31st July 2022 - Cricket
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Written while listening to Shut Up You Freak on aNONradio.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending another cricket match at 
Edgbaston (or Edgebaston if you are sign makers for some reason). It 
was England versus Sri Lanka for T20 fun in the Commonwealth games. 
There was a rail strike so that meant plan A was out of the window. I 
had to get the bus.... Many buses. I have to get a bus to get to the 
train station so it is not like I don't get buses. I just rarely go 
all the way into the centre of Birmingham by bus now a days. Well I 
was right to not be getting the bus all the way in normally. Traffic 
was chaos. Digbeth was torn up to extend the metro down that way. All  
the signs say it will be ready for the Commonwealth games..... Oops! 
It did not help with the centre being closed off for the marathon 
either. Sigh... terrible match selection it seems on my part. When I 
got into the centre though, it was great. Lots of people and lots of 
bright colours hiding the closed units. The old whole sale markets 
were demolished a while ago but are now really busy. One part is the 
beach volley ball site and the other is a sort of festival site for 
people to enjoy the games from. I got a shuttlebus to the stadium 
which did not really get us very close. Turns out that was due to the 
marathon as well. Sodding marathon. It was a muggy afternoon so that 
got sweatier than desired. Security was very high. Everyone passed 
through a metal detector and bags were checked. One of the oddities 
was how every brand was taped over. The beer taps were all labelled 
'lager', 'ale', 'IPA' or 'cider'. It was a bit strange. Prices 
remained the same as normal which was good. 

The match was pretty great. There was lots of atmosphere and I heard 
that there was an average of 8000 tickets sold per match. This 
appeared to be one of the busier. The funny thing was that the 
expensive tickets were rather thin on the ground. Everyone seemed to 
want to keep to the �15 ones. The crowd was rowdy and yet respectful. 
The poor woman who was trying to hype the crowd kept asking who was 
there for Sri Lanka and getting a few cries. She asked about who was 
there for England and got a roar. Not surprising really as poor Sri 
Lanka has many issues at the moment. Either way, the crowd clapped for 
great plays from both teams. The first ball bowled by England lead to 
an out which was rather miraculous. In the end, England got 9 players 
out by the end of the 20th over. Sri Lanka managed 106 runs. England 
was then chasing and managed to go for it. Alice Capsey showed her 
worth although she was out before she could claim her half century. I 
first saw her during the Hundred, another short form of cricket, and 
found her a really exciting player. She is young and skillful. England 
didn't really hit many 4s. They certainly played it safe in the last 
few overs. It was a bit boring on that front. I could of done with 
some more fours as I ended up sitting behind the flamethrowers. These 
turn on for every time 4 runs, 6 runs or an over occurs. They were 
great for wafting heat across. Eventually England got the necessary 
number of runs to win with 2 or so overs left. Now it was time for the 
long walk to the buses. Well it was not so long as I was able to go 
through a back exit. 

Once back in the centre, I ended up back in the chaos of Digbeth. 
Urrrgghhh it was terrible. Finding a bus stop was hard. Turns out 
there was just one through a gap in the building works. However, the 
buses were just late. I waited an hour to get a bus which went near 
enough close to home. Well, I cannot get a bus for the final 2 miles 
thanks to living in the countryside where buses stop at 6pm. A taxi 
was used for the final part. It took 2 hours to get home. For a 
distance of 8 miles. Yep. The only good thing was that I was able to 
use public transport for free with a games ticket. If I was able to 
use a train then I was expecting to be home in an hour. 

Alongside actually going, I have also been watching cricket on TV. 
There are 2 matches a day and I have caught 4 so far. This evening got 
distracted by programming and watching the text commentary for the 
Women's Euros final. Well, you have to keep track when it is England 
versus Germany for any final. The lionesses did us proud and won 2-1 
in extra time. Certainly better than the mens team managed! 

I have never really been a big sport person but I have been surprising 
myself of late. Almost like I surprised myself with starting a radio 
show on aNONradio.. My slot is Thursdays at 2000 UTC. Expect a bit of 
a mix of musical styles and some oddity. I have a show which I did a 
while a go using a Sooty show as a frame.. Who knows how a mute teddy 
bear puppet can do on the radio but worth a go one of the days.