After listening to Richard II last night, I turned the cricket on in a desultory fashion.  A big strong man sent the next ball clean into the top tier.  And he kept going.  It looked so easy, so natural.  Very experienced commentators were in awe.  A press clipping about him follows.

Josh Brown looks like he might be a member of the O’Toole family, a wood-chopper from the bush.  In a shy, matter of fact way, Josh told the Fox pony-tailed boundary rider that about five years ago, someone thought he may be able to play cricket.  And so, he tried – while making bats in his day job.  (Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural.) 

Josh made that score against a very strong bowling side – who looked spooked – and created that sense of inevitability as if he was living in his own time.  I can’t recall anything like it.

Josh said he was keen to learn from the champions, but that he had two things in mind when batting.  You treat every ball on its merits.  And you make sure you are quite still when you hit it.  And then, as they say in the movie, ‘It’s good bye Mr Spalding.’

We have learned not to put the curse on possible new stars.

Here’s hoping – and may God protect him.  We could all do with a lift.

And one type of bat will sell out very early today.  At a mere $700 – peanuts for stardust.

Bat maker Brown blasts Heat to BBL win

Josh Brown makes his own Cooper Bison bats and showed he can wield them too as he lit up the Gabba with a whirlwind half-century to inspire the Brisbane Heat’s 15-run win over the Sydney Sixers.

The 29-year-old Brown earlier produced his whirlwind innings to score 62 off just 23 balls in the Heat’s 5-224.

The Sixers made a gallant response in their pursuit of a BBL record run chase, but fell short to be all out from the final delivery for 209.

The Heat needed something special to get their season moving and Brown provided it in front of 23,689 fans while using a bat he made himself.

He brought up his fifty in just 19 deliveries, the equal fifth fastest in Heat history in just his second BBL game.

Brown cleared the boundary six times with an assortment of scintillating strokes.

The Heat opener works with Cooper Cricket founder Rod Grey. He has crafted hundreds of Cooper bats himself, and repaired thousands for his cricket mates.

“I made my own bat, the Cooper Bison…it absolutely cannons off. It is one of the new ones I made myself and I fell in love with it,” Brown told AAP after his innings.

“All my mates call me ‘Bison’.”

Brown said “it wasn’t until I was 24 that I started to take it seriously and then I went from third grade to Queensland Second XI in the space of 18 months”.

Twenty20 franchises around the world will no doubt be making further enquiries about him.

Brown told AAP he would “love to” take his T20 game to the world and added that his philosophy while batting was “play with no fear”.

A fairy tale?  Josh Brown

After listening to Richard II last night, I turned the cricket on in a desultory fashion.  A big strong man sent the next ball clean into the top tier.  And he kept going.  It looked so easy, so natural.  Very experienced commentators were in awe.  A press clipping about him follows.

Josh Brown looks like he might be a member of the O’Toole family, a wood-chopper from the bush.  In a shy, matter of fact way, Josh told the Fox pony-tailed boundary rider that about five years ago, someone thought he may be able to play cricket.  And so, he tried – while making bats in his day job.  (Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural.) 

Josh made that score against a very strong bowling side – who looked spooked – and created that sense of inevitability as if he was living in his own time.  I can’t recall anything like it.

Josh said he was keen to learn from the champions, but that he had two things in mind when batting.  You treat every ball on its merits.  And you make sure you are quite still when you hit it.  And then, as they say in the movie, ‘It’s good bye Mr Spalding.’

We have learned not to put the curse on possible new stars.

Here’s hoping – and may God protect him.  We could all do with a lift.

And one type of bat will sell out very early today.  At a mere $700 – peanuts for stardust.

Bat maker Brown blasts Heat to BBL win

Josh Brown makes his own Cooper Bison bats and showed he can wield them too as he lit up the Gabba with a whirlwind half-century to inspire the Brisbane Heat’s 15-run win over the Sydney Sixers.

The 29-year-old Brown earlier produced his whirlwind innings to score 62 off just 23 balls in the Heat’s 5-224.

The Sixers made a gallant response in their pursuit of a BBL record run chase, but fell short to be all out from the final delivery for 209.

The Heat needed something special to get their season moving and Brown provided it in front of 23,689 fans while using a bat he made himself.

He brought up his fifty in just 19 deliveries, the equal fifth fastest in Heat history in just his second BBL game.

Brown cleared the boundary six times with an assortment of scintillating strokes.

The Heat opener works with Cooper Cricket founder Rod Grey. He has crafted hundreds of Cooper bats himself, and repaired thousands for his cricket mates.

“I made my own bat, the Cooper Bison…it absolutely cannons off. It is one of the new ones I made myself and I fell in love with it,” Brown told AAP after his innings.

“All my mates call me ‘Bison’.”

Brown said “it wasn’t until I was 24 that I started to take it seriously and then I went from third grade to Queensland Second XI in the space of 18 months”.

Twenty20 franchises around the world will no doubt be making further enquiries about him.

Brown told AAP he would “love to” take his T20 game to the world and added that his philosophy while batting was “play with no fear”.

After listening to Richard II last night, I turned the cricket on in a desultory fashion.  A big strong man sent the next ball clean into the top tier.  And he kept going.  It looked so easy, so natural.  Very experienced commentators were in awe.  A press clipping about him follows.

Josh Brown looks like he might be a member of the O’Toole family, a wood-chopper from the bush.  In a shy, matter of fact way, Josh told the Fox pony-tailed boundary rider that about five years ago, someone thought he may be able to play cricket.  And so, he tried – while making bats in his day job.  (Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural.) 

Josh made that score against a very strong bowling side – who looked spooked – and created that sense of inevitability as if he was living in his own time.  I can’t recall anything like it.

Josh said he was keen to learn from the champions, but that he had two things in mind when batting.  You treat every ball on its merits.  And you make sure you are quite still when you hit it.  And then, as they say in the movie, ‘It’s good bye Mr Spalding.’

We have learned not to put the curse on possible new stars.

Here’s hoping – and may God protect him.  We could all do with a lift.

And one type of bat will sell out very early today.  At a mere $700 – peanuts for stardust.

Bat maker Brown blasts Heat to BBL win

Josh Brown makes his own Cooper Bison bats and showed he can wield them too as he lit up the Gabba with a whirlwind half-century to inspire the Brisbane Heat’s 15-run win over the Sydney Sixers.

The 29-year-old Brown earlier produced his whirlwind innings to score 62 off just 23 balls in the Heat’s 5-224.

The Sixers made a gallant response in their pursuit of a BBL record run chase, but fell short to be all out from the final delivery for 209.

The Heat needed something special to get their season moving and Brown provided it in front of 23,689 fans while using a bat he made himself.

He brought up his fifty in just 19 deliveries, the equal fifth fastest in Heat history in just his second BBL game.

Brown cleared the boundary six times with an assortment of scintillating strokes.

The Heat opener works with Cooper Cricket founder Rod Grey. He has crafted hundreds of Cooper bats himself, and repaired thousands for his cricket mates.

“I made my own bat, the Cooper Bison…it absolutely cannons off. It is one of the new ones I made myself and I fell in love with it,” Brown told AAP after his innings.

“All my mates call me ‘Bison’.”

Brown said “it wasn’t until I was 24 that I started to take it seriously and then I went from third grade to Queensland Second XI in the space of 18 months”.

Twenty20 franchises around the world will no doubt be making further enquiries about him.

Brown told AAP he would “love to” take his T20 game to the world and added that his philosophy while batting was “play with no fear”.

Cricket – Twenty/20 – Josh Brown.