The Ashes

Tut tut.You have obviously never sung the England sporting victory song of "Ingeeeerlaaaand Iiiingggeeeeerrrrllllaaaannndddd IIIIInnnnnggggggeeeeeerrrrlllllllaaaaannnnnnddddddddddd" (repeat ad-infinitum)It grows on you......

(āt) (kən sek yo̵̅o̅ tiv) (dē′z)

Hi, Straggler. Yes, I can honestly say that I have never sung the England sporting victory song.I mean, I so seldom hear of England winning at sports that I hardly have the opportunity. And, when I do have the rare opportunity, I find that I'm usually too busy being upset about it to sing.Edited by Bluejay, : I think "too" has two o's in it.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

In this context as a very defined ennnnnddddding. Well now is your opportunity!! Altogether now..... It is true that we have a fair few losing songs too.... Grrrrrrrr

"Ingeeeerlaaaand Iiiingggeeeeerrrrllllaaaannndddd IIIIInnnnnggggggeeeeeerrrrlllllllaaaaannnnnnddddddddddd" (repeating ad-infinitum, as recommended).----- I sympathize: I'm a Cincinnati Bengals fan (if that means anything to you). And a Toronto Blue Jays fan (just because of their team nickname, mind you: I don't like baseball). I also have a habit of rooting for underdog countries that never win medals at the Olympics, like Estonia and Barbados.So, my favorites lose a lot. I don't usually sing about it, though.And, in all seriousness, England doesn't really do all that poorly at sports: I was just running with Onifre's joke.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

England beat Aus in the first of two 20-20 games of cricket yesterday. For those not in the know 20-20 is the rapid fire ‘Kentucky Fried Cricket’ form of the game. It’s kinda fun in a limited sort of way. The result is soon forgotten, afterwards you feel a bit dirty despite (or maybe because of) enjoying the experience and true cricket purists despair at the increasing prevalence of McCricket. 20-20 lacks the soul nourishing aspects of ‘real’ cricket.But even a ‘fast food’ victory over Aus is worth gloating over. You have a fine voice sir!!!! Here it is customary for the winning team to sing (at the losing team) "You're not singing any more" in order to rub their faces in the humiliation being exacted. This of course demands a response. Hence the need for singing losers.

Astonishing. After thrashing us in the Ashes England then went on a thrashed the world number 1 team: India. England have now established themselves as best in the world at Test cricket (although they are still godawful in ODIs).So thus this makes the Poms number 1 @
Test cricket.
Cheese rolling.I think that's it.

Dwile-flonking.

There is also Bog Snorkeling and (of course) Conkers.British world sporting domination is imminent.....

It's always on the TV at the Indian restaurant, but I cannot figure out what is going on.I think it's kind of a bummer that you can play for such a long time and still have a draw, other than that I'd like to know what is going on.

Fighting and achieving a draw to save or clinch a series is what cricket is all about. In many cases drawn matches are the most intense because they can go right to the wire.Imagine the scenario. The final batsmen are in. Neither are included the team for their batting prowess. Under normal circumstances getting them out would be a relatively trivial task for the bowling team. Just a matter of time. But time is running out. Getting either of the batsmen out will win the bowling team the match. The 6 foot 7 fast bowlers are steaming in and bowling at 90+MPH. The batsmen are dodging, missing and at times clipping the ball tantalisingly close to the diving catchers. Every ball is a fight for survival for the batsmen. Every ball is a potential match winner for the bowling team. The clock is ticking.....After 5 days of ebb and flow, each team having periods of domination and fightback, it comes down to this.And if the match in question is the final and deciding one in a hard fought series a whole nation's sporting pride can rest on the next few minutes.....I know you Yanks don't get it. But it's griping stuff exactly because of the length of time taken.Honest.

of course we don't get it, but some of us would like to.a five day game is not a whole lot different than a best of 7 games series.My St. Louis Cardinals just won a world series last month, and it took 7 games for them to win. they were down 3 games to 2 and had to win the final two games, and the 6th game took them extra innings to do so. they were 1 out from loosing everything twice in game 6, and they rallied and came back on the Texas Rangers both times.I think I get that, the long process of winning. And I think I can relate to the nations pride, as we lost the gold medal to the frking Canadians in Ice Hockey, and they get to remind us about it for the next however many years (and they will).the think I don't get is having a draw in the championship game. Somebody has to win. I think it would mean less if the hockey game ran out of time and the Olympic committee said well great match USA and Canada you both get silver medals and the last champion from the last Olympics retains the gold. or worse you both get golds.

And Harry Potter catches the Golden Snitch!

If I ever win the lottery I am going to build a cricket facility here in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin. Kind of a "Field of Dreams" for cricket. I go to South Africa ever year or two and I am just mesmerized by cricket. I have tried to watched few matches and have bought a book that is basically "Cricket for Dummies" I find the sport absolutely mesmerizing.

And that (to be blunt) is the great Yank misunderstanding.In most sports two teams compete and it is simply a case of who scores the most wins. But test cricket is different. One team can smack the ball all over the field, utterly dominate and rack up record breaking scores, But that isn't enough in itself to win. It isn't just about outscoring the opposing team. You actually have to get them out as well. You have to outscore them and beat them as a bowling team as well.This means that even in the face of overwhelming odds, of having been outplayed completely as a team, a couple of individuals can by sheer bloody minded determination, skill and a fuckwitted-stubbornness save their team from defeat even if victory is not an option. It makes the games ebb and flow between seemingly certain victory for one team, to a hard fought draw to a last gasp victory for the next team. Many hard fought and seemingly impossible game saving draws are treated with the same exuberence as a victory by teams, crowds and spectators. It is all very context specific.The best matches are like stories unfolding. And without the draw aspect of the game that would be lost. It is this aspect of it that makes it the enthralling contest that it is. A saved game, or a draw snatched from the jaws of seeming inevitable victory, can be as important and as inspiring/demoralising as any other result.I am struggling to explain it adequately I know.......