Pete, an IEP staff member, is a gold member of the SCG, or rather his Dad is and we borrowed their passes and snuck in to the members area of the ground, and it was amazing, I would have paid for this, you know if I needed to. The atmosphere was so relaxed and friendly for the first innings. During the second innings the atmosphere and excitement jumped up a notch from the word go as Plunkett bowled a Golden Duck and Australia struggled to even reach 200.
What I find quite amazing about cricket is that other events taking place off the pitch excite the fans almost as much as the match itself. When various members of the audience started making beer chains (long chains of empty plastic cups) and were promptly stopped by stewards the crowd cheered almost as loudly as when Plunkett bowled his aforementioned golden duck. Then there are those crowd members on the other end of the spectrum, those who do crossword puzzles. Having never seen any other sport at any other stadium I can't comment on whether this crossword behaviour goes on elsewhere, but i can't imagine any gentlemen leaning over to the guy in front 'What's another word for...' at a Manchester United game. In addition to that, you have those ticket holders who come in after work when England had already batted or because they heard England were actually doing well and so drove down to watch the rest of the match. In last night's rugby (England triumphs again) would there really be fans coming in after half time depending on the score, i don't think so. Bill Bryson isn't a fan of Cricket, but this travel writer-wannabe certainly is, the nuances that I describe above make Cricket unique amongst sports and so appealing.
Above, England up to bat first, below Australia get their turn.
Below, I bought some Aussie sprinkle-coloured donuts. For those who think I'm a traitor for eating them, they had ran out of The red and blue English coloured sprinkles and I got a discount on the ones I did buy.
4 comments:
Glad you enjoyed the cricket, people watching is good fun at cricket matches. Its about time you stopped making us all jealous so i'm glad your off to do some proper boring work. See if you can manage to make fruit picking sound fun and interesting!
Take care
Catherine
Look did I not make myself clear last time, you are supposed to be doing rubbish things, not telling us about even better ones - watching england beat australia in the members section FOR FREE clearly does not fall into that category. In fact I am more jealous of that than anything else you've done. Its so unfair! I'm going to go and sulk now.
Excellent recall of a days cricket.
Witty, amusing, well written by an adventure seeking homeless itinerant.
Enough to give any armchair traveller itchy feet.
His best so far!
The Tyldesley Times
Jealous. Who is this Bryson fellow anyway?
Hi Rob sweetie so jel about the cricket sounds like u had a brill time, i watched the rugby at the weekend that was brill as well looks like England are on a roll again, make the most of it, it may not last long. Loved the cutie pics on the last log soooo cute and u as well rob honey couldn't tell the difference. Nearly half term here im going to yorkshire with your olds on wed n staying over guess the whiskey stock in the b & b where we are staying had something to do with that, should be good although we might be walking in the snow unlike u in the sunshine, catch u later rob honey.
Love n hugs Auntie June xxxxxxx
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