Confessions of a twitterite

posted by John Winn

Worldwide there are over 350 million twitterites (users of twitter) and I'm one of them and have been for about three months. When I joined I sent texts to half a dozen friends who in the main were incredulous that I had taken such a step and I sensed that they thought I had been overcome by a very late midlife crisis. In those three months I have acquired just 13 followers of whom five are unknown to me and whose motives are, I suspect, entirely commercial and in three cases of a dubious nature.
Since it was founded as a social networking site in 2006 Twitter has expanded very rapidly and thanks to the likes of footballer Joey Barton, gained considerable notoriety and/or a reputation of being a vehicle whereby people publish comments on their daily lives of the 'got up, changed my library book, watched Countdown, had supper, went to bed' type.
It can of course be both these things and I would not deny that of the 226 tweets I have posted many will have made little impact beyond a very narrow circle, if as far as that, but of course I think they are terse, pithy and witty comments on the state of the world as seen from the Lower Ure valley. Where I have found twitter very useful, however, is as a source of information, especially cricket information. Of the thirty three individuals or organisations that I follow 13 are direct sources of cricket news and comment and a further five of a general sporting nature. With the use of a mobile phone or pc the touch of one button brings a constant 'timeline' of information, without having to use a search engine or website, from organisations ranging from the ECB to The Nidderdale League. So far today, and it is just early afternoon, I have received 14 cricket tweets, mainly updates from the Australia/Sri Lanka game but typical of tweets I have received in the last few days are as follows
:- Spofforth CC have got winter nets tomorrow
:- Headingley CC are looking for a friendly on 7th or 8th April
:- Total Cricket Scorer version two is now available for iphone and ipad
:- In 1889 the groundsman at Northfields Road, Southampton had his donkey stolen
:- Yorkshire Cricket Board has nearly 1000 followers on Twitter
:- Ossett CC want a local based pro
:- Idle CC need a first team scorer
Finally,and perhaps of greatest interest to the pcw, this season's Ingilby Shield fixture between The Nidderdale League and the league's overseas players will be played at Pateley Bridge on Sunday 8th July.

If all this has not convinced you that tweeting is for you then consider these two non-cricket snippets, Dana was at Frank Carson's funeral and my neighbour who moved to New York in 2010 went shopping at IKEA yesterday. Wow!

Good as I think twitter is for keeeping one up to date the most disappointing piece of news I have heard this week came not from a fellow tweeter, but in an email from Tony Hutton, to the effect that the match between Durham University and Middlesex,arranged for March 31st at Durham and which weeks ago I had earmarked for my first cricket watching of the season, has been switched to a Middlesex home fixture and will now be played at Merchant Taylors' school in Northwood.I am consoled by the fact that I will now be able to attend the Pennine Cricket Conference at The University of Huddersfield and that I need only curb my enthusiasm for cricket until the following Thursday when the curtain goes up at Headingley.Only 32 more days, roll on.