My OperaTuesday June 21: International One Day Cricket
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 3:37:34 PM
Another magnificent day in English summer heaven. How fortunate for today we are going to the Rose Bowl at Southampton for the one day International match between Australia and England. My companion today is Frank, the partner of Rose, who is the mum of Emma's friend, Catherine. Frank resides in Sydney (his home town) for 6 months of the year, usually over the Australian summer and then heads noth of the equator come May to spend 6 months in England with Rose at Southsea. Interesting times!!!!
Anyway, enough of the goss for today Frank & I are going to enjoy a good day of cricket.
The Rose Bowl is an excellent cricket ground about the same size as the Gabba. Many hours of work have been spent prior to today's game as the grounds are in magnificent condition. Because of the long dry spell they have been having here, it is expected the wicket will be fast. As play progressed throughout the day it was obvious the prediction was correct.
We had great seats on the western side of the ground, two rows from the front and square onto the wicket. Not only was the playing field good but the toilets were brand new and,the best part of the tale is to come. There is no doubt that whoever the architect was, he must have had a wife/girlfriend in his ear at some time about queques at female toilets. We had multiple toilets and not once throughout the day did I have to queque. Unbelievable but true!!!
What a day, excellent grounds, good seats, fab weather, plenty of atmosphere from the crowd 'characters' plus free ice creams all day. There is a long funny story to the free ice creams which Frank & I accepted gracefully. We both agreed we should have had our grandkids with us as they really would have made the most of the offer of free ice creams all afternoon.
Ok, I will put you out of your misery for I know you are curious! Sitting behind us were a large group of IT guys down from London for the day. They were all about late thirties/early fouties, married with families (we gathered this from their conservations). Anyway, they were on for a good day out and that meant comsuming lots of the amber coloured liquid, forget food. It was going to be a liquid day. Well you know how it goes, young males, a day off work, no responsibilities, a great sense of freedom, heat and round after round of beers. Lets just say they were very happy chappies with lots of smart banter and heckling that had Frank & I in tears and laughing so hard at times we could not watch the cricket. Finally the inevitable happened, on a return trip from the bar Frank and I had beer split allover our seats. We had beer soaked bums and our bags had to be quickly rescued from under our seats.
Of course they were dripping with remorse and appologies, hence the free ice creams all afternoon. They (the young men, not the ice creams) added so much to our enjoyment of the day. As I said great seats!!!
Gosh almost forgot to say that Australia lost. Neither team actually played that well but Australia had sloppy fielding and the bowlers just never seemed to fire.
Anyway, enough of the goss for today Frank & I are going to enjoy a good day of cricket.
The Rose Bowl is an excellent cricket ground about the same size as the Gabba. Many hours of work have been spent prior to today's game as the grounds are in magnificent condition. Because of the long dry spell they have been having here, it is expected the wicket will be fast. As play progressed throughout the day it was obvious the prediction was correct.
We had great seats on the western side of the ground, two rows from the front and square onto the wicket. Not only was the playing field good but the toilets were brand new and,the best part of the tale is to come. There is no doubt that whoever the architect was, he must have had a wife/girlfriend in his ear at some time about queques at female toilets. We had multiple toilets and not once throughout the day did I have to queque. Unbelievable but true!!!
What a day, excellent grounds, good seats, fab weather, plenty of atmosphere from the crowd 'characters' plus free ice creams all day. There is a long funny story to the free ice creams which Frank & I accepted gracefully. We both agreed we should have had our grandkids with us as they really would have made the most of the offer of free ice creams all afternoon.
Ok, I will put you out of your misery for I know you are curious! Sitting behind us were a large group of IT guys down from London for the day. They were all about late thirties/early fouties, married with families (we gathered this from their conservations). Anyway, they were on for a good day out and that meant comsuming lots of the amber coloured liquid, forget food. It was going to be a liquid day. Well you know how it goes, young males, a day off work, no responsibilities, a great sense of freedom, heat and round after round of beers. Lets just say they were very happy chappies with lots of smart banter and heckling that had Frank & I in tears and laughing so hard at times we could not watch the cricket. Finally the inevitable happened, on a return trip from the bar Frank and I had beer split allover our seats. We had beer soaked bums and our bags had to be quickly rescued from under our seats.
Of course they were dripping with remorse and appologies, hence the free ice creams all afternoon. They (the young men, not the ice creams) added so much to our enjoyment of the day. As I said great seats!!!
Gosh almost forgot to say that Australia lost. Neither team actually played that well but Australia had sloppy fielding and the bowlers just never seemed to fire.
