Comments on: England v Pakistan 2010 Oval Test, day two match report

By: Jo Fitz

Jo Fitz — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:21:13 +0000

Dear Pauline the wife
Welcome to the start of a long and happily nerdy relationship with cricket.
Here you will be amongst friends as you try to keep awake and keep it together through the last two Ashes tests.
Join us on the Through the Night Thread as Tight But Loose tries to keep the cat from stealing his duvet and Ged comes up with more of his up-to-the minute Venn diagrams.

By: Ged

Ged — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:12:29 +0000

What a gal

By: Pauline-The Wife

Pauline-The Wife — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 12:27:33 +0000

I feel I have to have my say in this one!

Not only did I break the mould and marry an English man, I also vowed to love and honour the game of cricket. I am a massive sports fan, born into a horse racing house in the heart of munster rugby territory. Growing up playing hurling, our highly skillful national game, the fastest field game in the world. (Which has loads of rules Bradders, just cos you haven’t grasped them yet!) There is a big difference between a high intensity 70 minute hurling match and an 8 hour test game!

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the complexity of cricket but it would take any newbie a while to pick up all the rules. I have already broadened my vocabulary to include LBWs, yorkers, ducks and fast spin bowling but that day was a particularly slow day in the test! It hasn’t put me off however. I will go again and I will be up watching the Ashes on Christmas night. I do think though that 20/20 is a good game to begin with as it is exciting and an easy way to get involved with cricket.

I actually gave my cricket mad husband a first anniversary present of the trip to the oval for said cricket match. He doesn’t find any interest I show in cricket irritating, he is a true advocate of the game and happy to widen the cricket audience to include everyone, bloody women and even bloody Irish women, who, by the way SAM would drive you to the back of beyond with my reverse sweep in garden cricket.

By: sam

sam — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:15:32 +0000

Bloody women

By: Bert

Bert — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:26:10 +0000

Well that certainly put me in my place, KC. There was me being sarcastic about the time elapsed between a match and a match report, and you go and put one up a matter of a few days after the end of the match.

Oh, wait a minute, it was arseing months ago.

Anyhoo, another good report Bradders. Stag dos at test matches are a tremendous source of entertainment. Regarding the wife, though, I might suggest one of two courses of action:

1. Introduce her to test cricket via its inherent subtleties, rather than via 20/20. The constant tension between attack and defence in every aspect of the game, the reversal of the risk-reward balance between batting and bowling, the importance of the mental aspect of what is superficially a physical game, all of these things I am sure will intrigue any intelligent, thinking person.

2. Don’t bother taking her any more, so that you can enjoy a day out with the lads, drinking yourself daft and not having to listen to irritating questions.

By: daneel

daneel — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:53:24 +0000

Tom and Jerry better than Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote or Marvin the Martian? (or even Pepe le Pew) Philistine! (although I will accept they’re less annoying than Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig…)

I think it’s supposed to be Pimm’s and Lemonade – I didn’t realize they sold it with lager as a mixer…