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In last week’s Sideline Eye I put a story in about a letter I had received on the fast bowling exploits of Charlie Swindle.
Well I received an email late last week which has clarified things for me.
Charlie was a talented batsman and it was his brother Peter Swindle who was the quick.
The email went on to say Charlie once hit 46 runs off an over!
It also said that Peter and his wicketkeeper used to play a joke on opposition batsmen.
Peter would run in and go through his delivery action but not let go of the ball.
The wicketkeeper had a spare ball in his pads which he would take out and act like he had gloved Peter’s delivery, much to the dismay of the man on strike.
I am sure it would have scared a number of opposing batsmen!
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The 2014-15 Barclays Premier League finished in the early hours of Monday morning.
While the winner was decided two weeks ago, there was still a lot of interest in the relegation battle.
In the Premier League, the bottom three teams each season drop down to the next level of competition, the League Championship.
Three teams from the Championship gain promotion to the Premier League.
Queens Park Rangers’ and Burnley’s fate had already been decided with Hull City and Newcastle fighting to stay in the top flight.
There is more than pride at stake in staying up with enormous prize money on offer even for last place.
Queens Park Rangers finished dead last, but still secured 65.5 million pounds.
The breakdown of the prize money is that all 20 teams receive 55 million pounds.
Last place earn an extra 1.2 million pounds for finishing 20th while 19th receive 2.4 million and each place further up the ladder receive an extra 1.2 million than the team below them.
Winners Chelsea received 24 million pounds.
Teams are then allocated 750,000 pounds for every home game played live on television or a minimum 7.5 million pounds if less than 10 matches were covered.
Chelsea had 24 matches shown for an extra 18 million pounds.
Manchester City had 26 matches televised and therefore received 97.2 million pounds to Chelsea’s 97 million pounds despite finishing second.
These figures are substantially higher than in the Championship, adding to the lure for teams wishing to be promoted and teams fighting to stave off relegation.
Newcastle managed this, much to the delight of a couple of Magpies fans I know, while Hull City will be in the Championship despite holding Manchester United to a final day draw.
The end of the season leaves me counting down the days for three months until the new season starts.
Arsenal finished third and will defend their FA Cup title against Aston Villa this weekend.
At least I have that to look forward to, unlike all those poor Tottenham fans.