Three down two to go

Another great finish to another tidal test match, flowing up and down with nothing in its path able to withstand the push and pull, wherever we are we just have to tune in and become absorbed.  Now a nice break to slip back into relative normality, time to regroup and time to think.  Australia may be 2-1 but even that margin flatters them, England are the better team and are only trailing because of their own mistakes.

The great selection debate goes on.  Ollie Pope will miss the rest of the series through injury but if Mo can score a few runs at three then it may be a blessing in disguise.  With Stokes playing purely as a batsman then maybe he should bat at first drop?  Either way we need another all rounder and Woakes’ selection, which came as an unwelcome surprise to me turned out to be spot on.  Then there’s the wicket keeper, the most important position on the field should not be filled by someone lacking form and low on confidence.  Sorry Johnny, Foakes must return, any other selection could cost us the series.  Just a thought, if we can move bowlers in and out of the team why can’t we select batsmen on a ‘horses for courses basis’?

Two matches to go and obviously this series could still go either way but even with a deficit I think England are the better team and I actually fancy our chances more now than I did before the series began.  That’s just poured piss on things…

PS Anyone else getting pissed off with hearing Vaughan utter the words “this England side…” every time he opens his cake hole?

The women’s series is levelling off nicely too, it’s hard to see anything other than an eventual Aussie win but England are competing and pushing back harder than anyone has done in years.  The gap between the sides is definitely closing.

Flashes.

Over twenty years ago I was keeping wicket in a local league cup final (Yes it’s fair to say I was one of the less talented team members…) and I stumped a batsmen (actually a former professional with Essex) in almost identical circumstances to the “Bairstow incident”.  The decision was given not out, I was fuming and that batsmen went on to score a match winning half century.  So I can’t find any sympathy, the umpires got it right, Bairstow was out.  Likewise Duckett was not out, Starc clearly grounded the ball, I don’t know what all the fuss was about.  Glenn McGrath must have been really worried at that stage because he lost the plot on air. 

Some would argue Bairstow’s stumping changed the course of the match but the blame lies with the batsman being too casual and going for a wander.  Johnny is a weird character, I love watching him bat but he’s a bit of a nutter, the manic stare and all that; let’s face it you wouldn’t want him living next door.  Last year he was brilliant but this followed a long period when his test match form was barely good enough to hold a place in the team.  Last summer he made all those runs batting at five, knowing he had Stokes and Foakes to follow.  I can’t believe he can be that effective batting at seven with a long tail to come after him.  Talking of Foakes I can’t help thinking that had he had played and had made the same contributions as JB then the media would be dissecting his selection.

While Stokes was at the crease we still believed and he played another one of those innings that only he can.  He didn’t get us over the line this time but we’ll remember this knock forever.  Another cricketer I love to watch but it can be infuriating when he just comes out swinging.  The same applies to his captaincy or more to the point his declarations, if he can learn from his mistakes he could go down as one of the great skippers.  But with the sight of him limping and grimacing I wonder how long can he continue?  Maybe it’s time to drop the bowling and move up the order…

Australia now have a significant lead but this has come after two exciting test matches and it could easily have been England in the ascendancy had we kept our heads.  But Australia deserve their leads because they’ve won the crucial moments.  It looks like this Aussie team have a quality that even the great sides that dominated for fifteen years didn’t have; they’ve learned how to win tight test matches.  But they are beatable if England can get it right.

Tests

The first Ashes Test was an excellent cricket match which went right down to the last session and was ultimately won by the team that played the most conservative cricket.  England entertained as they had promised and had some great sessions but Australia hung in there.  With a close game we look at the crucial moments and decisions; the much talked about declaration, dropped catches, having an injured player bowl.  England should have won this match.  I would contend the biggest mistake made by England occurred before the match started and was in fact announced weeks ago.  For the first time in the Stokes/McCullum era we didn’t put our best eleven on the field and we won’t be doing so next week either.  Ben Stokes is a great cricketer and a fantastic captain who makes some inspired, instinctive decisions but he’s also made a couple of piss poor ones.

The only test in the Women’s Ashes was also a good game.  England’s efforts were built around individual brilliance but Australia’s was more of a team effort with everyone contributing and they were comfortable, deserved winners in the end.

Cricket chunter followed by lots of bad language

The Lords test match vs Ireland went pretty much as expected, England were totally dominant for two days; bowled Ireland out cheaply, racked up a massive score quickly and the commentators wondered if they could win in two days.  It went into a third day which saw Ireland praised for battling when as far as I could tell England were under performing.  But we won comfortably in the end, learning little or nothing on the way.  Soon after the match we found out Jack Leach had a spinal injury and wouldn’t be able to take part in the Ashes series.  A day or two later Moeen Ali answered the call to come out of retirement which is probably the best selection under the circumstances.  Then the Aussies warmed up with the WTC final against India which they pretty much dominated throughout and lifted the World Test championship mace, which is never a sight an English cricket fan wants to see.

Now the Ashes and if the Aussies are world champions then England must be the number one contenders even though the ICC ratings put us third.  Apparently, this is the most eagerly awaited Ashes series since… the last one?  Some pundits are comparing it to 2005 and I’d say this is certainly the best Aussie team to tour England since that series but it isn’t as good as the team lead by Ponting which lost.  The question is how good is this England team?  If they can play the way we’ve come to expect over the last twelve months and end the series holding the Ashes, they may go down as the best ever?  If…

I should end on a prediction, which is predictable…  But I really don’t know!!  The Aussie team may not be as good as 2005 but it might be good enough to win.  Both teams will be able to take twenty wickets; can England’s batsmen dominate the Aussie bowlers in the same way they did New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan?  If they can then England win.  My one prediction is there may be periods of play or whole matches that are close but whoever ends up winning will do so by a wide margin.

It’s good to rant…

De Pfeffel has departed, a sneak preview of the imminent report was enough to make the fat brat spit his dummy and storm off in a huff.  Following in his wake two more oxygen thieves that supported bullshit boris.  For the last dozen years, (either side of the hysterical finger pointing towards JC,) British politics has been nothing more than a power struggle/shit fight between factions of the Tory Establishment, aided and abetted by the fuckwitt hangers on.  This extended playground squabble has to this point left the country starved of public services, crippled by plague and economic depression, our rivers run clogged with shit, we are extorted by energy companies and excluded from trade agreements everywhere.  Great Britain is the laughing stock of the world.

 Where are the architects of Brexit now?  The generation of politicians that had so much contempt for us they didn’t bother to hide their lies are steadily sneaking off into the private sector paradise where they will wax fat while nervously wondering if their day in the dock will come.  Just the mutant inbred Rees Mogg will remain because what else is the prick capable of doing?  Even the social media Tory fanboys are quiet, keeping their heads down, don’t want to be reminded of previous declarations.  Jesus what kind of moron voted for these cunts?  Are the British people more naturally Fascist than they know?  We’ve been royally bumfucked by these Etonian exploiters but some us fucking struggled, Tory voters lubed their own arses and bent over.

At some point, probably sooner rather than later, we get to exercise our right to vote in our pretend democratic election.  The best we can realistically hope for is Keir Starmer…

Test Squad

Test cricket will return in a couple of weeks and England have announced a squad to play Ireland at Lords which gives us an insight into how the selectors are thinking ahead of an Ashes series.  The unluckiest man has to be Ben Foakes AKA the best keeper in the world, who has done absolutely nothing wrong, his omission is to enable Bairstow to be slotted back in behind the stumps.  As a fan of Foakes I’m a bit peeved but it was the obvious move; Harry Brook couldn’t be discarded after the brilliant start to his test career and after the madness of last summer Bairstow was sure to return.  I’m sceptical as to whether Johnny will ever replicate that kind of form again.

The not so obvious move would have been to drop Crawley who must be hanging on by his fingertips.  This move would have meant using Brook or Bairstow to open which wouldn’t be ideal and therefore Crawley is the luckiest man in the squad and needs to make runs.  Another surprise inclusion is Dan Lawrence who is a good player but hasn’t really pushed his case.  Also included is Chris Woakes who has a decent record in home conditions but is surely only there as a swing bowler to cover Anderson.  The other big omission is poor Jofra Archer, injured again and it makes me wonder if we’ll ever see him in England whites again?  Happily Mark Wood is fit and firing.

Team vs Ireland

Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes, Bairstow, Robinson, Leach, Broad and Anderson.

‘A state of fear’ by Laura Dodsworth

A book that sets out to examine the use of fear and psychology to influence and control the population during the Covid19 pandemic but actually turns into something that attacks all the government policies during the lockdown periods.  Except that is, for the crucial fact the British government started off by doing nothing at all, then by the time it acted, it was too late.  Early on she describes Johnson’s lockdown speech on 23^rd March as fear mongering and claims his words and body language at the time as being designed to put the fear of God into us, the great performer doing what he does.  (Or could it be he realised he was totally out of his depth and was genuinely shitting himself?)

Governments deliberately used fear to control the public during Covid.  So what?  This has been going on since WWII (at least), Orwell told us that a population in fear is one that is easy to control.  (Orwell wasn’t a prophet, he could see it going on around him.)  All of my life I’ve been encouraged to be scared of someone or something.  First it was the Russians then when this threat melted away and we all went a bid mad in the nineties Terrorism became the new fear, Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Isis.  We’ve even been given a fright by diseases in the recent past, SARS and Ebola for example.  Then came the coronavirus and with that now a departing memory we’re told to fear the Russians again.  Whether we like it or not, control by fear is a fact of modern life so why is the author so worried about it being used now and in this context?

Dodsworth repeatedly assures us that this isn’t meant to be an ‘anti-lockdown’ book but that is exactly what it is, more so than a book designed to make us question the methods of fear mongering.  It seems like most of the book is made up of analysing lockdown and its effects, piece by piece which wasn’t the brief.  But to be fair it did make me question my own response to Covid and lockdowns.  Throughout the pandemic I supported the restrictions.  In the beginning I loved being confined to home and garden, I enjoyed watching spring rise around me and was content being out of the rat race.  I was also aware that several members of my close family were more at risk to Covid than the vast majority of the population, I had loved ones that needed protection. 

The author implies that because governments had repeatedly told us not to worry about this Chinese virus they then had to frighten us to get us to comply when lockdown eventually came.  Why the sudden change of government policy?  Why stop the world?  Who stood to gain, was this disaster capitalism on a massive scale?  If so why not write a book about these people?  Plenty of questions but no answers.

But would I willingly go through another lockdown?  Probably not, I recognise that although I didn’t mind being locked down, other people including family members suffered adversely.  This book was written before we knew that government ministers had themselves behaved appallingly while we kept to the rules.  I don’t believe British people would accept another lockdown after that.  Was I more affected by propaganda than I realised?  I must concede that it’s possible that I was.

The author uses interviews to describe people’s lockdown experiences and add weight to her opinion and also talks of being intimidated by police whilst trying to do her job. “Allowing press photographers and journalists to do their work is essential to a free press and democracy…”  After exposing government mind manipulation (aka ‘nudge’) how does she still believe in democracy?   Likewise the ‘free press’, it doesn’t exist now if it ever did and journalists behave as badly as politicians.

‘Nudge’ is interesting, subtle brainwashing techniques used by government through media to influence our thoughts and actions.  I’m surprised, not that it exists – that’s a given, but that it’s been given a name, this implies fact and an owning up to shady goings on.  Whatever you call it nudge has been going on for decades and it is good to have this brought to public attention but once again why now?  I conclude the author isn’t worried about mind control being used to influence democracy or to tell us what to buy but she is concerned when it’s used to confine her to her home.  This book was published in 2021 and a lot has happened since which would explain why the author has barely mentioned the corrupt allocation of contracts or the PPE debacle.

I wonder why didn’t Dodsworth go further and look at the obvious corruption and glaring failures in government?  Is she pulling punches?  Maybe because she’s worked for the Daily Mail?  I don’t know about this book, it was interesting in places and definitely made me think, I had to examine my own reaction to Covid.  But as a book on the tactics of fear it was disappointing, inconsistent and it has to be said, repetitive and boring. 

TW3

Last week I had a very novel experience, for one of very few times in my life I voted for the winning side!  I was one of the many who voted the Green party into control of its first council here in Mid Suffolk.  In fact this bluest of counties no longer has a Tory council in power in any constituency, blue has been wiped off the map, which is something I never thought I’d see happen.  I hope this is the beginning of something for the Greens and not just an anti-Tory protest vote, two fingers to local MP’s like Halfcock and Coffey.  I hope enough young people have more sight and sense than their parents and realise the red vs blue politics is a failed, corrupted system that will never serve the majority of the people.  The only way to change the country is to change the way we vote.  Locally in Suffolk unregulated urban expansion has upset many, the green spaces between towns and villages is disappearing rapidly.  Also dumping sewage in the waterways has been big news, when the county’s central river turns green and stays that way for six months people get upset.

Then there was the fucking coronation.  I didn’t care either way, I didn’t watch it but the princess did, so I was fucking about on this computer, literally sat with my back turned.  A symbolic act of defiance or a happy accident?  Maybe both.  When things got really serious I made myself scarce, sorting fishing gear in the garden so my grumbling didn’t spoil things for someone with a genuine interest.  The whole shitshow is ridiculous, King by accident of birth, I mean a fucking golden carriage in a city where people sleep on the streets.  But the idea of pledging allegiance to the King?  What?  Bollocks!  No just fuck off with that, fuck off, just fuck off.

The weekend finished with the coronation concert which as a music fan did raise a glimmer of interest until I saw the line up.  It went on in the room around me and even people I don’t particularly dislike were poor, like they were trying too hard.  I let it all pass without comment until Lionel Ritchie who was appalling, somehow totally spoiling a beautiful song he wrote a lifetime ago.  I shouldn’t be surprised, what I like musically will never appear at an occasion like this but I do appreciate all types of live music if it’s done well.

And while I’m on a musical theme, Eurovision is crap.  It has always been crap and always will be.  For years it was regarded as such even by the broadcasters that covered it and the LGBT community which embraced it.  But a couple of years ago someone at the BBC decided Eurovision was cool and have been feeding that narrative ever since.  In an Orwellian shift the media is now telling us Eurovision is great and it’s always been so.  Just in case anyone is undecided, trust me Eurovision is bollocks, it has nothing to do with real music, it is and has always been total shite.  What we need is more of this…

Gigging again.

Three years ago we were all locked down, confined to our homes while our leaders played soggy biscuit…  Let’s not go in that direction today.  I quite liked it to be honest; not having to run the rat race was nice and I enjoyed watching spring take over the countryside.  All that time didn’t drive me mad, I think I made it count and anyway readers are never bored.  But one of the downsides of the locked down world was the complete stop on live music, obviously many people weren’t able to work but selfishly I love going to gigs and over the last couple of years I’ve fallen out of the habit.  Happily this has been put right over the last couple of weeks.

In mid March the usual suspects headed to London to see Fucked Up play a venue in Kings Cross called Lafayette.  Thanks mainly to altered perception our short cut turned into a long cut and we got in a little late but saw most of a really good show.  The highlight was the final song, an awesome extended, psychedelic version of ‘Dose your Dreams’, that went on and on but still I didn’t want it to end.  This was as good as live music gets!  How to describe Fucked Up?  Hardcore punk?  A wall of noise?  But once you’ve got through the barriers and found your way in there is skill and intelligence and a really special band.

Two weeks later I returned to the smoke with the Princess and my daughter, after  a sit down Chinese we spent a couple of chilled hours wandering around Camden market before making our way down the road to the Roundhouse where we be seeing my favourite current band, Eels.

The gig was great, a totally different set to the last tour, loads of new songs which unlike many people I always love to hear but also with some leftfield oldies that blew me away.  An obscure album track from long ago sounds magical when you’re hearing it played live for the first time.  There are always a couple of quirky cover versions thrown in too.  To be honest compared to other performances I’ve seen the band were a bit rusty but as it was just their second gig in four years I suppose that can be excused and anyway if live music was perfect it wouldn’t be so much fun.  The encores filled in any gaps, ‘Earth to Dora’ and ‘Wonderful Glorious’ and we three left grinning and buzzing.

So much so we all travelled to Norwich a couple of weeks later and did it again.  This time the band was tight, the sound fantastic and the gig was excellent.  I was surprised by a couple of changes to the set including another oldie I would never have seen coming.  Highlight for me was Eels oldest song, ‘Novocaine for the Soul’ and when that first gorgeous guitar chord wrapped me up in a wave of wonderful sound…

Eels and Fucked up are bands that are unlikely to find their way into mainstream consciousness but they both make great music released on traditional formats as well as streaming.  You can find them in HMV if you look hard enough.  When the world isn’t shut down these are two (amongst many) bands that tour the world playing small to medium sized venues that are mostly full.  I sometimes feel I’m the only person in the world who gets emotional at these times but when I look around the audience in these places I see people of all walks that are just as euphoric as I am.