22/2/15
Dear Diary,
When booking accommodation for this trip I decided to go for Venues that were either close to the cricket grounds or ones that were different/interesting or had amazing views. The one I’ve ended up with in Christchurch is neither of these things.
It was touted to me as being 10-20 min walk from the cricket ground when I booked it. But last night I walked less than halfway to it looking for a shop that sold milk (fail) and that took me at least half an hour. I had to set the alarm for an ungodly hour this morning to get up to make it to the ground in time to miss the toss.
I’m not in a great mood today and the early rise is only part of the reason. The flight was late getting into Christchurch yesterday which meant my one and only chance to have a look around the city during daylight hours was gone, the long walk to fail to find milk didn't help but upon returning to the accommodation I’m informed that the landlord is throwing a lasagna party that I’m expressly NOT invited to. I love lasagna. This doesn't seem fair. The kitchen has been taken over by oh-so-trendy hipsters and there's no room for me to make even some boring pasta for my dinner. I am reduced to pot noodles. While I wait for the kettle to boil the hipsters play youtube videos to each other and laugh way too loudly at people falling over. When one of them breaks out the god-awful “charlie bit my finger” tripe I physically gag (it’s not just the pot noodle) and have to retire to my bedroom to avoid any more behind-the-times hipster mumblings.
There's not even the barest hint of a view in this place. And there’s no cat.
I miss Wellington.
It takes me an hour and a half to walk to the ground this morning (20 minutes my ass) and I manage to accidentally join onto the “Fan Trail” lead by a Scottish bagpiper and make it through security in time to miss the toss which Scotland won and put England in to bat first. The sky is overcast and they must think there will be something in the conditions for them early on. If there is Scotland fail to take advantage of it and most of the high hopes I had of Scotland putting in a solid effort disperse during the second over of the day when Davie sends down four wides in what turns out to be a ten ball over. A chance from Ali in the fourth over that fell just a little too short of cover and a close decision for L.B.W. that went Bell’s way in the sixth seemed to sap the moment away from Scotland and from then on Ali cruised his way untroubled to a century. Bell scratched around looking for form but managed to stick around for a 50 odd helping him and Ali break the world record for the best opening partnership at world cups along the way. The breakthrough in the 30th over is a relief but everyone feels that the damage has been done already. England already have 172 on the board and would be looking to double it from here leaving Scotland with a mammoth total to chase down. The Scottish bowlers stick to their task and they do make inroads into the English middle order which shows its usual brittleness that we’ve become accustomed to seeing recently and it's something of a minor victory for Scotland to keep the Poms to 303/8 from their full 50 overs.
Optimism still exist in the Scottish supporters I chat to during the break and we all agree that this is a total that can be chased down as long as we keep our composure and the top order do their job and stick around to lay down a solid platform and push on from there.
But that's precisely what doesn't happen as we lose MacLeod in the third over and then Machen and Coleman in the 11th and 12th respectively leaving Mommsen in the middle order to hold things together. He and Coetzer hang around and form a partnership worthy of salvaging some hope for the Scottish fans and when Coetzer passes his half century everyone knows that we really need a century from him if Scotland are to push this game close. Unfortunately its not to be as first captain Mommsen goes for 25 int the 26th over and the vice captain Coetzer is caught at long on a couple of overs later for 71 attempting the big hit to keep up with the run rate.
From there on in it’s too much of a job to keep pace with the required run rate and as the last of the recognised batsmen fall it become a slow crawl to the end which comes almost 8 overs early with Scotland all out for 184.
After such a promising middle order stand its painful to watch us fall against an old enemy that doesn’t look in good touch at all and our winless streak against them continues. Worst of all, Scotland still haven't managed to beat its highest total in world cup history ... the woefully low 185.
At the beginning of this game I honestly expected at least one of those things to be broken.
There is still some daylight left after the early finish so I take my chance to have a look at Christchurch city center. Everyone knows that when the earthquake hit five years ago it did quite a lot of serious damage to central Christchurch but one of the things that a lot of people don’t realise is that after the initial quake there were still minor tremors that continued for the next 14 months. So the rebuild of the affected area couldn't even begin until it was deemed safe almost a year and a half after the first damage happened. In the meantime things moved into the surround areas while the center remained derelict and unable to be built on. Now that things are slowly being able to start regenerating there still isn't much impetus to return to it as business have found new locations and established themselves elsewhere. In an effort to attract new life to a still mostly deserted area the council has installed many shipping containers and encouraged business to operate out of them while the rebuild goes on around them. It’s an interesting idea but when I went to check it out everything was closed for the night already and it felt like i was walking around a very clean and safe post apocalyptic city. Eventually I stumbled upon an event being organised by the council for the cricket and enjoyed some live funk soul fusion music by a local band and enjoyed a very nice locally made pizza. When the air turned a little chilly I reached for my jumper only to realise that I must have left it hanging over the back of my seat in the cricket stand.
Quickly I rush back to the stadium in the hope that I can reclaim it but the place is locked down and there is no one around I can harass about finding lost property.
After an extreme amount of swearing at myself, at the jumper, and also at the world in general I give it up as a lost cause and set off for the laborious trudge back to the accommodation. On the way I realise that with a bus leaving at 7:30am tomorrow morning for Dunedin there is no chance I will be able to swing by the stadium again and see if it was handed in after the match, and a whole new round of quite inventive swearing starts again.
When I eventually make it home I’m in no mood to talk to the hipster landlord with his stupid beard and his ridiculous accent. I’m exhausted from all the walking, and swearing, I’ve had to do today and I go to bed angry at losing a game, but more importantly, at losing a jumper.
It takes a long time to go to sleep.
"Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it." Jules Renard - (1864 - 1910)