A New Year, A New Obsession

A new year, a new obsession (or a new 'phase' as my daughter likes to put it): cricket!

I did play cricket at school. Notice that is 'at school' not 'for the school'. I distinctly remember a projectile (ball) being thrown at me and me defending myself with a weapon (bat). I must confess, I was never really a sporty person. I watched cricket at the local ground, up north in the town where I lived. I used to go with my Grandad on a Sunday and I can still remember the sunny days, the clouds racing past and the sound of cliche on cliche. Cricket is one of the truly great English spectacles. I had a cricket bat, I remember buying it but trying to keep oneself amused alone, with the trappings of a team sport is never going to work (no-one to bowl to you, no-one to catch you out, no-one to umpire, the list is endless!). I supported local football avidly, both 'home and away' (that's fixtures not the Australian soap) and followed England's roller coaster ride of death but in the end it is cricket that is England's quintessential game. So it is now, in the January of 2009 with England in the West Indies, dust still pluming around the captain/coach debacle, the Damoclean Twenty20's hanging over preparation for the Ashes appearing to be moved and no terrestrial TV coverage of England's matches that I walk from the virtual clubhouse, to take up my position on the armchair crease to follow a year of what should be 'first class' cricket.


RP


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