The world championship of ping pong that was on sky sports 3 recently had nothing on the exploits taking place in my cousin’s back garden on Saturday last. The sun was splitting the rocks and it didn’t take much to break into a sweat in the breezeless back garden. Such was the desire to build up an appetite ahead of the massive BBQ, there was a line of relatives ready to do battle with the paddles so it was decided that doubles would be the best way to accommodate the masses. However, this led to inevitable debates about the actual rules of doubles (is it every 2nd shot? Must one serve corner to corner etc.?), which left people waiting even longer than under the old ‘winner stays on system’ and led to a few of the older members of the clan to reach for the cooler box more often than is sensible at family occasions. However, quite unexpectedly, it was the spectators who fared worst by the close of play with both Nana and Grandad being among the last to leave and both begrudgingly so. Perfect BBQ conditions are generally not great for the armchair fan and last weekend was no exception. Beer and burgers took precedence and it was ceefax and aertel keeping this blogger up to speed on the weekend’s sporting fare.
However, this blogger was lucky enough to watch a few hours of an enthralling test match between the world no. 1 (India) and would be no. 1 (England) on Sunday last. Thanks to the aforementioned ceefax, I knew that thanks to a Kevin Pietersen double century, England were in a strong position having declared for 474-8 in their first innings. 