A brief cricketing interlude

No, don't worry, I'm not going to start on about the Ashes or what Australia need to do to reverse their decline (build a time machine?). I just thought I'd point you in the direction of this little interview with Derek Randall, a player who was one of my two great heroes when I was a kid (David Gower was the other). In part it was because his 174 in the Centenary Test was just about at the time I was becoming aware of cricket, and in part it was down to his fielding, incredible then and even now, in an era of much higher standards, among the best ever seen. But mainly, I suspect, it was because 'Arkle' came across exactly as he does here - a down-to-earth Nottinghamshire lad who got lucky and remained grateful throughout a long and successful career (he's far too modest about the role he played in making Notts a major power in the 1980s).