Fazzinchi

Another View

The recent England football internationals gave me another excuse, as if one were needed, to head down to the local pub for an afternoon of beer and shouting at the television.  There was a noticable lack of interest in the match against Israel as proved by the usual masses of fans, draped in St George’s Crosses and replica kits, being largely absent (”part-time supporters”, what would you do with ‘em, eh?).  Despite that, the on pitch performance was pretty good.  Steve McLaren (more…)

Broad Shoulders

Way back in the dark ages, over two years ago if you’re counting, the very first post on Fazzinchi.co.uk was not about Doctor Who, sci-fi, or the latest American import show. It was, in fact, about cricket. My sports-related blogging has been somewhat lacking of late but what better time to resurrect the past-time? The big sporting question of the weekend is choosing what to watch at 5pm on Saturday afternoon. On ITV, the English rugby team are begining the defence of their (more…)

Old Trafford In The Sun

It’s been a while since I blogged about the cricket, or in fact, any sport at all.  However, the weather is getting positively summery and the football is over, so there’s nothing better than to sit back and while away the hours with a bit of test match cricket.  Unfortunately, the quality on offer leaves something to be desired as the West Indian tourists have arrived in Blighty with one of the poorest looking outfits I can recall.  Brian Lara’s controversial decision to quit the international (more…)

What’s Going On?

It’s a been a while since a cricket post has turned up here at Fazzinchi.com but in acknowledgement that something a bit special (but only a bit!) happened this morning here’s another one.  England have beaten Australia by 92 runs, it’s not quite on the scale of the successes of the summer before last but a win is a win.  Of course, as the always entertaining Bumble is happy to tell us on SkySports, “You’ve won one game. Well done. Now move along”.  The perspective that we (more…)

The Full Monty - A Rare Celebration

We lost the five test matches, then we lost the Twenty20 and this morning we’ve lost the first match in the Commonwealth Bank, one-day series, I say “lost”, I mean “been thrashed”.  If that wasn’t bad enough, we’ve also lost our best player after Kevin Pietersen broke a rib during his top-scoring 83*.  As Michael Vaughan said in his post-match interview “it never rains but it pours”.  For years now, since the comprehensive defeat in the last World Cup, the ECB have (more…)

Short And Bittersweet

For just 14 months England held the bragging rights but the Ashes have been relinquished. Despite how disappointed I feel right now, I believe that this was Australia winning it rather than England losing it. Despite the inevitable post mortems and finger pointing that will follow, this needs to be said… Well done Australia!! They took a long hard look at themselves after the 2005 defeat and planned, worked hard and and were completely single minded for 14 months. And from the first (more…)