Incompetent man is honest

There comes a time when all men have to admit to listening to test match special - I miss that I used to sneek it on whilst at my desk and then on the car drive home - my rail journey is underground a lot now so no chance there…

My daughter’s latest boyfriend is into cricket (in the local under 18s) so I’ve been trying to teach her. “Will he hate me if I can’t understand all this?” “No love. He’ll understand. Now a googly …” She goes into hysterical fits “I know what one of them is Dad"… What can you do?

I love TMS and lest I come across as a Johnny-Come-Lately, I first became been a member of Lancashire County Cricket Club when I was 14 and saw Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Farookh Engineer–a great introduction to the game.

I hope your daughter’s bf encourages her into cricket. How they run through boyfriends at that age though–I’ve got this to come.

My eldest, the sporty one, is showing a slight interest and I’m keen to encourage it. Cricket brings out the aesthete and sadist in me, the delight of watching one man wearing down another. Frustration, anger, domination, violence, and art–all there, six times an over.

a old friend from Milton Keynes tried once to explain cricket to me… eventually gave up when my glassy-eyed stare started to penetrate his very soul. here’s hoping Trina can accomodate.

It’s a game which most Americans will never understand–partly because of their generic inability to understand anything that happens beyond their own borders. The “World Series” that only the US plays exemplifies this attitude.

Also, an American can’t get that something that can go on for seven hours a day for five days, might not have a result, but can still be fascinating. Sport isn’t always about who “wins", who’s fastest, highest, longest.

Oh, those happy clappies! I live (on the weekends) around the corner from one of the new churches sprung up in Quaker/Catholic recusant Lancaster. I tell them I’m Jewish when they call round.

Heh. I was stopped by a young pamphlet-toting evangelist a while back, and I informed him that I am an atheist. “You mean you don’t believe AT ALL?” was his horrified response. To which I replied that it was unwise and not a little insulting of him to confuse atheism with a lack of belief, for I do indeed have a very well-developed belief system which governs every moral and ethical choice I make in my daily, personal and professional life thanks very much. It just does not happen to involve a supernatural deity.

The stunned look on his face was gorgeous.

It’s the worst kind of insult to your manhood. Only impotence can match it for humiliation.

It’s astonishing that someone thinks they can knock on a door and get the person who answers to simply change a lifetime of spiritual beliefs. It’s crazy and shameful behavior. Mormons are among the worst offenders and we might have a Mormon president soon!

RB: I didn’t get down to the door soon enough. Probably best.

KK: Well said, and well rewarded.

UB: They’re doing it to make themselves feel better, not seriuosly to convert, I thinnk.

Sorry looby, I recknn there’s more of a chance I’ll become a practicing christian than enjoying cricket.

Both so boring.

Eeeh, you’ve not lived till you’ve sat for six-and-a-half hours on a wet Tuesday in May as a midtable county game grinds inevitably to an inconsequential draw…