Defensible
A little over a year ago today, your correspondent wrote about an annual cricket match in which he and illards are regular participants. The match is between a highly organised bunch of Englishmen called the MadDogs (they have monogrammed shirts and everything) and a rag tag bunch of Aussies many of whom meet each other for the first time at the coin toss. At the conclusion of the 2011 version, the result of 9 games is 4 wins to the MadDogs, 4 wins to the Aussies and 1 no result. There’s subsequently been another wash-out – so the result of this contest would determine dominance.
Not the winning score
For bladdamasta and illiards, the Ashes is the one of cricket we play a year, and with our respective athletic primes (and that’s debatable) being longer and longer ago – the effects two days after the conclusion of the match are getting more and more pronounced. One of these days we’ll learn not to stick our hands up to be wicket-keeper and opening bowler respectively. The Aussies (well a couple anyway), batted very solidly and managed to amass 245 from 35 overs. A newcomer (who will be signed to a long term contract) blasted 82 included 24 off one offer. Your correspondent flailed in hope more than science and scratched out 16 runs – but others were in finer form including our Captain whose play was surprising given his nocturnal activities the evening prior.
The winning score
Ready to flail
Given my pre-game nocturnal activities, I’d forgotten to pack some special beers for the obligatory beer porn. The Alan Davidson Oval proved to be a great venue and had a large very cold fridge full of beer that was paid for by way of an honesty box. Whilst the weather wasn’t as hot as previous years – it was still pretty steamy. This isn’t surprising as Sydney’s atmospere is more liquid than air at the moment. So after flailing or keeping for any period of time – it is not a time to be fussy about beer choice. That’s lucky because the Alan Davidson Oval fridge offered two varities – VB or Pure Blonde. I’ve got to say that if there was ever a time to drink Pure Blonde – it was then. Ice cold – its bland inoffensiveness slides down very easily and took the edge off very quickly.
back of the ferry 
I know this is the English language, as I recognize the words, but any discussion of cricket may as well be in some Martian vernacular for all I understand of it. I take it your side won, so I will dedicate my next beer to your glorious victory, unless of course I have this ass backwards and you lost, in which case the next beer is to say “wait ’til next year”.
Either way, I am having a beer.
That is a very funny comment. I’ve re-read the article and totally understand why you would have difficulty interpreting it. To paraphrase, illiards was starting pitcher, I was catcher, we scored plenty of home runs and the opposition’s suicidal base running meant we turned a couple of double plays and force-outs. We also made no fielding errors. There’s also some stuff that I just can’t paraphrase because the rules of cricket are so different to baseball. The most important thing is my team (all Aussies) beat the MadDogs (all Englishmen).
I have made many attempts to get a grip on cricket, even attending a game (I know that ‘game’ is wrong) at Lords, and when I lived in London, I had British friends try to explain what is going on, but it always ended up with me completely bewildered and utterly confused.
I cannot say that cricket is becoming more popular here in the USA, but with the influx of Pakistani and Indian immigrants (and to a much lesser degree, immigrants from the British West Indies), cricket is becoming more prevalent. A few years ago, we had an absolutely brutal winter, with piles of snow everywhere. By late march, the snow had mostly melted and spring was trying to force it’s way past winter. I was driving past a playground, and there were some kids swinging at a ball, and I thought “if baseball is being played, spring is finally here!” It was only when I got closer that I realized it was some Indian kids playing cricket.
[…] now. That becomes apparent when I look through the old articles to hotlink (here, here, here and here) and realise that this is the 5th Ashes game to report on. The Ashes game is a relatively regular […]