Humor - John Martin's 10 THINGS: Pain in the aria at the cricket

A pain in the aria at the cricket

There was a time when you had to wait for the Fat Lady to Sing before you could safely assume the result of a sporting fixture.
Not so at the Prime Minister's XI versus England cricket match at Manuka Oval in Canberra.
Oh, we did have a singer in our stand. But he wasn't a fat lady. He was a young bloke who entertained the crowd at lunch with bursts of opera. It was the first time I've ever heard a cricket crowd (even one person in a cricket crowd) burst out into aria.
By lunch, England faced a mammoth task. The PM's XI had amassed 5-347. Opener Phil Jacques slammed 112, Shaun Marsh hit an unbeaten 78 off 56 balls and skipper Cameron White added icing to the cake at the end by blasting three sixes and a four on his way to an unbeaten 30 from 14 balls.
It was obvious that England would have to do something pretty special to win. It was also obvious that the small contingent of English supporters at the city end of the ground would have to pull out something pretty special to upstage the opera singer in Bay 4 where I was.
Their subdued nature did not go unnoticed. As England crumbled on the way to a paltry total of 181 — 166 in arrears of the second-string Australian team — some emotionally-charged and probably beer-charged fellows in our stand broke into song: "They only sing when they're winning."
And play became so slow and boring as the Poms blocked and prodded and tried to survive, our Bay 4 opera singer entertained us some more with occasional bursts of song during the afternoon.
The game was a bit of a disappointment for me. Even though this was the Englishmen's first match of the Ashes series, I did expect a bit more fight. We saw last series what the likes of Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pieterson could do. Where were Pavarotti and Domingo when they were needed? Sheesh, the Poms didn't even have a fat lady to send to the wicket.
Luckily, the match wasn't a complete loss for me.
I managed to get autographs of all the England players. Jealous? Click here to see them.

November 11, 2006
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There was a time when you had to wait for the Fat Lady to Sing before you could safely assume the result of a sporting fixture.

Not so at the Prime Minister's XI versus England cricket match at Manuka Oval in Canberra.

Oh, we did have a singer in our stand. But he wasn't a fat lady. He was a young bloke who entertained the crowd at lunch with bursts of opera. It was the first time I've ever heard a cricket crowd (even one person in a cricket crowd) burst out into aria.

By lunch, England faced a mammoth task. The PM's XI had amassed 5-347. Opener Phil Jacques slammed 112, Shaun Marsh hit an unbeaten 78 off 56 balls and skipper Cameron White added icing to the cake at the end by blasting three sixes and a four on his way to an unbeaten 30 from 14 balls.

It was obvious that England would have to do something pretty special to win. It was also obvious that the small contingent of English supporters at the city end of the ground would have to pull out something pretty special to upstage the opera singer in Bay 4 where I was.

Their subdued nature did not go unnoticed. As England crumbled on the way to a paltry total of 181 — 166 in arrears of the second-string Australian team — some emotionally-charged and probably beer-charged fellows in our stand broke into song: "They only sing when they're winning."

And play became so slow and boring as the Poms blocked and prodded and tried to survive, our Bay 4 opera singer entertained us some more with occasional bursts of song during the afternoon.

Luckily, the match wasn't a complete loss for me.

I managed to get autographs of all the England players. Jealous? Click here to see them.

WANT TO READ MORE '10 THINGS'? CHECK OUT THE ARCHIVE BY CLICKING HERE