September 16, 2005

Metric muddle catches out the cricketers of Balmoral
By Shirley English


ALL summer the ageing bowlers at Crathie Cricket Club struggled to find their length during home games and were eventually relegated.

The amateur team, who play at Balmoral Castle and whose patron is Prince Philip, thought that they had suffered a mysterious and calamatous loss of form after decades in the top divisions of the Aberdeenshire Cricket Association league.

Much to the frustration of the batsmen, they only managed to win two home games all season and when they played away, they invariably overpitched when bowling.

However it has emerged that bad bowling was not solely to blame for their fall from grace. Their disastrous season was instead the result of a metric muddle by the Queen’s groundsmen, which meant the team unknowingly played all summer on a wicket almost 7ft (actually 2 m) too long.

It was not until they faced a relegation battle at home against Methlick last month that the mix-up was discovered. An experienced Crathie bowler who had been away all season returned to play for the crucial game and after bowling a few bad balls, declared that the pitch was too long.

Renwick Elder, the Crathie captain, said: “He bowled a few, not very well, then told me, ‘This pitch is too long’. I had put it down to bad bowling but our vice-captain got out a measuring tape during tea break and he was right. It was very embarrassing as no one had noticed before.”

Metropolitan Police officers, on duty at Balmoral to guard the Queen during her summer visit, offered to act as independent adjudicators and confirmed fears that the wicket was indeed 22 metres instead of 22 yards.

Bob McAra, 55, club secretary and a medium-pace bowler, said he could not remember such a bad season in 31 years of play. “The staff at Balmoral always make up the pitch for us and we just turn up and play,” he said. “I didn’t realise what was wrong, I don’t think anyone did until that day, not even away teams. We’d had no complaints.”

It is still to be ascertained how the error occurred. “We think groundstaff did one of two things. They either measured 22 metres instead of 22 yards, or perhaps measured 22 yards from the batting crease,” Mr McAra said, adding sportingly: “But we are as much to blame as we never realised the pitch was too long.”

The Methlick players were told and the game continued with Crathie snatching one of only two home wins of the season. Methlick were relegated to grade three of the league.

But it was not enough to save Crathie who also went down to grade three for the first time in their 57-year history after losing their final game to grade two champions Inverurie two weeks ago.

Mr McAra said Prince Philip was amused when he was told the story after a friendly game at Balmoral last weekend. He was sharing a cup of tea with players in the rustic heather-thatched club hut, whose facilities stretch to a cramped changing room and a lavatory, and asked politely if the team were happy with the ground and the pitch.

Mr Renwick said: “I said, ‘No! Haven’t you heard about the 22-metre pitch?’ He thought it was hilarious.”

Ceratinly a cautionary tale for metricating a game (unless 100% of the playing fields are changed at the same time). I would never be able to tell the difference, but apparently well-trained athletes are very calibrated to the "critical" dimensions of a game.

what i found the most interesting is that the mistake was due to the use of a metric measuring device being used instead of imperial. Which means it may be more common to use metric measuring devices when setting up a field and not imperial, even if the game rules once used imperial in the distant past.

Someone just didn't bother to convert the 22 yards to 20 m before measuring and laid it out as 22 m. Those who normally measure the field will measure it to an exact 20 m and ignore any numbers past the decimal that 22 yards may convert to. This way everyone is happy. The metric people because the field was measured in metres to an exact 20 m and the imperial who falsely believe it is 22 yards because it is written down as such and some rule may say it is.

<<Those who normally measure the field will measure it to an exact 20 m and ignore any numbers past the decimal that 22 yards may convert to. >>

Modern rules appear to describe it as 20.12 m, a modest 3.2 mm rounding from the 20.1168 m that 22 y converts to. I think 1/8 inch can be safely ignored, but not so roughly 2 m.

Some years ago I was a regular cricket umpire. One of the duties of teh umpire is to inspect the ground - it is normal for an unpire who is unfamiliar with a particular grouond to check whether the sight-screens are insode, on or outsode the boundaries and whether or not there are any branches of trees that overhang the ground. (These affect whether a stroke earns four runs or six runs and if a ball bounces off an overhanging branch, the batsman cannot be caught out).

I would also check the width of the stumps using my hand to estimate the measurement and would also pace out the wicket, expecting my 27th step to just clear the bowlers crease at the other end. (Each of my normal steps is just over 0.75m, so 20m woud be 26.67 steps). I would do the latter without drawing any attention to myself doing it.

"Modern rules appear to describe it as 20.12 m, a modest 3.2 mm rounding from the 20.1168 m that 22 y converts to. I think 1/8 inch can be safely ignored, but not so roughly 2 m."

Do you really think someone is going to pay that much attention to 120 mm?? If someone could take it upon themselves to measure out 22 yards as 22 m, then it is likely the person doing the measuring isn't going to be that particular about 12 cm. If it took a whole season to recognize an error of 2 m, who would ever notice a difference of 12 cm?

On a tape measure, 20 m sticks out. 20.12 m does not. I'm just saying someone could easily measure out 20 m and nobody would notice and it is more commonly done then not.

I think that he really believes the cricket rules are metric.

Like those records.

And the nicer tasting cakes.

etc.

If you visit http://www.lords.org/data/files/laws_of_cricket_2003-8685.pdf you will see that the *laws* (not the *rules*) of cricket are in both metric and imperial units.

Martin - Cricket is an international sport. Most countries use the metric system.

Note, however, the way the measures are expressed (example):-

Length – a minimum of 58ft/17.68m
Width – a minimum of 6ft/1.83m

That should keep Danny happy for a while! X-D