Tuesday 13 August 2013

Pointing well and staying clean...

This particular job continues to elate and frustrate in equal measure.  I have been able to generate enough downtime to watch virtually every ball of the engrossing fourth test in the magnificent surroundings of Chester-le-Street (never let any soft-southern nancy tell you it's not magnificent) but have also been able to keep the Franklin OIM from becoming dismayed at the lack of progress (barely).

  Yesterday however proved to be most annoying, not only were we chided for not having any leak test tape onboard (this was soon calmed by my amazing diplomatic skills, 'Shut it you!' I believe I said) but then at around tea time with Australia cruising to an unlikely victory, I was called out on deck to assist the deck crew in placing out test pump and Nitrogen tanks in our bunded* area.  This took some time as the crane driver was one of those for whom safety very much takes a back seat and besides, those containers look plenty sturdy...also due to the deck layout and position of the boat, two cranes were needed to put our stuff in its rightful place.

  I felt happy with my modest achievements, I had pointed very well and managed to stay clean, until I arrived indoors and fearing for what the score might read in Durham, I chose to watch the World Athletics Championships/Russian Empty Chair Expo 2013.  After some time I ventured up to my cabin to shower and relax and that is when I happened upon the celebrations on Sky Sports 2 (for that is the number no matter how they rebrand things!)  The rest of the evening is something of a blur as I wandered around my very small room saying things along the lines of 'Wh...Wh...Wh...What The F....but they were...but we were...'

Never mind...I am delighted it happened and it would have turned out differently had I been watching it anyway

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While we're talking Ashes (well I was anyway) there has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about what this win means for England and whether this Aussie team is the worst on record.  All this seems rather petty and mean-spirited, almost as if they are trying to do down what England have actually achieved, in the finest of English traditions.

  The simple case as I see it is this Aussie team is full of very and fairly good players who are simply not used to winning against anybody, let alone England.  They are very much a reflection of the timid teams full of talent that represented the three lions in the nineties.  You could not persuade me that Atherton, Hussain, Stewart, Thorpe, Smith et al were 'bad' batsmen any more than you could presuade me that DeFreitas, Fraser, Gough, Caddick, Malcolm et al were 'bad' bowlers (well, maybe you could persuade me on Malcolm, sorry Dev!).

  Time and again that side went within a whisker (a very fat whisker but a whisker nonetheless) of winning - if not series - tests against the old enemy but couldn't quite get over the line.  What Australia cannot afford to do is to do what the ECB always did and try someone for a test, drop them, try someone else, drop them, try the first guy, have a couple of good innings, have a bad one, drop them again, repeat ad nauseum...

  For Hick, read Khawaja, for Ramprakash, read Smith, the list goes on...but thankfully I don't.
Keep the faith my Aussie friends, your team will come good eventually, just let us have about twenty years!!  After that I'll be too old to care.

Neil Hannon Rocks!!

*Bund - a self-contained area designed to catch any spills, usually used for spotting chemical tanks.

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