Thorpe Park-ed it.
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I always remember Thorpe for his exquisite pull shots. In an era of utter shite in English cricket, you just knew that once Thorpe, coming in at number 4 or 5, was out, the England innings was just about finished. The tail was so long, Caddick was almost considered an all-rounder.
I remember going to the Last test against NZ at the Oval in 1999. England looked to be going steady at the end of the third day, ending at 91/2 chasing a total of 245, with Atherton on 44 and Thorpe on 28.
The next day, Thorpe fell for 44 leaving the score 123/3. Atherton fell soon after and England were all out for 162, leaving them as officially the worst test team in the world. In those days you could still run on the pitch at the end, and the England fans were chanting "we've got the worst team in the world" as the presentations were made on the balcony, much the new captain Hussein's chagrin.
There followed a slow period of improvement under Hussein, leading eventually to Vaughan and the 2005 ashes, but that period of English cricket in the 90s was truly dire.
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Thorpe was a very fine batsman (& pretty good fielder, too). I was at Trent Bridge when he made a hundred on debut, & you could immediately tell he had class in what (as you rightly say) was a pretty dire period for English cricket.
Reading his obits today, it seems he had significant mental health demons, about which I had little idea (haven’t read his ghosted biog).
He was also a tidy footballer in his youth - good enough to play for England at U-16 & -17 level, before he decided to concentrate on cricket. A sort of inverse Phil Neville, who was seen as a serious batting prospect by Lancashire until he switched to football full-time.
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Story today is that Thorpe took his own life.
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Bl8mey. Really? I thought they'd all checked out long since.
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Melvyn Hayes, Stuart McGugan, Michael Knowles and George Layton still going. Just.
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I have never watched a single episode of Dad's Army.
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Whilst entertaining, I'm not sure it's something you should put anywhere near the top of any list.
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Don’t panic
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Given it's largely just repetition of catchphrases, I'm not sure it's markedly diffferent from The Fast Show or Mary Whitehouse Experience.
Yes, that is a deliberate extrapolation.
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Bit of a non sequitur, when Gunner Graham was in Aint Half Hot Mum. Which never gets repeated due to ‘certain problems’.
Ah, reading the article, he was in dads army as well.
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Have also never seen a single episode of It Ain't Half Hot Mum. While we're at it, also Steptoe and Son, Are You Being Served and Til Death Us Do Part.
The TV was not a big thing in my house growing up, and I have never been all that interested in sitcoms. They did used to watch To The Manor Born, so I've seen quite a few of those.
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I think my parents watched all of the staple racist ones but not so much the misogynistic yak-yak-yak variety, which were more popular a decade or so earlier, when mum was too busy working as a nurse all day before coming home to do tea while dad was on the Skol and bitter mix and chasing crumpet after work, so they couldn't really afford a telly anyway. Corr.
Not really.
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Remember It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and Dad’s. Very little Steptoe and Are you Being Served.
The one that escaped me and always shocks people is Only Fools. Never got it. Still don’t. -
Steptoe finished when I was three. Think it was mostly (maybe all?) in black and white, so rarely repeated. I’ve never seen an episode.
