Cricket Result

For those of you who are cricket fans and, in particular Twenty20 devotees, this is an irrelevant post because you will probably have watched the finals on Sky and will know the results.  For those of you not in that category you will probably have no interest in the results anyway.  But just in case there is even one person out there who wants to know, the results of the finals were:

England v Australia: England won by 7 wickets.

Australia v New Zealand (Women's):  Australia won by 3 (YES 3) runs.

How annoying is that?

Cricket

When I was in Ayr having dinner there was a TV screen (without sound) showing the ICC Twenty20 cricket series semi-finals for both the men and the women cricketers.  This format is really exciting.  The outcome is shown on the right. 

For once I’m in the situation where I really would like to have SKY Sports on TV to enable me to watch the finals.  They should be really exciting.  I have no difficulty, either, in knowing where my loyalties lie.  My big problem would have been an England v New Zealand final for either or both.

The Ashes Are Coming Home!

I am not known for my great enthusiasm for sport - except, of course, croquet but whilst croquet is a popular sport in New Zealand, Australia, The USA, South Africa, England and Egypt it's not generally a mainstream sport so far as the media is concerned. I used to be quite an ardent cricket follower when my office overlooked the Lancashire County Cricket Club of which I was a member but I still have not been one of the most ardent of cricket followers in recent years.

However on 22 July I blogged about the hope of The Ashes returning to England. Well today England beat Australia by 197 runs on day 4 to win the series 2:1. We have The Ashes back!

England and New Zealand will be celebrating!

England v Australia: The Ashes

I'm back! I'm afraid that, rather like the English Cricket team but for a considerably shorter period, I have been performing below par and I've not felt like blogging. That in itself should have been an indication to me that all was not as it should have been. Anyway I feel ok tonight and am back on blogging track. And my chosen subject? Cricket. Why? Well that's interesting because it is a while since I was an avid cricket follower. But I now have two persona when it comes to cricket: as an England supporter and as a New Zealand supporter. The thing that both persona have in common is a wish to see Australia beaten. So on Monday 20th July when England won (and Australia lost!) the second Test at Lords there was great celebration and I was amongst those happy with the result. The first Test had been drawn.

Peter Siddle (Australia) loses his middle stump and England had won

England's Andrew Flintoff's team-mates mob him after his removal of Peter Siddle

Now I appreciate that many readers of this blog will find cricket to be a closed book and a rather curious game played by Countries of the now long gone British Empire but even those who are in that category may find the following of interest. The Ashes is played over five matches in five locations within either Australia or England. This series is being played in England (and, just to complicate matters, Wales). When England last beat Australia in an Ashes Test at Lords (many would argue the spiritual home of British cricket) the world population was 2.2 billion. Today it is 6.7 billion. The land speed record was 272 mph, now it's 764 mph. The average house price was £515 and now it's £189,000. So when was the last time England beat Australia at Lords? Seventy five years ago!

So here's hoping for a good result at the next Test starting on 30 July.