Theresa May in Geoffrey Boycott’s Corridor of Uncertainty
Theresa May’s enthusiasm for the former England and Yorkshire cricketer Geoffrey Boycott is well known.
Indeed she made a point of mentioning it in one of her Downing St podium speeches in November 2018:
Asked at a news conference whether she would be able to “deliver the runs” for Britain, May said she would dig in and fight.
“Can I just say that you might recall from previous comments I have made about cricket that one of my cricket heroes was always Geoffrey Boycott,” she said.
“And what did you know about Geoffrey Boycott? Geoffrey Boycott stuck to it and he got the runs in the end.”
Like Boycott May is not a team player and also like him she is obdurate.
One of Boycott’s phrases to explain the difficulty a batsman may face when bowled a cricket ball is that it lands in the ‘corridor of uncertainty’. The batsman is left unsure whether to play it or to leave it. Doing either could result in dismissal.
Boycott’s usual strategy was simply to avoid doing anything as he batted on and on. On occasion this led to one of his team mates deliberately running him out for the good of the team.
The same may well happen to Theresa May before the weekend is out.
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