His local butcher had promised him a lamb chop for every run he scored up to 50, and a steak per run after that

At Lord's, England pulled two surprises. The first was Denness's resignation as captain and replacement by Greig. The second was the call-up of Northamptonshire's David Steele, hoping for a dose of nominative determinism. Grey-haired, bespectacled and 33 years old, Steele looked an unlikely saviour. His local butcher had promised him a lamb chop for every run he scored up to 50, and a steak per run after that. The tabloid press likened him to a bank manager; Lillee nicknamed him "Groucho". 

K. Harris, The Queen at the cricket (2022), 80

All her previous visits to Tests at headquarters, as sovereign, had been on the fourth day

MCC, exasperated after the Queen had missed play in all three Lord's Tests she was scheduled to attend since the previous Ashes, arranged for her to visit on the first day [22 June 1961]. All her previous visits to Tests at headquarters, as sovereign, had been on the fourth day: the Monday after the rest day. She returned to this pattern the following year.

K. Harris, The Queen at the cricket (2022), 40

No young women, no matter how clever, could break her way out of a dress like that

Every day she wore a dress of black-and-red-checked imitation wool, so big it was baggy on her, and a pair of homemade, grey cloth shoes,. She had a lot of siblings, so she wouldn't get any pretty clothes until she had a likely match - but since she didn't have anything pretty to wear, she couldn't get a match. she was trapped in a vicious circle, doomed to spend her blooming years in wishful longing: no young women, no matter how clever, could break her way out of a dress like that.

E. Chang, 'In the waiting room' tr. K.S. Kingsbury, Lust, Caution and other stories (1979), 43

A slowly decaying piece of meatish fallibility in clothes

The body is, in its essentials, a very, very slow one-man horror show: a slowly decaying piece of meatish fallibility in clothes, over the sensations of which we have very little control. Donne looked at it, saw it, and did not blink. He walked straight at it: no explanation, justification, so cheerful sallies. There was just the clear-eyed acknowledgement of the precise anatomy and scale, the look and feel, the reality of ruin.

K. Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (2022), 69

There were more books in Oxford, more people his own age, less dying

All students over sixteen were required to take an oath acknowledging royal supremacy over all questions of religion: but it was thought that a child under sixteen couldn’t be expected to understand the nature of the oath, and therefore the young brothers could live under the radar in Hart Hall, a place with a reputation for nurturing and protecting Catholics. There was less burning in the streets of Oxford than in London (at least since Archbishop Cranmer, condemned by Mary for refusing toe acknowledge papal supremacy, had med a fiery death in 1556). There were more books in Oxford, more people his own age, less dying.


K. Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (2022), 32-33