It's been said many a time before now that Cricket is a funny game.   And indeed it is but not just for its peculiar terms and its Laws (not rules of course!) but also for its real humour.  There's no other game like it for the quick witted comment and jest, that is for sure.

There's the dressing room humour we've all come across - which mostly should be left there!   Crude, sarcastic and the rest but by heck, it's had us all in fits of laughter over the years.

So here's a couple of jokes that involve the game and the people who play it.  If you've got more, email us and tell us the joke!

Apparently the Devil proposed a Cricket match between Heaven and Hell.  Saint Peter smiled, "It just wouldn't be fair - we've got all the cricketers."  "Ah yes", said the Devil, "but we have all the Umpires!"

There was the guy, sitting staring into his drink in the pavilion bar.  His friend nudged him and said "You're looking glum."  "My wife ran away with my best friend this morning" said the guy.  "Terrible, awful" said his friend.  "Yes" said the guy, "it means we'll have no wicket-keeper this afternoon."

In 1961 at Peterborough, Tom Pugh the Gloucestershire captain had yet to score when he faced the fast bowler David Larter.

Larter send down a fast full toss which smashed Pugh's jaw in two places as he ducked unsuccessfully - no helmets in those days of course!!

He was rushed to a London hospital but insult was added to injury when the umpire gave him out 'leg before wicket'.

Nasty!

(Photo is of David Larter)

The glorious game of cricket that brings us together to play is riddled with all sorts of odd things and very often there's no real explanation of where they come from.

The most obvious oddity is the names of the fielding positions - third man, slips, silly-mid-this and that and so on.  Where on earth did they come from?  Maybe in one of these little notes we'll try explaining them so if you've got some certain knowledge about them click the email link on any page and let us know.  You'll get the credit for the explanation!

But this first one we'll talk about is about just that - the number one.  Or rather 3 of them together - 111.  Known in the cricketing world as "Nelson".  And why is it treated with such suspicion?

To English batsmen, Nelson means a score of 111 - or nowadays multiples of it, 222, 333 and so on and is the unluckiest number in the game.  When this total is reached, the superstitious custom is for the batting team off the pitch (and umpire David Shepherd) to take their feet off the ground. The name was coined in the mistaken belief that Nelson had one eye, one arm and one leg: in fact, he had two legs.

It is thought by the superstitious that bad things happen on that score although an investigation by the now defunct magazine "The Cricketer" in the 1990s found that wickets are no more likely to fall on "Nelson".  Apparently the score at which most wickets fall is 0 - now who'd have believed that!

The explanation that seems more possible than any other is that the number refers to three of Nelson's great naval victories, Copenhagen, the Nile, and Trafalgar, thus giving won-won-won.  But who knows what is true?

The equivalent superstitious number in Australian cricket is 87, or the "Devil's Number," thirteen shy of 100.  That also gets extended to any score that features 87, like 187 or 287.

So if you've heard another explanation, or can offer more insight into why the score of 111 is called Nelson and why it's seen as so unlucky, click the email link and let us know.

If you've got a question about Cricket's oddities just click the email link and ask.  We'll do our best to answer it.