This was the view, from the urinal, when I had lunch at Lord's today...
Not only "The Home of Cricket", but also home to one of the best pisses of my life.
Spending a penny after lunch in the Tavern Stand, I discovered each urinal had a porthole allowing each pisser (pissee?) a perfect uninterrupted view of the pitch. Such is the majesty of Lord's.
Cricket is soaking deeper into my brain with every year that passes. I feel like I'm being progressively brainwashed, as it now occupies a space in my head that doesn't feel appropriate for a sport. I wouldn't say it's a religious feeling, but certainly spiritual, philosophical. It feels like deep thought, a contemplative state of mind, a higher plane of consciousness. Calm, deep brooding satisfaction. Wickets, turf, slow building momentum, the scope of high theatre, run outs, misfields, Ricky Ponting's face, all punctuated by the chuckling tones of Jonathan Agnew:
One of the more consistent strains running through my blog posts is my ongoing love affair with the radio.
I'm glued to my laptop or one of the two digital Roberts (bedside+kitchen, natch). I'm passionate about it as a medium that has pioneered, persevered and lived to tell the tale.
And in
Test Match Special I have found my radio zenith. Engaging, intimate, irreverent and endlessly charming, and all the while (supposedly) commentating on a spectator sport, that most people (in this day and age) prefer to watch. Like you know, with their eyes and stuff.
And yet TMS is superlative to any other activity I could ever think of, and even if I am watching cricket on TV or say in the flesh at Lord's I still have Aggers and the boys on. RESPECT
Yesterday they had this funny chap on:
And the day before this really rather un-funny chap:
Yes I know 23 is too young to be a crashing bore. But when I rule the world TMS will be blared out of loudspeakers in every town centre from here to Daventry. In this country we have a plethora of phenomenal radio stations/presenters/producers that broadcast late into the night, under-appreciated, underestimated. TMS is just one example. What these guys do (ever tried to be funny/interesting for 8 hours solid?) is unbelievable, but there is a world of shows out there to discover. So discover.
Jonners RIP
X
Posts
