Sport

New Balls Please

~ Cheryl

Cricket players have long known that some balls behave differently from others, hence the desperate attempts of bowling teams to get the ball changed before its allotted 80 overs when they are having trouble getting batsmen out. Now, at last, there is scientific proof of the fact. A study by a University of Adelaide sports engineer has shown that most commercial brands of cricket ball are inconsistent in quality. Of course the jingoistic mob at Test Match Special are never going to believe that the Kookaburra is of good quality, but maybe folks at the ICC will take notice.

Weekend Rugby

~ Cheryl

Kevin and I have just finished watching the downloads (we spent most of yesterday getting the apartment ready to be torn apart so that the leaking pipes can get replaced). A few quick thoughts:

– Ireland looked scrappy beating an under-strength Argentina;

– Scotland needed to put out a full squad to beat Canada;

– Wales went toe-to-toe with the All Blacks for 40 minutes but were unable to raise their game in the second half, so there’s still a way to go for them;

– I wish I could have seen the England – South Africa game.

As for next weekend, I think Wales have a decent shot against the Wallabies, and I hope England manage to get their act together a bit better or the All Blacks might run out of digits on the scoreboard.

What Are They Thinking?

~ Cheryl ~ 5 Comments

Reuters reports that the Australian government intends to remove knowledge of cricket from its citizenship test. Good grief! What sort of people are they planning to let into the country? Americans?

(Note to Aussie authorities: Mr. Obama won the election. You are not going to be swamped by disappointed Democrat supporters seeking political asylum. And the Republicans are not leaving, they are just holing up in bunkers in Montana.)

Weekend Rugby

~ Cheryl

Well, that wasn’t great.

Wales v South Africa was a competitive game, but really Wales should have won. Warren Gatland was right to give the boys a rocket.

Scotland v New Zealand wasn’t competitive, though the Scots did actually do better than I expected.

Ireland v Canada was bordering on cruelty. It served to give the Irish players a training run, and that’s about all.

One Down, One to Go

~ Cheryl

It looks like being a good week for people of color. Lewis has done his bit. Mr. Obama, it is all down to you now.

And, um, could you please make it less nail biting?

Sorry, Brazilian friends, your boy was fabulous nonetheless. Maybe next year.

Congratulations, Sachin!

~ Cheryl

This morning (UK time) Sachin Tendulkar set a new record for the most runs scored in test match cricket, passing Brian Lara’s previous best total of 11,953. It is a proud record that very few people have achieved. Lara only held it for a couple of years, and Tendulkar will probably surrender it to Ricky Ponting in a few years time. The list of players who have held the record is suitably impressive: Alan Border, Sunil Gavaskar, Geoffrey Boycott, Wally Hammond, and so on. Sky had a very nice list of each one and how long they had held the record, but I don’t have access to that data right now. Gavaskar was at the ground in Mohali today to see his fellow Indian take the record, and was apparently yelling suggestions from the back of the commentary box as Mark Nicholas and Ravi Shastri tried to report on the moment. The ground authorities had laid on fireworks which stopped play for several minutes. It was something of a party atmosphere.

But there is one thing worth noting. Tendulkar is unlikely to ever beat Lara’s record of 400 in a single innings, and no one is ever likely to better Sir Donald Bradman’s career average of 99 runs per innings, but the Little Master now holds the record for the most runs and most centuries in both test match and one day cricket. That’s quite an achievement.

Cardiff Photos

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

OK, the Cardiff photos are now online. Having never watched Torchwood, I have no idea what’s recognizable and what isn’t, but I do know a rugby stadium when I see one. And I do have the promised TAFF photo.

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Where’s She Been?

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Yes, I have been a bit quiet. I have been out all day. In Cardiff, actually. Maybe more about that some other time, but I did get to walk around the place a bit, worship at the Millennium Stadium, and be generally touristy. For the benefit of Mr. Garcia I have taken a photo of the River TAFF. I have also taken photos of a number of things that I am assured will be instantly recognized by people who watch Doctor Who and Torchwood. I’ll let you know when they are online.

Stade Francais Calendar 2009

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

OK, so I know most of you won’t have bothered to read a post about rugby laws, but this one might be a little more popular. A new European rugby season means a new Stade Francais calendar. For the benefit of my straight female and gay male readers, I present cover of that calendar. And the totally awesome Warhol-inspired third strip that Stade has produced for this season. (The first strip is still pink and the second strip still blue with pink orchids, though the designs have changed). Click through from the pictures to the Stade web site to see these things in all of their glory.

Stade Francais Calendar 2009 Stade Francais Third Strip

Trouble with ELVs

~ Cheryl

The new rugby season is now well underway with the EdF Cup kicking off last weekend (Ospreys get very lucky against Quins) and the Heineken Cup this weekend (good performances by Blues and Dragons, Scarlets woeful). Much of the interest from the commentary point of view has centered around the law changes being trialed this season. Termed the Experimental Law Variations, or ELVs, by the IRB, they have quickly become known as “the elves” by commentators.
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N’awlins Memories

~ Cheryl

While the 49ers have been getting pulverized in Superdome, I have been cheering myself up by finally getting around to processing the photos from the trip that Kevin and I took to New Orleans last month. They are now uploaded to Picasa.

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Translation Entertainment

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Over dinner I have been watching the rugby match between the Ospreys and Ulster. To be honest, it wasn’t much of a game. Ulster were shut out and leaked 6 tries. But it was hugely entertaining. Why? Well it was on S4C, and as neither my mother nor I speak much Welsh we had the English language subtitles enabled. I have no idea how this is being done, but it is being done very badly. For example, when a possible try went to video replay it was pretty obvious that what the commentators had said was, “Ryan Jones thinks he’s got it,” but the subtitles said, “Ryan Jones thinks he’s God.” And then there was the point where the subtitles came up with, “The obvious thing to do is arrange loans to pass the ball to Shane Williams.” I knew rugby salaries were on the up, but I didn’t know that Shane had become that expensive!

Given that the subtitles often got the players’ names wrong (“James Fox” for James Hook, “Gamin Henson”) I suspect that there is some voice recognition software in there somewhere. I think what is happening is that someone with a Welsh accent is translating what the commentators say on the fly, and that audio feed in being put through voice recognition software that was trained on American accents. Either that or the whole thing is being done by a troupe of enthusiastic but very confused monkeys.

End of Season Drama

~ Cheryl

English County Cricket is often held up as an example of a deeply boring sport. Games take 4 days to complete, and most end in a draw. But in many ways a 4-day cricket match is the equivalent of a 4-game series in baseball, with ebbs and flows of fortune from one day to the next, and the possibility of the result being split. Both sports also have long seasons, and ideally you want things to go down to the wire. This year County Cricket has hit the jackpot.
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