James James Anderson Anderson
Five-for’ed Australia today.
Hair gelled back, heads the attack,
Didn’t give anything away.
James James Anderson Anderson,
Commonly known as Jimmy,
Up till now was too often seen
As a bit of a Green Baggy gimme.
‘No worries, blokes, climb in an’ go to town,
Too bloody silly to fret about Jimmy;
Smash it about, give it some clout,
We’re apples to [...]
sometimes the satnav doesn’t seem to work
the car ahead indicates right and turns left
each supermarket trolley has a wonkey wheel
mobile phones go out of signal
and the rain stair-rods in escalators
everywhich way except up
bar staff mishear or you misorder
turning another turns too
drinks collide, profuse apologies
and curses under breath
soggy burgers fall apart
too hurried to wait
umpires gloom at [...]
1.55pm sarnies eaten, supa-sopas supa-soping, umpires inspecting, arms folded, doesn’t look too good for early start of play. We’re in the upper press box stand, which is twinned with the SCG’s Doug Walters Ashtray, both being old-fashioned exposed slighty crumbly concrete edifices – ‘bit like you, dad’ says my daughter, Laurel, freezing next to me. [...]
Deus Ex Machina
“All-rounder Flintoff uses Nasa technology to aid recovery while asleep”
…..whirr, whirr, crutch, clutch, whirr, grunch, clunch, wunch, wunderkind, swoosh, swoosh, slosh, gosh, glug-glug-glug-glug-whirr-clung-cling-clong-helmet-clang, bing, bong, bing, yorker, yorker, rip-snorter, tapocatapocata-tapocatapocata, whirr, whirr, whoosh- whash, jigger-jagger-jigger-jagger ramming speed, Mr Zulu, the knee can take it, Cap’n, warp-factor ninety-five miles per hour, outer, outer,outer, inner’s [...]
3rd Test Australia v England Sydney Cricket Ground 7,8,10,11 January 1966 (5-day match)
G Boycott b Philpott 84
R W Barber b Hawke 185
Fall of wickets 1:234 (Boycott) …. England won by an innings and 93 runs
Watching Bob
‘Crikey, were fantastic,
they went everywhere,
smashed all around ground.
I said you can’t play like that,
this is a test match, of course [...]
“Set up nicely for Edgbaston. English and Australian fanatics calculate chances.”
At least half-a-million people were at Edgbaston to see the three run nail-biter of an English win in 2005. And at least half those half-a-million watched the 1966 World Cup victory, not to mention Roger Bannister’s four minute mile, Sir Len regain the Ashes in [...]
The Gun-shear’s crook, gone in the shank.
Jigg’d his achilles; Achilles is knack’d.
You other blokes, better step-up a rank,
The Gun-shear’s crook, fleece their attack.
Swine flu fever jumps cross paddocks,
Through town and country things seem black.
But your NHS’ll shepherd the stock,
Less known heroes shall stall its attack.
This is written in the style of Bush Ballads, composed by 19th century [...]
Political Consequences
Games before games are statements
of intent, demonstrations, fleet reviews,
salutes and salutations, rocket launchers
trundle across the square gleaming.
Results are less material than
intended intimidation of similarly
belligerent opposition – psychological
salvoes across the bows of alleged superiority,
puts whomsoever securely in their place.
Worcester and Warwick are baronial hosts
to sallys and jousts of national pride:
Hussey and Cooke rally their orders,
Ponting [...]
All Edgbaston
All Edgbaston glistens in stillness
rich twitch’d thick leav’d tree-tops rhythm the breeze
that doves fletch, fetch, stitch and stretch to the skies
beneath a bustard eye below cumulus.
Squawk’d calls, claps, smatters snatch passages in time,
balls and bats enchained to their sovereign rest
that plays out summer fields’ palimpsest:
daze to days call over without rhyme
to succour fulfilment near [...]
From a cricketing point of view the aficionados will be eager to see how England’s fledging spin-twins, Swannie and Monty, make out. Are they Laker and Lock or Embers and Tuffers? At Worcester how will Captain Bell and other wannabe England batters fair against the Aussie attack, where Mitchell Johnson, the stand-out quick of either [...]
