One of the saddest things in Australian Sport took place this week – a Batsman playing for South Australia was hit with a Cricket Ball and was rushed to hospital where he died two days later. No doubt, when the dust settles and the period of grief in the International Cricket World has run its course, there will be an full analysis and investigation. I suspect that much of it will revolve around the standard – or lack thereof – of protective helmets but it will be interesting to see if the Australia obsession with speed and bounce will come under scrutiny. I doubt it and if anyone does mention it, they will be ignored because speed and bounce wins games. When Australia was on the receiving end of this they turned it in to “Folklore”and anti-English sentiment – The Devil himself would have been more welcome than Jardine or Larwood. It was called “Bodyline” and in this day and age we have gone far beyond that and although Larwood was the fastest bowler of the day, modern bowlers are trained and taught and work to achieve speeds that Larwood never even dreamed of in 1938. Current speeds are up to 102 miles per hour and the best Larwood ever achieved was believed to be 80 miles per hour. Commentary is not how well the bowler bowled but what speed he bowled at. But it must be said that Australia is not alone in this obsession with speed and bounce and regrettably it has become endemic. Larwood did settle in Australia in 1950 after his cricket career was over and was warmly welcomed by the people. Cricket is a game that once had gentlemanly traditions, but commercialization of the game has subsequently tended to elevate the principle of “win at all costs” above traditional ideals of sportsmanship. Feed the masses – “Bread and Circuses” Once you got match commentary – now you get commentary and betting tips.
Today is the Christmas Pageant and we are running a fundraising for the RFDS at the “After Pageant Fair”. As I recall, we did fairly well at the Fair last year. We have another fundraising event on Sunday, but I wont be doing that. Like other groups in South Australia we are running out of volunteers. It’s the same people doing more and more and most of us are starting to get tired – well, I know I am, considering everything else in my life at the moment. Up early this morning and put the car out on the roadway so that I can get the RFDS Trailer out and Frank can get in and collect it sometime this morning. At the end of the day, it will be brought back here because this is where it’s stored. I believe the Pageant was very good this year. – I wouldn’t know since we never get to see it :o)
We had an exciting thunderstorm last night with a lashing of heavy rain. Chienne was medicated and The Man slept through it all – as he generally does. Fortunately the weather for this coming weekend will be warm and sunny with no hint of rain. This will mean a fairly pleasant drive down to Adelaide and an equally pleasant drive home the following afternoon. This is the last for the year and I have one more trip to make, but that is for other reasons. However, once this weekend is over I hope to get back outside and get to work on cleaning up the garden and finishing off some of these projects – that would be nice. My plan is to detour on the way down to an area called Parafield where there is a nice, big Bunnings store. It’s over 260 k away from here but it’s the nearest one there is.
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