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Talk:Data degradation

2005 EEPROM discussion
The article mentions bit rot with respect to EPROMs; what about magnetic storage such as disks and tapes. more info on this discredited cosmic ray theory please

Yeah, seriously. If the theory has been discredited, give a reference. Otherwise the 'discredited' assertion should be removed.

 * Added reference to Intel experiment that showed how background radioactivity of ceramic chip packaging causes bit flips, not cosmic rays. I think IBM has research on cosmic rays affecting high altitude (satellite and aircraft) electronics. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rolofft (talk • contribs) 00:58, 28 December 2005

Article is very misleading, as most "bit rot" is really "software rot"
This article is pretty misleading, because while "bit rot" is a theoretical phenomenon that can (rarely) actually happen, when the term is generally used, it instead refers to software rot. This sort of reference is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it is, in my experience, the vast majority of references to "bit rot." As such, this article really needs to be reorganized to make it clear that a casual reference to "bit rot" outside of certain specialized contexts almost certainly refers to "software rot," not literal "bit rot" where the bits are unexpectedly changing.

I'm not sure how to tackle this. One approach would be try to merge the two articles, but I think the emphasis of the two terms is different. On the other hand, I don't think I've ever heard anyone use the term "software rot" outside of a discussion of bit rot nomenclature; is there any actual evidence of its use? (It's talk page makes one even more wary.)

Another approach would be to try to explain the distinction between the literal meaning and the actual meaning higher up in the article, and immediate go to a detailed explanation of "software rot." Essentially promote the "Problems with software" section to the lede and flesh it out with more relevant detail, so the bulk of the article is not misleading literalism.

I'm sure there are other approaches. Would anyone care to recommend them? As it stands this article seems extremely problematic, so I will mark it Disputed and reference this talk topic. jhawkinson (talk) 07:08, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

 * Hello there! Sorry, but seems like you've never experienced such bit rotting issues, what makes them unclear to you; please allow me to explain.
 * Let's start with software rot, and a quote from that article: "This is not a physical phenomenon: the software does not actually decay, but rather suffers from a lack of being responsive and updated with respect to the changing environment in which it resides." In other words, software rot is a virtual decay of software (which is also a virtual thing), caused by lack of human involvement and bad maintenance; things and requirements are changing, but software can't follow that without humans and their elbow grease. :)
 * On the other side, bit rot is a physical decay of various physical media (due to aging, environmental conditions, loss of media properties etc.), which is used for carrying data/bits; the physical media erosion causes data loss. The most obvious example is paper media (used for punched cards and punched tapes); I'm sure you've seen at least a few old books having their paper eroded and crubmbling due to its age.  The same applies to other media, such as magnetic tapes, optical media etc.  Have you ever seen an audio tape (or a VHS tape) no longer playable due to its age?  If you spend some time Googling, you'll find manufacturers' statements regarding the expected lifetimes of optical media, for example; that resulted in media such as M-DISC etc.
 * Hope it all makes sense. What I'd suggest we do, is to delete the  section; that section is pretty much out of context in this article, and induces quite a lot of confusion.  Software rot should be mentioned only as a link within the  section, and nothing more.  Merging those two articles wouldn't be a good thing, in my opinion, as they're dealing with two completely different things, so it's better to keep those separated.
 * Thoughts? Looking forward to discussing it further! — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 21:29, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi guys, no offense, but for a person who is into computers the unknowledge of the Jargon File is unforgiveable. :-) This page is one of amazing examples when an inside joke turned into a big wikipedia article. YOu must be very young, then :-) On the other hand, I guess I am too old to judge correctly to what degree this article constitutes original research of WP:SYNTH type, i.,e to what degree this term ("bit rot") is actually applied to the issues discussed, which all have their own other names. In any case I will start with an initial cleanup to address the issue you are discussing. Staszek Lem (talk) 22:45, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

 * So, it's all a joke – paper never decays and there are no cosmic rays, for example?  Please don't get me wrong, but the Jargon File hasn't been pulled out of thin air.  Software rot is a kind of joke, but bit rot (or at least its physical background) isn't. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 01:06, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Well, there is a bit rot and bit rot. There is definitely a joke. And the jargon file does say that this joke is 'cum grano salis' . An the other hand, please read my previous post carefully: whether reliable sources call soft errors bit rot. Definitely not paper media rot. THat's what I was saying: at the moment I am not in a position to judge whether the rest of the article is OR, so I didn't touch them. Now answering your question directly: Yes, paper decays and radiation hardening is big business, but the real question related to this article is not whether these things exist but whether these things are called 'bit rot' in reputable sources. And if yes, then whether this word usage is 'tongue-in-cheek' or a serious technical term. Staszek Lem (talk) 02:19, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Bit rot (data corruption, soft errors, or however we're calling it)—which was surely much more of a joke back at the time when the jargon file was assembled—became much more frequent as the sizes of memory and storage increased, making the equipment's rates of (undetectable) errors more easily reached even for Joe Averages. Please, have a look at the papers below:
 * Silent Data Corruption: Causes and Mitigation Techniques
 * Eliminating Silent Data Corruption with Oracle Linux
 * Bitrot and atomic COWs: Inside “next-gen” filesystems
 * Actually, Keeping Bits Safe: How Hard Can It Be? paper uses "bit rot" (even bits are modeled as radioactive atoms :) in a quite serious context, and an ACM publication should be taken as a reliable source, if you agree. At the same time, these talk discussions might be interesting:
 * Once again, please don't get me wrong. Anyway, quantum bogodynamics is a hilarious evergreen. :) — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 02:51, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Actually, Keeping Bits Safe: How Hard Can It Be? paper uses "bit rot" (even bits are modeled as radioactive atoms :) in a quite serious context, and an ACM publication should be taken as a reliable source, if you agree. At the same time, these talk discussions might be interesting:
 * Once again, please don't get me wrong. Anyway, quantum bogodynamics is a hilarious evergreen. :) — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 02:51, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Once again, please don't get me wrong. Anyway, quantum bogodynamics is a hilarious evergreen. :) — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 02:51, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Once again, please don't get me wrong. Anyway, quantum bogodynamics is a hilarious evergreen. :) — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 02:51, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Once again, please don't get me wrong. Anyway, quantum bogodynamics is a hilarious evergreen. :) — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 02:51, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

Dsimic, you seem very confused about what my point is. Your recent And Staszek Lem's edit to this article appears to have ignored the point I raised and made the problem dramatically worse. Please allow the discussion here to reach some sort of concensus before taking action that is the opposite from what has been proposed here.

Your language above is somewhat confusing. For instance, I don't know what you mean by "what makes them unclear to you; please allow me to explain" — is that intended as a question? My concern is that this article, at present, does not reflect how the term "bit rot" is actually used. You are correct that it has a literal definition, but that is not what is generally meant by the term. This is a problem of usage, and it's probably pretty tough to nail it down without original research, and that is going to be a problem, especially if we do not have concensus. The Jargon file is probably the best we can do.

The physical phenomenon of literal bit rot is mostly uninteresting because it is solved by keeping backups and redundant copies. It is not mysterious or troublesome. It is rarely talked about. The problem of "software rot" is a much more significant and real problem, but the term "software rot" is not widely used. Instead it is generally referred to as "bit rot." This is a tough issue of semantics.

Your proposal to remove the software rot section of this article makes it much worse. It causes a reader who hears the term "bit rot" who comes to this article looking for an explanation to get a diametrically opposite explanation than what they should get. Because, again, despite its literal meaning, when most people say "bit rot," they mean what Wikipedia defines as "software rot."

(I remain quite skeptical that Wikipedia's "software rot" page should exist; it seems to have original research problems. I wonder if it's content should be merged into "bit rot" and then redirected here. I suspect that may be the best solution, but it might be too controversial.)

Dsimic, do you have actual experience with real human beings who use the terms "bit rot" and "software rot"? Or references sources (beyond the jargon file, and certainly beyond Wikipedia) that discuss their usage? The list of papers you offer above is something else — those are some examples of how bit errors occur, but they do not seem to be about the term "bit rot."

There is no question that bit errors happen. The question is whether the term "bit rot" generally refers to such things, and whether a reader of this encyclopedia is well served by the assertion that they do. I think the answer is clearly no. jhawkinson (talk) 04:07, 1 February 2014 (UTC) Corrected note on author of recent edit at 04:12.

 * Ok, let's go through questions one by one. I'm not confused about what you point is; you're questioning whether "bit rot" is actually "software rot", and it isn't.  Software rot is the decay of software's abilities, while bit rot is the decay of media/hardware storing the data.  The jargon file was written back at the time when triggering the actual bit rot was pretty much a theoretical thing, as you need to read about 1016 bits from an HDD to get one bit flipped in an undetectable manner.
 * Also, plain backups and/or redundant copies aren't solutions for the actual physical phenomenon behind the bit rot, as they also aren't immune to it. When combined with more advanced techniques, like data and metadata checksumming, they can serve that purpose; it's all pretty much about detecting such silent data corruptions.  However, that's a completely different topic.
 * section is what actually doesn't belong to this article, as bit rot is about the decay of media/hardware (or firmware bugs) causing data loss. Regarding your question whether "bit rot" is actually used for that purpose, here are a few examples:
 * (repeated from above)
 * Exploring the impact of Bit Rot
 * Checksumming Files to Find Bit-Rot
 * Bit Rot. Code Rot. Digital Decay. Disappearing Zeros and Ones.  Where Do They Go?
 * From the references listed above, it should be clear that "bit rot" is used for the data/hardware/firmware corruption, not for software decay. Of course, I'm more than happy to discuss this further. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 04:48, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Dsimic, you write, "you're questioning whether "bit rot" is actually "software rot", and it isn't." You argue this by bare unsupported assertion, and I believe you to be incorrect. Can you justify your claim?

 * The references you cite are unhelpful and not relevant -- they are examples of the literal use of the word "bit rot." It is undisputed that the term is sometimes used for its literal meaning. The question is whether that is the common use, the general use, and the preferred use. And thus what focus this article should have. The questions I asked previously, which you have not answered, are:
 * Do you have actual experience with real human beings who use the terms "bit rot" and "software rot"?
 * Can you reference sources that discuss the usage of these terms?
 * I think these are important. I should be clear, I am hard-pressed to come up with references that support my side of this as well, which is why I fear this whole article is really far over the line into Original Research. But I know many people who use the word "bit rot" casually and they almost always use it to discuss the concept that Wikipedia calls "software rot." And this is, because, outside of a few specialized contexts, random bit errors simply are not worth discussing. We have the technology to work around them, and all storage technology does so, in various ways. Thanks. jhawkinson (talk) 05:36, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Ok, let's put aside my reasoning for a moment, if you agree; please convince me that "bit rot" is actually "software rot", by providing the same level of quality for the backing references as you're asking me to provide.
 * Sorry for missing to answer the remaining questions, I'll do that immediately. No, I haven't seen yet terms "bit rot" and "software rot" coming out of a human's mouth; nowadays people tend to speak about .Net and Java ultra-high-level abstractions, and nobody cares about some... bits?  what are those bits?  can I put them into a workflow? :)  Also, I'm unable to provide reliable references discussing the actual usage of these two terms; can you, please?
 * When looking at the bigger picture, I'd say that Bit rot and Soft error articles should be merged into the Data corruption article, as part of its big rework which has been already planned by me and . That way we'd leave WP:OR behind, while also deduplicating quite a lot of content.
 * How about that? — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 06:24, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Dsimic, let me try to give an example of the problem I am trying to solve before turning to your question. In this week's New Yorker, biographer Benjamin Moser writes about his experience at UCLA's Susan Sontag's archives. The archives have copies of Sontag's emails on hard drives, but Moser reports that they are "menaced by bit rot" (he also references other terms unfamiliar to him along with bit rot, such as "forensic software" and "write blockers"). He then goes on to offer the literal definition espoused by this article, which is wrong. He is confused about what is meant by bit rot, and he perpetuates his confusion to his readers.

 * In the context of Sontag's archive, as with most good digital archives, the problem is not a fear of random bit-errors scrambling the content of the archives. The problem of bit rot is that older software used to access the digital content (in this case emails, presumably in a propriety format) no longer works well. I don't know if Moser used Wikipedia to try to understand "bit rot" and summarized a definition; it's easy to see how if he had looked at Wikipedia, he would have come away with a definition that was not applicable in his case (the "literal" definition), and gotten confused.

 * Of course I have a lot of trouble producing references here (hence "I am hard-pressed to come up with references"), because I suspect there are very few on the question of usage of colloquial computer terms. The best I have right now is the cited Jargon File, which is written a bit subtly. In its lede it notes bit rot is a "hypothetical disease"; and concludes: "The term software rot is almost synonymous. Software rot is the effect, bit rot the notional cause." (As a practical point, I think ESR and the Jargon File authors made an error in splitting "bit rot" and "software rot" into two separate topics; it allows an unfamiliar reader to think they are separate concepts that can happen independently, but is not how the terms are used.)

 * In my computing life, I regularly deal with systems that have been around for a long time, such as decades. We have a university computing environment (with network storage) that has been around for decades. We have conversations about whether software written and compiled in the 1990s will function properly on current machines without recompiliation, as well as much shorter timescales. In this world, people talk about "bit rot" with some frequency -- because there are real problems with software continuing to function as designed over those kinds of periods. And at least here, at MIT in Cambridge, Mass, the term "software rot" is not used, but the term "bit rot" is used, and it always means what Wikipedia calls "software rot."

 * Your merger proposal is consistent with your prior proposals, but is no better for me, and is in fact worse. I want to ensure that someone who wants to understand what is meant by the term "bit rot" gets a good answer. That a reader who sees those words will understand what the writer meant when they were written. What Wikipedia calls "software rot" is not a form of data corruption. Stuff stops working, but it is not because of corruption, it is because of more subtle effects. Redirecting this article to the data corruption article makes the problem worse, not better. It will mislead readers into thinking "bit rot" is about the problem of bit errors and data corruption, but that is not true.

 * I don't want to suggest that my personal experience should be the basis of this article. But my experience is consistent with the cited references that discuss usage of the term (e.g. the Jargon File), as well as the prior comments here on the Talk page. E.g. the "Software bit rot" section from 2007–2010, and following. Given that you have no experience with the actual use of the term, it is difficult to take your position credibly.

 * Do you see what I am getting at? jhawkinson (talk) 14:36, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

 * This was a very enjoyable read, thank you for taking some time and explaining in detail the situation on your hands!
 * Speaking about "bit rot" in general, it's quite hard to maintain WP:NPOV without good and reliable references – and those are hard to be found for the term's colloquial use.  To me, the only right thing at the moment—in absence of adequate references, and in order to follow Wikipedia's rules—is to present both usages/meanings of "bit rot", with more clear explanations where they're coming from.  I know (and totally understand) you're against that as you hear the term being used for only one meaning on a daily basis, but killing any of the meanings would be against maintaining neutrality, if you agree.  Also, this is contrary to my initial suggestion of deleting one of the meanings, where I clearly was wrong because of no day-to-day exposure to this term, what shows that I'm more than open to learning and changes. :)
 * Of course, when there are good sources available for linking "bit rot" only with the software decay meaning, I'm all in for the other meaning to be deleted. In the meantime, there are references using "bit rot" for the other meaning, and we simply can't trump those.
 * Thoughts? — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 03:30, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Dsimic, thanks, yes, it looks like you and I are making progress. Unfortunately I'm not sure where that leaves the article :). As I said in my initial post in this section of the talk page, I'm not really sure how to tackle this. It's why I didn't start out making a Bold edit but instead started a discussion.
 * Now, maybe this is silly of me, but we have one usage reference that suggests literal "bit rot" is a notional idea that doesn't really happen (the Jargon file); do we have any usage references that claim that it does happen? I guess when I say usage reference, I mean something akin to a secondary source (it'd be great to have some dictionary sources; but nothing in the American Heritage, OED, or Merriam Webster. I also came up dry with Lexis-Nexis. There was this seemingly-relevant Economist article, Digital data: Bit rot, but it turns out not to discus the term, though it discusses the problem). I realize we have various examples where references and papers use the term "bit rot," but those don't strike me as authentic references, they're just examples. On the other hand, we cannot be prescriptivist, we have to be descriptionist. If 95% of the usage really is the literal one, even if that is somehow "wrong," then we have to hew to it. Of course we have no good data on what fraction of is "literal" bit rot and what fraction is "software rot."
 * So, yes, I think the path forward is to try to equalize the volume of the article that deals with both cases, and to make it less lopsided. I am troubled that references 2-6 seem to be all be about bit errors in general. I feel like someone started with the article in early stages and went on to find cases where people talked about bit errors and cosmic rays, and added them into the article, thus making the literal definition seem more credible, which lead to more references added to that section and more emphasis on that section, in a runaway effect. (I guess I could look at the history to determine how much this is the case; there are only 225 edits in the life of the article, so that is manageable.) jhawkinson (talk) 16:50, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Exactly, we're now pretty much on the same page, but we still need more references in order to even out these two meanings, for the beginning. Just as you described, it's tough to find good sources, as the majority of the available stuff seems to be of "infotainment" nature.
 * Regarding the bit rot as a literal decay of storage media, I'd say we already have a few good references listed above (the ACM paper, for example). For the software degradation meaning, here are a few good papers, though they tend to use terms such as "code decay", "software decay" or "software rot", and they're oriented more toward the "active decay", so to speak:
 * Practical Aspects of Software Life-Cycle: Decay, Ivory Towers, and Other Topics
 * Does Code Decay? Assessing the Evidence from Change Management Data
 * Code Decay (this one is pretty much all about "active decay")
 * Though, these papers aren't using the term "bit rot", so their usability as references is somewhat questionnable. It's the same thing, but again, anyone could easily say the opposite.  In the end, finding the ratio between the usage levels of these two meanings is, I'd say, an impossible mission. :) — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 02:23, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

 * My point exactly. There was no proof presented that "Code decay" is called "bit rot". YOu have nice chat and all is good for a software blog, but in wikiepdia we speak of references to reliabkle sources to prove our point. I see a nice exercise of wit on both sides, but in the end all what matters is show me the source please add a reference to the questioned phrase into the article and done with bickering socializing. Staszek Lem (talk) 03:04, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Unfortunately, there are very few references clearly linking the term "bit rot" with software/code decay. Once again I've spent some time Googling, and the best I came up with were the Jargon File, an entry from a printed dictionary, a slide show citing Wikipedia, and a few usenet posts back from 1982 and 1983.  Out of those (besides the Jargon File), this network dictionary entry seems to be of the best quality.  I'll keep trying to find some more references for the second meaning, but chances for that—unfortunately—seem to be quite slim. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 04:43, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

 * If it is so, then the following must be done:
 * (a) Figure out the real, technical, most common term for data/media decay and move the article under this title, because "bitrot" is a colloquialism, and we don't have the article 'penis' under the title dick (anatomy) or something.
 * (b) Have a small section about bitrot joke.
 * (c) If in the future one finds good references, we can add a dabnote for the degradation of unmaintained software see Software rot, and in "Software rot" page add a referenced sentence ("sometimes called bit rot"[ref]).
 * (d) There is no reason mix and match "data storage decay" and software rot in one page; cross-referencing is enough.
 * (e) Optionally a disambig page may be created (if evidence suffices): for a joke and for colloquialisms for the two types of decay.
 * (f) Finally, don't forget a related subject, digital obsolescence/digital preservation/etc., to put these clearly related things into a common context.
 * Staszek Lem (talk) 02:37, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Well, that's a reasonable plan due to lack of references, but let's also hear comments from before doing anything. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 03:12, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Please whatever you are chatting about here, don't remove referenced content and don't restore unreferenced opinion that software rot is called bit rot. Once you find a reliable source to this end, you are welcome to restore the section. But you are not welcome to restore unreferenced opnions. Staszek Lem (talk) 03:02, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Staszek Lem, your removal of the "software rot" section in the lede in uncalled for. We've had an extensive discussion here about why it is important, and I think we have concensus that it belongs. (If you disagree, please contribute to the discussion). It is not an "unreferenced opinion." In fact, the one source we have in the article at all on usage favors this (the Jargon file). There are no references that about usage that support the idea of bit rot being used to refer to actual physical bit errors. Please undo your edit. jhawkinson (talk) 03:08, 4 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Please re-read the lede carefully. The term "software rot" is still there. If you have a consensus, then where are the references in the article? Jargon File does not favor it. It is your reading. The lede say now what the Jargon file actually says. (Heck, you have it in this talk page as well). Yes, jargon file says it is 'nearly synonymous'. Yes, just like cannabis and marijuana. Some say they are one and the same, others vehemently disagree (in the talk page). 'Nearly synonymous' is not the same as 'synonymous', and 'synonymous' is not the same as 'the same'. In short, no, I would not restore an unreferenced opinion. Staszek Lem (talk) 03:17, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

2016
If everyone doesn't agree about the term "bitrot", then the remark in the intro should be completely removed.

I've always seen the terms "bit rot" or "bitrot" to mean corrupted data bits at the storage level, and NEVER heard it used to mean software rot.

In this recent article, a ZFS developer uses the term "bit rot" during file system talk.

 * http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-the-good-and-bad-in-apples-new-apfs-file-system/

 * http://dtrace.org/blogs/ahl/2016/06/19/apfs-part5/

This article uses the term "bitrot" during file system talk.

 * http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/bitrot-and-atomic-cows-inside-next-gen-filesystems/

I've seen numerous people use the "bit rot" when talking about PAR2 files and recovery volumes in RAR (file format), though I don't have links (only because I never thought I would need to save such links).

• Sbmeirow  •  Talk  • 19:50, 26 June 2016 (UTC)

 * There seems to have been a discussion here a couple of years ago about the term bit rot - which was it seems the original title of this page - and whether it applied to the degrading of digital data, of software applications, over time.

 * While it seems a thorough and sincere conversation, it seems to have come to a conclusion which today seems incorrect. The term bit rot today is used in common literature to mean the corruption of digital data over time. (just one example, from Vince Cerf, seen as one of "the fathers of the Internet" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/what-is-bit-rot-and-is-vint-cerf-right-to-be-worried ). Yet anyone looking at wikipedia for information on bit rot would come away with conclusion that it applies to software becoming more difficult to run over time.

 * This seems out of step from the common usage (perhaps except amongst some developers), and I wonder if we need a rethink. Perhaps while acknowledging the term may have two meanings, the term itself should link to here, with such an explanation. Foxdown (talk) 12:59, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

 * I highly respect what Vince Cerf has done for the internet, but many computers and electronics terms have redefined or replaced over time. In electronics, the term condenser was used until the 1920s then slowly changed over to capacitor, and today a majority of engineers and hobbyists haven't heard of the term condenser.  I still stand by my June 2016 comment, but I don't have a problem integrating both concepts into the article, as long as there is a hard split between two parts of the article.  •  Sbmeirow  •  Talk  • 13:41, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

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Images are available on Commons
Hi folks! Someone requested that I add the images from my Ars Technica article "Bitrot and Atomic COWs" to this wikipedia article. As a matter of policy and neutrality, I'm not going to edit a wikipedia article that uses an article of mine as a reference, but I've made the actual images - which belong to me, not to Ars Technica - available on Wikimedia Commons using the Creative Commons CCASA-4I license. The first in the series is at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bitrot_in_JPEG_files,_0_bits_flipped.jpg; the notes references the other images in the series, which consist of the same image with 1, 2, and 3 bits flipped, as well as a "cascade" PNG showing all four at once.

The original images are *original*, and may be diff'ed to see where each individual bit was flipped in the series. If anyone would like to use them, here or elsewhere, you have my blessing. Jrssystemsnet (talk) 16:42, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

 * Thanks! This is useful, but you need to write a paragraph or so of text to describe and clarify what the photos mean. Simples captions aren't enough. • Sbmeirow  •  Talk  • 04:38, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Data degradation


text:
Amberley, West Sussex

Amberley is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, 4 mi north of Arundel. Its neighbours are Storrington and West Chiltington. The village is noted for its thatched cottages. A house named "The Thatched House" is one of the village's few non-thatched houses.

One of the attractions is Amberley Working Museum.

Amberley has a railway station on the Arun Valley Line, with regular services to Bognor Regis, Portsmouth and London.

To the north of the village is the tidal plain of the River Arun, known as Amberley Wild Brooks. The wetland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest which floods in winter and is known for its wildfowl. Amberley Castle is now a hotel. The castle was a fortified manor house next to which is the Norman St Michael's Church.

Cultural links
William Champion Streatfeild, who became Bishop of Lewes was vicar of Amberley with Houghton from 1897 to 1902. His daughter, the children's novelist Noel Streatfeild, spent part of her childhood there. These may have been the happiest years of her childhood.

Arnold Bennett's stay in the village for eight weeks in 1926 is documented in his journals. During May–June 1926, he wrote the last two thirds of The Vanguard in 44 days, noting I have never worked more easily than in the last six weeks. He also met John Cowper Powys who walked over the Downs from Burpham to visit him. Frank Swinnerton lived in Cranleigh and had links with Bennett, subsequently selecting and editing his journals. Swinnerton's 1914 novel On the Staircase has a character named Amberley. Arthur Rackham is commemorated in a wall plaque in the churchyard. The lettercutting is by John Skelton. Rackham and his artist wife Edyth lived at Houghton House on the other side of the valley throughout the 1920s. In 1932, the film The Man from Toronto starring Jessie Matthews and Ian Hunter was filmed here.

There is a memorial in the churchyard to Edward Stott ARA who lived in Amberley from 1889 until he died in 1918. He is noted for his rural scenes, many sketched close to Amberley. His monument has a bust on top carved by the sculptor Francis Derwent Wood. Wood's grave is marked with one of his own works, a pietà bas-relief in bronze. Inside the church is a semi-circular stained-glass window to Stott, designed by Robert Anning Bell. Other windows have inscriptions by Eric Gill and his assistant Joseph Cribb. In the church, south of the chancel arch are 12th or 13th century wall-paintings, depicting scenes from the Passion Cycle.

Amberley Working Museum was used as a set location for the James Bond film A View to a Kill as "Mainstrike Mine".

Local history
The Pepper Papers (1899–1978) give an insight into Amberley's history as a producer of Lime, with 1904 correspondence between Peppers and companies interested in shipping Amberley chalk to North America. In 1929–35, a campaign tried to prevent the despoliation of Amberley by the erection of pylons and overhead power cables, looking at the financing of the alternative scheme of laying low tension underground cables. Frank Pepper had regular correspondence with Arthur Rackham who had lived nearby, and John Galsworthy from Bury, West Sussex regarding the campaign to save Bury Coombe. Letters between 1926 and 1959 document claims to a public right of way over a footpath through the Amberley Castle grounds.

Notable people

 * James Butler (1651–1696)
 * Gladys Huntington (1887 – 1959)
 * Arthur Rackham (1867 - 1939)
 * Edyth Starkie (1867 - 1941)
 * Hilary Stratton (1906- 1985)
 * Edward Stott (1855 -1918)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Amberley, West Sussex


text: Category:Australian equestrians

title: Category:Australian equestrians


text: User talk:203.131.142.170

title: User talk:203.131.142.170


text: Category:British equestrians

title: Category:British equestrians


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Yan Poxi

Yan Poxi is a fictional Song dynasty woman from the Chinese novel Water Margin. She is usually called Yan Xijiao, a Hua Dan, in Chinese opera.

Originally from the national capital Kaifeng, Yan Poxi is a beautiful young girl who came to Shandong with her parents to find a relative, but unable to find him they are stuck in Yuncheng County and depend on Yan Poxi's singing to get by. Her father dies, but she and her mother are too poor to give him a proper burial. After learning about their situation, the Yuncheng County clerk Song Jiang pays for his funeral. Her mother then pressures her to marry Song Jiang as a way to express her gratitude. Because Song Jiang does not spend much time with her, Yan Poxi quickly starts an affair with Song's assistant Zhang Wenyuan after her marriage.

One night, she discovers Chao Gai's letter to Song Jiang, and threatens to report Song Jiang to the magistrate for associating with the outlaws unless he agrees to three conditions: 1) allow her to marry Zhang Wenyuan; 2) let her keep all the clothes, ornaments, property, etc., he has given her; and 3) give her the gold bars from Chao Gai. Song Jiang agrees but cannot fulfil the third condition because he only accepted one of the one hundred gold bars mentioned in Chao Gai's letter. Yan Poxi refuses to believe him and continues to threaten to report him. Song Jiang eventually loses patience and stabs her to death in a fit of anger. He then burns the letter and escapes from Yuncheng County.

title: Yan Poxi


text: Talk:Jim McCarty (guitarist)

title: Talk:Jim McCarty (guitarist)


text:
File:Moving Units Album - Dangerous Dreams.JPG

Summary
Moving Units Album - Dangerous Dreams (2004)


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Cavendish banana

Cavendish bananas are the fruits of one of a number of banana cultivars belonging to the Cavendish subgroup of the AAA banana cultivar group (triploid cultivars of Musa acuminata). The same term is also used to describe the plants on which the bananas grow.

They include commercially important cultivars like 'Dwarf Cavendish' (1888) and 'Grand Nain' (the "Chiquita banana"). Since the 1950s, these cultivars have been the most internationally traded bananas. They replaced the Gros Michel banana (commonly known as Kampala banana in Kenya and Bogoya in Uganda) after it was devastated by Panama disease.

They are unable to reproduce sexually, instead being propagated via identical clones. Due to this, the genetic diversity of the Cavendish banana is very low. This, combined with the fact the Cavendish is planted in dense chunks in a monoculture without other natural species to serve as a buffer, makes the Cavendish extremely vulnerable to disease, fungal outbreaks, and genetic mutation, possibly leading to eventual commercial extinction.

History of cultivation
Cavendish bananas were named after William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire. Though they were not the first known banana specimens in Europe, in around 1834 Cavendish received a shipment of bananas (from Mauritius) courtesy of the chaplain of Alton Towers (then the seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury). His head gardener and friend, Sir Joseph Paxton, cultivated them in the greenhouses of Chatsworth House. The plants were botanically described by Paxton as Musa cavendishii, after the Duke. For his work, Paxton won a medal at the 1835 Royal Horticultural Society show.

The Chatsworth bananas were shipped off to various places in the Pacific around the 1850s. It is believed that some of them may have ended up in the Canary Islands, though other authors believe that the bananas in the Canary Islands had been there since the fifteenth century and had been introduced by early Portuguese explorers who obtained them from West Africa and were later responsible for spreading them to the Caribbean. African bananas in turn were introduced from Southeast Asia into Madagascar by early Austronesian sailors. In 1888, bananas from the Canary Islands were imported into England by Thomas Fyffe. These bananas are now known to belong to the Dwarf Cavendish cultivar.

Cavendish bananas entered mass commercial production in 1903 but did not gain prominence until later when Panama disease attacked the dominant Gros Michel ("Big Mike") variety in the 1950s. Because they were successfully grown in the same soils as previously affected Gros Michel plants, many assumed the Cavendish cultivars were more resistant to Panama disease. Contrary to this notion, in mid-2008, reports from Sumatra and Malaysia suggested that Panama disease had started attacking Cavendish cultivars.

After years of attempting to keep it out of the Americas, in mid-2019, Panama disease Tropical Race 4 (TR4), was discovered on banana farms in the coastal Caribbean region. With no fungicide effective against TR4, the Cavendish may meet the same fate as the Gros Michel.

Taxonomy and nomenclature
Cavendish bananas are a subgroup of the triploid (AAA) group cultivars of Musa acuminata.

Cavendish cultivars are distinguished by the height of the plant and features of the fruits, and different cultivars may be recognized as distinct by different authorities. The most important clones for fruit production include: 'Dwarf Cavendish', 'Grande Naine', 'Lacatan' (bungulan), 'Poyo', 'Valéry', and 'Williams' under one system of cultivar classification. Another classification includes: 'Double', 'Dwarf Cavendish', 'Extra Dwarf Cavendish', 'Grande Naine', 'Pisang Masak Hijau' (syn 'Lacatan'), and 'Giant Cavendish' as a group of several difficult to distinguish cultivars (including 'Poyo', 'Robusta', 'Valéry', & 'Williams'). 'Grande Naine' is the most important clone in international trade, while 'Dwarf Cavendish' is the most widely grown clone. 'Grande Naine' is also known as Chiquita banana.

Uses
Cavendish bananas accounted for 47% of global banana production between 1998 and 2000, and the vast majority of bananas entering international trade.

The fruits of the Cavendish bananas are eaten raw, used in baking, fruit salads, and to complement foods. The outer skin is partially green when bananas are sold in food markets, and turns yellow when the fruit ripens. As it ripens, the starch is converted to sugars turning the fruit sweet. When it reaches its final stage (stage 7), brown/black "sugar spots" develop. When overripe, the skin turns black and the flesh becomes mushy.

Bananas ripen naturally or through an induced process. Once picked, they can turn yellow on their own provided that they are fully mature by the time they are being harvested, or can be exposed to ethylene gas to induce ripening. Bananas which are turning yellow emit natural ethylene which is characterized by the emission of sweet scented esters. Most retailers sell bananas in stages 3–6, with stage 5–7 being the most ideal for immediate consumption. The PLUs used for Cavendish bananas are 4011 (yellow) and 4186 (small yellow). Organic Cavendish bananas are assigned PLU 94011.

Diseases
Cavendish bananas, accounting for around 99% of banana exports to developed countries, are vulnerable to the fungal disease known as Panama disease. There is a risk of extinction of the variety. Because Cavendish bananas are parthenocarpic (they don't have seeds and reproduce only through cloning), their resistance to disease is often low. Development of disease resistance depends on mutations occurring in the propagation units, and hence evolves more slowly than in seed-propagated crops.

The development of resistant varieties has therefore been the only alternative to protect the fruit trees from tropical and subtropical diseases like bacterial wilt and Fusarium wilt, commonly known as Panama disease. A replacement for the Cavendish would likely depend on genetic engineering, which is banned in some countries. Conventional plant breeding has not yet been able to produce a variety that preserves the flavor and shelf-life of the Cavendish. In 2017, James Dale, a biotechnologist at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, produced just such a transgenic banana resistant to Tropical Race 4.

In 2023, the Philippine Space Agency and Bureau of Plant Industry utilized pest control against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense. In 2022, Philippines was second top banana exporter with Cavendish banana as the top variety.

title: Cavendish banana


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Storrington

Storrington is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Storrington and Sullington, in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. Storrington lies at the foot of the north side of the South Downs. it had a population of around 6,000. It has one main shopping street (High Street). The A283 road runs directly through the town and connects Storrington to Steyning in the east and Pulborough in the west. It is three miles west of Washington.

History
Storrington is listed in the Domesday Book as "Estorchestone", meaning a place well known for storks. A charter to hold a regular market on Wednesdays was granted by Henry IV in 1400, together with permissions for three fairs during the year, on Mayday, Wednesday of Whit week and the Feast of Martin on 11November. Tanning and blacksmithing were also important industries and only in the 20th century did these roles fade away. Rabbit breeding was another significant industry reflected in a number of local place names including 'The Warren', 'Warren Hill', 'Sullington Warren' and 'Warren Croft'. This working/small industry background has however, left little behind architecturally. Nikolaus Pevsner, noted only the small door in Browns Lane, the church, and the Dominican convent known as the Abbey to be historically significant.

The Cinema Museum, London holds home movies of Storrington from 1950.

In 1961 the parish had a population of 2784. On 1 April 2003 the parish was abolished and merged with Sullington to form "Storrington & Sullington".

Community
Since 1945 Storrington has expanded with a variety of housing projects which enlarged the village. It is possible to be in open countryside in a few minutes from the town centre when walking towards the downs or one of the commons.

The nearest towns are Worthing, approximately 10 mi to the south, followed by Horsham, approximately 13 mi to the north. The nearest train stations are at Pulborough and Amberley. Current public transport provision consists of two hourly bus routes: the 1 between Worthing and Midhurst (operated by Stagecoach South), and the 100 between Burgess Hill and Pulborough (operated by Compass Travel), both stopping at the bus station outside of Waitrose.

From the town centre there is walking access to the 100 mi trail, the South Downs Way. From Chantry Hill or Kithurst Hill there are views across the English Channel to the south and opposite, to the North Downs. On a clear day you can see the Isle of Wight.

Kithurst Hill which rises steeply above the village is marked at the summit by a trig point, 699 ft above sea level.

Sport and leisure
Sport and leisure facilities include a recreation ground with football and cricket pitches and a leisure centre. Storrington has a Non-League football club Storrington F.C., who play at the recreation ground.

Storrington is thinly disguised as the home of the home team in Hugh de Sélincourt's 1924 novel The Cricket Match, complete with chestnut trees and duck pond. In later editions a cartoon map of the town is used as end pages. John Parker wrote what was effectively a sequel in The Village Cricket Match in 1977.

Landmarks
St Joseph's Hall in Greyfriars Lane is a Grade II listed former residence of the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton. It was built as a private house for US businessman George Trotter in 1910, and then sold to a French religious order, the Norbertines. In 1956 it was used by Vincent and Nona Byrne as a home for refugees from the Hungarian uprising.

Parham Park, towards Pulborough, is a country house with rolling parkland with a large herd of maintained deer. It is open most weekends to visitors. There is also the private Edwin Lutyens built Little Thakeham nearby.

Places of worship include St Mary's on Church Street, which is the main Church of England place of worship, and the Priory of Our Lady of England on Monastery Lane, which is the Roman Catholic parish church of Storrington. The Roman Catholic bishops of Arundel lived nearby for a while. Other Christian denominations have places as well, including the Methodists and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Twinning
Storrington is twinned with the commune of Villerest in the Loire department of central France.

title: Storrington


text:
User:Davidcannon/Footnote

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 * (reorganized) : a series of articles; numerous paragraphs from one article have been moved to another in the same series.
 * (translated) : articles electronically translated from Wikipedia articles in other languages.

title: User:Davidcannon/Footnote


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Caroline Thompson

Caroline Thompson (born April 23, 1956) is an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer. She wrote the screenplays for the Tim Burton-directed films Edward Scissorhands and Corpse Bride and the Burton-produced The Nightmare Before Christmas. She co-wrote the story for Edward Scissorhands and co-adapted a new stage version of the film with director and choreographer Matthew Bourne. Thompson also adapted the screenplay for the film version of Wicked Lovely, a bestselling fantasy series, in 2011, but the production was put into turnaround. She directed Black Beauty (1994); Buddy (1997), which she also wrote; and the television film Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001), also as producer and co-writer.

Personal life
Thompson was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Bettie Marshall (née Warner), a teacher, and Thomas Carlton Thompson, Jr., a lawyer. She received her early education in Washington. She later moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend Radcliffe College, and eventually graduated from Amherst College in 1978 with a degree in English and classic literature. Her first marriage was to Henry Bromell, a fellow novelist and screenwriter. She later married Steve Nicolaides, a film and TV producer.

Career
Thompson moved to Los Angeles, supporting herself as a freelance book reviewer and writer. In 1983, she published a novel First Born which director Penelope Spheeris chose to adapt into a film, and from whom she started learning scriptwriting while writing the drafts of the film's screenplay. Though the movie was never made, the project inspired her to pursue a career as a screenwriter. Tim Burton was impressed with the novel, which was "about a monster fetus". He felt First Born had the same psychological elements he wanted to showcase in Edward Scissorhands, and hired her to write its screenplay as a spec script.

Her other works include Snow White: The Fairest of Them All, The Secret Garden, Buddy, Black Beauty, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, and The Addams Family. Though she is best known for having written the screenplays for Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, she has had more than a dozen movies made, including City of Ember and The Addams Family.

From the above, she directed Black Beauty (1994) as her directorial debut, followed by Snow White in 2001 for TV and Buddy. She was the producer for Snow White and the associate producer for The Secret Garden and Edward Scissorhands.

Her screenplay for Wicked Lovely, intended to be directed by Mary Harron, was in turnaround in 2011.

Thompson was the first woman to be presented with the Distinguished Screenwriter Award at the 2011 Austin Film Festival.

Filmography
As writer
 * Edward Scissorhands (1990) (also associate producer)
 * The Addams Family (1991)
 * Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993)
 * The Secret Garden (1993) (also associate producer)
 * The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993; developed Sally Rags)
 * Black Beauty (1994) (also director)
 * Buddy (1997) (also director)
 * Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (TV, 2001) (also director and producer)
 * Corpse Bride (2005)
 * City of Ember (2008)
 * Welcome to Marwen (2018)

As herself
 * Prop Culture (2020) episode: "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas"
 * The Holiday Movies That Made Us  (2020) episode: "Nightmare Before Christmas"

title: Caroline Thompson


text:
Category:New Zealand equestrians

fi:Luokka:Uusiseelantilaiset kenttäratsastajat

title: Category:New Zealand equestrians


text:
Roy Kilner

Roy Kilner (17 October 1890 – 5 April 1928) was an English professional cricketer who played nine Test matches for England between 1924 and 1926. An all-rounder, he played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1911 and 1927. In all first-class matches, he scored 14,707 runs at an average of 30.01 and took 1,003 wickets at an average of 18.45. Kilner scored 1,000 runs in a season ten times and took 100 wickets in a season five times. On four occasions, he completed the double: scoring 1,000 runs and taking 100 wickets in the same season, recognised as a sign of a quality all-rounder.

Kilner first played for Yorkshire as a batsman before the First World War, establishing a regular place in the side. After being wounded in the war, he returned in 1919 to a Yorkshire side which was short of bowlers. As a result, Kilner began to practise his bowling to the point where he became highly regarded as a slow left-arm bowler. His aggressive batting and warm personality made him a popular player with both cricketers and spectators. His form brought selection by England in 1924 and a visit to Australia for the Ashes tour of 1924–25. Although the second most successful bowler of the tour, his bowling subsequently declined in effectiveness, and did not trouble batsmen on good pitches. He was selected during the 1926 Ashes but dropped for the final Test. Kilner went on several coaching trips to India during English winters, and on one of these, in 1928, he contracted an illness; on his return to England, he died aged 37. His funeral was attended by over 100,000 people and there was widespread sadness at his death.

Early life
Kilner was born on 17 October 1890 in Wombwell, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, the second son and one of eleven children of Seth Kilner and Mary Alice Washington. His brother Norman also played cricket, representing Yorkshire and Warwickshire. The Kilners attended Wombwell Parish Church and the boys were members of the Church Lads' Brigade. His father and his uncle, Irving Washington, the former Yorkshire player, encouraged him to play cricket from an early age. He showed enough ability to join the local colliery team, Mitchell Main.

At the age of 14 in 1904, Kilner reached the Mitchell Main first team. Although selected regularly from 1905, Kilner was not particularly successful with the bat. He displayed aggression but often attempted difficult shots and consequently lost his wicket. His bowling was more effective but used infrequently. By 1909 his batting improved; he scored his first century for the team and began to make consistently good scores, attracting the attention of Yorkshire.

Debut for Yorkshire
After scoring a second century for Mitchell Main at the start of the 1910 season, Kilner was chosen to play for Yorkshire Second XI. In his first season, he took three wickets and had a batting average of 12.50 but continued to do well for Mitchell Main. For 1911, Yorkshire sent Kilner to play for Harrogate Cricket Club which provided a higher standard of cricket than Mitchell Main: the county had a system whereby promising young players were sent to gain experience in competitive matches for local clubs. Kilner began to record good batting and bowling performances. Although his form for Yorkshire Second XI was more inconsistent, he made his first-class debut for Yorkshire that season against Somerset in the County Championship. He scored 0 and 14 and did not bowl. In a further six matches for Yorkshire in 1911, his highest innings was 18 runs, his average with the bat was just 6.66 in ten innings and he did not take any wickets. For Harrogate, he was more successful, with 519 runs and 28 wickets.

Yorkshire regular
Kilner made a good start to 1912 for Yorkshire Second XI, scoring centuries in two consecutive games; in the second he also took twelve wickets for 75 runs. These performances, coupled with continued good form for Harrogate, led to Kilner's recall to the Yorkshire first team in June. He replaced the injured all-rounder George Hirst for a match against Nottinghamshire. On the first morning, Kilner was used as the sixth bowler and proved successful; he finished with four wickets for 66 runs. Although failing to score in the first innings, he came in to bat in the second innings with Yorkshire 133 for four, needing 249 for victory. He shared a partnership of 113 for the fifth wicket and scored 83 not out to take Yorkshire to a five wicket win. This performance kept Kilner in the team for the remainder of the season, even after Hirst's return. He played 23 times for Yorkshire. He scored 570 runs at an average of 22.80 and took 16 wickets at an average of 22.12, figures regarded as respectable for a first full season. Yorkshire won the County Championship that season. Apart from one game in the 1913 season, he ceased playing for Harrogate. In his years there, he scored 967 runs, averaging 38.68, and took 71 wickets at an average of less than ten runs per wicket.

In the 1913 season, Kilner scored 1,586 runs at an average of 34.47, which remained his highest seasonal aggregate of runs and placed him third in the Yorkshire batting averages. He also took 18 wickets at 25.22. At the end of May and beginning of June, Kilner took part in century partnerships in four consecutive matches, culminating in his maiden first-class century against Leicestershire. During his innings of 104, he hit 18 fours and shared a partnership of 184 in under two hours with his close friend Major Booth, rescuing Yorkshire from 58 for five and taking the score to 300. Throughout the season, he played several valuable innings when Yorkshire were under pressure. His batting was always adventurous and attacking although he often made uncertain starts to his innings and showed impatience. The strength and variety of the Yorkshire bowling attack meant his left-arm spin was not often required. Even so, Yorkshire dropped to second in the Championship.

An illness during the winter of 1913–14 took its toll on Kilner at the start of the 1914 season. He passed 1,000 runs for the second time but due to his uncertain form, his aggregate of runs and his average both fell. He scored 1,329 runs (average 30.90), placing him fourth in the Yorkshire batting averages. His bowling was rarely used and he took just one wicket. Kilner scored his second first-class century against Gloucestershire late in the season; he made 169 in nearly three and a half hours, hitting 28 fours. Yorkshire fell to fourth in the championship.

First World War
The United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, while Kilner was playing in that season's Roses Match at Old Trafford. Initially the government requested that cricket should continue, though several cricketers with military obligations, including Yorkshire's captain, Sir Archibald White, were called up immediately. As the fighting started, and casualties began to mount, public opinion turned against the continuation of the season, and Yorkshire's match against Sussex at Hove, which concluded on 1 September, was the last County Championship match until 1919. The newspaper Cricket reported "The men's hearts were barely in the game, and the match was given up as a draw at tea." With the suspension of the championship, Kilner and Major Booth enlisted in the army together, joining the Leeds and Bradford "Pals" in the West Yorkshire Regiment. Kilner trained as a mechanic before being stationed at Colsterdale in North Yorkshire as a corporal. While on leave in November 1914, Kilner married Annie Campbelljohn—the daughter of James Campbelljohn, an engineer—at Wombwell Parish Church; Booth served as best man. During the war, Annie gave birth to the couple's first child, Roy junior. Kilner was posted with his battalion to Egypt but was forced home with an injury. When he recovered, he was sent to the Western Front in France. During the Battle of the Somme, he was wounded shortly before his battalion engaged in the fighting, receiving a shrapnel wound in the wrist; later in the same action, Booth was killed. Kilner recovered in a military hospital near Blackpool before being assigned to Preston Garrison as a mechanic. Kilner suffered a second loss when his brother Bernard was killed at Ypres in 1917.

Having previously played football for Mitchell Main in the winter of 1912–13, Kilner played as a right-back for Preston North End F.C. while posted to Preston during the war. The team won promotion from the Second Division in 1915, and took their place in the First Division when league football resumed in 1919. Sometimes playing under the name of Smith to avoid detection (although it is not certain why he did so), Kilner's first certain appearance for the team was in September 1918. It is unclear how often he represented the club.

From batsman to bowler
When cricket resumed after the war in 1919, County Championship matches were reduced from three days to two in a one-season experiment. Following the deaths of Booth in the war and Alonzo Drake from illness, as well as the decline in the bowling of the aging George Hirst, Yorkshire lacked an effective attack. Subsequently, Kilner was asked to deliver more overs, although not to the extent of a main bowler. He took 45 wickets, more than his entire first-class wicket aggregate before the war, at an average of 18.12. This placed him third in the Yorkshire averages. With the bat he scored three centuries and reached 1,135 runs at 29.10. His performances earned him a place in the Gentlemen v Players match at the end of season during the Scarborough Festival, although he neither took a wicket nor scored. Kilner's brother Norman also played for Yorkshire in 1919, although he was ultimately unable to secure a permanent place in the team.

Kilner began the 1920 season with an innings of 206 not out in his first match, against Derbyshire, and the effort remained the highest score of his career. He batted for four hours, hitting 24 fours and two sixes. He could have been caught when he had scored around fifty, but a local newspaper described the innings as brilliant, his driving and pulling being particularly effective. Kilner appeared in one representative match: at the end-of-season Scarborough Festival, he played for CI Thornton's XI against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) side which visited Australia in the winter—at the time, the MCC administered English cricket, and the England team toured under its name. In total, he scored 1,316 runs at an average of 37.09 with two more centuries, placing him second in the Yorkshire averages. With the ball, he took 27 wickets but his average of 25.33 was relatively high. The county finished fourth in the Championship as Middlesex were crowned winners. Critics believed Kilner should have bowled more frequently, an opinion shared by Wilfred Rhodes, Yorkshire's main slow left-arm spinner. Conscious of his increasing age, the 42-year-old Rhodes wanted support with the bowling workload; he considered Kilner the best option and encouraged him to improve his left-arm spin. Consequently, during the winter, Kilner practised bowling in the yard of the Wombwell hotel where his father was landlord. Around the same time he celebrated the birth of his second son, named Major after Major Booth.

Kilner's bowling had greater success in 1921, helping Yorkshire to rise to third in the Championship. Used more regularly, he took 61 wickets (average 18.80), including his first five-wicket hauls in an innings, against Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. He scored 1,137 runs at an average of 27.73. He made centuries in the two matches against Northamptonshire, sharing big partnerships in both games: 276 with Rhodes in the first and 299 with Percy Holmes in the second. His overall performance left him sixth in the Yorkshire batting averages, and fourth in the bowling averages. Through the winter, he continued to develop his bowling.

Established all-rounder
By 1922, Kilner's bowling had improved to the point where he passed 100 wickets in the season for the first time, taking 122 at an average of 14.72, helping Yorkshire to win the County Championship. Wisden recognised this was the first season when he was a front-line bowler, "[leaving] his previous form far behind." In the first five games of the campaign, he took 21 wickets for 142 runs. In the match against Essex, he claimed ten wickets in a match for the first time, taking eleven for 51 runs. Against Hampshire, he took ten wickets for 90 runs, including six for 13 in the second innings as Hampshire were bowled out for 44. At the same time, he maintained his batting form, having a similar record to the previous season. He scored 1,198 runs at 27.22 and scored two centuries. This meant he completed the double—regarded as the sign of a quality all-round cricketer—for the first time. Kilner was fifth in the Yorkshire batting averages and fourth in the bowling averages. At the end of the season, he was again selected for CI Thornton's XI, as well as in two games at Eastbourne. Over the English winter, Kilner accepted a job coaching for the Maharaja of Patiala in India. He played in several first-class matches, and enjoyed himself enough to return the following winter.

Statistically, Kilner's peak as a bowler came in the 1923 season, when he took 158 wickets at an average of 12.90 and finished second in the Yorkshire averages. With the bat, he failed to score a hundred for the first time since 1912, but still made 1,401 runs at 34.17 and including nine scores over fifty. This placed him third in the Yorkshire batting averages, his contributions helping his team to retain the County Championship. He made a very effective start to the season, taking 27 wickets in the first four matches for just 157 runs, including the best figures of his career, eight for 26 against Glamorgan, and six for 14 against Middlesex. Later that season against Surrey, he performed what was regarded by Wisden as one of his best bowling feats. Surrey needed 184 runs to win and seemed certain winners when they had scored 127 for two. After Emmott Robinson took a wicket, Kilner took the last five for only 15 runs in a match-winning performance. He finished with bowling figures of six for 22 and took ten wickets in the match. He had been under the impression that Surrey had only needed seven runs (rather than the 27 they required) to win at the end, and his teammates remembered he was pale with effort and concentration. In the same season, Kilner was picked for the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's Cricket Ground, the most prestigious such fixture at the time, where he scored eight in his only innings and took three wickets. Wisden commented that he seemed certain to be picked for the England Test match side shortly (there were no Tests played that summer). He took a step towards this when he was selected for a Test trial match, scoring 26 and 11 not out, but only bowling 18 overs in the match to take two wickets. He also made another appearance for the Players, this time at Scarborough. His performances in the season earned him selection as one of Wisden's Bowlers of the Year.

Test debut
After another winter coaching in India and practising his bowling, Kilner took 145 first-class wickets at 13.28 during the 1924 English summer, placing him second in the national averages behind his teammate George Macaulay. His batting suffered a decline; he scored 731 runs at 20.88, the lowest aggregate of his career and his first sub-1,000 total since 1912. Kilner took 33 wickets in the first six matches of the season, and his form earned selection for a Test trial match. In this game, he took three for 49 in the first innings and a further wicket in the second but only scored 20 runs in two innings. After 19 wickets in his next three matches, including seven in the match against the South African touring side, he was awarded a place in the England team for the first Test. In his maiden Test, he scored 59 out of a large total, batting at number seven. South Africa were dismissed for 30 runs in the first innings before Kilner had an opportunity to bowl. In the second innings, he delivered 22 overs without taking a wicket and commentators were not impressed by his bowling. The selectors left Kilner out of the next two Tests, all-rounder J. W. Hearne taking his place, but he played in the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's. He scored a rapid 113—his only century of the season—for the Players. By lunch on the last day, the Gentlemen had followed-on but were well placed to secure a draw with the score at 112 for three. Kilner settled the match by taking quick wickets and ending the innings with figures of six for 20 as the Players won by an innings. Kilner was recalled for Hearne in the fourth Test, but rain prevented all play after the first day. He bowled 12 wicketless overs, meaning he had not dismissed anyone in his first two Tests and he did not play in the last Test as Hearne returned. For Yorkshire, he had a more successful time, three times taking ten wickets in a match, including twelve for 55 in the final championship match of the season, which Yorkshire had to win to have a chance of winning the title. Yorkshire's opponents, Sussex, were bowled out twice for less than 100, and when other results went Yorkshire's way, the club were crowned champions for the third successive year. Kilner was chosen for the Players again in an end of season match at Scarborough. Although his poor batting meant his form as an all-rounder was disappointing, he had a very good season as a bowler. Nevertheless, his selection to tour Australia that winter with the MCC team surprised commentators.

Tour of Australia
Playing for MCC under the captaincy of Arthur Gilligan, Kilner made 103 against Western Australia on his maiden first-class appearance in Australia. He continued to show good all-round form in the less important, non first-class matches, but in first-class matches leading up to the Tests he was less successful. Kilner passed fifty runs just once after his century and with the ball took one wicket in 81 overs during seven innings. He did not play in the first two Test matches, both of which were lost by England, but was selected for the third when the selectors altered the bowling attack. During the match, a series of injuries to colleagues left Kilner with a heavy workload. Australia batted first and scored 489, a total which looked unlikely when they lost three wickets for 22 and later six wickets for 119. England's pace bowlers, Gilligan and Maurice Tate, had to leave the field injured, allowing Australia to recover; later the spinner Tich Freeman hurt his wrist and could not bowl. The only fit front-line bowlers remaining were Kilner and Frank Woolley. England fielded for nearly nine hours, and Kilner bowled 56 eight-ball overs to take four for 127, his first wicket in Test matches being Arthur Richardson. Given the injuries, Gilligan later said Kilner gave "a truly great performance". England could not match Australia's total, scoring only 365, but when the hosts batted again, rain fell and affected the pitch, making it responsive to spin bowling. Australia lost their last seven wickets for 39 runs in an hour and Kilner took four for 14 in his final spell of bowling to end with four for 51. Needing 375 to win, Kilner scored 24 but England fell just short to lose by 11 runs. Consequently, Australia took an unbeatable 3–0 series lead. Between the third and fourth matches in the series, Kilner recorded good bowling performances, with five for 35 against Tasmania and match figures of ten for 66 against Victoria, and kept his place for the final two Tests.

In the fourth Test, which England won comfortably, Kilner scored 79, his highest Test score, adding 133 with Dodger Whysall, the largest partnership of the match. When Australia batted, Kilner took five wickets in the match and stood out as one of the best bowlers. In the final Test, Kilner took four for 97 in Australia's first innings, but could not prevent the home team's fourth victory of the series. Kilner finished the series with 129 runs and averaged 29.80, batting mainly at number eight in the order, and Wisden noted he scored runs when they were needed. In the Tests, he captured 17 wickets at an average of 23.47. Wisden noted that no-one but Kilner could take wickets to support Tate, the most successful bowler. Apart from these two, no other bowler could manage more than 11 wickets and the other main bowlers averaged around 50. In all first-class matches, Kilner scored 488 runs at 24.88 and took 40 wickets at 25.17.

Decline as a bowler
During 1925, Kilner was awarded a benefit match and had an improved batting record for the season but critics began to notice a decline in his bowling. He was effective on pitches which favoured spin bowlers, but not on the flatter pitches prevalent in the dry summer of 1925. Cricket journals, such as The Cricketer, criticised his tendency to bowl leg theory—a tactic regarded as negative and overly defensive—when confronted with batting-friendly conditions. He took 131 wickets at 17.92, finishing second in the Yorkshire averages and helping his team to their fourth successive County Championship. He scored 1,068 runs at an average of 30.51 with two centuries. This gave him the third double of his career. Kilner's popularity with the crowds peaked in 1925, when over three days, 71,000 people attended his benefit match against Middlesex. It raised £4,106 (the equivalent of around £175,000 in 2008), to set a new record for benefit proceeds. There were no Test matches in 1925, but Kilner was once again selected for the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's, scoring 59 in his only innings and taking five wickets in the match, as well as some end of season matches for the MCC's team from the previous winter.

In the winter of 1925–26, Kilner was selected for the MCC tour of the West Indies, during which no Test matches were played. It was not personally successful for him and he recorded few effective performances. He scored 249 runs in first-class matches at 22.63, with just one score over fifty, and took 34 wickets at 29.50.

Yorkshire's run of success ended in 1926 as fierce rivals Lancashire relegated them into second place. Kilner had some successful matches in the season and achieved at a consistent level, but his performance showed signs of deteriorating. He scored 1,187 runs at 37.09, the highest seasonal average of his career. He completed the double for the fourth and final time by taking 107 wickets, but his bowling average of 22.52 was his worst since 1920, before he became a regular bowler. He finished sixth in the Yorkshire batting and third in the bowling averages. He played for the Players for the final time at Lord's, scoring 72, but failed to take a wicket. His final first-class century came against Middlesex, when he compiled 150 out of a total of 415, dominating the scoring while he was at the crease. During the summer's Ashes series, he was selected for the first four Tests. He only batted twice with a highest score of 36. With the ball, he took seven wickets at 39.42, but the editor of Wisden criticised much of the English bowling; he described Kilner's only notable achievement as quickly ending Australia's innings in the second Test at Lord's. For the final Test, Kilner was dropped in favour of 48-year-old Wilfred Rhodes. According to the chairman of selectors, Pelham Warner, Rhodes was recalled because of the lack of an effective alternative left-arm spinner. Rhodes had a successful match and England defeated Australia to win the Ashes for the first time since 1912, but Kilner had played his last Test. In nine Tests, he scored 233 runs at an average of 33.28 and took 24 wickets at 30.58.

Over the winter of 1926–27, Kilner declined an invitation to tour India by the MCC. The 1927 season, which proved to be Kilner's last, was his least effective for several years and a disappointing summer for Yorkshire. The county fell to third in the Championship behind Lancashire and Nottinghamshire. He failed to achieve a century, scoring 1,004 runs (average 33.46), and did not reach 100 wickets for the first time since 1921, taking just 86 wickets at an average of 23.68. Wisden said his bowling had lost its effectiveness and was no longer dangerous even when the pitch was helpful to spinners. In the Yorkshire averages, he finished fifth in both batting and bowling. In Kilner's final County Championship match, he scored 91 not out and took eight wickets, including five for 21 in the second innings, helping Yorkshire to a nine wicket victory. In his final first-class match, for Yorkshire against MCC, Kilner scored an unbeaten 51 to guide Yorkshire to an eight wicket win. He ended his first-class career with 14,707 runs at an average of 30.01 and 1,003 wickets at an average of 18.45.

Death
The Maharaja of Patiala again invited Kilner to play and coach in India in the winter of 1927–28. Kilner's sister Mollie later said he was very reluctant to take up the invitation and hesitated before accepting. The trip started badly when Kilner's uncle, Irving Washington, died the day after he departed, and several of Kilner's actions suggest this triggered some form of depression. Even so, Kilner recorded several large scores, including an unbeaten 283 in one (non first-class) match. Near the end of trip, he began to suffer from a fever. His Yorkshire teammates, Arthur Dolphin and Maurice Leyland, who were also in India, believed he became unwell after eating oysters, but it is not certain how or when Kilner became ill. He began to have shivering attacks and perspiration while travelling from Marseilles on the way home. It was obvious he was seriously ill when he arrived in Southampton; a cricketing engagement was cancelled and he was confined to bed. He refused treatment in Southampton, wishing to return to his family, and asking for his wife. Arriving in Wombwell on 27 March 1928, he was examined by his doctor and taken home. Subsequently, his condition deteriorated and he was taken to Kendray Fever Hospital, near Barnsley. Although it was thought he had passed the worst, his condition became critical in the first few days of April. On 5 April 1928, Kilner died from enteric fever in the presence of his wife.

The town of Wombwell expressed enormous sympathy and tributes came from around the world. When Kilner's funeral took place on 10 April, the streets were packed with mourners. Many came from outside the town, and according to contemporary estimates 100,000 people were present to pay tribute to Kilner; there may have been more. Over a thousand people were at the cemetery for the burial, and Yorkshire cricketers carried the coffin. Two years later, the Australian team which toured England in 1930 visited Kilner's grave in Wombwell to lay a wreath. The rector at the funeral said in his tribute: "A Yorkshire wicket has fallen and one of Yorkshire's best men is out; and we lament his loss; not merely because it is the loss of a great cricketer, but because it is the loss of such a cricketer as Roy Kilner was."

Style and personality
Kilner first came into the Yorkshire side as a batsman. He was considered a good, reliable batsman when he began, although his style was regarded by Yorkshire critics as unorthodox to the point where they disapproved of some of his unusual, eccentric shots. For Yorkshire, he appeared high in the order, but batted between number seven and number nine for England. If the circumstances of the game demanded it, he was able to play slowly and defensively and restrain his naturally aggressive style. He was particularly effective while playing the drive and pull shot. For most of his career, his effectiveness as a batsman was not compromised by his improvement and increasing workload as a bowler.

In terms of bowling, Kilner was an effective performer on rain affected pitches. His accuracy also enabled him to bowl on good pitches without the batsmen being able to score too many runs. In 1923, journalist Alfred Pullin said Kilner spun the ball more than any other English bowler. He noted, as did Wisden, how Kilner often bowled over the wicket, meaning he bowled from the right hand side of the wickets, unusual for a left-arm spinner in this period. This established a contrast with his fellow left-arm spinner, Wilfred Rhodes, and increased their effectiveness. Furthermore, it allowed him to surprise batsmen with a different delivery, such as one which did not turn. Kilner's Wisden portrait also credited him with the gift of imagination, describing how he always tried to think of new ways to beat and dismiss batsmen. He would experiment with his bowling, for example altering his pace slightly, if conditions were unfavourable towards bowlers. Kilner delivered left-arm wrist spin at times, constantly practising it in the cricket nets. His brother Norman believed Roy was the person who coined the term "chinaman" to describe such a style, although other players have also claimed to originate the phrase.

At a time when the Yorkshire team was successful but exhibited a grim and determined attitude, Kilner was very popular with spectators. They liked him for his cheerfulness and desire to entertain, an attitude not shared by all of his teammates. He had many friends in the game at a time when Yorkshire were not always welcome in other counties due to their on-field attitude. When he was chosen as a Bowler of the Year in 1924, Wisden remarked that he was devoted to the game, possessed a cheery temperament and stood out among players for his personality, while his obituary described him as modest and generous. His Times obituary described him as "not only a notable exponent of the game, but a man of rare charm. Few modern professionals commanded such a measure of esteem and kindly regard from his own immediate colleagues and his opponents in the cricket field as did Roy Kilner".

Kilner was a favourite of cricket writer Neville Cardus, who attributed several sayings to him in his prose. For example, Cardus described Kilner as saying about Yorkshire and Lancashire matches at the time: "What we want is no umpires and fair cheating all round", and "We say good morning and after that all we say is 'Howzat?'" Also, when asked about contemporary problems in the game, in particular the negative attitude of some teams, he replied the game was fine, it was "t'crowd that wants educating up to it."

title: Roy Kilner


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Peter Coman

Peter George Coman (born 13 April 1943) is a former New Zealand cricketer who played three One Day Internationals in the 1970s. He was the first player to play One Day Internationals and never appear in a Test match.

An opening batsman, Coman was described by Wisden in 1974 as "the most colourful batsman in New Zealand cricket at present". For Canterbury against the touring Pakistan team in January 1973, he hit two sixes in the first over of the match on his way to Canterbury's top score of 42 in a total of 129. A month later, he opened the batting for New Zealand in their first One-Day International, facing the first delivery and scoring 24 in New Zealand's 22-run victory over Pakistan.

In a ten-year career for Canterbury, Coman hit two first-class centuries: 103 not out against Auckland in 1975-76 and 104 against Northern Districts in 1976–77. In one-day matches his highest score was 67 not out when he steered Canterbury to a three-wicket victory over Northern Districts in the final in 1976-77 and won the man of the match award.

title: Peter Coman


text:
Trambly

Trambly is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France.

Geography
The Grosne forms part of the commune's eastern border.

title: Trambly