Stupid English weather with it’s stupid rain. The fourth day of the first Ashes test has yet to begin. And Australia with only 5 wickets to bag. Most annoying. Better not rain tomorrow. Better not end in a draw. Bloody English weather!
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Especially as Scott after much diligent googling found a bar in NYC that shows the cricket! Thus earning my eternal gratitude and undying devotion (not that he didn’t have it already, mind). That’s right, yesterday we watched the last hour of play at Eight Mile Creek in Soho surrounded by Aussies. Most excellent. They’ll be showing all of the Ashes—every day of every test—from the 5AM start till the end of the day’s play around 1PM. Bonza! Strewth! Bewdy, mate!
Last day of the tour! Who will wear the green? Please, please, please let it be Stuart O’Grady! And please let there not be any horrible prangs. Will Rasmussen be happy with being king of the mountain after yesterday’s disaster? I hope so. Poor baby. Twas horrible to watch.
And there’ll be much jokeying around in the last few places of the top 10. There’s only seconds between the fifth, sixth, seventh and eight places. Vinokourov just grabbed himself extra seconds to draw (almost) even with Levi Leipheimer in fifth place. My boy, Cadel Evans, is in eighth spot. Be lovely if he could move up. But you know what? A top ten finish in your first Tour is pretty bloody awesome.
And Lance, of course, will take the yellow in his last tour. He’s had an incredible career and proved himself to be without doubt the best on the tour. I fell in love with the Tour during the Miguel Indurain era, he of the mighty lungs, at the time everyone said we would never see his like again. And then along came Lance.
And how about next year? Who’s gonna win once Lance is gone? Who will be the next Tour god? I’m kind of hoping it will be more in the nature of an intense two or three or more way rivalry between several amazing riders with a different one winning every year. I cannot wait!
Update: yup, Lance got the yellow, Cadel Evans kept his 8th spot, Thor Husvold got the green, with Stuart O’Grady second.
Cricket resumed and Australia won by 239 runs. Not saying anything more. Gloating is in very poor taste.
Just a flesh wound! Doesn’t signify!
Did you know there’s a very active amateur cricket league in the Bay Area? As I understand it, it’s made up mainly of Indian computer programmers: http://www.bayareacricket.org
poor taste? poor taste! it’s half the fun. if you can’t bring yourself to gloat, let wisden do it for us both: ‘Michael Vaughan’s England have confronted, and passed, some massive challenges in the last two years, but now they know – if they ever doubted – that they face something in a completely different league. ‘ mmmm.
Roger: Yes, just a flesh wound. You just keep believing that.
Janet: There’s lots of amateur cricket all over the us. Wherever there are Indians, New Zealanders, West Indians, Sri Lankans, Australians, Poms, Pakistanis or South Africans, you will find cricket. I’ve seen it played frequently here in Prospect Park (Brooklyn).
Jonathan: I’m shocked—shocked!—that even for a nano-second you could take my anti-gloating stance seriously.
pride goeth before a fall. your generic material on cricket is at odds with the triumhalism of the first test. but i
m glad you’re here to hear it and see it at second hand. i’m an englishman (not a pom) and the real thrill is seeing both sides of the story.
btw moving from “field placings” (my original google) to the tale of the sci-fi nurse and her obituary in 5 clicks (while listening to the cricket) is what 2005 is all about. go well