Chew Like Buggery

The appearance of the battered red and green card on top of the deck, looking a lot like Steve Waugh’s latter day baggy green cap, is enough to bring back strong memories of the 1990-91 summer. There were 84 to collect, sold in packs of five, with the ever-present powdered strip of Stimorol – The Sportsman’s Gum – duly dusting up the wrapper. The best thing to be said for the chewie is that you never would have bought it without the cards, which I picked up for twenty cents a pack at the Louth Park Corner Shop. In those […]

Grow A Beard, Jonathon

No, that’s not the name of the Nigerian President. It’s the obvious pathway back to international cricket for Jonathon Trott. The man needs some facial hair, and to learn a lesson from his destroyer in the first test Mitch ‘The Mo’ Johnson. In moustaccium sanitas. Both Johnson and Warner have been through recent stress related absences in the game themselves, but they have bounced back by embracing their inner-bogan, and unleashing the giant within – using the moustache as an outward expression of their newfound strength. Grow A Beard, Jonathon. For the love of God, Queen, and England, grow a big […]

Keep the Mo, Mitchell (Australia 1-0)

Mitchell Johnson may only have grown the latest addition to Australian Cricket History for Movember, and raising awareness for men’s health, but for the campaign to reclaim the Ashes – and the love of all things good – his new handlebar has to stay. From its very beginnings, cricket has needed its facial hair – especially among the fast bowlers. A quickie with a mo means business, no double entendre intended. Something about the look evokes fear, and adds menace to the fizz of the bullet as it passes the nose. Australia’s Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth was the first in […]

The Ashes 2013/14 – 1st Test Match – Day 1

I’ve been in India long enough now that it almost feels normal to rise early on a cool Delhi morning to watch Australia play in Australia – and not much different to the Ashes series that I watched as a kid, when I used to get up in winter during the middle of the night to see Australia play in England. But it feels bizarre to see Australia perform now as England used to. Like losers. There is something deeply wrong about it, as if some natural law is being broken. By the time I stumbled out and switched on […]