All Over Red Rover...

Well, its all over.  We have lost the Ashes.  After weeks of lack of sleep and sitting up until all hours, it has come to nought.  I really thought we had some hope today when we took 4 wickets in the first session, but the costly dropping of Pietersen on 0, 15 and even 60 cost us big time.  On reflection, we were totally outplayed and didn’t deserver to win or even draw the series.  We took the First Test easily but then the next 4 were all England with the whip hand.  Sure we only lost by small margins, but still we were fighting hard to keep up with England.

So after 18yrs, The Ashes are in England’s possession and I am old enough to remember when we won it off them but I don’t really recall being under the hammer by them and fighting to win it back except for one memory of going to the SCG and seeing Greg Ritchie getting bowled by Dilley and Australia collapsing on the first test in that series… that must have been in 1984?

So now we are in a new era of Australian cricket.  There is no point in getting too despondent and I am already looking forward to the return bout in Australia in 18mths time.  It is good to see competitive cricket again rather than the fodder that has been served up to us in the past 5 years or so.

But having said that, changes need to be made.  Warne said after last nights play that he looked forward to the return series in 2007/08 and I think he may be able to hang on.  But as for the rest of the team, I would expect McGrath, Hayden, Langer, Martyn, Gilchrist to be gone from the XI that played last night.  Also fringe players Gillespie, Kasprowicz would also be gone.  That means we need to find 3 batsmen and 3 bowlers and a keeper to come through in the next 12 months.

For keeping, I am not sure of his age, but Brad Haddin seems to be the heir apparent.  A good batsman, he will play both Tests and ODI so I think unless there is an unfortunate event, he will be the next Test keeper.  Gilchrist’s glove work was very sloppy last night.  He did take a good catch off McGrath, but there were byes and he wasn’t getting across to take legside deliveries from Warne.  His batting is off the boil too… so he probably has only 6mths in the team.

Batsmen:  Hussey is a clear candidate.  Hodge has had a good domestic season last year and got a tour but did nothing but sight seeing.  This seasons Sheffield Shield will determine the next Test batsman.

Bowlers:  MacGill needs to get more time, but he is behind Warne who has not let age detract from his bowling.  Warne’s slip fielding is horrendous at the moment, so if we can hide him in the field, he can still play.  We may need to look at the option of playing two spinners more often just so that we can maintain winning form.  In the pace department, Tait has shown promise and although a little bit rattled by Pietersen last night, will come good with time.  Stuart Clark of NSW has been pulled into the squad to cover for injury and he looks like a likely candidate.  The pace bowling is a worry though and again we need someone to step up in the Sheffield Shield.

So we will go through a cyclical effect and will wear a few more losses, but at least its better than smacking Zimbabwe around…

 

Match Report: Greystanes Cricket Club vs Parramatta Leagues

Season 2005/06 got underway yesterday in unseasonally warm conditions.
Greystanes were drawn to play away against Parramatta Leagues at Belmore
Oval, North Parramatta and it was the home side who won the toss and
elected to bat.


Opening the bowling for Greystanes, skipper Terry Hoban got an early
breakthrough and removed the off stump of one of Parramatta's openers.
This followed by another breakthrough at the other end with Simon Agius
bowling the other Parramatta opener.


In trouble, the 3rd wicket partnership consolidated slowly but that
broke down when Paul "Noyz" Brewster was brought in and he took 3
wickets in 2 overs to have Parramatta reeling.


Joe Puglisi chipped in with a wicket (a rank long hop that was hit to
Pete Nahlous at midwicket) and he got in early with smart arse comment
of the season when he apologised to the dismissed batsmen for bowling
such a shit ball.


At 6/52, things looked grim but Parramatta steadied with a 40 run
partnership for the 7th wicket but once the breakthrough was made the
tail fell in a heap. Pete Nahlous bowled some great leg spin to take 3
wickets which included 2 stumpings by Angelo Buultjens and Parramatta
were all out for 123.


At the innings break, the light started to fade fast and Greystanes
could only manage about 10 or so overs at the crease. At stumps
Greystanes were 2/42 with yours truly (28) and Cam Imbesi (0)
bowled in the fading light by looping slow balls.


All in all, a good start to the season and a first innings win is on the
cards for next week.

The Bush's go on Vacation...

I received this today and it made me laugh... Those Bush Boys know how to have a good time! 

School Train...

I have a 10am meeting today in the city (I work not quite in the city on William St) so I decided to take advantage and come in late and go straight to the meeting… Consequently I am on the 8:21am from Glenbrook and it is packed with school kids.  I have realised that I am quite old now… the “kids of today” seem very alien to me.  Probably not the girls… they were wearing the regular hair styles and had junky jewellery on just like when I was at school, but the guys!  Shit… They have more tints and highlights in their hair than you can poke a stick at and are quite happy to wear jewellery – bracelets, rings mostly – that would get any person of my era bashed “back in the day”.

I graduated high school in 1990 and to me, it seems like it is still fairly recent, but then you realise it was 15 years ago.  Ancient history in school terms.  I think about people who would have graduated 15yrs before me (1975) and that seems a long time, but then I relate it to today and I still think in my head that it was “just a few years ago”.

I guess nobody ever loses that feeling…

I will be 33 years old in December and I have one daughter in school myself and one not far off it.  When you say that, it makes you feel old.  But on Saturday I am turning out again for cricket with my school mates and we’re still hanging out together and over a few beers we still talk about those times from school… the day Joe whacked Cutajar, the day my mate Siebs and I had a full on fight at the back fence and drew blood but was the worst fight ever seen, the days we got our drivers licenses and hooned around our neighbourhood going for “Milfy Runs” which consisted of 2, 3 or 4 carloads of teenagers pulling up out the front of one guys house in the late evening / early morning hours and yelling out obscenities at the top of our lungs… and then Terry got booked by the cops…

These old stories have lasted those years and we are still hanging out together.  We now though have wives or girlfriends we may as well consider wives, most of us have kids and some of us are going to have kids soon.  Our “group” is getting larger.  Saturday nights at the pubs and clubs are slowly giving way to BBQ’s and beers on a Sunday.  I consider myself very lucky to have friends such as mine and when people criticise me that I should put away the cricket bat and concentrate on other things, people fail to realise that its not about winning and losing, but rather its about creating more stories and enjoying the good times.

Bring on the summer!

Barbara Bush comments on survivors spark outrage...

Are you black? Are you underpriviledged? Well why dont you go somewhere and wait for a catestrophic natural disaster to relieve you and your impoverished family of your aches and ills and you too can be relocated to a nice airconditioned sporting facility in a brand new city.

Welcome to Social Planning and Welfare Barbara Bush style...

Planes, Trains and Automobiles... and a few other things.

A few things that are going on or mulling over in my mind:

Petrol Prices (again!):  Why are we suddenly paying $1.40 a litre!  It has gone up remarkably in the past week (again).  It seems the trend to have 10c jumps every 1-2 weeks!  This time they’re blaming Hurricane Katrina.  Yet oil prices fell from US$71 to US$66 a barrel… somebody needs to do something about this price gouging every time there is an incident overseas.  Next they will be rising petrol by 10c if George Bush’s dog needs to go to the vet….

Cricket (Ashes): 5^th and deciding Test Match starts tomorrow night.  Personally I cant wait and will probably be sitting up all night glued to the tele.  This Test Match is going to be a defining moment in the next 5-10yrs of Australian Cricket.  Win, and we will move forward selectively pruning the aging players from the team in a calm manner.  Lose (or draw) and you will see the next Australian Test XI with a multitude of debutants and we will slump dramatically down the pecking order of Test nations.  The old hands may hang on for the Super Test in Sydney next month, but that will be it.

Cricket (Local): My own cricket team starts its 11^th (or is it 12^th?) season together this weekend.  We are away to Parramatta Leagues and are down one more division from our wooden spooning effort of last season and are playing B11’s.  That’s the great thing about cricket, as the waist lines expand and the skills deteriorate, there is always a lower division to move to.  I have had one net session two weeks ago – that should hold me in good stead, don’t want to overdue it before the season starts ;-)

Car:  It is time to trade in the family car.  The silver station wagon has served us well through the years of toddler hood and is now looking tired.  It’s a 2001 Falcon Station Wagon in reasonable nick with 73,000 kms on the clock.  Not sure what I can get for it, but I plan to talk to my leasing company as to what they need to pay out the remaining months (18 or so) on the lease.  The replacement car is the debate, I believe we will get a better deal by getting another Ford and I am aware that they are keen to sell run out models, but with petrol prices the way they are, we are considering downsizing.  I am by no means a rev head and have no idea about cars… if any of you can recommend a reasonable family car, let me know.  I also have a light scrape on the rear door (don’t ask, a carpark pilon jumped out at me), not sure whether I should get it fixed or try and get what I can for it as is.

Trains: New timetables are running on time.  I haven’t had an issue with the performance.  However, overcrowding is a problem and my own carriage here in car #8 of the now 7:11am train is 50% more crowded.  90% of seats are taken as opposed to 60% previously.  I don’t like people sitting next to me on the train in… I write this blog and I then do work emails.  I had a guy yesterday blatantly looking over my shoulder and reading my screen whilst I typed my post on the Hurricane.  Very rude to read another persons newspaper, but another persons emails!  Yuck.  Luckily today, I have nobody next to me as I have put my bag on the seat… a lot of people got on at Emu, but there is still a couple of vacant seats so nobody asked me to move my bag.  Is it wrong to leave your bag on the seat?  Who cares!

Miniatures: I have now got the miniature painting bug back… I am searching for Blood Bowl miniatures and if anybody has any to sell, let me know.  I would like a Dwarf or an Elf team of any persuasion mostly.  I also would be keen on Skaven.  Essentially anything I guess… I have 2 Orc teams, an Undead, a Human and now a base Halfling team.

NRL:  Am very excited about the weekend of sport ahead, including the NRL Final Series kicking off.  My tips are the Cowboys, Storm, Saints and Parramatta.  I think the Tigers and the Broncos despite their 4^th and 3^rd placings are ripe for the picking.  I think both the Cowboys and Storm are primed for some good form, but hopefully not too good as I think (and hope) that Saints can go all the way this year.  Manly may upset Parramatta, but it’s a longshot.

Now that the fun is over...

I have been writing about the fun times at Eucalyptus Bowl these past few days and I have enjoyed it immensely however life isn’t all about fun and games and even though I have been having a good time, it is about time that I give my 2 cents on the situation in New Orleans.

Putting aside the natural disaster itself, as these are an inevitable part of life around the Gulf of Mexico, the response from the US government has been appalling.  I have read a few posts in other blogs defending Bush and claiming that these “anti-Bush” people are jumping at media sensationalism and to be honest I think that is appalling.  The fact of the matter is that the flooding of New Orleans was a natural disaster that cost many many lives, but I want to know how many people died during the week after from lack of care and from violence.  How many people died in the heat and the crowds at the SuperDome and the Convention Centre?  This will be the true test of how “successful” rescue efforts were.

The fact is that the Governor mobilised National Guardsmen and issued “shoot to kill” orders against looters on Day 2.  On Day 5, many people at the two main gathering points in New Orleans were still in the same clothes and without food & water.  Why is it so easy to mobilise military muscle and not easy to drive a couple of tankers full of water into the city?  Why is it so easy to have helicopters flying around cherry picking people off roof tops yet you cannot organise trucks of any description to ferry people out?

In all seriousness, that SuperDome holds 65,000 people for sporting events and yet when 20,000 people are inside it, they cannot organise public transport to get people out in an orderly fashion?  20,000 people is not such a big crowd given that the New Orleans Saints gets 3 times that many every second week of the NFL season so why was it so hard to get them out?

In this modern day, the end result has been a tragic disaster.