100 Years. 100 Million Lives. Think Twice.

[Okeefenokee]

Politics is relative. I'm a communist according to this board, which is a neo-nazi hub according to the antifascists I've spoken to, who think I'm a right wing republican, lol.

You have to be able to pump to gas to belong to any of those groups.

[JohnDonne]

One is better off not to belong to such groups, if you can be easily defined then you are predictable and rigid, and will be wrong in many things.

Being useful is better than being "consistent." An ideology is at best an efficient way to process reality, at worst it is a delusional worldview. A wise principle can orient one towards what is good, but the principle itself is not to be mistaken for the good.

[Alexander PhiAlipson]

One is better off not to belong to such groups, if you can be easily defined then you are predictable and rigid, and will be wrong in many things.

You seem more like a fortune cookie than a communist to me.

[JohnDonne]

One is better off not to belong to such groups, if you can be easily defined then you are predictable and rigid, and will be wrong in many things.

You seem more like a fortune cookie than a communist to me.

I am many categories of snack.

[Okeefenokee]

Empty calories.

[Manwithnoname]

Welcome to the board !

Tell us about you

I was on DCF mostly under another name until I lost my password and took this one. I read most days, but rarely post. Mostly because I'm too stuffed after working a 12 hour day + travel, and on my days off I'm rarely home, but today it was 42C here and just too bloody hot to do anything but camp in front of the aircon fooling around on the net.

Aren't you the Australian I tried to talk cricket with back in the early days of the MHF?
I said something about how your batter's wickets make it impossible for touring teams to win. Looks like I was right about that

That sounds like me. And you are right. But it does cut both ways. I don't see us making 400 in England more than once or twice next year on seaming, reverse swing wickets, and I can't see our bowlers being able to exploit those conditions enough to take 20 wickets on enough occasions to matter. Hell, even the Steve Waugh super team found it hard going over there.

A little story... years ago I played in a Wednesday comp for the MFB (Metro Firebrigade). We played against Cops, Army, Ambos, Navy, Private schools etc. The standard was the best I've ever played in and I played at a pretty good level. On Saturdays I was 2nd drop / Keeper. In this league I was 6th drop and praying to God the batsman hit it otherwise I'd end up with more broken bones in my hands.

Anyway, one of the fellas brings down an English lad that was over here learning the art of Antipode cricket. About 21 or 22 and said he was an opening bat for a county side (forget which one but he opened with Derek Randall, if that helps). Was also a handy 2nd or 3rd change bowler. Awesome, we all thought. That will jam it right up those coppers arses when we play them.

Heh. We bowled and he bowled poop. Absolute poop. Didn't swing, didn't seam, and the length just screamed hit me. He got dragged after 5 or 6 forgettable overs that went for at least one boundary (or two) in each one. Batting was worse. 5 or 6 very scratchy runs and then completely misjudged one that knocked the castle over.

This went on for about 6 weeks. Him getting increasingly frustrated and us muttering about how he was full of shit about his talent. But he seemed a nice guy, so we kept it between ourselves.

Then we played the Army Brats. It had been both hot and wet all week, enough to make it sweat under the covers and keep cracks appearing, and enough to green it up a tad when the covers came off the day before. On the day it was warmish, not hot, and a heavy cloud cover. Perfect swing bowling weather on a seaming pitch.

He opened the bowling (did I mention his mate was the captain... he had faith in him and knew he wasn't full of shit). The first couple of balls were fended off uncomfortably by the batsman, but I could tell they were sharper than usual (he was always quick but erratic. This was quick and on the money). The next ball nearly took the face off the batsman. Fuck it was sharp. It pitched on a length, cut and reared leaving the batsman in no mans land. No shit I took that ball at full stretch, one glove, over my head, and the fucker was still rising. It must have been around the 140+ plus. The next ball I stood another 20 paces back. And they still fizzed and hurt when I took them. Fastest spell of bowling I've ever kept to. What happened next was a rout. If he didn't get them, then they were so relieved to be down the other end that they played get out shots to the other bowlers. Rolled them for around 110.

Then he opened the batting. Clinical. He made 70 odd of the 100 needed, and we passed them one or two down.

I had a chat with him later about his bowling, and asked why he bowled so much shit in the weeks preceding (keepers can do that. We have a special bond with the quicks). His answer was that it was the first time since he was here that he bowled on an English wicket. On our bouncy, cracking wickets with blue skies above he couldn't get swing or seam, and what would be good balls in England sat up and begged to be hit here. Same as batting. A ball that in England is easily stroked through covers becomes a rising ball that is easily taken at 3rd slip and should have been played off the back foot here. It was an interesting lesson.

/end digression

PS Fuck communism. Fuck every ism for that matter.

[Montegriffo]

Cool story, I thought it was going to end with "his name was Stuart Broad''.
It is a problem though. No one wants to watch day after day of tedious batting with barely a wicket.
Not sure what you can do about it either. You can't standardise the pitches to make them play the same even if you wanted to. Home team grounds keepers are always going to prepare a wicket to suit the home team.