23 November 2007

Howzat!

Greetings,

The weather's warming up Down Under, and that means it's cricket season!

No, I'm not referring to the noisy little insect belonging to the order Orthoptera, but rather to the game played far and wide across this great brown land. And I was reminded that it was cricket season last weekend, when we drove our daughter (who came up from Melbourne on a flying visit) to the wedding of two of her friends. The marriage had a Bush Wedding theme and was held in a lovely leafy suburb a mere 10 km from the centre of the city. 

We arrived a little early and spent a pleasant 15 minutes watching a game of cricket taking place next to the Country Hall which was the venue for the wedding. Click to see photos. (Now you know why we love Brisbane!) 

For those of you not familiar with the finer points of the game, here's a quick rundown, just in case you find yourself with time to spare and a game nearby ...

There are two teams of 11, and the object of the game is for one side to dislodge two little bits of wood that are balanced on three sticks stuck in the ground at either end of a strip of denuded grass, and for the other side to run up and down the strip as many times as possible. In order to run, the team defending the sticks has to hit the ball to buggery and the other side have to chase it and try to throw it back to knock the little bits of wood off.

And that's basically it, really.

Thinking about it like that, it's sort of hard to see the attraction, isn't it? But like any sport, it's all in the skills ... and the terminology. And when it comes to fielding positions and plays, Cricket has some doosies. Allow me to illustrate ...

The side that's fielding, (trying to knock the bails off the stumps) arrange themselves around the ground and can take up position as first, second or third slip (and no, that doesn't mean they fall over all the time); they can be in mid-off, mid-on or mid-wicket position; they can be at silly point (which really is a very silly position, because it's right near where the batsman belts the ball); they can take up their stance at square leg or fine leg (and for ladies interested, I have to disappoint you and tell you that this has nothing to do with an attractive pair of pins, but is yet another fielding position) or they can be at backward square leg or even deep backward square leg!

A yorker is (and I quote) "a ball bounced very close to the batsman's crease" and lest you worry unnecessarily, the crease is "a painted line within which the bowler must bowl and at which the opposing batsman stands. One at each end of the pitch."

When a bowler bowls a maiden over, it's not time for concerned parents to distract their innocent children, but rather an over (a series of 6 consecutive balls bowled) wherein no runs were scored.

And when the umpire say's "Over" it doesn't really mean it's over ... it's actually just beginning ...

And if a batter gets a duck, he doesn't smack his lips and look forward to a nice dinner with orange sauce, but walks dejectedly from the field because he's just got out without scoring any runs.

Ah yes, I could go on, but I'm sure you'd rather find out for yourself -- here's everything you ever wanted to know about cricket and a good explanation of how to play. 

Want to tell your friends how to play cricket? Why not have a chat about it now? With Skype you can make free calls over the Internet – the whole world can talk for free

We began by making a nodding acquaintance with our local crickets (as distinct from our local cricketers), so let's get to know them a bit better. Crickets, remember, are members of the order Orthoptera, and this is part of the brilliant classification system developed by Carolus Linnaeus, an C18th doctor. (The name Orthoptera is derived from orthos meaning "straight" and pteron meaning "wing.")

"Scientific Classification is the method scientists have developed to arrange all of the world's organisms into groups. Scientists include extinct organisms as well as living things in this arrangement. They base their classification system on the biological similarities that exist among species (kinds) of organisms. Classification creates a method for organizing facts about organisms and groups of organisms. It also reflects how living things have developed and changed over time.

"Organisms are divided into seven major groups called kingdoms; phyla (or divisions); classes; orders; families; genera; and species."

Here's a good explanation of the scientific classification of living things. 

So now you can discover some of your close rellies with ease!

And a short story about a frustrated cricket coach:

"What for?" they asked.

"To make sure you catch something this season!" he said.

This week's quiz:

What else but some terms from that fine old art of taxonomy (you thought I was going to say 'cricket,' didn't you?)

species, protists, allotype, holotype, neotype, taxon, monera, genus, phylum, ontology 

1. the primary subdivision of a taxonomic kingdom, grouping together all classes of organisms that have the same body plan 

2. specimen chosen as the standard bearer of a species or subspecies name for which none of the original type specimens exist 

3. the usual major subdivision of a family or subfamily in the classification of organisms, usually consisting of more than one species 

4. a taxonomic kingdom of prokaryotic organisms that typically reproduce by asexual budding or fission and have a nutritional mode of absorption, photosynthesis, or chemosynthesis, comprising the bacteria, blue-green algae and various primitive pathogens 

5. a group of living organisms that can breed and reproduce offspring 

6. a type specimen of the sex opposite to that of the holotype 

7. an explicit formal specification of how to represent the objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them; a rigorous and exhaustive organisation of some knowledge domain that is usually hierarchical and contains all the relevant entities and their relations; systematic account of Existence 

8. one or more organisms that belong to the same taxonomic unit 

9. specimen that serves as the standard bearer of a species or subspecies name -

10. a taxonomic kingdom consisting of any of a group of eukaryotic organisms; include a variety of unicellular, coenocytic, colonial and multicellular organisms, such as the protozoans, slime molds, brown algae and red algae 

Here's a lesson for any of our 'Murkin cousins invited to a game of cricket:

An American had been told to go to a cricket match while he was in England. He watched with pleasure as the teams came out and the batsman scored four runs off the first six balls. Then the umpire called "OVER." 

"Well," he said, getting up, "it's a nice game - but it's very short!"

Last week's quiz:

Since we've spent a bit of time admiring the work going on around town, let's have a bit of a go at landscaping this week ... Match up the terms and their definitions:

champaign, exedra, folly, arboriculture, ha-ha, belvedere, espalier, festoon, hermitage, loggia

1. garden building built primarily for visual effect; a whimsical or extravagant structure built to serve as a conversation piece, lend interest to a view, commemorate a person or event, etc.; popular in England in the 18th century - FOLLY

2. the art, science, technology and business of tree care - ARBORICULTURE

3. garden building, often complete with a hired "hermit" to live there, calculated to raise an appreciation for contemplation in the context of nature - HERMITAGE

4. series of fruit trees trained on a framework of lines and stakes to form a hedge - ESPALIER

5. gallery or arcade that is roofed but open, along the front or side of a building, and often on an upper level - LOGGIA

6. garland of leaves or ribbons suspended in a loop between two points - FESTOON

7. a gazebo sited to command a fine view - BELVEDERE

8. sunk fence; a ditch with one sloping side and one vertical side into which is built a retaining wall; creates a barrier for sheep, cattle and deer while allowing an unbroken view of the landscape - HA-HA

9. an out-of-door seat in stone, large enough for several persons; especially one of curved form - EXEDRA

10. extensive tract of level open land - CHAMPAIGN

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And I couldn't resist this one, because it's so true!

They split up so that they could learn more in the time allowed.

When they met to share their knowledge, the first alien told of a religious ceremony it had seen.

"I went to a large green field shaped like a meteorite crater. Around the edges, several thousand worshippers gathered. Then two priests walk to the centre of the field to a rectangular area and hammer six spears into the ground, three at each end. Then eleven more priests walk out, clad in white robes. Then two high priests wielding clubs walk to the centre and one of the other priests starts throwing a red orb at the ones with the clubs."

"Gee," replied the other alien, "what happens next?"

"Then it begins to rain."

And it does ... every time!

A Little Something Extra

Some people just have Good Ideas, don't they? And some of these ideas leave you gasping for air at their sheer magnitude ... 

To digress for a moment ... Have you ever sat with young children as they played with a bucket of coloured pegs? Watch what they do ... almost without exception, they'll start sorting the pegs into colour groups. It must be something that's hard-wired into the human brain.

Now watch what they do with a tin of buttons (when they're older and have gone past the "putting everything in their mouths" stage, of course). I can vividly recall my two children happily engrossed in sorting the buttons from my button tin when I was sewing; they'd start arranging them in size, then colour, then shape, then composition, then pattern, then texture and so on ... 

There are so many different ways to sort a few buttons from a tin, aren't there?  Now imagine where you'd start if you were going to sort out every living thing on the planet!

That's exactly what our friend Carolus Linnaeus did. Read about this man's amazing work.  

Word of the week: Taxonomy (n) practice of classifying plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships; a classification of organisms into groups based on similarities of structure or origin etc

But it's not just living things these days that are classified ... Taxonomy can also refer to "a grouping of terms representing topics or subject categories. A taxonomy is typically structured so that its terms exhibit hierarchical relationships to one another, between broader and narrower concepts."

This word comes (as do many of our scientific words) from ancient Greek, instead of Latin. In fact, it comes from two Greek words: Greek taxis meaning 'arrangement' and nomia meaning 'method.' 

Oxymoron of the week: simple classification

And this week's Latin phrase is for when you're at a cricket match and you can offer gratuitous advice to the umpire:

Minime latum!

[mee-NEE-may LAH-toom]

(A little wide)