CHARNEY HALL A Bullseye at Cricket
Bernard Swift Bernard Swift, true to his name, was a very fast bowler. His run up was almost as long as the pitch. I recalled in an earlier post that he was regarded as our secret weapon…when he was bowling nothing could survive the onslaught that was unleashed at the other end. Unfortunately having to play in-house cricket against him, even on a wet day, was a frightening experience. Come rain or shine his pace never changed and the ball appeared at waist height with monotonous regularity - that is if you glimpsed it at all winging its way down the pitch on its curved trajectory. His run-up mirrored the flight of the ball and the consistency of his delivery, combined with the dynamic force of his feet on the grass, eventually wore a track beyond the white crease line. Like all of our bowlers his white cotton trousers worn on match days acquired a red stain down the groin area, created by the regular polishing of the red leather of a new ball on...