I’d like to tell you a little bit about the Cricket Sadists’ Quarterly (CSQ). This is a relatively new (and almost certainly unique) periodical produced by the Sofa’s favourite testicular arthropod, Jarrod Kimber.
It may help you get your head around the thing if I briefly define “Cricket Sadist”. In the words of Jarrod, the cricket sadist is one “who spends much of their time inflicting pain on their family's and friends' lives with talking about cricket, thinking about cricket, watching cricket and reading about cricket”.
The cricket sadist is not a fan in the traditional sense, for he or she is the game’s harshest critic as well as its most faithful supporter. The sadist is the one who throws the first stone when the game is found at fault, but when the onslaught is over will tenderly bandage the wounds inflicted, in a desperate attempt to nurse it back to health.
CSQ is a collaborative effort, featuring articles submitted by a disparate group of writers, both professional and amateur, with “No agendas or quotas, just people writing about cricket”. Much like the Sofa, no subject is taboo, no language censored and no hero above disdain. The current CSQ features no fewer than two tongue-in-cheek critiques of the mighty Sachin Tendulkar.
November’s Ashes Edition, which was sponsored by Test Match Sofa, includes articles written by many names that will be familiar to Sofa listeners: Daniel, Soph, Iain O’Brien and Jarrod himself muse on things as disparate as the Aussie’s determination to be fit and Kiwi’s determination to be fit.
As an example of the sort of thing you might find in CSQ, Lizzy Ammon provides a witty guide to being a county tragic – this behaviour is of course not something that the Sadist usually engages in, so Lizzy’s tips may well prove handy should he need to camouflage himself at a Somerset committee meeting.
Oh, and it has photos by Sarah Ansell and funny cartoons too.
To cut to the chase, if you like Test Match Sofa, you’ll like CSQ. If you didn’t like Test Match Sofa, you wouldn’t be reading this blog. Ergo, since you are reading this blog, you should be buying the magazine.
Get it from online publisher Lulu, where you can either order a hard copy to be delivered (handy tip – it makes a great Christmas gift for a curmudgeonly uncle) or you can download it in pdf format, which is cheaper.
PS If you’d like to submit something for the next edition, have a look at the guidelines, and then send your piece to jarrod@cricketwithballs.com.