Lemur's birthday feast

We were grossly self-indulgent in a simple way on Satrurday night. I made a sour cream. garlic and herb dip which we had with raw veggies and a bottle of 13th Street Funk Vineyard Sparkling Rosé 2002. This is a largely Pinot Noir based wine with a bit of Chardonnay in the blend. It was a glorious salmon colour with a soft mousse and notes of yeast, toast and strawberries. The lemur considered that it was distinctly better than Veuve Cliquot Rosé.

The main even was the cheese. We had a splendidly ripe Époisses, some Montgomery raw milk cheddar and some raw milk Stilton, accompanied by excellent crusty white and pumpernickel breads from Carousel bakery and assorted fruit. The bubbly was pretty much done by this point so I opened a bottle of Marynissen Cabernet/Merlot Reserve 1998. The Époisses was superb; runny, pungent, unctuous, indeed everything an Époisses should be. The wine was very, very good as this one always is. It's medium bodied and perfectly balanced with long black fruit flavours and a touch of cedar. It's reminiscent of what good claret was held to be before that prat Robert Parker started to tell Americans what they ought to drink. Parenthetically, these two wines demonstrate just how good Ontario wines can be, if anybody still had any doubts. The trouble, of course, is that they were never available except at the winery. Indeed 13th Street sells out most of its wines the day they are released. For dessert, the lemur had layered confiture du vieux garçon(1), with sour cream and fresh raspberries. Indulgent but yummy.

We finished the evening with a glass of Warre's Warrior Port and eastern european boozy choccies while watching Donnie Darko. This is a movie probably better watched reasonably sober.

fn1: confiure du vieux garçon - berries and sugar and booze (in this case rye) with vanilla and cinnamon left to mature for a few months.

Gasp!

Dear Kevin,

I'm not sure hitting sixes over square leg is quite what the match situation calls for.

Yours,

Chickenfeet.

Tea

The tea time lead is 221 and, unless Vaughan declares over the interval, the Australians will have at best 47 overs and there are still three wickets to take. It's been desperately tense all morning but now it's swinging toward England. it's not over yet but Australia really have to pull one out of the hat to win here.

Cricinfo - Grrr

Cricinfo is just not behaving at all. This is intensely frustrating when the only palliative for Ashes angst is doing endless "what if?" type statistical calculations.

I shall wave my paw and say "bah!"

The fat lady is warming up

The lead is 278 and the Australians have at most 34 overs batting so it's more than 8 per over. Surely it's out of reach now.

And Warne has just reached a hundred runs for the second time in the match.

Just maybe

The Beeb have just let Rodney Marsh back on air. Can even he turn the tide? And it's 150 for Kevin and virtual knickers are being thrown from all parts of teh intaweb.

And Pietersen goes

So Pietersen goes for 158 with the score on 308/8. That very useful partnership between Giles and Pietersen means that England are only 17 runs behind their first innings pace despite being way behind for most of this innings.

It's over

So we won the Ashes. It's fantastic. I haven't felt this emotional about anything cricket related since 21st January 1994 when I saw Nelson Mandela come out onto the turf at the MCG to greet the crowd. Frankly though, this pales besides that day. It was the first time I'd seen South Africa play since the 1970s and the first time I'd been glad to see them. If ever there was a day to put cricket in perspective it was then as I remembered the friend who had died and the others who had suffered to make that day possible. Somehow, set against that, the Ashes seem a bit less important.

Maybe the last word should go to an Australian, Keith Miller, who on being asked whether he felt under pressure during an Ashes series, memorably remarked "Cricket isn't pressure. Pressure is a Messerschmidt up your arse".

After the ball was over

Euphoria is good but what now for England? I think today's series win was fantastic but there is reason to believe that this is the proverbial "house built on sand". England picked the same twelve for the first four matches of this series then when Jones got hurt couldn't bring themselves to play Tremlett. That rather suggests that they intended to play the same XI regardless in the earlier games. In other words, there was no plan B. Indeed the names suggested as a Jones replacement included some has beens so has been that one wondered at times whether they were going to call Trueman out of retirement.

The trouble is, there is no depth. Flintoff is unique and irreplaceable but him aside there are at best seven batsmen in the frame for the five specialist spots and three of those (Bell, Collingwood and Key) aren't entirely convincing. The fixture wicket keeper is just that, a fixture. At least there are alternatives in that department if the selectors would face up to the horrible truth that one can't play test cricket with a wicket keeper who can't catch. The bowling is in worse shape than the batting. Only two of the specialist bowlers (Harmison and Jones) are entirely convincing but there really isn't anyone pressing for Giles' or Hoggard's places so one can't blame the selectors for playing them.

Is it possible in the present structure of the English game to achieve a situation where there is the depth in the player base that, say, Arsenal has? Once upon a time one had the luxury of less international cricket and more first class games which gave more players more chance to impress as potential test players and an environment in which an out of form test player could play himself back to form. That's no longer the case. Maybe the answer is to have a parallel 'A' team series? It would have been fascinating to watch Australia 'A' play a series against England 'A' and see which young players impressed. I'm willing to bet it would have drawn much bigger crowds than county games too. Another possibility would be to have the tourists play more 4 day games against 'select' XIs as used once to be the case. There's not much point in watching the Australians vs Randomshire if most of Randomshire's players either aren't England qualified or are has beens.

Humiliation: The Movie - It's poll time

So we come to the voting stage of Humiliation: The Movie. I'm not entirely convinced that all the nominations are entirely in the humiliation spirit but despite some chuntering from lemur_catta I decided to be non-interventionist. So under the cut, E&OE, is the full list. If I've misattributed let me know but I probably won't actually edit the poll as they are fixed once posted.

So all you have to do now is open the cut and check the movies you've seen all the way through.

Cut off for voting is 1800 EDT Wednesday 14 September.

( To the polling booth )

For Toronto area folks

This coming Saturday the Nomads play the evil Yeomen at the Moat (which is in the middle of fuck all). This game will most probably decide who is promoted to the Marshall division (the top level of competition in the province). Apparently $15 will get you a return bus ride from Yonge & Eglinton plus sundry libations. Let me know if you are interested.