On a lighter note. It’s always nice to see Arthur Beale appearing in print, and this is a mention that I don’t think anyone in the shop knew about, until Gerry unearthed it the other day. It’s from a book called “What I Love about Cricket: One Man’s Vain Attempt to Explain Cricket to a Teenager Who Couldn’t Give a Toss” by Sandy Balfour. It is, if you hadn’t guessed, a book about cricket. Beale’s sneaks in during a diversionary paragraph into the world of sailing, which precludes a section on the relative cheapness of cricket: “…he told me about the chandler’s shop on Shaftesbury Avenue. Arthur Beale, it’s called, and everybody knows it. It’s one of those places that rise above change. It has been there since the dawn of time. Four or Five hundred years, they say. It’s one of those shops that keeps people coming back. A proper chandlery with properly trained staff who know what they’re talking about. An absolute must for all aficionados of all things maritime. And a proper place to waste - sorry – spend money.” All very true. Except the bit about wasting money.
Funnily enough, I often think of the daily sales in cricketing terms. A good start to the day, sales-wise, and a hundred pounds through the till by 10 might translate to, for example, a “good opening partnership racing off to a quick century”. Sometimes, sales pick up during the lunch break (a “strong middle order performance”), and sometimes they don’t (a “collapse”). An excuse to use my favourite cricketing term is provided by some big spending customers late in the day, who can be thought of as “the tail wagging”. I think that’s enough cricket jokes.
