Went to the Test match last week in Birmingham. Had a brilliant time, however, my travelling companion had decided that it would be an ‘interesting’ experience if we joined the ranks of the Barmy Army in the Hollie stand at Edgbaston for the day. I’ve been to loads of matches over the years – Tests, County and one day and T20s – I like cricket. I like the people , the atmosphere, the camaraderie and the skill demonstrated on the pitch. This was somewhat different. For starters you rarely got to see the skills on the pitch because usually someone dressed as a chicken, a judge, a butcher or a character from Shrek was either walking in front of you or, and this is more likely, being encouraged to down a pint of beer all in one go by the baying crowd. And this was from the off at 11.00am. The camaraderie and friendly banter was brilliant – everyone was shouting at each other, wandering about, throwing beach balls or inflatables all day whilst downing pints as if their innards were on fire. But after 7 hours and four of the twelve wickets that went down being missed, it got a bit wearing. Am I getting old? Undoubtedly but there were participants in these shenanigans way past my age and it was a blast but perhaps just once every couple of years for me I think.
What the day did demonstrate, however, was that a huge crowd, fuelled by copious quantities of booze could have a wonderful time without there being any signs of aggression, unfairness or ill treatment of anyone that I could see. The sight of six ‘butchers’ chasing a ‘chicken’ and two ‘pigs’ around the stand was quintessentially English and hilarious.
The new Bill Callahan is extraordinary and the Ray LaMontagne is back on form. Meanwhile the radio show goes from strength to strength despite the cock ups and pratfalls this week featuring Little Feat, Jesper Lindell, three from The Jayhawks, some CSNY, Nightbird and Josh Rouse amongst others. As ever….
