Sunday, 19 April 2009

The Taunton Paradox

We've done Fermat's Last Theorem. We still face the Goldbach Conjecture. And now comes the Taunton Paradox, a mathematical problem that has been bedeviling statisticians globally every spring for some years now.

It's expressible thus: 172IRB =80MPV if 1=? 

Or, as that true man of Somerset Vic Marks put it in the Observer today, 'In the currency of the day, an 80 from Vaughan against Durham is probably the equivalent of Bell's 172 at Taunton, where April runs are as much a part of spring as primroses in the hedgerows'.

While Vaughan's '80' against Durham remains purely theoretical, Bell's 172 must be contextualised by James Hildreth's 303*, Craig Kieswetter's 150*, Wawickshire's 500 and 108-1 and Somerset's 672-4 - and by the fact that it is against the physical laws of the universe not to score runs at Taunton. 

So how much is one run worth there? Over to you, stattos. It's all too much for the England selectors, who need another week to mull over the first squad of the year. 

That Taunton Paradox. It'll get you every time. 

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7 comments:

  1. Ceci19 April 2009 at 14:16

    Pah bah and humbug. Set ex Cap'n Crock's measly 44 against Rudolph's 73 and Brophy's 66 and the number of pies bowled...

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  2. Brit19 April 2009 at 22:53

    Hmm.. it seems the only viable conclusion is that a run at Taunton in April is worth...zero runs!

    The mind boggles.

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  3. GoodCricketWicket20 April 2009 at 02:58

    All of which means that we need to identify at which ground 1 run = 1, where cricket is balanced to perfection and with a purity unseen.

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  4. 12th Man20 April 2009 at 04:40

    I can't remember an occassion when Tauton has produced lesser runs. The conditions in which MPV made 80 should enable us to equate the effort better with IRB's 172 on the road.

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  5. The Old Batsman20 April 2009 at 12:03

    Wish I was good at maffs. I remember an old Fred Trueman story (is there any other kind) when he bowled some number eleven and said, 'to think, your wicket counts one, just like Bradman's'...

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  6. Brit21 April 2009 at 00:59

    All of which means that we need to identify at which ground 1 run = 1, where cricket is balanced to perfection and with a purity unseen.Perhaps that place, GCW, is Lords - it is, after all, the Home of Cricket. Lords will be the designated yardstick where 1=1 - the GMT of run-value if you like.

    Thus all other grounds can be represented in positive or negative relation to Lords ('L'). So Taunton in April is L-4; while Headingly is L+1.6; and day 5 of a Test Match facing Shane Warne in his pomp on a raging bunsen = L+27.

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  7. The Old Batsman21 April 2009 at 06:53

    Love the idea of Lord's as the benchmark. But it would favour MPV...

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