ball was close enough to make it look like \u201cbowled out\u201d. But in those days, league cricket was serious business and not played for fun.<br \/><strong>Tony Brown<\/strong><br \/><em>Kingston, Ontario, Canada<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><span data-dcr-style=\"bullet\"\/> May I present the Seagull outboard race scandal of 1963? At a regatta in Coverack, I was hanging over the bow to keep it down when we were overtaken by a faster boat. With a boathook, I carefully pushed his fuel tap shut; he mysteriously stopped several yards short of the finish line. Did we carry away the prize: 2\/6d? My lips are sealed.<br \/><strong>Jonathan Fletcher<\/strong><br \/><em>Helston, Cornwall<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><span data-dcr-style=\"bullet\"\/> Re dating fossils precisely (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2026\/jul\/30\/when-dating-fossils-it-helps-to-be-precise\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Letters, 30 July<\/a>), I once bought a carton of rock salt whose label said the salt was 10m years old. It then advised that it should be used before the following August.<br \/><strong>Richard Barnard<\/strong><br \/><em>Wivenhoe, Essex<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><span data-dcr-style=\"bullet\"\/> When I started out as a social worker in 1969, a client told me that dinner was the meal that had potatoes (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2026\/jul\/28\/the-mystery-of-the-vanished-beef-joint\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Letters, 28 July<\/a>).<br \/><strong>Ron Gould<\/strong><br \/><em>Brighton, East Sussex<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><span data-dcr-style=\"bullet\"\/> Breakfast, brunch, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner \u2026 I\u2019ve given up and just graze all day.<br \/><strong>Dr Bob Aron<\/strong><br \/><em>Ilkley, West Yorkshire<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><span data-dcr-style=\"bullet\"\/> Surely dinner is whenever the person who\u2019s cooking it says it is.<br \/><strong>Pete Bibby<\/strong><br \/><em>Sheffield<\/em><\/p>\n<footer class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><strong><em><span data-dcr-style=\"bullet\"\/> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/aug\/02\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>email<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em> <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>letters<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/footer>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/aug\/02\/cricket-has-always-had-its-dark-arts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Regarding your editorial on cricket fair play (30 July), as an elderly cricket fan, I can remember being told as a small boy to watch a Yorkshire wicketkeeper who was known, when standing up to the bowler, to nudge the stumps with his toe when the ball was close enough to make it look like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6803],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-255842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}