Test Match Special Quotes

If a cigarette butt in the bottom of a beer bottle had a voice it would be the voice of Phil Tufnell. ~ Telford Vice

Every two to three weeks, I was changing around my room. My room was made out of nothing, basically - a magazine, a little radio, a little bed - and I had the sensibility to put things together and match things in a certain way so that they were very special. ~ Riccardo Tisci

I don't have to follow any special diet or count calories. I try to eat healthily and before a match I load up on pasta and salads. But I pretty much do what I want. ~ Maria Sharapova

Experience tells us that few matches are won on the back of one or two good sessions of play. To win a Test match most teams have to win and outplay the opposition for extended periods of time. ~ Justin Langer

At all times and in all places, in season and out of season, time is now and England, place is now and England; past and present inter-penetrate. The best days an angler spends upon his river – the river which is Heraclitus' river, which is never the same as the angler is never the same, yet is the same always – are those he recollects in tranquillity, as wintry weather lashes the land without, and he, snug and warm, ties new patterns of dry-fly, and remembers the leaf-dapple upon clear water and the play of light and the eternal dance of ranunculus in the chalk-stream. A cricket match between two riotously inexpert village Second XIs is no less an instance of timeless, of time caught in ritual within an emerald Arcadia, than is a Test at Lord's, and we who love the greatest of games know that we do indeed catch a fleeting glimpse of a spectral twelfth man on every pitch, for in each re-enactment of the mystery there is the cumulation of all that has gone before and shall come after. Et ego in Arcadia. ~ G.M.W. Wemyss

I have a special feeling for Blue Hills CC, where I won perhaps the most important tournament of my life when I was 14 - the Kansas City Match Play Championship. It gave me a dream of becoming a professional golfer. ~ Tom Watson

Releasing me, he backs up and strips off his shirt then shucks his jeans.

I burst into laughter.

"If you think you're going to Slytherin to my bed with those on, you're wrong. I only allow full-fledged Hufflepuffs in there."

Zach glances down at his underwear and hangs his head. "Why did I have to wear this pair today? Why?"

"What? I think they're hot."

"You think my Harry Potter underwear are hot?" I nod. "You are my dream girl."

I grin and shake my head as I make my way to my bed. I do my best to straighten the covers before pulling back my side and climbing in.

"I think you were right earlier."

"About?" he asks, standing on the other side.

"This bed isn't big enough for two. I think we'll have to snuggle."

He smirks as he slides in, getting as close to me as possible. I don't hesitate to match his movements - though I probably should. I should be weirded out that Zach's in my bed. I shouldn't gravitate toward him like I do.

But I can't help it. Zach makes me feel…comfortable. Safe. Warm. Wanted.

We're lying face to face in the middle of the bed, the blanket draped over our waists, grinning at each other like fools.

"What?" I whisper.

"I made it in."

"What?" I ask again, confused.

"Your special Hufflepuff-only chamber of secrets."

"Did you really just…" Laughter consumes me and I'm rolling ~ Teagan Hunter

A Test match is like a painting. A one day match is like a Rolf Harris painting. ~ Ian Chappell

He is jealous for you. He is jealous for me. The fullness of His love and lavish acceptance is the only match for the rejections we will experience. And He absolutely doesn't want us making other relationships the false gods of our worship. As we seek love and acceptance, God doesn't want us to test Him; He wants us to trust Him. ~ Lysa TerKeurst

Mark Waugh, the most fluent and aesthetically pleasing batsman of his generation but also one of the most frustrating to watch. Often, when he appeared to be a class above the rest and to have the bowling at his mercy, he would play a lazy shot to what appeared, more often than not, an innocuous delivery. And just like that his innings would be over. To make matters worse, he didn't seem to care; he would nonchalantly wander off the field. No shaking of the head or staring back at the pitch to apportion blame. His fans had to learn to accept 30s and 40s instead of centuries and 150s. His concentration, some would say his interest, never seemed to be there in the Test arena. Despite playing some match-winning Test innings, Waugh was never quite able to shake the 'lackadaisical' tag. ~ Sean Ehlers

No, I thought, growing more rebellious, life has its own laws and it is for me to defend myself against whatever comes along, without going snivelling to God about sin, my own or other people's. How would it profit a man if he got into a tight place, to call he people who put him there miserable sinners? Or himself a miserable sinner? I disliked the levelling aspect of this sinnerdom, it was like a cricket match played in a drizzle, where everybody had an excuse - and what a dull excuse! - for playing badly. Life was meant to test a man, bring out his courage, initiative, resource; and I longed, I thought, to be tested: I didn't want to fall on my knees and call myself a miserable sinner.
But the idea of goodness did attract me, for I did not regard it as the opposite of sin. I saw it as something bright and positive and sustaining, like the sunshine, something to be adored, but from afar. ~ L.P. Hartley

It seems perfectly reasonable to give the greatest weight to the longest series. South Africa were only offered a five-Test series in Australia and England when they were considered worthy opponents and when the authorities considered that sufficient crowds would allow such a series to be a viable financial option. This link between the duration of a Test series and the money it is likely to generate is a constant throughout the history of the game and has been made more complex over the last three decades by the introduction of the various one-day formats. The constant also remains that a five-Test series (six being a thing of the past) is the ultimate examination of the relative strength of two teams and the current fashion for a quick two-match 'shoot-out' can only harm the standing of Test cricket whatever the short-term financial rewards. ~ Patrick Ferriday

England have nothing to lose here, apart from this test match. ~ David Lloyd

It was a long, hard, tough day. We managed to just sneak through, it was an unbelievable Test match. ~ Ricky Ponting

In life, you shall meet a person who is so much like you. You will have so much love and respect that there isn't anything you wouldn't do for them. Just to know that you met a person and associated with them will make you feel so much better. Not everyone is lucky to be able to spend their lives loving that perfect person, some might just disappear but you should have the courage to live with it. One day you shall meet your perfect match, someone you can love, someone you can look upto, someone you can adore, someone who is just perfect for you. Do not let that special person exit your life, tell them how special they are and how much you love them. Everyone deserves to be with the person they want to be with. ~ Sashil Kumar

Preparation is the only way to get ready for a hard test, whether a court trial, race, boxing match, Broadway appearance or death. You can fake readiness, falling back on past experience and bravado. But without backbreaking preparation for a main event, you know inside that you aren't really ready. ~ James Donovan

I imagined I had discovered a new word. I rise up in bed and say, "It is not in the language; I have discovered it. 'Kuboa.' It has letters as a word has. By the benign God, Man you have discovered a word! ... 'Kuboa' ... a word of profound import.
[ ... ]
Some minutes pass over, and I wax nervous; this new word torments me unceasingly, returns again and again, takes up my thoughts, and makes me serious. I had fully formed an opinion as to what it should not signify, but had come to no conclusion as to what it should signify.
[ ... ]
Then it seems to me that some one is interposing, interrupting my confab. I answer angrily, "Beg pardon! You match in idiocy is not to be found; no, sir! Knitting cotton? Ah! go to hell!" Well, really I had to laugh. Might I ask why should I be forced to let it signify knitting cotton, when I had a special dislike to its signifying knitting cotton? ~ Knut Hamsun

A few weeks later, I'm in a fluorescent-lit classroom in Chelsea awaiting the start of the official Mensa test. I'm sitting next to a guy who's doing a series of elaborate neck stretches, like we're about to engage in a vigorous rugby match. He's neatly laid out four types of gum on his Formica desk: Juicy Fruit, Wrigley Spearmint, Big Red, and Eclipse. I hate this guy. I hope to God he's not a genius. ~ A. J. Jacobs

God has somehow placed into Christian's insides a special something, that extra inner reservoir of power that is more than a match for the stuff life throws at us. ~ Charles R. Swindoll

Australianism' means single-minded determination to win - to win within the laws but, if necessary, to the last limit within them. It means where the 'impossible' is within the realm of what the human body can do, there are Australians who believe that they can do it - and who have succeeded often enough to make us wonder if anything is impossible to them. It means they have never lost a match - particularly a Test match - until the last run is scored or their last wicket down. ~ John Arlott

I felt as if Delphi herself were calling out to me: Come and know me if you can! It takes a special kind of person to learn my secrets. Are you strong or nimble enough to fight through my crowds? Are you smart enough to find your way through my streets? Are you wise enough to deal with any peril or adventure I might choose to throw across your path? I am Delphi, and I dare you to conquer me!
And I am Helen of Sparta, I thought. I'm your match, just wait and see. ~ Esther M. Friesner

No society has succeeded in abolishing the distinction between ruler and ruled ... to be a ruler gives one special status and, usually, special privileges. During the Communist era, important officials in the Soviet Union had access to special shops selling delicacies unavailable to ordinary citizens; before China allowed capitalist enterprises in its economy, travelling by car was a luxury limited to tourists and those high in the party hierarchy Throughout the 'communist' nations, the abolition of the old ruling class was followed by the rise of a new class of party bosses and well-placed bureaucrats, whose behaviour and life-style came more and more to resemble that of their much-denounced predecessors. In the end, nobody believed in the system any more. That, couple with its inability to match the productivity of the less bureaucratically controlled, more egoistically driven capitalist economies, led to its downfall. ~ Peter Singer

In the first Test of the 1938 Ashes series, Eddie Paynter and Stan McCabe became the first players on opposing sides to score double-centuries in the same match. Bill Brown and Wally Hammond repeated the feat in the very next Test at Lord's. How quickly the once-unprecedented accumulates its precedents. ~ Rodney Ulyate

It's true though: time moves in its own special way in the middle of the night," the bartender says, loudly striking a book match and lighting a cigarette. "You can't fight it. ~ Haruki Murakami

I wasn't sure of the exact mindset you should have when you go into a Test match. So I probably became too defensive when I played my first Test match. Short balls in one-day cricket, I have never thought of just defending. ~ Virat Kohli

If this bloke's a Test match bowler, then my backside is a fire engine ~ David Lloyd

He [Babur] was a type of mastiff, bred to fight against wolves, dogs, and humans. . . . The mastiff is perhaps the oldest breed of dog in the world. . . . The dogs of Ghor . . . were always regarded as particularly special mastiffs. . . . 'so powerful that in frame and strength every one of them is a match for a lion. ~ Rory Stewart

The difference between talent and genius is this: while the former usually develops some special branch of our faculties, the latter commands them all. When the former is combined with tact, it is often more than a match for the latter. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

...he had also acquired a peculiar academic quirk. During exams, he knew all the answers but wasn't able to successfully map his answers to the right questions. So as soon as an exam started, he simply started putting his answers in the order in which he remembered them. Every time he moved to a new class, his parents made the new teachers aware of this snag. The teachers acknowledged it and reassured the parents that they'd match his answers against the appropriate questions. ~ Pawan Mishra

It's always good to win a Test match and if you win it comfortably, it can leave a few psychological marks on opposition sides. ~ Ricky Ponting

It shouldn't make a difference to me, I suppose,but it does. I've grown to trust you, and I'd hate to think that I've been wrong about you."
"Well,it's real nice to hear you like me, Freckles," he teased. "I kind of like you,too." He wiggled his eyebrows as he had earlier.
Willow laughed and leaned over to swat at him but missed. "You know, I really don't have freckles. Why don't you call me Williw like everyone else does?"
"Maybe, because everyone else does." He shrugged. "Freckles is mine. My special name for you, that is. And you do have freckles, cute little ginger-colored freckles, all-l-l aross the bridge of your nose."
"I don't!" Her mouth twisted in annoyance.
"Tell you what, we'll race on it. You win-you don't have freckles. I win-you do have freckles."
Knowing her only chance to beat his big stallion was to get a head start, Willow didn't waste time agreeing to ny terms. She dug her heels into Sugar's sides and tore off across the desert.
"Hey!" Rider called, laughing and spurring Sultan into a run. "You're supposed to wait till I say go."
Her laugh drifted back on the wind.
"Come on,Sultan. Let's show Miss Freckle Britches who she's dealing with."
The spirited stallion's legs stretched out ith effortless grace, his body lowering in a ground-eating pace, and Willow's little mare was no match for the big stallion.
"See you back at the ranch, Freckles," Rider laughingly taunted as he rode past. ~ Charlotte McPherren

The mind, it can be a deceitful thing. But it is no match for the heart. ~ K.A. Tucker

I observed you in pain, lad. Pain's merely the axis of the test. Your mother's told you about our ways of observing. I see the signs of her teaching in you. Our test is crisis and observation. ~ Frank Herbert

Without us, the world is just things, Cathy. It's our seeing that fills them with meaning. To pay attention is a painter's scared duty. That's what real prayer is. real meditation: to hold your attention to the world like a match, until it catches with the fire of meaning. ~ Jordan Weisman

Again, we turn down most books that have been self-published unless they have a special track record. We have taken a small number on, however, and sold them to major publishers for a nice sum. But that is an exception to the rule. ~ Richard Curtis

Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special. ~ Brian Dyson

I don't think I have some special gift for knowing what's in your heart. I think we both do. ~ Galt Niederhoffer

Wouldn't it be something if we could have things we love in abudance without their losing that special attraction the want of them held for us. ~ Dolly Parton