Booger
I don't think England are going to get out of this. I've decided that given the state of play and the 3 days of monster heat I have endured at the WACA that I shall watch today's play on the big screen in the park, where I hope to find some shade.
I think the BBC and the rest can cover most of the cricketing side of things, so here are some things I observed at the WACA.
The Boony Army-David Boon's legendary status continues. VB are doing a massive promotion based around Boony v Beefy and the importance of the tasche (or Mo in Boony language). Lots of Aussie fans are in Boony army tops. At tea there's a Boony army vs Beefy army relay race. There are cartoon Boony and Beefys and even an advert pointing out the total absence of Aussie tasches in the last series, which concludes with Ponting putting on a fake tasche. Can't argue with that.
There are in fact a huge number of adverts, played during breaks in play, which are focussed on the Aussie team. It's defintely a much bigger deal out here than in England. Some are (unintentionally) hilarious-especially the one which calls Ricky Ponting 'the tactician'. And he looks more like George Bush every day. There's an enormous amount of endorsements for the Aussies, most of which seem to have gone to Hayden for some reason.
Every time the Aussies get a boundary, this graphic comes up with Tonked. This is part of a wider 'Tonk a Pom' promotion form Ford (won't be buying one of them); I've been unable to locate the Pom Tonking game on the web. Anyway, even a streaky edge through the slips for 4 get the Tonked graphic going, with a Pom's head on the tonked ball and then Hayden looking to the distance to see where it's gone.
When we hit a four, there's just and LG Electronics graphic comes up.
This flag
I thought the power of the Roses and the Mondays would see England safe. I only saw the flag on Thursday.
There are a lot of arrests at cricket at the WACA.
I'm sure all the newspapers will say it was hot yesterday; this will be mentioned in passing and will not be an excuse for England's professional sportsmen. The media sit inside in the air con. On the radio commentary, they said it 53 degrees C at one point. I was only sitting watching-I drank 5 litres of water by tea (after which it was a bit better as there was some cloud cover and a little breeze). England created a lot of chances yesterday and had no luck; they really stuck at it in brutal conditions. It was a class performance that they got little reward for. When they go 3-0 down, as surely they must, it will be pretty harsh. The Aussies would have completely steamrollered a lesser team.
You get free sunscreen.
Footy (as in Aussie rules) is more expensive to watch than test cricket.
A lot more people leave early. Many missed Gilchrist's innings, leaving when Clarke got to 100.
It was funny on Friday when I sat down and thought I've never done anything like this on my own before. It's a long day at the cricket, and I was looking forward to a long day of concentration and reflection. Just as I thought this someone asked me to pass a pint down the row; the recipient was Al from our Southern Curl tour, who was sat with Steve about 5 seats away; just after that Phil (again from the tour) texted me that he was in the Eastern grass bank and wanted to meet for a beer at lunch; and then I spent most of the day talking cricket with the Aussie next to me. I shall have to work harder on being anti-social if I'm going to get reflective.
Yesterday, in the mental heat, there was an Elvis army. Full Elvis fancy dress, combined with George crosses. They had adapted all the barmy army songs to Elvis 'We are the Elvis, the Elvis army, and we are fat and we are dead, we are the richest dead rock stars that the world has ever seen.' There were actually pretty funny (bending 'I can't help falling in love with you' into an ode to Monty); they inspired a lot of respoect for wearing all that in the heat. They did only last one session, but it was a bloody good effort (better than doing Santa at Trent Bridge on a 'hot' summer's day).
So I saw 3 days of cricket; England's fortunes see-sawed, but essentially wosrsened as time went on; I saw 3 centuries in a day, including the second fastest ever (at one point I thought Gilchrist was going to kill me as he smashed another into the crowd); I saw Monty take 8 wickets and bat; I saw what looks like a Harmo resurgence. But more, much more than this, I saw this man:
It is, isn't it? He was bowling to the Aussies in the nets. Now there's a legend.
I think the BBC and the rest can cover most of the cricketing side of things, so here are some things I observed at the WACA.
The Boony Army-David Boon's legendary status continues. VB are doing a massive promotion based around Boony v Beefy and the importance of the tasche (or Mo in Boony language). Lots of Aussie fans are in Boony army tops. At tea there's a Boony army vs Beefy army relay race. There are cartoon Boony and Beefys and even an advert pointing out the total absence of Aussie tasches in the last series, which concludes with Ponting putting on a fake tasche. Can't argue with that.
There are in fact a huge number of adverts, played during breaks in play, which are focussed on the Aussie team. It's defintely a much bigger deal out here than in England. Some are (unintentionally) hilarious-especially the one which calls Ricky Ponting 'the tactician'. And he looks more like George Bush every day. There's an enormous amount of endorsements for the Aussies, most of which seem to have gone to Hayden for some reason.
Every time the Aussies get a boundary, this graphic comes up with Tonked. This is part of a wider 'Tonk a Pom' promotion form Ford (won't be buying one of them); I've been unable to locate the Pom Tonking game on the web. Anyway, even a streaky edge through the slips for 4 get the Tonked graphic going, with a Pom's head on the tonked ball and then Hayden looking to the distance to see where it's gone.
When we hit a four, there's just and LG Electronics graphic comes up.
This flag
I thought the power of the Roses and the Mondays would see England safe. I only saw the flag on Thursday.
There are a lot of arrests at cricket at the WACA.
I'm sure all the newspapers will say it was hot yesterday; this will be mentioned in passing and will not be an excuse for England's professional sportsmen. The media sit inside in the air con. On the radio commentary, they said it 53 degrees C at one point. I was only sitting watching-I drank 5 litres of water by tea (after which it was a bit better as there was some cloud cover and a little breeze). England created a lot of chances yesterday and had no luck; they really stuck at it in brutal conditions. It was a class performance that they got little reward for. When they go 3-0 down, as surely they must, it will be pretty harsh. The Aussies would have completely steamrollered a lesser team.
You get free sunscreen.
Footy (as in Aussie rules) is more expensive to watch than test cricket.
A lot more people leave early. Many missed Gilchrist's innings, leaving when Clarke got to 100.
It was funny on Friday when I sat down and thought I've never done anything like this on my own before. It's a long day at the cricket, and I was looking forward to a long day of concentration and reflection. Just as I thought this someone asked me to pass a pint down the row; the recipient was Al from our Southern Curl tour, who was sat with Steve about 5 seats away; just after that Phil (again from the tour) texted me that he was in the Eastern grass bank and wanted to meet for a beer at lunch; and then I spent most of the day talking cricket with the Aussie next to me. I shall have to work harder on being anti-social if I'm going to get reflective.
Yesterday, in the mental heat, there was an Elvis army. Full Elvis fancy dress, combined with George crosses. They had adapted all the barmy army songs to Elvis 'We are the Elvis, the Elvis army, and we are fat and we are dead, we are the richest dead rock stars that the world has ever seen.' There were actually pretty funny (bending 'I can't help falling in love with you' into an ode to Monty); they inspired a lot of respoect for wearing all that in the heat. They did only last one session, but it was a bloody good effort (better than doing Santa at Trent Bridge on a 'hot' summer's day).
So I saw 3 days of cricket; England's fortunes see-sawed, but essentially wosrsened as time went on; I saw 3 centuries in a day, including the second fastest ever (at one point I thought Gilchrist was going to kill me as he smashed another into the crowd); I saw Monty take 8 wickets and bat; I saw what looks like a Harmo resurgence. But more, much more than this, I saw this man:
It is, isn't it? He was bowling to the Aussies in the nets. Now there's a legend.
posted by Poll Star at
1:15 AM
1 Comments:
good to see he's still got the same champion physique he's always had. Has there ever been a more unlikely person take 200 test wickets? I know the King of Spain has nearly 150... but it's hardly the same thing, is it?
ST
By
swisslet, at 9:02 PM
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