Posts Tagged ‘The Ashes’

Katto peaking for the Ashes

June 26th, 2009

Katto pushes to cover

Katto pushes to cover

Simon Katich is in career best form, peaking right in time for the Ashes. 0 runs from 17 balls is a special kind of innings that only the best modern players have the aptitude for. With a few more of these knocks Katto will be elevated to the level of a Rahul Dravid or Jacques Kallis, Test match gods amongst their contemporaries.

Not hitting a single run from three overs while Philip Hughes knocks around 17(26) at the other end, this is the sort of knock that I want to see more of from Katich. This is the form that bags him triple centuries in domestic competition, and god wont save the Poms or our Queen if he continues this sort of form in Cardiff.

We can but hope that Katto has removed that foul swipe outside off from his arsenal and from this scorecard I have determined that his mind is 100% focussed on redeeming the failures of 2005… although Aleem Dar must also take his share of the blame for the cleansing to be complete.

Let us pray that he’s been able to utilise his full arsenal of non-scoring shots in this dig, the ambitious and exaggerated leave wide outside off, the late bat swerve and shimmy round the ball which just misses the off stump, the forward defensive, the back foot punch, the push to cover, the duck, the swerve and the mis-timed pull to mid-on, all are integral parts of the Katich defensive suite.

This knock is honestly what I like to see from Katto. In that tough period approaching stumps with 5 overs to negotiate I applaud a non-scoring not-out.

He took a wicket too, in the 8 overs that Ponting gave him. If Punter stays true to form he wont bowl again this series.

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Dafydd Jones remembers the 2005 Ashes

January 20th, 2009

dafyyddafyyd Jones was born in Dyffryn, Glamorgon, on the 1st August, 1989. All his life dafyyd has been very proud Welshman and a huge cricket fan. He passionately supports his national team, England, and used to try and fit in by flying the Union Jack at home games. He did however struggle to locate the Welsh dragon on this representative flag and could only find the cross of St George, the man who slay his mythical dragon, so now he flies the Welsh flag and his favourite players are Simon and Geriant Jones.

The biggest sporting event on dafyyd’s calendar is of course the Ashes between Australia and Wales. and England. dafyyd is stoked that the Ashes are to be played in Cardiff this time, meaning he can go to a home game without having to visit another country for the first time in his life. dafyyd got tickets to all 5 days through his local cricket club, and can’t wait for the series to kick off. He hopes the test will last into the 5th day as he would love for nothing more than to celebrate his 20th birthday with a victory.

It pains dafyyd to reflect on his life as a Welsh cricket supporter, as he realises all to quickly his team have only held the most coveted of trophies for merely 462 days of his lifetime. Upon reaching his 20th birthday, that will be just 6.33% of his entire lifetime, which dafyyd realises all too well that in a two horse race that alternates home ground advantage, is a pretty písspoor effort.

He tries not to over analyse this, however sometimes he gives in to temptation and tries to aggregate it out over his lifetime. He thinks, what if we could have held the Ashes on the first Sunday and Monday of every month for my whole life, apart from December. That would have been sweet.

The happiest moment in dafyyd’s life was of course back in 2005, when England and Wales regained the Ashes for the first time in his life. He promptly joined the facebook fangroup for Aleem Dar, to show his appreciation for the Martyn, Katich and Kasprowicz dismissals at Trent Bridge, and booked himself a train ticket to London to watch the triumphant open topped bus through the city. Oh the happy memories.

Today’s news that The Wisden Cricketer are looking to interview fans just like dafyyd has made him very excited, as like many fans in that part of the world he has ignored the 2006 series and would like to relive past glory when, for 462 very very happy days, they held the trophy. Bravo dafyyd.

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the good news about Kevin 07

November 26th, 2007

Well, old eyebrows didn’t listen to me and bring in Shane Warne Day as a last ditch to get re-elected so now he’s been given the arse. Wouldn’t have mattered much had his party won as he lost his seat anyway so would have been dumped regardless.

There is some fantastic news about labor being returned to power that I found on this Times blog


Aussies may be reassured by this statistic: under Labour governments they have won 2.2 times more Tests against England than they have lost, while under the Liberals or their forerunners the win ratio is only 1.3. The reverse is true for England where our national team have won the Ashes only four times under Labour (losing 13 series) compared with a 16-18 series record under the Conservatives. If Brown goes for an election in May 2009, people may feel that voting for David Cameron is the best chance of winning back the Ashes.

So, statistically at least we’ll continue our dominance over the united nations of Pomlandia well into Krudd’s term.. though I’m not sure if he can take any credit for their lack of decent bowlers.

Anyway, the real issue for mine is the depth of Krudd’s Aussie tracksuit collection, and I’d like to know that he can at least land the ball on the pitch..

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Hoggard launches his own beer

August 22nd, 2007

With this blog being about Beer and Sport, there’s no way I could let this story pass through to the keeper.

It seems that Matthew Hoggard has been working with the boffins at Marston’s Brewery and they’ve come up with a new ale named after the big fella – Hoggy’s Night Wathcman Ale.

“I can recommend a pint of Nightwatchman. It’s the perfect way to unwind after a day’s play. It doesn’t get better than having a beer named after you.” – claims Hoggard, clearly having forgotten the open topped busses and knighthoods of 2005.

Potentially forseeing the danger of Boony bringing up a 52 beer challenge, Hoggy’s ‘Blonde Full-Bodied Ale’ has been brewed to the weak as piss alcohol content of 3.8%. Interestingly this is still more than the acclaimed Nightwatchman’s List A average of 3.58!

Marston’s became the official beer of the England cricket team last year and toured with the national side during the Ashes in Australia. In September last year, the brewer placed tongue-in-cheek notices in major Australian newspapers lamenting the ‘death’ of Australian cricket – before England went on to lose the series in a whitewash.

Marston’s has also signed a three-year deal to become the official supplier of beer to English test match grounds.

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