Come on everyone, give sharks a fair deal!
Why is it that every time a surfer, body-boarder, swimmer, even wader, is injured or killed by a shark the media screams “attack?”
Really?
What does “attack” truly mean?
Well I never!!
I honestly never ever thought that I would be reporting the item of news that has just been sent to me.
But before I divulge it perhaps we should go back a few years, in fact we should go to the beginning of the present Century.
That was the year I was introduced to bowling in South Africa. I had played the harder game of Crown Green bowls in NW England – but we won’t go into that again.
Blog – Yes a BLOG
On year marks get set——
On my travels to the far northern regions its always the JHB bowlers that do their best to wind me up.
Stuff like- your southern softy bowlers – all show and fancy dan strutting, but when it comes down to the hard stuff you lack the true grit.
Then continued with – Oh by the way – why do we always go all that way down there to play in the bloody wind and rain.
Now, I’m not qualified to make judgment on the qualities and performance of top bowlers, I’m only a lowly 2nd at at arguably the best club in SA.
But the rain jibe was out of order – hells bells it’s been in the 30 degrees for the past month with nere a cloud in site.
So, as I wandered off to watch the Men’s Inter District Championships at my club Constantia, I had to chuckle as the heat wave abruptly ended and the NW wind brought in the chilly swirling rain.
Oh dear, it was the lament of every seaside town landlady – You should have been here LAST week etc etc.
Actually it was quite refreshing to be in the midst of some good refreshing Lancashire weather. Enough of that, although a look at the logs showed the northern ruffians were swarming all over the top places on the 4th day.
I was there on a mission – not played for ages due to a back injury. I’m going to change my delivery. The physio had taken one look at how I delivered and declared it as unbelievably stupid in my case. A spine wrecker. So what to do?
Now then, apart from injury and selectors block , all the best SA players were before me. I should say I am a hybrid of Bobby Cron and Alan Lofthouse in my adopted style, so who should I watch?
Well the Lads from the North are still leading the way so let’s have a gander at them. Wow, have you SEEN these boys – all built like brick sh- – - and suntanned like conkers. There’s one about my size, Gerry Baker, hey he’s not bad this bloke, in fact blinkin awesome. Look at that delivery – just what the physio recommended – a very short step with the front foot and woops away it goes effortlessly. I jot all this down for future reference and practice. I’ve just remembered what my good mate and bowls scribe Alan Simmonds told me. If you want to see a bowler supreme, go and watch Kevin Cambell. So I sat behind the rink and TRIED to work out just HOW he did it – no messing about with taking aim and steadying on the mat etc. Walk up, a little shimmy of the hip, short step, away it goes, absolutely no problem. Didn’t take any notes He is a one off and a joy to watch, leave it at that. One more to look at, now this young lad is a sportsman supreme a natural ball player, Billy Radloff has won his provincial colours at every sport he’s touched. Let see how he delivers – mmmm yes, smooth nice and easy, no big stride, could be the one for me or part of it- must take notes.
That’s enough for now - it’s down to practice ‘and being patient – who knows? A 3rd within 6 months ??
It’s the finals today – I will report back on how the Southern softies fared against the Northern raiders. Oh yes, the Proteas play the Black Caps today in the ODI
World Cup. No chokers today chaps surely.
Blinkin Blog
The secret or trick about finding a subject to BLOG about is to listen and look around you. The subjects are there, starring you in the face- so THEY say.
What stared at me this week was – tweet. What the heck is a tweet?
Well it was something that a South African cricketer who now plays for England used, to insult with foul language, the English selectors. The Perfidious Albion had dropped him from the team.
Which is ridiculous because this certain player says he is the best player in the world.
Anyway, let’s get back to this tweet thingy.
With a birth year of 1937 I am ALWAYS in the mode of “catch up “ in this world of new technology. I do my very best and feel quite proud at times with my progress. Until, that is, when a new fangled word or phrase is uttered.
Tweet was the latest in the line of communication between humans. I have pondered face book – then Twitter ( is this a relation of tweet?) – then blog (why blog of all words ?)
We also have e mail (pretty good on that) and something called, IPods, which I have yet to explore.
My wife and I have just had SKYPE installed in the Computer and went out to tell the world ALL about it. Only to discover that we were the last pair in SA to use it.
Yesterday I had a request on my computer – from a chap who wanted me to join him on his face book – I think that’s how he put, because it was all in Afrikaans.
Now come on you IT wizards, just give me ONE sensible reason why I should want to speak and give details to someone I have never met. It’s plain stupid even to consider it surely.
I have just returned from a quick tour of JBG –Durban- PE, bowling clubs, and oh boy, do those greens look brown and FAST in most clubs visited. The greens at the Wanderers looked like glass.
Is it any wonder that the Northern based bowlers have such a good advantage over the Southern players, when it comes around to the BSA Masters competition, held in most cases in JBG or Pretoria.
The greens at my club Constantia look like lovely English green meadows by comparison – albeit in fabulous condition.
Just had an idea – it was staring me in the face again – how to liven up the bowling image. I’m now working on it for next time.
