Owzthat! The traditional Cricket game for all weathers - basic version

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Now in truth, the game was in no way shape or form the meticulous scoring opus of my former teen years. Involving the dice, a diary to scribble the scores and away we went, it was definitely more T20 than Test match in its formulation. Howzat's unique scoring system ensures that points are awarded for each and every statistical contribution of players on the field. That Jimmy Anderson top-scored with 22 as England slid to 110 all out from 7.4 overs tells you all you need to know about both the run rate and balsa wood fragility of England’s batting.

In essence though, it involved rolling a pencil to decide if the batsmen scored 1,2,3,4, 6 or was out. If out, the same pencil (or another if you were particularly flash) equated to either not out, caught, LBW, etc. On another day, the moustachioed Essex opener with the three-pound SS tree trunk and England’s leading run-scorer in Tests would have scored 5,908-0 but therein lies the power and mystic of this dice game. Now umpire die is rolled and options of that die is used to determine fate of the batsman. if 'no ball' is rolled, then the batsman continues and an extra ball is given to the batsman (which means an additonal roll of batting die). The player keeps rolling batting die and adds score to the batsman's score until 'owzthat' turns up.In limited overs game player's turn ends when either the allocated overs are finished or 10 batsmen get out before allocated overs finish.

All of which prompted a decision to crank open the Owzthat dice for another game; the first for donkey’s years; to see how an England XI would fare against a Yorkshire XI from down the years. Fred Trueman and Darren Gough opened for Yorkshire and would have been appalled at their economy rate as sixes and fours were biffed with alarming regularity. The game is usually played between two players, but can be played alone. It is played with two six-sided long dice and a paper scorecard. One die, the batting die, is labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, 'owzthat' and 6. The second die, the umpire die, is labelled 'bowled', 'stumped', 'caught', 'not out', 'no ball', and 'L.B.W.'. Does this compact, nugget, no-frills companion still have any relevance in today’s world of apps, notifications, ultra-high-def landscape? Sure it does. All 3 main version of the game are all included: test matches, 50 over One Day Internationals, and Twenty20 games. You can use the names of international players, state / county sides, your own club-mates, or why not combine them and play yourself in the England team in the Ashes

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In my excitement this time, which batsmen were meant to be on strike and whether the batting stats and bowling analysis bore any relation to one another is something of a guilty admission. Whether this was due to poor bowling or the fact that these particular dice seemed to have worn certain grooves that meant the chances of them landing on four or six were greatly increased, who’s to say. During long summer school holidays that stretched out as endlessly as a Boycott innings, there was one, indomitable saving grace when it rained. Wrapped tightly in a set of paper instructions for the game are two metal dice; a mode of dismissals one with NOT OUT, STUMPED etc in red lettering on each side while its stubbier cousin has 1,2,3,4, OWZTHAT and 6.