Thursday, June 30, 2016

international man of sport

heya


well, here we are again. last day of this month and all that, look you see. i've got a fair bit on my plate at the moment, but i find doing wordy doodles here somewhat therapeutic, if not in some way cathartic. in respect of the latter, yes, i know in a pure definition sense you would say most if not all of what i do here is that, but hey ho on we go.

quite a few pictures of moi from the past have become available to moi, as opposed to all them photographs from the future that i am sat on. as some of you for some reason quite like having a bit of a gander at where i'm from rather than where i'm at, presumably as you have nothing better to do, here we go with a few.

in this post, as the title so admirably hints, let's have a look at my international sporting career. as family, friends and somewhat avid readers of this blog shall know, i spent some time over in the land that is Australia. they were formative years, and as such they gave me a love of cricket that would last, well, to this day and beyond.



that is indeed i at bat, wearing a quite traditional cricket outfit of a smart NY Jets t-shirt and some skimpy red shorts with some smart blue trim.

where and when was i at bat? it says here on the back of the picture Mosman Bay, which is in that Sydney place in Australia. September 1981, if you must know. yes, i was in Australia whilst in England the Australian team were getting a walloping off one Ian Botham.

was i any good at cricket? ok, i suppose. a bit of a power hitter with the bat, but i would not say i had any style or finesse in my stroke play. my bowling was awful, seldom if ever on line. obviously, however, i was better than any Australian, as they clearly learned from me and went on to dominate world cricket for 20 or so years.

any other sports in any other countries? sure. a brief stay in South Africa during the late 80s saw me teach the locals how to play that other gift of the English to another nation - rugby.



that's me, or if you like moi, leaving the field of play after handing a solid 30-0 hiding to someone or other. i mean, yeah, sure, South Africans were sort of OK at the game before i came along and gave it a go for a bit, but it was only after i showed them all that i had learned from my time with Middlesbrough Under 15s that they took it to the next level. it's worth noting that they never won a World Cup before i played for a bit with them, so i may well have a point.

i note with some concern that i am neither thanking / saying well played / teasing the opposition, and nor am i celebrating with my team mates. moody teenager, i suppose, but overall it was not a particularly happy time for me. but still, i taught a nation the English way of doing things in respect of a fine sport.

righty-ho, tomorrow is the first of the month for a new month and so, as ever, i will be trying to do something or other on here.  if not, it will be with good cause, and will be back as soon as i can.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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