Consider me stirred.

I'm not a cricket fan in general. But I do follow the Ashes - and I cannot believe that England managed to lose that. It's always embarrassing to declare then lose....

Oh well.

And on another note-we in this house really wish that the NCAA BCS Championship game was Michigan-Ohio State, not Florida-Ohio State. But the BCS gods have spoken.
Oh well. The Rose Bowl is, after all, the grandaddy of all Bowls and certainly prestigious and beautiful and historic and all that.

I must say I have been vaguely stirred by the latest Test series, Astrokath; not to watch because I'm bored by all ball games. But just to find out the score, really.

Dido

Oh Kath! That is SO below the belt. We woke up this am to all the radio stations groaning out the pitiful news. They were replaying the 'highlights' (or lowlights for us in the UK) and I thought it was all over, but no! The BBC couldn't be bothered to wait until the end and there were still a couple if wickets to go!
Although I suppose not many of us ever expect to win the series it would make for a more even competition if the English team didn't collapse so spectacularly.
Lots of eg's of 'sledging' (where players hurl terrible insults at one another)
Aussie coming in to bat calls to the UK bowler "How is your wife and my kids?"
UK bowler "The wife is fine but the kids are all retarded."
We are waiting to hear the racial abuse that will follow the Sikh player, Monty Panasar. How do you get away with it?

>>And on another note-we in this house really wish that the NCAA BCS Championship game was Michigan-Ohio State, not Florida-Ohio State. But the BCS gods have spoken.Amen to that!

Fill me in...there is not much cricket reporting in California sports pages.
I take it Oz beat England, in a less than sporting atmosphere....was it a trouncing? Did England boast beforehand? Was it quite unexpected? Guess I'd better tune in SkySportsNews tonight.

Cricket, like Rugby, is played around here recreationally. I watch international matches of both when available, but am hampered by not really knowing the rules. I have been able to figure out some of the rules. I really like hitting balls with sticks (baseball) so I think cricket looks quite fun to play, but I can see how watching it might not excite everyone (I feel the same way about baseball...I'd much rather play it than watch it being played).

Vee, the sledging is pretty much par for the course in the cricket these days I think. Some of the players (eg Warne) seem to thrive on it. He came into our shop recently to do a book signing and much to my surprise he was really nice - very pleasant to all the customers and staff.
As for the racial stuff, the South Africans apparently coped a fair bit last year, BUT most of it was in Afrikaans, so could hardly have been a home grown Aussie supporter - not a big call for Afrikaans round here *g*
I actually don't think Monty will cop much, but of course that remains to be seen. I certainly hope the crowds behave. Australians of course love to 'take the piss', but by and large we are pretty easy going. The Barmy Army have been fantastic - so much noise but so much fun. There haven't been any reports here in Adelaide of trouble in the crowd.

deep, as you might know cricket is played at many different levels from Saturday afternoon on the village green via matches at County standard to Countries playing against each other in 'Test Matches'.
The Australians (probably the best team in the world) take on the English and Welsh every couple of years in a 5 game series known as 'The Ashes'. Each game can last for 5 days.
By some miracle the Eng team won last summer and are now in Aus where they have just been horribly beaten for the second time, first in Brisbane and today in Adelaide.
I can't explain the rules to you as I am too much of a girlie, but I do know that one or two Americans have really taken to the game . . . the latest Getty (is he the III?) has become a big fan.

Here is a link that might be useful: The rules of cricket if you have plenty of time.

Briefly - the game should have been a draw, unless England decided to play on the last day like complete plonkers.

So guess what happened?

Yes, yes, well played Australia, but really we presented this match to you on a plate!

But Ohio has already beaten Michigan upon the field of play. Now it's Florida's turn to try.

I know, I know. We're just big Michigan fans here.

Cece, our newspaper had a cartoon in the sports section that dropped the "C" down below the B S, so you are not alone.

USC - Ohio St would have been soooooooooooo much fun.

I'm pretty happy with ND in the Sugar Bowl.

If you watch the cricket from Perth WA on the 17th., you may get a glimpse of my grandson. His junior team will sing the National Anthem and form a guard of honour for the emerging teams. The excitement is intense! Only snag is that they have to be on the ground, which is about an hour's drive away from his home, at 6.30am, for rehearsal!

My mistake, the correct day is Thursday 14th December....

annpan, the main TV channels in the UK (BBC etc) lost out to Sky TV (?) when bidding for the various sports coverage came up. So there is no longer cricket coverage of the games, just a few 'highlights' or 'lowlights' for us, in the evening.

I did not get to see much of the children anyway, watching the opening ceremony on TV! Just a quick shot of them standing in front of the teams, so protected from the sun in their shady hats, sunglasses and sunscreen that it was impossible to pick out any individual child!
They had a good time though and at least my son was able to see the match on the ground which was so booked out that even some Members could not get a seat, to their justifiable annoyance...

Vee, it's disappointing that the cricket is not on free-to-air television in the UK anymore. I'm dreading the day that the same thing happens here in Australia.

Australia - 3 England - 0

The Aussies win back the Ashes :)

The best team (in the world) has well and truly won! Total humiliation Adam and Kath, and two more matches for you to rub our noses even more deeply into the ****.
I think what surprised many folk over here was how badly the loss of the Ashes had been felt by the Aussies in '05. We lack your seriously macho pride.

I don't think the result thus far truely reflects how close and hard fought these games have been. The last two tests could have gone either way really. Luck plays a role at times. What has been a delight is the spirit in which the games have been played, and yes, it hurt a lot when England won in 2005. So please forgive my celebration of sorts.

Ah well, sorry we lost. Well done, Adam and Kath.

Though I don't really follow or support any sport, I like to know the results.

Dido

Yes, I am quite surprised the result was so conclusive Vee, but loss of the Ashes was taken very seriously here, as was the 'Dad's Army' tag that some of the media used. I feel genuinely sorry for Freddy Flintoff, not so much for Pietersen, and sorry for Monty that he didn't get a chance in the earlier tests.