Underarm bowling incident of 1981 • Hacker News Board

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#101

Post by esperent » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 8:15 PM UTC

gib444 wrote: post #82

roryirvine wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not even the whole of the UK - really only England and Wales (as a singular entity, rather than individually). The rest of us know it only for its impenetrable jargon ("They've risked a woggle on the silly midden!"), the grating public school chumminess of the commentators, and a rumour about a puerile "joke" which may or may not have been told on the radio coverage in the early 1980s. Honestly, it's a sport I suspec…

> Not even the whole of the UK - really only England and Wales "Only" England & Wales ... which is ~90% of the UK population. It's a fair generalisation in a casual context like this. We get it, cricket isn't wildly popular in Northern Ireland (nor Scotland). Why chastise the parent for suggesting it is? But come on - don't shoehorn an indirect political point into a casual conversation. And as if cricket was unique…

It's ok, no chastisement was felt by me and I was happy to be corrected.

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#102

Post by Forgeties79 » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 8:35 PM UTC

scott_w wrote: post #76

Forgeties79 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is countless teams had opportunities to do this in the past - they all knew it was an option - but they chose not to. Then suddenly one team decided “well there’s no rule…” even though it was clearly established that everyone agreed not to do it. It’s not like they discovered something new, they just broke convention with no warning at a very consequential time after many teams undoubtedly could’ve done the…

I actually suspect they didn’t know. When a sport is played one way for 200 years, you don’t read the rule book to check, you just copy what everyone is doing!

Even the commentators knew. They called it out as it happened. It was absolutely common knowledge.

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#103

Post by as1mov » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 8:50 PM UTC

CamouflagedKiwi wrote: post #3

This was pretty bad. Will never be forgotten in NZ. Has probably been forgotten by Australia and everywhere else though.

This along with the Aussie sandpaper-gate is probably one of the most infamous incidents in cricket history. I doubt anyone who follows cricket doesn't about it. Also the 2019 world cup finals! ;)

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#104

Post by gesis » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 8:56 PM UTC

dismalaf wrote: post #100

senthil_rajasek wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explaining Cricket to a Baseball fan only makes it worse. I have tried it many times and failed. Personally, playing a few games of cricket is the best way to learn the rules of the game. As an example, in your explanation ( which is good to this lifelong cricket fan from India) your first sentence starts "A cricket pitch..." And when a baseball fan reads it he is probably asking "What is a cricket pitch?"

Nah, cricket is pretty analogous to baseball. Instead of 9 innings there's one inning, at least in ODI or T20 formats (best to watch anyway). Instead of 3 outs there's 10 outs (called wickets). An out is having a ball caught after you hit it (same as baseball) or the ball hitting the wickets when at bat (kind of like strikeout) or a fielder knocking the wicket off with the ball before you reach the line, which is bas…

> Nah, cricket is pretty analogous to baseball.

goes on to use the same term for multiple game actions/objects.

Nah. I ain't buying it.

Signed,

A follower of neither.

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#105

Post by nickhodge » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 8:57 PM UTC

I remember hearing this live while in a car on a hot summer’s days in the Adelaide hills.

Not a cricket fan now, but was subjected to it as a kid.

NZ are generationally enraged. Australians have wilfully forgotten.

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#106

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 8:58 PM UTC

adastra22 wrote: post #95

pdpi wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s surprisingly simple, actually. A cricket pitch is a long strip. Bowler bowls from one end, batter strikes the bowl from the other. Scoring is done by running from one end of that strip to the other (the unit of scoring is literally called a run). Six legal bowls make an over. There are two batters in play at each point in time, one at each end of the pitch, and they both must run towards the other end of the pit…

It’s surprisingly simple, actually. Basically, there's three grabbers, three taggers, five twig runners, and a player at Whackbat. Center tagger lights a pine cone and chucks it over the basket and the whack-batter tries to hit the cedar stick off the cross rock. Then the twig runners dash back and forth until the pine cone burns out and the umpire calls hotbox. Finally, you count up however many score-downs it adds…

That sounds like Calvinball

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#107

Post by indemnity » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

roryirvine wrote: post #65

esperent wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Americans Everyone not from one Uk, India... maybe Australia you mean?

Not even the whole of the UK - really only England and Wales (as a singular entity, rather than individually). The rest of us know it only for its impenetrable jargon ("They've risked a woggle on the silly midden!"), the grating public school chumminess of the commentators, and a rumour about a puerile "joke" which may or may not have been told on the radio coverage in the early 1980s. Honestly, it's a sport I suspec…

We started playing as kids, just trying to whack the ball and not getting out.

The rest of the jargon and strangeness was absorbed slowly over time until it because natural, like a language.

I still can’t explain how it works to my wife.

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#108

Post by Agentlien » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 9:30 PM UTC

pdpi wrote: post #52

dvh wrote: post #6

> Bruce Edgar, who was on 102 not out, was stuck at the non-striker's end the entire over. Now Americans can finally know how Europeans feel when watching baseball

It’s surprisingly simple, actually. A cricket pitch is a long strip. Bowler bowls from one end, batter strikes the bowl from the other. Scoring is done by running from one end of that strip to the other (the unit of scoring is literally called a run). Six legal bowls make an over. There are two batters in play at each point in time, one at each end of the pitch, and they both must run towards the other end of the pit…

Unlike the rules for Quidditch I had to reread parts of this to understand it.

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#109

Post by foldr » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 9:32 PM UTC

esperent wrote: post #49

dvh wrote: post #6

> Bruce Edgar, who was on 102 not out, was stuck at the non-striker's end the entire over. Now Americans can finally know how Europeans feel when watching baseball

> Americans Everyone not from one Uk, India... maybe Australia you mean?

Cricket is the world's second most popular sport. It's actually much more popular than baseball from a global perspective.

Re: Underarm bowling incident of 1981

#110

Post by aunty_helen » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 9:34 PM UTC

It’s an expectation as a New Zealander that you hold this against the aussies.

Honestly it should be on the citizenship test. If you answer favourably towards throwing underarm, your test is rescheduled the following week in Canberra.