Ummm...sign this guy up?

[matt363]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/s...470736,00.html

CNNSI's take on the above article:

Today's Exhibit A that sports can teach valuable life lessons comes from the United Kingdom. An ex-rugby player used his good hands to catch a 9-month-old boy dropped out the first-floor window of a burning home by his mother. Said the do-gooder's proud wife, "It's lucky Mike has a safe pair of hands after playing rugby for so many years." The 38-year-old, described as a "burly ex-prop forward," also used his 19-stone (266-pound) frame to shoulder-charge the front door so the mother and the rest of her family could escape. It's almost too bad we already handed out Sportsman of the Year.

[JHawkins23]

yeah, who says that sports are a waste of time!

[PattyV]

well all sports apart from rugby union and cricket are a waste of time

[JHawkins23]

wow, rugby and cricket, i dont know what to say to that

[LEWTFL]

Would you please explain cricket?
Can it be done in 25 pages or less?

[PattyV]

in short, you bowl the ball (has to be a straight arm) at the batsman. The batsman has to try and hit the ball anywhere he wants. If he hits it past the boundary marker on the full, its six 'runs' or points if you will. If he hits it and it bounces first its four runs. Everytime he runs a length of the 'pitch' he gets a run for it. The pitch is the hard surface between where the bowler bowls and the batsman hits the ball. The bowler bowls six legal deliveries in an 'over'. Then they swap ends and another bowler comes on.

[LEWTFL]

I'm going to give it a try in the spring, thanks.

What's an average length of time this game takes to play?

[PattyV]

depends on what you play. There are 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 100 over matches then there are test matches.

A 30 over match can take as long as 5 hours or can be as short as 2. A test match goes for a maximum of five days

I picked up how to play the game in one season, i was first replacement bowler for my team a year later (3rd)

You have different types of bowlers as well. There are pace bowlers who bowl at around just under 100 mph, but will most likely be around the 85-90 mark in america. Medium pace bowlers are a bit slower and rely on swinging the ball. Spin bowlers make the ball spin off the pitch in a certain direction.