Python explain the rules of Cricket Page 2

Quote: Oldrocker @ September 21 2009, 12:12 AM BST

Never mind Python, it's quite simple . .

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.

Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.

When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.

There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

Capice?

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Isn't that the Two Ronnies?

Googling gives a variety of sites none of which appear to quote a definitive source. I suppose the 2Rs could have 'borrowed' it.

But while browsing through said sites I came across this which I'd forgotten about !

"The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity" - George Bernard Shaw

Quote: Oldrocker @ September 21 2009, 12:50 PM BST

"The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity" - George Bernard Shaw

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My wife told him that.

Think you will find it's the Secret Policeman's Ball

view on Google Books

Yes I remember hearing it with Palin / Jones on the Secret Policeman's Ball album, though I am not sure of the source for it before that.

Come to that, Python often do the Pope and Michelangelo sketch of the painting of the Last Supper (they even did it on Python live at the O2 last night), but I don't think it was ever done by Python in their shows, so where did it come from?

That sounds more like Pete 'n' Dud.

I know this is a REALLY old thread but - I found this youtube clip (audio only) that has the main part of the skit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgrSqRJpj3o

ETA: Definitely Palin and Jones; on the Secret Policeman's Ball album; the youtube video of the whole concert does not include this skit (must have occurred on a different night)

Quote: Oldrocker @ 21st September 2009, 4:12 AM

Never mind Python, it's quite simple . .

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.

Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.

When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.

There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

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Explaining the rules of cricket in the above humorous and confusing way would have been right up Ronnie Barker's street. I can't think of anybody else who might have done it better.

However, I think you'll find that particular explanation was doing the rounds long before most people in Britain had a TV set.