All the Pretty 30s

GH on the quality of Vinciness

Come in number 9, your time is up

The Englishman Jon Hotten is one of the world’s more distinctive writers on cricket, as distinct from cricket writers, for he has written, at length, on a range of subjects, including music, bodybuilding and boxing. I was introduced to his work by his excellent blog, The Old Batsman, and now subscribe to his elegant Substack, Arrangements of White on Green. I have also played cricket with him. The first time we did so, I hope he won’t mind me remembering, he had one of those days. He split the webbing on his hand, got pushed down the list, managed 2, clearly incommoded. Yet it was clear from the way he carried himself that he was a very good player, and I grasped, from conversation with others, that he has been a free scorer in cricket of good quality. As an experience, then, it was very Hottenesque, for one of Jon’s preoccupations is how quality asserts itself, especially in batting - what singles out the good, from the better, from the best. How did I know that Jon could play the game, from such a brief glimpse? Was it the way he held the bat? Was it the way he stood, or the shapes his body made in motion? Was it even those moments in repose where he related to others and talked about the game? I could not tell you, but from half a century’s immersion in the game, and playing with a great range of abilities, I intuited that Jon could play; just as from five minutes watching me in the nets you’ll grasp that I’m just a battler.