When is too much trivia not enough?

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What is the obsession with trivia? Even retired Mark Waugh said of his 8500 Test runs, it really doesn't bother me that much, it'll be of more importance after I've retired.

Who cares? Sure we get excited about the greatest wicket keeper/leg-spinner/opener in the world. But records are just that, and are made to be broken.

Aquarius (Aquarius), Thursday, 13 November 2003 11:43 (twenty years ago) link

"Cricket isn't about statistics, statistics are about cricket".

For some people, it's interesting - the same way etymology might be interesting to someone, or amateur geology, or idiotic conspiracy theories.

It's a different way of looking at the game - not the physical actions involved, but the odd facts and figures that the game produces. It's not just about records - about the first, the fastest, the most - but also about obscure events and patterns of numbers and the like.

It's one of those things that can't be explained, like the lure of caves or the fascination of bird-watching. If you don't feel it yourself, you probably can't be made to understand.

tailender (tailender), Thursday, 13 November 2003 12:03 (twenty years ago) link

Sometimes trivia appeals to me, sometimes it doesn't. If somebody runs a triv thread on here and I'm not in the right frame of mind, I'm not going to 'can' it, even though I do have the ability to do so.* I'll just leave everyone to get on with it while I check out Nath's page or ILX or, shock horror, go and do something productive which might not even involve cricket or the Internet.

*(just thought I'd slip that in while both of you are paying attention)

Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Thursday, 13 November 2003 12:10 (twenty years ago) link

*

Noted. ;-)

tailender (tailender), Thursday, 13 November 2003 12:11 (twenty years ago) link

The trivia threads were not just a memory jog and a source of information for those of us with a love of the history of the game; there were also some very remarks made along the way. They were a part of the glue that kept the old forum together.

Somewhere between VoR's caustic wit, RD's one-liners, OP's puns and reason, E_O's obsessions with Taufel and her cat, boofer's occasional manic lapses, and perhaps even Jorja's persistent innocent blithering we've lost something worthwhile.

Anyway, that's more serious reflection than an insomniac pieman should have to or want to provide.

pieman (pieman), Thursday, 13 November 2003 14:05 (twenty years ago) link

"Somewhere between VoR's caustic wit, RD's one-liners, OP's puns and reason, E_O's obsessions with Taufel and her cat, boofer's occasional manic lapses, and perhaps even Jorja's persistent innocent blithering we've lost something worthwhile."

Yep.

Would rather have it back as it was - Lion, Lord Lagaan, thirdman, doctorwolfboofer, Jorja, cjfb, E_O's cat Mim and all, than the pathetic remnants that remain.

It was a real community - a family, in a way - and we are all the poorer for its passing.

*snivel*

tailender (tailender), Friday, 14 November 2003 09:19 (twenty years ago) link

nine years pass...

My team won a yearly trivia contest tonight that I've participated in the past three years. We've won twice. Slightly fewer teams this year, maybe 60, seven per team, 100 questions. We got 80 on our own, plus five gimmes we paid for, for a score of 85. The questions were generally pretty hard this year. I'm there for music, baseball, and movies.

Only four movie questions, and two were giveaways: consecutive best actor awards in '93 and '94, and first colour film to win best picture. The third was reasonably easy: 11 Razzie nominations this year, in both gender categories (which gave it away). The other I had no clue: Cobra Starship (?) sang the title song of what 2006 movie?

clemenza, Sunday, 24 February 2013 06:30 (eleven years ago) link

I should probably read beyond thread titles before I post...

clemenza, Sunday, 24 February 2013 06:31 (eleven years ago) link


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