England won toss and fielded which seemed questionable at
the time and ridiculous by tea. Two
young Indian batsmen made excellent centuries but would they have survived
Jimmy Anderson with the new ball? With
Woakes having a rare average day, apart from the captain our bowlers seemed
toothless, lacking in skill and guile, which is concerning.
Day two - Are England back in the game?
They’d argue they were never out of it.
Josh Tongue inspired an Indian collapse of 7-41 but they still set an
imposing target of 471. Crawley was out
early but England had a comfortable day with the bat and Pope silenced the
likes of MVP with a ton.
I don’t dislike Michael Vaughan really but since entering the media he’s made a
habit of talking bollocks. His latest
nugget being “Jasprit Bumrah is the best pace bowler of all time.” Bumrah is without doubt an excellent
cricketer but come on Vaughan, surely one attribute of a great fast bowler is
the fitness and strength to play all five matches in a series if necessary? Of the modern bowlers I think Rabada is the
best but this could be bias because he reminds me of Malcolm Marshall who is
the greatest I’ve seen.
Anyway, following this England continued to build a
competitive total led by 99 from Brook and contributions from the tail got us
within six of India’s total but I couldn’t help thinking with a bit of thought
it could have been more. India batted
again and accumulated runs while England nabbed a couple of wickets
Day four saw excellent batting from Rahul and Pant who hit his second ton of
the match and it looked like the game was swinging decisively towards India but
after the centurions were out they collapsed again, 7 for 79 this time with
Tongue picking up more wickets. England
survived until the end and had a target of 350 to chase on the fifth day. This would have seemed impossible only a few
years ago but not now, ridiculous as it seems I expect them to do it.
The fifth and final day, England’s openers set the perfect platform, Duckett
was brilliant and England strolled to a five wicket win with Root unbeaten on
50+ at the end.
This isn’t even surprising any more, playing at
home England have always been difficult to beat (since the nineties at least)
but Stokes’ England only lose when they fuck it up for themselves. At times we were only just hanging on in this
match so to go out and win comfortably at the end is an awesome
performance. On this form England is
without doubt the best test team in the world.
How will India go from here? On
the whole they played a decent match apart from collapses and dropped catches,
maybe that was the difference between the teams? I wonder how failing to defend 371 will
affect the mind set for the rest of the series, this series may not be close,
dare I say 5-0?
I mentioned here recently that I’ve been an armchair
boxing fan for years, how could you not be if you grew up in the
seventies? Ali, Frazier, Foreman,
Holmes, Norton, Shavers and other heavyweights of that decade would be at the
top in any era. I watched their fights,
usually highlights on ITV on a Saturday lunch time, sharing the adults
enthusiasm if not their understanding. As I got older I stayed up all night to watch
the likes of Hearns, Duran, Leonard and the best of all Marvin Hagler. Those two periods have never been bettered in
my opinion but I’ve followed boxing ever since though mostly the careers of the
best British fighters and we’ve had a few; Bruno, Eubank, Benn, Watson, Lewis, Hamed,
Calzaghe, Froch and I’m sure more names will pop up when I’m finished. To be
fair, I suppose I only really get interested in the big fights and don’t know a
great deal about fighters on a more local level. I can’t be much arsed about streaming and all
that shit, I’ve never made any attempt to understand it so nowadays I mostly
listen to a radio commentary then get the highlights on YouTube not long
after. Despite an almost lifelong
interest I’d never, ever attended a live boxing event, until last week.
Our local lad Fabio Wardley had an inauspicious route
through boxing but every time he’s been tested against a higher level fighter
he’s come through, culminating in becoming British champion.I mean, British heavyweight champion, from
Ipswich?That’s just fucking
mental.Now he’s fighting on the fringes
of world championship level and with his ability to take hard punches and shake
them off, along with an impressive knockout ratio, who knows?Anyway, he ended up headlining an open air
event at Portman road football stadium in front of twenty thousand people and
it was too convenient to miss.
So along with family and friends we got the cheapest tickets
in the house and turned up to find that although they were cramped and
uncomfortable the view was actually pretty bloody good.The weather was horrible so the people who
had paid £300+ for the best seats beneath us were getting rained on which
amused us at the time.There were loads
of fights on the undercard and I can’t remember how many we watched and right
now I’m struggling to recall any names but all were entertaining.There was some clever boxing and also a
couple of impressive knockouts.Another
local lad won on points as did an Olympian from Colchester making his pro
debut.We saw ring walks, heard the
announcer with the booming voice and they still have a scantily clad woman with
a number on a board strutting around the ring between rounds.Happily there were no annoying delays between
fights and the night passed quickly, fight after fight, before we knew it the
main event approached.I’m sick to death
of “Sweet Caroline” and sneer at most of the cheesy tunes they play to buzz the
crowd up but I was amused by the way people under the influence cannot help but
react to this stuff.
So the main event, after the ring walks (yawn, seen one
you’ve seen them all) two unbeaten heavyweights faced each other across the
ring.The opponent from Australia was
Justis Huni, a man with top amateur pedigree and a slick reputation, a real
live opponent as opposed to someone expected to fall.For the first three rounds it was pretty
tight with Fabio looking most likely but from then on Huni took over and if
we’re honest, gave our man a total boxing lesson.Why wasn’t Fabio closing the gap?Why wasn’t he letting his hands go?After the ninth round I turned to number one
son and said ‘he needs a knockout to win’ and he agreed.Then in the tenth round Fabio landed a
perfectly timed right hand bang on the chin and the fight was over.A spontaneous roar erupted and we looked at
each other with jaws hung open, wow!!That one punch saved our man and sent us all home happy and will be
talked about by boxing fans for years to come and not just in Suffolk.
There was some bleating about the fight being stopped
prematurely but having watched numerous replays Huni was staggering backwards
from the ref, he would never have lasted the round.However in defeat he impressed everyone and
having been booed into the ring he was cheered out.And Fabio, how far can he go?As a boxer he’s not in the same league as
Usyk but who is?And with that granite
chin and one punch power he’s got an outside chance against anybody.Who knows if boxing will ever come back to
Suffolk in such a way but if it does I’ll probably go along again.I might even be tempted to travel a bit
further.
But even after all that, Test match cricket is still my
favourite sport and this week we had the spectacle of the ICC world test
championship from Lords. I must confess I was happy to see the geriatric Aussie
team beaten by the Saffers in a close, entertaining match.It’s fair to say ball dominated bat over the
three and a bit days, both teams have serious attacks but SA have the best in
the world in Kagiso Rabada who reminds me a lot of the great Malcolm
Marshall.Fair play to the Saffers but
they strolled into the final after a ridiculously easy schedule in which the
highest ranked team they beat was Sri Lanka and nobody can tell me they are the
best test team in the world despite what just happened at Lords.In my opinion there are three or four teams that
are better and two of them will commence a five test series before the end of
the month.
God I have all this stuff going round in my head but I never
find the time to exorcise it!I mean
where the fuck do I start?Trump is a
thousand words of ridicule straight away, this after vowing I would do my best
to ignore the lunatic this time around.Closer to home the country celebrated eighty years since VE day a couple
of weeks back and yes of course we should “remember the sacrifices of ordinary
people…” but I struggle with the way this sentence usually finishes.The BBC chose “…the defeat of Fascism in
Europe” which conveniently ignores Spain which endured a bloody civil war and
brutal aftermath which continued even while the rest of Europe sent its tourists
there and this too was conveniently ignored.Few people mention the Fascism rising across the continent in the
present day.
Heading east and arriving in the war zone predicted/defined
by Orwell we see and hear media outrage when bombs are dropped in Ukraine but
ethnic cleansing in Palestine is erased from history.We are literally witnessing a genocide in
which our own government is complicit and nobody seems to give a fuck.Is it because to criticise the state of
Israel is considered anti Semitic?It’s
the allegation they pinned on Corbyn and they can pin it on me too, fuck Israel
and while I’m at it fuck Putin, fuck Trump and fuck that snivelling wanker
Starmer.
I Know Why the Caged bird Sings by Maya Angelou I
can’t remember how many times I’ve read this book but I can remember the first
time. I had to study it a lifetime ago
and unable to put it off any longer I picked it up with little interest and no
enthusiasm. Before I knew it I was forty
pages in and even my ignorance couldn’t blind me to the fact that I was reading
something special and over the years I came to realise it was written by
someone great.
The first of Maya Angelou’s autobiographies naturally covers her childhood and
although she spent time in St. Louis and San Francisco it is Stamps - Arkansas
that is imprinted in my mind. A first
hand account of the realities of growing up Black in the deep south of USA in
the 1930’s. What Maya Angelou does so well is interpret the scenes through the
eyes and understanding of the child that lived through them, as opposed to the
adult looking back.
This is a brilliant book, beautifully written that will stir every emotion and
if it doesn’t there must be something wrong with you.
Test cricket returned with England giving Zimbabwe a three
day thrashing which allowed under pressure batsmen to consolidate their
positions and taught us that our reserves of fast bowlers are not as deep as we
would hope.Crawley delayed his inevitable
axe but Pope deserves to silence the doubters for a while.England’s most successful bowler was Shoaib
Bashir with nine in the match, for once spin doesn’t seem to be a problem.We are currently hammering West Indies in an
ODI series and Joe Root demonstrated that he is probably the best all format
batsman in the world and he looks like he’s getting better.Adil Rashid collected his 150th
cap and is still class, why did he never play more Tests?We have some T20 trashathon stuff to come but
by the end of the month we’ll be contemplating a proper Test series against an
evolving India side which will be a big examination ahead of a trip down under
this winter.
I love Irvine Welsh and will always read whatever he writes but honestly Ray
Lennox is not a character I warm to.I liked
‘Crime’ but ‘Long Knives’ less so and this is just more of the same.The plot is hard to follow at times and the
writing isn’t always up to this author’s usual standard, a bit lazy if
anything?The social comment (with which
I strongly agree) seems a bit contrived when it appears.But as ever there is plenty I do like, the
dialogue is great, there is darkness and humour, when things speed up I couldn’t
resist the reading and the conclusion is satisfying.But what this book didn’t do, (like its
predecessor) was suspend my disbelief.
A treasured friend left us this week, we will remember her
laughing loud and dancing without a care.This song is for her.
Some cricket happened…
If I remember correctly the Champions Trophy went away for a while and then
came back. Anyway a 50 over mini world
cup is something all the international teams want to win and interests me
enough to tune in the radio. England
were crap and were well beaten in all their three matches with a batting line
up that didn’t inspire too much confidence and a bowling attack that would have
looked perfect anywhere but the sub continent.
Joss never seemed a natural captain to me and for the ODI team the only
way is up. We’ve been here before and
the result was spectacular.
But even with England under performing my biggest gripe lies
elsewhere.This tournament was billed as
a triumphant return for Pakistan as an international venue but politics got in
the way and India ended up playing all their matches in UAE which effectively
gave them home advantage.To be fair
they would probably have been favourites anyway, like they were last year at
their own World cup last year where they famously choked.Redemption for the billionaire superstars but
it does seem like it was put on a plate.
I’ve enjoyed being an armchair rugby fan again lately, the
six nations have been excellent even though I mostly don’t really know why the
ref has blown his whistle.France have
been brilliant, at their best as good as any team I’ve seen yet somehow England
managed to beat them.I complained about
it a year ago but the amount of Saffers, Kiwis and Aussies masquerading as
Scots, Irish and Italians devalues things for me but this is just accepted
without a word, I shouldn’t get too smug just because England’s pacific
islanders haven’t been playing.England
finished runners up with a team full of home born players (except one who could
have chosen to play for Scotland) and when they look back they might think that
haven beaten France they should have completed the Grand Slam?The French deservedly topped the table in the
end, another team without dodgy imports, fair play.
I’ve always followed my local football team and when I was
young we had a great team that won at Wembley, my Dad and I were ever present
at home games watching top level football and getting change for a quid. But even then the pull of the waterside was
strong and I was spending most of my free time fishing before Sir Bobby moved
on. In the years since then I went to a
few games most seasons but as time speeded up and I became more contrary this
dwindled away to nothing. I fell out of
love with football. But I still follow
the Town and I always will though nowadays I do so from a far, listening to
radio or following internet coverage. In
recent times even this has been fraught/emotional/both at crucial times,
culminating in the Town’s return to the premier league. Tempting as it was I didn’t really think I’d actually
make my way to a game, they were all selling out and I never made the effort
but when a spare ticket was offered I thought ’why not?’
So for the first time in maybe five years I found myself
following the ritual that thousands do as a matter of course for ten months of
the year.I was in a carload of friends as
we made a slow snaking chain of tail lights into town, the journey was barely walking
pace and seemed to take hours. Eventually
we squeezed our way into a space outside another friend’s house, this was a
short walk from the ground.Half an hour
before kick off, I was way outside my comfort zone, in with a dozen or more
people squashed into a kitchen, drinking tea and talking football.Most of these people were proper football
junkies, they talk the talk, buzzwords and cliches, I felt that any utterance
from this outsider would have fallen flat.
We walked down the hill and managed to step into the throng
of people poring towards the ground, everyone heading in the same direction, we
got in line and march along.I’d
infiltrated the ranks of the believers and was carried by the throng towards the cathedral.At the bottom of the hill our
group split into two, most head south but we go west.Since I first joined the cult in the
seventies this ground has changed dramatically; three of the four stands have
been rebuilt in that time and all the structures have been spruced up inside
and out.Nowadays the drab concrete is
screened by lots of blue and white, decorated with images of great players and
great days.To do what this team has
managed to do will be added to that history in the future, for a club of this
size the premier league is massive.
We queued at the turnstiles, the lines moved slowly and I
was surrounded by voices belching more football chat, the devout were exalted.Thousands of people, we all wanted the same
result, we had a common goal yet I didn’t feel part of it.Once I belonged here completely, now I felt
like an imposter.Eventually we made it
through and there were just a few minutes to go before kick off. My prolonged absences mean the ground is now
unfamiliar and this was the stand I’d spent the least time in so it took a while
to find the right entrance, before even that we needed to piss.Eventually after several flights of stairs
and an apologetic shuffle we found our seats which were bang on the half way
line, with seconds to spare.There was a
minute’s silence for someone whose name I didn’t catch then the game started
with a roar.
Ten minutes later things had quietened down considerably,
the visitors – Brighton had all the play and the Town couldn’t touch the
ball.Thankfully we were not made to pay
and as the half went on our team grew into the game and actually looked the
more likely side to score, testing the goal keeper twice; the volume rose, the
chants resounded.Once I would have
known all the words to all the songs and would have been bellowing along.Nowadays I don’t know half the players let
along the words to the jingles.This old
ground has changed on the inside too, nowadays everything is so much bigger
though maybe higher would be a better word.To my left what was always called the North stand. The rough and ready
terrace that always lead the chants and carried the mood.To my right the old stand was called
‘Churchmans’ after the tobacco factory behind it.This was our stand when I was a kid, always a
good atmosphere but less volatile than the North stand.Nowadays the old firm sit at this end where
they can keep an eye on the away fans.A
half chance! But Omari took the wrong option when Burns would have been through
on goal…
Half time came too soon, the scores were level and the mood was
optimistic.But that was as good as it
got, the second half saw Town miss another chance early on but Brighton mostly dominated
and it was no surprise when they took the lead after an hour.Until this point I’d barely noticed the away
fans opposite, I’d never have known they were there but as the game went on
they just grew louder.After going
behind Town seemed to lose belief and never looked like equalising, likewise
the home crowd couldn’t get any vocal momentum in fact where we sat it was
totally flat and not the kind of faces I used to stand shoulder to shoulder
with. The game drifted away and the
visitors ended up comfortable 2-0 winners.
We joined the throng of people, the tide now going in the
opposite direction, this time the stream had more pace and carried us back up
the hill.We landed back in the crowded
kitchen for tea and a debrief, there few good points for the Town tonight but
even the proper football fans were happy just to see their team playing at this
level once again.
So the cult of football, I’d sneaked in for an evening and
although I felt like an imposter who’d jumped on a bandwagon I think I manged
to escape without giving the game away or leaving too many bad smells.But this isn’t me anymore, I’m not part of it
and have no desire to be.I don’t want
to parrot the cliches, I can’t buy into the one eyed optimism, fucking football
banter bores the bollocks off me!I
watch sport objectively these days though I’m not sure I like this
development.The world of football has been
warped by the pull of money, it’s been yanked in one direction while I’ve tried
to tip toe in the other.Capitalism
ruins everything.
The World Test Championship cycle has come to an end with a
final table which doesn’t make sense to me but to be fair I have made no
attempt to understand how points are awarded.I think the way the fixtures in these two year cycles are arranged means
some teams have an easier schedule than others.For example in the latest cycle South Africa have beaten Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West indies twice, drawn with India but lost to New
Zealand and haven’t played England or Australia at all.Somehow they ended up topping the table. England
may have been inconsistent lately but finishing sixth out of nine teams doesn’t
seem right, even with the penalties for slow over rates.Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand all
finished above England even though we've beaten these teams both home and away
in recent series, though I’m not entirely sure when the latest schedule began.Of the others we have a win and a loss
against India who finished third as well as a draw and a loss against Australia
in second.Maybe one day we’ll get a schedule
where we don’t play Australia or India?
Going back to the over rate penalties, assuming these are
brought in to give fans more value for money, can anyone honestly say they’ve
been short changed watching England?Pundits
and commentators bang on about over rates and they have a point but half a
dozen overs lost rarely makes a difference to a good day of test cricket. It’s the other eighty odd that count.
Another potential controversy is bubbling with suggestions for a 'two tier' test championship being made. I don't like the idea of this because I couldn't imagine a cricket world where England don't play against West Indies on a regular basis. But if this format is to be the future there has to be some kind of promotion and relegation involved, even if this means one of the big teams occasionally take a tumble.
The final will be contested between South Africa and Australia,
I think it will be held at Lords this time around which seems as fair as anywhere
for a match between these teams.With
this announced ahead of time it implies England would have had a home advantage
had they made it to the final.This doesn’t
seem right any more than a final featuring India being held in Dubai.Anyway, I still maintain a focused England is
the best Test team in the world and I don’t care who wins this years final as long as it
isn’t Australia.