Boxing Days

Boxing Day was the kind of day where, by 3 pm, lying on the couch and watching cricket felt too much like hard work and I headed off for a nap. It’s still a bit like that. Plus I’ve have some actual too much hard work to do, and all work at this time of the year is excessive. The Boxing Day test: I was very sad to see Sangakkara have so much bad luck and very happy to see Mitchell Johnson have a good bat and there was a lot of good Cricket Lovin’ and some excellent turkey sandwiches.

But I did get to rifle through some boxes. I rifled through my Useful Box for Ponting tidbits and found an awful lot of clippings of Shane Warne’s centenary (400^th, 500^th, 600^th…) wickets. I think an early comment by Trevor Marshallsea about Ponting’s “single-minded desire to consult those around him” was supposed to be tongue in cheek. I found the “Romantic Double Century” poster (not triple as I’d thought), and I don’t think it has escaped anyone how effective Swisse vitamins have been in reversing hair loss.

The bigger surprise was when I was unpacking a box of crockery that had been sitting in my sister’s garage for a good 15 years. After pulling out a fun Age sports section cover from 27 November 1994, with pictures of Australia’s “dynamic duo”, Michael Slater and Mark Waugh, the jackpot was unwrapping a dinner plate to reveal this spectacular pin-up:

 

When moving pictures went colour, Lucille Ball was known as “Technicolor Tessie”, because her blue eyes, red hair and lips and fair skin came up so well under the new technology. I think of Warnie as the “Technicolor Tessie” of cricket because of the way his greens and golds sparkle under the camera lens, and they’re on-theme to boot. I was a bit surprised at there being a pin-up at all in the Age sports section, and I’m not sure why it’s Warnie at this stage. It’s the middle of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane and it’s the batting that’s the big story, Warnie’s hat-trick is still to come in the next game. Something for the kiddies, I suppose. Or just because he’s so damn photogenic.

Sri Lanka have lost their first wicket in the New Year’s Test and I’m off to the ground tomorrow. I think I explained at some length last time how going to the ground isn’t really about the cricket, so I shouldn’t complain that I won’t be seeing too much Australian bowling or Sri Lankan batting. As per usual, it will be about the cryptic crossword and damn fine egg sandwiches.