A S H Smyth › Zooming windows

Skip to content

Tag Archives: cricket

Zooming windows

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Interview with members of the George Formby Society, as they attempt to break an online ukulele-playing record. — For The Critic

Filed in feature, interview, Journalism | Also tagged Alastair Cook, America, army, Australia, banjos, Batley, BBC, Bette Davis, bingo, Blackpool, Canada, Covid-19, Cyprus, dating, Ed Balls, Facebook, Falkland Islands Radio Service, France, Frank Skinner, friends, George Formby, German, Germany, grandmothers, Guinness, Gyles Brandreth, Harry HIll, Hawaii, Humphrey Bogart, Italy, jellyfish, lyrics, mental health, music, naturism, nuclear power, proletarians, Queen Elizabeth II, records, Royal Albert Hall, Russia, Simon Rose, smut, Swahili, The Critic, The Daily Telegraph, the George Formby Society, the Queen Mother, the RAF, Tottenham, ukuleles, Warrington Museum, Welsh, windows, WWII, Yorkshire, Zoom | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, September 21, 2020

. Forty Popes have lived less than a year after their election. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Friday, January 18 1907 . Ethiopia has exported its first avocados by train. The Communist Party banned photocopiers. More geese than swans now live. In Brazil there is a butterfly that uses its legs for running. All Pakistani […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Alastair Cook, beer, birds, Brazil, butterflies, Cecil Court, class, coats, Communism, death, elections, Ethiopia, fruit, Great Britain, Nelson Evening Mail, news, Pakistan, photocopiers, religion, Saracens, satire, sealioning, Sir Paul McCartney, The Beatles, the internet, train-travel, William Huskisson | Comments (0)

‘Cheese sandwich optional’

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Review of Lev Parikian’s cheerful and entertaining Into the Tangled Bank: In which our author ventures outside to consider the British in nature. — For Geographical

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Audis, Beethoven, birds, Darwin, Elliot and Thompson Limited, Etta Lemon, Gilbert White, John Clare, Lev Parikian, London, music, nature, non-fiction, RSPB, sandwiches, Scotland, spiders, the Arctic, the BBC, the British, the Thames, Wales, Walter Rothschild | Comments (0)

Hat trick ball

Thursday, July 16, 2020

My mate Howard has found a cricket ball in his aunt’s attic… — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged beer, Bolton, British Army, courts martial, drink, Gibraltar, Gunner magazine, hats, history, James Costello, Lancashire, pubs, Royal Engineers, Royal Garrison Artillery, statistics, The Critic, Town Malling Cricket Club, Wisden, WWI | Comments (0)

The One That Got Away – Thusith Wijedoru

Sunday, July 12, 2020

The Sri Lankan sports photographer talks about the greatest shot he never got… and one he did. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times

Filed in column, interview, Journalism | Also tagged advertising, Alex Hales, Australia, Bangladesh, Carlsberg, Chandrishan Perera, England, Hong Kong, India, Kumar Sangakkara, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, New Zealand, Percy Abeysekera, rugby, security, South Africa, sport, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL), Thusith Wijedoru, Tillakaratne Dilshan, United Arab Emirates | Comments (0)

State of the nation

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Review of Andrew Fidel Fernando’s debut book Upon a Sleepless Isle, which has just won Sri Lanka’s Gratiaen Prize (2019) for English-language literature. — For The Critic

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Andrew Fidel Fernando, Anuradhapura, beards, beer, Booker Prize, children, Colombo, colonialism, elephants, English, ESPNCricinfo, Gratiaen Prize, humour, Jaffna, John Still, Kandy, LTTE, Michael Ondaatje, Minneriya, New Zealand, Nuwara Eliya, Picador India, Polonnaruwa, Shehan Karunatilaka, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, tea, the British, The Critic, the Victorians, tourism, travel, tuktuks, Uva Rebellion, writers | Comments (0)

May Day, May Day…

Monday, May 4, 2020

A lockdown letter from Colombo. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Amazon, Argentina, army, beer, children, China, Colombo, coronavirus, Dominic Hilton, drink, Facebook, food, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, health, letters, lockdown, May Day, Mel Gibson, money, Osama bin Laden, painting, peacocks, quizzes, Sanskrit, shopping, Singapore, Sinhala, socialism, Sri Lanka, swimming, the British, The Critic, UberEats, work | Comments (0)

‘It is the living we should fear’

Sunday, March 29, 2020

DISCLAIMER: Ten years ago, I reviewed Shehan Karunatilaka’s debut novel, Chinaman, for this newspaper. It was brilliant, I said, and everyone should buy it. I noted, though, for form’s sake, that I’d done some light proofreading of the manuscript, and hoped that this would not be taken either as cause or symptom of inoperable bias. […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged BBC, children, Colombo, Commonwealth Book Prize, cousins, death, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, Elvis Presley, Gratiaen Award, Herodotus, independence, Marlon James, Marxism, Michael Ondaatje, Nietzsche, novels, Oscar Wilde, pangolins, Penguin India, photography, Richard de Zoysa, Shehan Karunatilaka, Singlish, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL), The Mahavamsa, The Matrix, war, Wisden | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, October 28, 2019

. During one year a high police official in New York was offered £120,000 in bribes to “look the other way.” — The Nelson Evening Mail, Tuesday, June 22 1909 . The night is chilly to a man without clothes. You get a free tote bag if you subscribe to almost anything. Sussex folk have few superstitions. There […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Americans, bags, books, clothing, crime, death, elephants, garlic, Glasgow University, international affairs, mental health, monarchy, money, Nelson Evening Mail, news, Pocahontas, rabies, religion, satire, sex, sleep, Sussex, the English, the Irish, the Lonely Planet, Thomas Mann, towns, travel, trees, weather | Comments (0)

Master class

Sunday, October 27, 2019

An evening with Kumar Sangakkara. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged charity, cheese, Council for Business with Britain, County Championship, Cricket World Cup, drink, education, film, Foundation of Goodness, geography, Great Britain, Heraclitus, HSBC, Kumar Sangakkara, Kushil Gunasekera, Lord's, Mark Prothero, Marylebone Cricket Club, parents, records, Seenigama, Shangri-La, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL), Surrey | Comments (0)