#so like that will drag my whole average down if it take hindi

[sunsetpan0rama]

i don't know what cbse is like because in icse we only have english and a second language but avoid taking hindi if the marking scheme is rigid. maybe where u live u speak hindi as the regional language or in your home so it might be different for you but if my school offered french i would take it without a single doubt because a) icse hindi marking scheme is BRUTAL i know only 3 people who got above 57/80 in prelims and b) french is kind of an easy language to grasp because the text is in english and many of the basic words are similar to english words especially the larger action verbs and c) (specific to me only but lets see if it helps) i am gujarati and marathi i do not come from a remotely hindi family my parents moved to my city for job opportunities at a very young age and i have grown up speaking english or gujrati in my house so much that i literally did not learn hindi speaking till 3rd grade. even now i have barely a few friends i talk to hindi in, most stuff i watch is in english and i never got good marks inhindi because i lack practice which is KEY.

another thing i would tell you to take french is because you will realistically not come across naturally french speaking people in india so the bar for that will be much lower and easier to break. i know which area of the country you live in and starting off in 8th with hindi your language scoring WILL be at a higher bar for sure than french where you'll start from the basics, and in the event that you make mistakes the examiner will grade you more leniently because you will not speak it as a natural language which in my experience is not something that hindi examiners will do. its also up to what future you want for yourself bc government jobs and stuff will be easier with hindi but for westernish or progressive jobs it's better to take french

EXACTLY LIKE THEY ARE SO LENIENT IN FRENCH AND LIKE HINDI BEING THE MOTHER TONGUE HERE THE BAR IS SO MUCH HIGHER and our sir was literally telling us today how cbse is so lenient with marks in french cause its our third language but also like. i literally cannot understand/read french that well cause during covid i did not study french at all AND AGHHHHH WHY IS THIS SO CONFUSING

[hucc]

Hackney Umpires v Islington Lions Sunday 9th September 2018 Wray Crescent

A man decides after seventy years

That what he goes to Wray for, is to unlock the door

While those around him criticize and sleep

And through a fractal on a breaking wall

I see you my friend, and touch your face again

Miracles will happen as we play

© Seal 1990 (sort of anyway)

Fixtures-wise it’s been a bit of a headache this year. Given we only play twice a month, a couple of cancellations meant the Umpires had not taken the field since beating Kent Ramblas in West Wickham at the beginning of July. (This is of course to overlook our participation in the annual London Fields 6s tournament, and let’s be honest, that was another pretty forgettable performance in a short-form cricket tournament.  If ‘performance’ is not too strong a word).

So yes, two whole months since we took to the field.  You had to wonder how rusty we’d be.  One thing was for sure though, we wouldn’t be as rusty as the Wray Crescent park-keeper’s mower, which, judging by the length of the grass on the outfield, had also not seen the light of day for some considerable time.  In fact, the only grass that had been harvested at Wray was being consumed by the footballers who reluctantly vacated the playing surface to enjoy a bit of heckling from the side.  Ah Wray Crescent, it was ever thus.

Despite the rudimentary facilities there was a lot at stake: Hackney v Islington, a north London derby if you will.  This being a hurriedly arranged replacement fixture, the Islington Lions were a complete unknown.  Would we be savagely mauled? Could we tame the mighty King of the Jungle?

Come to mention it, why is the lion called the king of jungle when it lives out on the savannah? Hmm, good question my friend, and as you ask: jungle is a word in Hindi meaning ‘not an inhabited place’, or a wilderness.  With England playing India at the Oval a little bit of Hindi seems appropriate, and what more wilderness could one possibly need than Wray Crescent?

The skipper wins another toss and opts to bat first.  Anthony and Simon march out purposefully.  Simon’s orange bandana protecting his urdu from his batting helmet (OK I’ll stop with that now).  

We take a collective deep breath as the opening bowler runs in….and then relax: our openers are looking good, comfortably stopping the occasional straight one while getting full value from anything loose.

Simon in particular looks like he could fill his boots, while Anthony though scoring well, was struggling with a leg injury and survives a couple of half-chances, one of which was probably a three-quarters-chance, before Manny makes an early appearance for the day as umpire, raising the finger of doom in response to a strong LBW appeal.  With Anthony gone for 25, Kieran joins Simon and they press relentlessly on.  After 10 overs we are 99-1 and the Lions go very quiet in the field.  Little do they know how thin our batting line up is: with Harry stuck on a Ryan Air flight and David otherwise detained, chief archivist MK O’Brien is in next at a vertiginous 4 and the rest of the middle order is not exactly famed for run-scoring.

Simon takes up the pipe and slippers of retirement in the 12th over having reached the pre-agreed limit of 50, but at drinks, halfway through our 30 overs, Hackney are a healthy 136-1 and Islington seem less a pride and more an embarrassment of Lions. The only star performer for the opposition thus far has been Brenda, who made a couple of brave stops and was particularly impressive at leaping over the fence to retrieve the ball.

Kieran blasts a couple of mighty 6s after drinks and retires.  The opposition by now have turned to the more eclectic of their bowling options.  One end sees Henn with the archetypal spasmodically-jerking octopus-falling-from-a-tree off a three-step “run” in.  At the other it’s less frog-in-a-blender and more Brenda in a fog, that fog being primarily a cloud of uncertainty about the legality of her action.  But any danger, such as it is, is primarily to pride and Billy has to suck that up, bowled by the rightly-feared double-bouncing straight one. A few overs later the Archivist contrives to pick out a fielder with a mow to mid-wicket and while the run rate remains healthy at 182-3 we have 8 overs left and a collapse now would see us in trouble.

David in at 6, is joined by Manny.  And this seems like a good point to delve into the archives and peruse their respective batting statistics.  I’m sure they won’t mind.  Well they might, but what the hell I say.  

Before today David had batted 11 times scoring 171 with an average of 10.90. Meanwhile in 24 appearances Manny had batted 14 times scoring 56 runs at an average of 6.38, his top score of 18 for the Umpires coming in his first ever innings against the fearsome GB Strikers, mainly, if memory serves, comprised of edges down to third man.

So, let’s face it, about as much pedigree as a tin of dog food.  

After a couple of nervy looking singles they convene between overs in the middle.  Standing behind the stumps umpiring it was hard to hear exactly what was being discussed.  But I fancy Manny was saying something like:

We’re never gonna survive, unless:

We get a little crazy

No, we’re never gonna survive, unless:

We get a little cra-eyah-eyah-eyah-zy

What followed was one of the most joyous, exuberant and exciting passages of play that I have witnessed for the Hackney Umpires.  This was, genuinely, batting that would empty the bars, if of course the pavilion at Wray Crescent was able to stretch to a bar, or indeed Wray Crescent was able to stretch to a pavilion that had not been condemned as a dangerous structure.

I know what you’re thinking. When I suggest this was ‘empty-the-bar batting’ it’s as in the bouncers at Clapham Infernos dragging you off with your trousers round your ankles because you’ve just vomited Jaeger Bomb residue down your Ben Sherman shirt.  This might ring a few bells with those who have seen Manny’s batting over the years, but you couldn’t be more wrong: this was an innings to stir the emotions with no little skill and heart along the way.  Yes, there were the odd ugly swipes here and there, what night at Clapham Infernos doesn’t have that? But there were times on that Wray Crescent dancefloor when Manny’s footwork shone as brightly as any batting the Umpires have seen.  The ramp played it’s part, of course it did: the feint to leg, the switch of grip, the ball sailing down to fine leg. But it wasn’t just the unorthodox.  There were at least two beautifully straight (lofted yes, but that was only to get over the top of the grass) full-bloodied drives, middled and timed to absolute perfection.

At the other end David played his supporting role with no less skill and selflessness.  In pursuit of the maximum team score either could have tried to farm the strike to get to 50 or indeed held back on the running between the wickets to avoid being out.  But no, with wickets in hand, this was positive batting for the team cause.  Manny’s 44 not out takes him to exactly 100 career runs for the Umpires and a new improved average of 11.88.  David’s unbeaten 41 gets him to an average of 15.00.  And in 8 overs between them they hit 78 runs including 12 fours seeing us to a breathless 260-3, matching our highest total achieved in our last innings against Kent Ramblas in 5 fewer overs.  Pick the bones out of that Lions.

What is the saying about a cornered lion though? Or is a tiger?  Some kind of big cat anyway right?  Although the outfield is slow, the boundaries are short and in village cricket, even urban-village cricket, it only takes one stout yeoman to get his eye in, the ball disappearing to all corners and the wheels can come off pretty fast.  

Our youthful opening bowling pair: Billy and, new recruit Michael Brown, have the Islington openers hopping around from the start of their reply.  Michael was very unlucky, several times finding the inside edge.  Billy strikes in the 7th over, getting some bounce, nipping the glove, and a good take by stand-in keeper Simon.  Manny meanwhile can’t stay out of the game with some excellent fielding, and he then bowls the other opener.  Somehow the Lions keep going and make it to drinks without further losses, and at the final interval the game remains alive with Islington 120-2 and wickets in reserve.  

The run rate though was creeping ominously up to over 9 an over. So there’s pressure on the batting side.  David Dawkins takes the first over after drinks: it’s a maiden and the run rate is now exactly 10.  Brilliant bowling by David, which gets its reward the very first ball of the next over, as slow-left-arm snaffles their top scoring batsman for 47, caught in the slips by the ever reliable hands of Anthony.

And if we were favourites up to that point we dominated after that.  Any time Kieran only bowls 2 overs means we’ve either done very well or very badly.  There was some excellent fielding along the way from Michael and from Kannan, while Billy was fizzing the ball unerringly over the stumps from the deep.  We also had a few moments of high comedy, perhaps as we started to get a bit tired.  

David takes a wicket in his final over and his 6 overs 1 for 24 in a high scoring game made a big difference.  Michael also returned for a second spell deservedly getting a wicket, Manny, inevitably, taking the catch. The opposition tail-enders seemed intent on playing out the overs, but this became a procession long before the end with Islington eventually 71 runs adrift on 189-6.

5 matches completed in 2018.  3 wins, a draw and a loss (and we should never ever have lost that one either).  With one fixture remaining this was a confidence-boosting victory against fun opposition.  With all due respect to the opposition (and I acknowledge starting a sentence ‘with all due respect’ is usually the precursor to the exact opposite) but with all due respect bla bla bla we made them look pretty rubbish at times, and occasionally they did it to themselves without our help.  We will need to up our game against London Fields on Sunday.

Despite his injury Anthony stuck it out and confidently steered us to a 5th victory in 11 games as skipper.  Michael had a great debut performing brilliantly in the field.  Kieran and Simon were way above anything Islington had to offer in terms of batting quality.  But the true performances of the day were David with bat and ball and Manny with just about everything he did, edging David out for the man of the match award.

HUCC 260-3 (S Griffin 51*; K Kumaria50*; M Hawks 44*; D Dawkins 41*)

Islington Lions 189-6 (M O’Brien 2/50; D Dawkins 1/24)

Hackney Umpires win by 71 runs.  Man of the match Manny 'Crazy' Hawks.    

Up the Umpires!