Cricket has always had its dark arts | Brief letters

Regarding your editorial on cricket fair play (30 July), as an elderly cricket fan, I can remember being told as a small boy to watch a Yorkshire wicketkeeper who was known, when standing up to the bowler, to nudge the stumps with his toe when the ball was close enough to make it look like “bowled out”. But in those days, league cricket was serious business and not played for fun.Tony BrownKingston, Ontario, Canada May I present the Seagull outboard race scandal of 1963? At a regatta in Coverack, I was hanging over the bow to keep it down when we were overtaken by a faster boat. With a boathook, I carefully pushed his fuel tap shut; he mysteriously stopped several yards short of the finish line. Did we carry away the prize: 2/6d? My lips are sealed.Jonathan FletcherHelston, Cornwall Re dating fossils precisely (Letters, 30 July), I once bought a carton of rock salt whose label said the salt was 10m years old. It then advised that it should be used before the following August.Richard BarnardWivenhoe, Essex When I started out as a social worker in 1969, a client told me that dinner was the meal that had potatoes (Letters, 28 July).Ron GouldBrighton, East Sussex Breakfast, brunch, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner … I’ve given up and just graze all day.Dr Bob AronIlkley, West Yorkshire Surely dinner is whenever the person who’s cooking it says it is.Pete BibbySheffield