This Kind of Bowling Isn’t Up Our Alley

Cricket remains a mystery for many Americans. Just as, most certainly, baseball strikes folks from Australia and Great Britain as Byzantine, mysterious and often incomprehensible.

Cracking cricket is always difficult, especially during the World Cup. Common sense helps decipher some of the terms, but others call for more of a search.

This passage from New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, via Reuters, was especially intriguing.

“We’ve gone away from the dibbly-dobblers and towards more striking bowlers and he’s got to become a strike bowler or a strike batter,” said Fleming of Chris Harris.

Dibbly-dobblers?

One cricket-loving acquaintance suggested a baseball analogy, figuring a dibbly-dobbler versus a striking bowler was like comparing Tom Glavine to Roger Clemens.

That made sense. The Cape Argus, of Cape Town, South Africa, published a list of cricket lingo last month online and provided additional assistance:

“Dibbly-dobbler: Often used for a bowler who bowls very slowly with not much spin or pace on the ball.”

Trivia time: Which team upset third-seeded Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament in 1986?

Money talks: Columbus Blue Jacket Coach Doug MacLean put his finger on the differences between his team and Colorado after a recent 5-1 loss left the Blue Jackets with an 0-11-1 record against the Avalanche.

“It was men against boys. That’s the way it looked tonight. We weren’t close. They’re a great team. That’s what $75 million does,” he said.

Books on wheels: At least the kids who made the 1,100-mile trip via bus from Philadelphia to Tampa, Fla., got to see a decent game, as 10th-seeded Auburn beat No. 7 St. Joseph’s, 65-63, in overtime Friday.

“Fifty kids, all with their schoolbooks and they’re reading as they come down [Interstate] 95 until they get here for the game,” St. Joseph’s Coach Phil Martelli said.

“It’s like a 24-hour study hall. But that’s the way it is at St. Joe’s. We really take our schoolwork serious.”

Fjord Blues: How often does a golf tournament get canceled because of warm weather?

Of course, not many events are played on a fjord in Greenland. Usually, the fjord leading in to the small town of Uummannaq is covered by a thick sheet of ice from December to May.

Not this year. The fifth World Ice Golf Championship was a victim of unseasonable weather and will have to wait for 2004. The ice was not thick enough to support the players.

“Greenland experiences warm climatic cycles around every 40 years; unfortunately we’ve been affected this year,” tournament committee member Henrick Bergqvist said in a statement.

“At least with the cycle we can hopefully guarantee the next 15-20 winters will be much colder.”

Trivia answer: No. 14 Arkansas Little Rock defeated Notre Dame, 90-83, in the Midwest Regional.

And finally: Troy State senior forward Lacedrick Pettway on the school’s home of Troy, Ala.: “It’s a small town, but we’re trying to put them on the map. It’s a nice place. Y’all need to visit it sometime.”