It’s been a mixed day for the Irish, hasn’t it? 4 points off a 6-Nations victory (merde!). Denied yet again, as far as I can tell… But they’re celebrating in Jamaica now. What an upset that was. Good on Ireland, but what on earth happened to the batting order of Pakistan? I feel for them. Their reception at home will not be good. But these things happen in ODI. What an interesting World Cup this could end up being.

As far as most sporting games are concerned, I tend to lend my support to my adopted home of Scotland, even though they suck at football, cricket, rugby… You name it, they suck at it. On the world stage, when Scotland don’t qualify for whatever World Cup is on that year, I generally cheer on all the other British and Irish teams. So, that will be England and Ireland for the footie, and Wales for the cricket. Ha. Not being a true Scot, I don’t have an automatic, born-with hate of the Sassenachs. And they’re usually entertaining enough to warrant my interest anyway.

So, it’s with no compunction whatsoever that when the Ashes are played, unlike the Scottish tabloids, I give my misplaced yet wholehearted support to the underdogs: the English. And like every other cricket fan who is not pro-Aussie, I suffer. Mind you, the suffering is less great when you can’t even watch the damn tests. A number on a website is a lot easier to quickly erase from your memory.

It gets complicated when both teams end up in the same championship. But they tend to be separated into different groups. And Scotland sucking at everything means the teams usually don’t meet (apart from the odd game or so… but it’s been a couple of decades. at least). So this time round, I was trying to work out how or when the Auld Enemies would pit bowlers and batsmen against each other.

Then this happens. If you’re 203 short in an ODI, even if you are playing possibly the best side of the tournament, maybe it’s time to start saying things like “It’s the taking part that matters” or “At least our fielders can catch the ruddy ball”. But I’m proud of Scotland. They took on a giant and didn’t flinch. (OK, they might have. I dunno. I don’t get to watch any cricket in this god-forsaken country! Not even the ruddy highlights!!) From the blow-by-blow account, courtesy of the Beeb, it looks like underdogs made a valiant attempt to limit the run rate, but were out-classed. And in typical Scotland fashion (at least in rugby.nobody mention the 6-nations please. it hurts), gave too much at the beginning and suffered at the very end.

It may make more sense for someone from the Asia-Pacific region to cheer on the best of the local talent, especially when one can choose from giants like the All Blacks or even the Aussies. But once you’ve lived and supported in Scotland, it seems so traitorous to go glory-seeking in Australasia. Here’s to many more decades of cheering wildly whenever Scotland score a collective century.

akatsuki crawls from under the very big rock she’s hiding under in anticipation of… The Ashes!

I know it’s not very Scottish and all, but I can’t help backing England when it comes to the Ashes. They’ve been the underdogs for a long time, but I guess you could say the same for the Aussies. Come to think of it, in a competition between two countries, they both get to be the underdogs every so often. Ach well. Who cares? (Besides, when all Scottish cricket will aspire to is the occasional inclusion into the World Cup and Div2 county cricket, one’s kind of lacking of a local team to support. Though you can’t say I didn’t fully back the Saltires while in Embra; I at least peeped over the wall on my way home if the games lasted long enough. And even paid for entry to quite a number of weekend matches. And watched all too many drunken brawls in the process. Scottish football is a little more civilised. They at least wait till you’re *outside* the grounds to throw glass bottles at you.)

14 hours to go. I cannae wait! I even got broadband in my apartment so I could get at TMS on the internet. Shame there’s absolutely no way to watch highlights apart from the 30 seconds that Sky Sports occasionally lets us have during the weekend round-up on Focks Sport Sucker Channel. (Although I must say AZN, the Asian-American channel, had a decent 30 min program at the weekend during the India-England series this summer. Here’s hoping they’re interested in the very non-Asian Ashes as well. But who knows. Monty is quite the looker.)

And akatsuki crawls back to being the over-worked, under-paid, under-appreciated scientist lab dogsbody that she has grown accustomed to being. Food blogging? What food blog? I don’t even eat anymore. Let alone bake, cook or blog…

Indian cricket lovers without cable were, according to the Beeb, left in the dark. Ha! Welcome to my world. I have yet to find a way to either listen to a live game on the radio or internet, nor catch highlights on any TV station. Apart from this morning, when I was treated to a clip of Sehwag being caught at slip to completely screw up their chance of a record opening stand. Bummer for them, but good for me that Focks Soccer Channel deemed it interesting enough to intersperse their morning round-up of football.

Yowser!

Oh yeah, and I’m still not talking about England’s dismal run (or lack of…) in Pakistan…

From BBC news: The day the Aussies were beaten

Back online after a week on “holiday” (more on that later). Don’t want to gloat. But am pleased that the English cricket team has finally cracked Australia. It was, to one who could not see any of the play, a close one. Both sides weren’t playing their absolute best the whole time, with Australia sorely in need of McGrath for much of the series. I was particularly impressed that England did not fall to the usual feeling of inadequacy, and rose to the challenge of superior Aussie bowling in the final test.

It’s a nice feeling indeed, not to regret what may have been. It all came right in the end.

Onward to winter and India!

Technorati tags: cricket.

It’s been a crazy wee week… I think we must have gone into every single women’s clothes shop in Edinburgh to find me something to wear for a wedding on Saturday. Fortunately, it’s not my own, so I can afford to look a little less than perfect (ha! like I ever could…). But all the same, when photos have to last as long as the marriage, you don’t want to look like a gimp in someone else’s album…

On the not-so-girly front, I think I chose the best week to come home. There’s been footie (yay Scotland, silly England) and cricket. OMG the cricket! I missed it so, so much… And although it’s great to watch the Ashes on telly, and not have to wake up at 3am, LA time, to catch the start of the day’s play, I feel like I’m missing something… I think it’s that feeling of despair. For once, although I’m still apprehensive about England’s chances of winning outright, I don’t have the “Oh well, we’ll never be as good as the Aussies” thought constantly nagging me. It’s a pleasant sensation indeed.

I reckon it’s going to be down to the Hoggy-baby, Freddie and Harmy trio versus the Warne, Lee, McGrath trinity. Whatever they say about the Oval, this is going to be a bowler’s test…

Come on England!

Cheviots
Originally uploaded by framboise.

For a wee visit, then off to Elgin, Rouen, Paris and back to LA. Never have I travelled so much in such a short space. I’ve neglected my duty as a circadian biologist, failing to collect blood samples to measure my cortisol levels (which are probably at a constant high at the moment).

Something that struck me on the flight back was the sudden surge in cricket commentators in the newspapers. Suddenly, everyone’s an expert on the Ashes. And nobody looks at me in a funny way when I talk about England’s all-new bowling prowess. Hey guys, where were you in the slim years? Hope you all stay the course, ’cause following British teams ain’t for the faint-hearted. Look at Scotland’s rugby and football teams: heartbreakers all (OK, tonight’s result was a bit of a fluke). And England’s aren’t any better either, what with a seriously demoralised post-World Cup rugby team, and an inconsistent football team that could not beat Northern Ireland (good on them, btw). And now the cricket… Please Vaughn and gang, I don’t want to be left sobbing after yet another close call.

But should you guys succeed… Well, you deserve:

This is brilliant. English women’s sports teams seem to be doing better and better these days. Although they didn’t get far enough in the Women’s European Championships (footie), they certainly upped the profile of the women’s game. Perhaps this Ashes victory will inspire more girls to play cricket in school. I wish I had the option back then… We played bloody netball (sucked at that), basketball (too damn short for that), softball (yawn…), volleyball (ouch, my wrists!), athletics (double yawn) and various racquet-and-ball games. While it got us out in the open and physically active, none of these school-sponsered sports fired my imgaination, nor gave me a sport for life. Should have been cricket. Or maybe rugby… (Still too damn short, but I’d make a decent prop for my height/weight… Be useless at line-outs though.)

Oh. The men ain’t doing too bad either. As evidenced by my total lack of sleep last night, what with BBC’s TMS playing on the laptop, waking me with every wicket!