Summer cricket...
Have spent many of these last days listening to test match cricket commentaries on the radio - Australia playing South Africa in my daytime, then New Zealand playing Pakistan into the evening. Summer cricket! Yeay!
Lazy Cricketers!
Oh dear. Realised today that my own cricketers have been lurking under the Olearia hedge for some weeks, without a ball being bowled. OK, they are concrete, but this is definitely not in the much quoted 'Spirit of Cricket'.
Found the missing cricket stumps!
I found the missing cricket stumps (which are starting to rot, and look like a dog has chewed them, oops) then trimmed the long grass around the wicket keeper, cleared weeds and ivy from the spectator's bench, and got the other chaps back into position. Not sure if the square leg umpire is on the proper side of the batsman, though. OH well. They're ready for the first ball to be bowled, hee hee...
Cricketers Ready to Play
Returned later to see how things were going. Well, to be honest, not much had changed (nothing, actually). Checked the direction of the wind, and decided it would be OK to start the bonfire (which is quite near to the cricket pitch). It's still rural open fire season here. But couldn't have smoke drifting over the pitch and stopping play!
Howzat!
So I dragged out dry mess (including lots of dead Cordyline leaves) from underneath the Leyland hedge. Non-Gardening Partner (bless him) arrived to help collect up the gum bark. Whoosh went the flames (gum bark and cordyline leaves burn so cleanly). Crackle, crackle went the cricket commentary on my little radio. Howzat!