Cricket Explained to a Foreigner

• You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. 
• Each man that’s in the side that’s in the field goes out and when he’s out comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. 
• When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. 
• When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out. 
• Sometimes there are men still in and not out. 
• There are men called umpires who stay out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out. Depending on the weather and the light, the umpires can also send everybody in, no matter whether they’re in or out. 
• When both sides have been in and all the men are out (including those who are not out), then the game is finished.

(origin unknown)

Ladies and gentlemen, choose your sport

So, what's your game? What have you/will you be watching this weekend? (Illustrations courtesy of Google Doodle).

The baseball season is under way at last (or otherwise for Yankees fans); thanks to the reasonably priced MLB TV we're able to catch a great deal of the action.

Anniversary of Jackie Robinson's Birthday

Football all over the place yesterday. Not a good day for Charlton, but not to worry as the massive make-up games from the water-logged pitch earlier this year and pile-up from cup-ties means that they're playing again on Tuesday.

Euro 2006

Yesterday was the largely unnoticed Grand National. As Husband was at football it went unwatched in this house. We've only just got around to the delightful news that no jockeys or horses were hurt.

Melbourne 2004

Today was the boat-race. Being run rather late in the afternoon (something to do with the tides on the Thames) and not the same day as the National any longer (something to do with TV executives). I refuse to care at all who wins as I attended neither University and have friends who attended both.

Beijing Olympics

It was finally a Grand Prix running at a reasonable time today (we've got to Bahrain and had a night race). Superb race from all angles; apart from F1's website deciding that the live timing was too good to give away for free and removing all utility from it. Not paying for the App on the phone which has to be renewed every year and when compared to MLB represents no value for money.

Anniversary of Ayrton Senna's birthday 2014

Here's the T20 cricket (today's Doodle). As England are long since out of the running we didn't bother with that either.

T20 Cricket Final 2014

Currently watching some Scottish football on BBC Alba - oddly in Gaelic and not understanding a word. Sounds like some of my Glasgow colleagues with the stronger accents (but I understand less)!!

 

Cooker arrives!

After many months in the offing the new cooker arrived today. Well, not really new, second-hand but new to us. My uncle and cousin kindly drove it up from the South coast and delivered it (with some help from Rich) to our kitchen. Even better, shortly after this a call was received from the plumber to see if a) the cooker had been delivered and b) he could come to fit it this afternoon instead of Monday morning! Hurrah. The new cooker is now installed and we are very excited to have a functioning grill and an oven whose door stays closed; the old cooker's grill was busted and the only way the door would stay shut was to prop the front of the cooker on cardboard and let gravity take care of it!

I spent a large part of today watching the Twenty-20 final where Kent were playing Essex. Being a Kent girl (I lived there for most of my childhood) I was obviously supporting Kent. It was all very exciting - despite the 'sloppy' fielding (that's the commentators words not mine) of the Essex team they came close to matching Kent's score. I started watching the game between Middlesex and Durham but lost interest on account of a) Middlesex isn't an actual county and b) how can you take a cricket team seriously wearing that shade of pink?!

I missed most of the final as I was taking a well earned nap. I woke up in time to see Kent's innings... what a roller-coaster. They seemed to be out of contention, them a very strange incident of over-throwing appeared to give them a chance... before they finally blew it.