Phlegmatic

Let's be honest, cricket is not an exciting spectator sport most of the time. Apart from a tiny, tiny number of people, most people who say they "follow the cricket" mean that they vaguely keep an eye on the score and maybe have the Test Match on Sky Sports or Radio 4 on in the background while they do other things. Typical attendance at county first class matches is just a few thousand for one of the top counties on a good day.

But...but...

On those rare occasions when cricket is exciting, it's all the more memorable simply because it's so rare.

Which brings me on to Great Sporting Moments Numbers 2 and 3. The 1981 Ashes Test at Headingley. (Note for readers from non-cricket countries: 'The Ashes' is the series of test (i.e. 5 day) matches played between England and Australia. It's probably the most important cricket for English and Australian fans.)

Ian Botham had started the six match series as England captain. He was England's biggest star at the time. At his best, both a big-hitting batsman and an effective fast-medium pace bowler. However, after two matches, Australia led 1-0 and Botham's personal form was poor. He had failed to win any of his twelve matches as captain and failed to score a run in the second test. He was removed as captain (but kept his place in the side) and replaced by former captain Mike Brearley - not regarded as a particularly talented player, but a clever captain and motivator.

The change didn't have an instant impact in the third test at Headingley in Leeds. Although Botham took six wickets in Australia's first innings, Australia declared on 401-9. England's batting response was poor - 174 all out (although Botham made 50). Because they trailed by more than 200 runs, Australia chose to force England to follow on (to bat again immediately). England were reduced to 105-5 when Botham came out to bat. England still needed 122 to avoid an embarrassing innings defeat. They avoided the innings defeat because Botham hit a brutal 149 not out, unquestionably one of the greatest test match innings ever.



At the end of England's second innings, they had a lead of 130 - a very gettable target for Australian batsmen high on confidence. Even more so when they got to 56 for 1. At that point, Brearley made a crucial tactical change. He switched his bowlers around, allowing fast bowler Bob Willis to bowl down the slope from the Kirkstall Lane end. Willis had bowled poorly in Australia's first innings, but followed Botham's lead and went for all out attack. There were bad balls, and no balls, but there was plenty of pace and bounce and hostility...and it worked. He took eight wickets for just 43 runs as Australian crumbled and England amazingly, miraculously won the match. It was only the second time in the history of test cricket that a team had won having followed on.



Australia weren't the same after that. England came back again to win the fourth test, and then Botham slaughtered the Australian bowlers with an innings of 118 that included six sixes to win the fifth test and clinch the series. England regained the Ashes.

There never was a TV series called 'Terrible Sporting Moments'. Shame really.



Anyway, there will be now. My list of terrible sporting moments includes incompetent performances, bad luck, bad refereeing decisions, poor administration and some horror shows. This first entry is in the latter category (hey, it's almost Halloween). If you're at all squeamish, don't play the video. Joe Theismann was the star quarterback for the Washington Redskins. At least he was until this happened.

(I'm really not kidding about the squeamish thing. You have been warned.)



If you've ever seen the film 'The Blind Side' (good film; Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for it), you may remember that this is how the film starts:

I got into Blind Guardian because I spotted on Amazon once that there was this heavy metal concept album ('Nightfall in Middle-Earth') based on Tolkien's 'The Silmarillion', and seriously, who wouldn't want a German heavy metal Silmarillion concept album in their life? This is one of the songs from that album. It's Turgon thinking to himself following his conversation with Ulmo (the one where Ulmo shows him Gondolin and persuades him to move his people there in secret). Ulmo has told Turgon that there is hope for the Noldor, but that it "lies beyond the coast" and that one day "the winds will change" - Ulmo tells Turgon to leave a suit of armour behind in Nevrast, which will be found by Tuor, who will come to Gondolin and ultimately father Earendil who will sail west to the Undying Lands and gain the help of the Valar against Morgoth.

Great song though.

The random number generator known as Bunn has selected this song from my longish shortlist. It's a song she refers to as 'The Combine Harvester Song' for reasons which will become obvious when you listen to it. It's nothing like the Wurzels' combine harvester song though. Who would have guessed that there could be two wholly different songs concerning combine harvesters? You might remember Henley's song 'The Boys of Summer', which was a big hit (number 1 in the US and won a Grammy). Well, this was the B-side.



Sorry about the poor video and sound quality. Like I said, this is an obscure B-side - it wasn't even on the original LP, only on the cassette and CD versions. Really good album though, 'Building the Perfect Beast', with half of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers as his backing band plus guests like Lindsey Buckingham and Belinda Carlisle.

1. What fiction book are you reading now?
Memories of Ice, by Steven Erikson. Third in the Malazan Book of the Fallen epic fantasy series.

2. What non-fiction book are you reading now?
I'm not.

3. What were your favourite books as a child?
The Railway Series (aka Thomas the Tank Engine) and the Target Doctor Who novelisations.

4. What’s the earliest book you remember reading?
Something about a lion in the garden. I can picture it, but I've forgotten the title. If anyone can enlighten me, feel free to.

5. Were you given annuals at Christmas as a child?
Yes, although for the most part, they were a bit crap. The Terry Nation Dalek Annuals were the exception.

( Read more... )

This is a fun song from this band's first album. Like many bands, their first album seemed great and full of good stuff (this is the best song), but their second was much duller and I've never bothered with the third or fourth. Apparently they're now on indefinite hiatus. Shame. They had potential.

My usual random number generator is still out walking the dogs, so tonight's random numbers are brought to you by the person previously known on LJ as amychaffinch. And this is the song she randomly selected:



Not especially representative of Miss Nicks's solo work and also something that sounds nothing at all like a Fleetwood Mac song. If anything I think it sounds a bit like a Cynid Lauper song. Proper 80s fashions. And is it me or does one of the male dancers look a bit like Richard E. Grant?

Probably not that famous over here (the single peaked at 54 in the UK). On the other hand, if you think it's strangely familiar, it might be because you recognise it from one of the adverts for Grand Theft Auto V:

This is from the album 'Traveller'. A heavy metal concept album inspired by my favourite science fiction roleplaying game. How can you not like that?

I apologise for the sound quality in this video clip. But I love the fact that just before they start the first song, the lead singer is discussing vector-based movement in RPG starship combat. He asks the crowd at a metal gig "How many of you are familiar with vectors?" to which the only possible answer from the audience was "I'M FAMILIAR WITH METAL!!!"




This version has rather better sound:

[Poll #2034217]

Don Henley was the drummer in the Eagles, but I got into his solo stuff first. And that was because I was into Bruce Hornsby and Bruce Hornsby wrote a song on one of Henley's other albums and I liked that album and bought this album ('Building the Perfect Beast') off the back of that. And there's a lot of good stuff on Building the Perfect Beast. This is the most famous song. You may even recognise it. It was a hit both sides of the Atlantic, and the video won awards. So here's that video:

https://vimeo.com/38296751




(Yeah, I'm not feeling especially verbose.)