Monday 10 March 2008

Touch of the noble*The kids issued us with shopping lists while we were in Australia.
They wanted nothing very onerous or expensive — Lily asked for a few hundred Madura teabags, Redskins, Peppermint Crisps, the latest Panics CD, the new volume of Isobelle Carmody's The Obernewtyn Chronicles, and some eucalyptus oil.
Will wanted a pair of Aussie boardshorts and a cricket set. That's him, above, bowling to his delighted dad at the park yesterday.
Obviously, Will's out to persuade his mates about the joys of street cricket. And they're loving it! On Saturday, he had a big group down at the local park and they played for hours, much to the amusement of a family from India, and a New Zealander who was playing beach volleyball on the sand court in the corner.
It was a very, v-e-r-y informal game, with some weird deliveries ...
... and some great smashing hits. Justin, above, was a natural.
I was thrilled to see the Carmel Creek U-18 XI included a few bold girls who, like the boys, did their best with the eccentricities of bowling, after years and years of pitching baseballs and teeballs and softballs.
Will dressed for the occasion, in his red Queenslea House athletics top from his old school, Christ Church.
Trev, above, is clearly too much a rock star for this game. He's much more likely to end up on a stage than a cricket pitch, but he did a great job.
And this lad had the bat the wrong way, which led to hoots from the crowd.

* For the uninitiated, cricket — or criggit as it is called in Australia — is rather loftily known as 'the noble game'. I presume that this is because only toffs, the upper classes, the idle rich and those with private incomes had enough leisure time to indulge in playing and watching a game that can last five days.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having woken up this morning to the news of England's ignominious capitulation to New Zealand over night, I'm afraid to say that this touches a sore spot. I suspect a good many of our batsmen were holding the bat the wrong way round as well! There are some nice looking bowling actions in those pictures though, maybe you could put some of those lads on a plane and send them to our aid.

M said...

What a great day out! Glad you are doing your bit to spread Aussie/English/Indian culcha.

While you were playing cricket, we were playing baseball yesterday - go figure.

PS My brothers were in Walters House at CCGS.

Fairlie - www.feetonforeignlands.com said...

I think watching cricket being played is like watching paint dry....but if the players dressed like rock stars, and held the bat around the wrong way, well that would be waaaay more interesting!

Unknown said...

Something I cannot stand doing, watching the 'criggit'. But I don't mind playing it :)

Meg said...

Wonderful to see you are introducing cricket to the parks of southern california. Long overdue. One would have thought the description 'noble game' could have applied to the tradition of sportmanship one expects to find in the game - not that the Australians vs India this summer would have been any clue!

Unknown said...

I hope you're up for playing along, as I am officially tagging you:

Post THE RULES on your blog ( this be them! )
Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog
Tag 7 people and link to them
Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

If this doesn't appeal to you, then no harm done!

Jennifer said...

What I love is the opportunity for other families, other kids -- those from cricket-playing places themselves who are homesick for the game, and those who are seeing it for the first time -- to watch, say 'hello,' join in. Is it weird of me to think/say that it seems like a case of the real-life version of what happens in blogland? I'll be interested in how Will's experience of living in CA changes by virtue of being out in the parks playing cricket....