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Fans of cricket rejoice, Dr James (who studied the dynamics of cricket pitches for his PhD) has recorded a lecture on the various issues of engineering and cricket for all to enjoy. Dr James is our resident ‘Public Engagement Tsar’ having presented to a countless number of dignitaries at prestigious societies and institutions and numerous science festivals.
I usually insist that any post on EngineeringSport contains at least a modicum of science in the written content. However, Dr James has packed so much into his 36 minute lecture that I’m forgoing the rule this time.
Enjoy the video.
Simon Choppin
England celebrate in front of the 'barmy army' after retaining the Ashes for the first time in 24 years.
For those of you who don’t watch cricket, or even know what it is, it is often described to novices as an 11-a-side bat and ball game that lasts up to 5 days, sometimes ending in a draw. For cricket followers, though, a 5 day test match is a chance to immerse yourself in the ebbs and flows of cricketing tension and to discuss endless batting and bowling statistics.
So, to the Ashes – the pre-eminent cricket series played between England and Australia and dating back to 1882. We’re currently 4 tests into the 2010-11 series, England have won two tests, Australia one and one has been drawn. This means that, even with one test to go, England retain the Ashes for the first time in a generation. In four test matches of two innings for each team, England have scored around 2,000 runs with batsmen getting anything from zero to a massive 235 runs (Alastair Cook in the Brisbane Test).
Now, cricket is an intensely strategic sport. The decision of whether to bat or bowl after the toss of the coin on the first day can decide the whole series. And that’s just the start of it: how do you deploy your fielders; when do you use your spinners or your seam bowlers; how will the state of the cracks in the pitch affect the bounce (I’ve supervised not one but two PhDs in this area)?
So, how surprised was I to find that all that has gone on in the Ashes down the years can be boiled down to one law – Benford’s Law, first postulated by Simon Newcomb just one year before the first Ashes series 130 years ago?
Introduction
In some spare time a few years back I began to compile a record of patents relating to cricket bats. I now have a near definitive record for all patents published. Analysis of this data threw up a number of trends and notions around the inventiveness and capacity to invent in cricket playing nations. Some of these are instinctive, and some are revealing.
Bear in mind that this is a brief analysis of patents published. It does not include ideas and inventions or otherwise that were never patented, of which there must be many. The data provided here shows how human invention reveals itself in cricket bats, and I make a connection to their countries of origin. Not being a historian or social scientist I will leave more detailed interpretations and analysis to those with the knowledge to do so. I hope that any who do have this knowledge will share it and improve my own historical knowledge around cricket and creativity.
In total there has been (at least) 107 cricket bat related patents published since 1884. On-line records show 100 patents going back as far as 1894. An additional 7 have been found through research that date from 1884 to 1891. There may be a few more published patents hidden in the archives, although this is unlikely to be more than a handful.
Read the rest of this entry »
In October 2008 the Marylebone Cricket Club changed Law 6 of the Laws of Cricket. Law 6 concerns the bat, what it’s made from, how its made and even how it can be repaired if damaged. Two innovations in bat manufacture sparked this rare reaction from the MCC, these laws aren’t changed very often. Since the first codified rules were written in 1744, the chronology of changes affecting the bat is, 1774 (first rule for the bat), 1809, 1979, and 2008.
In this latest episode, the first innovation was the colourful (or glaring) glass-fibre sheet covering the back of the Kookaburra bats launched in December 2004. The second is the carbon-fibre composite bat handles produced by Newbery, Puma, and Gray Nicolls from 2006. These bats were rendered illegal by the rule-change, a move which might have served to protect the spirit and balance of the game had a new Mongoose bat not appeared in 2008 and been declared legal. I’ll explain. Read the rest of this entry »
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