vics vs nsw day one

Dirk “say it out loud” Nannes and Gerard Denton completely destroyed New South Wales today.

Unfortunately for them they couldn’t beat the West Australian Katich, the man who bats like a crab.

This year must have a new shell (boom). He's made a kazillion runs, at an average that would make Hussey uncomfortable. He outscored his team mates by 30 runs. That’s a pretty good effort.

All day the Vics were only a Katich away from taking over. This didn’t happen until Dirty Dirk Nannes came on with the new ball.

Denton and he shared 4 wickets apiece.

You get the feeling that 250 may not be a terrible score in the scheme of things. Katich, other than a brief period against McGain, was mostly kept quiet, which means the deck must have had something in it.

Hodge sent the blues in, whether it was a strategic decision or he did a dravid/ganguly/tendulkar and was protecting his average we don’t know.

Wednesday’s destroyer Quiney lost his wicket on stumps to the oldest young dude on the planet Doug Bollinger.

If this wicket does have a bit of spice in it, then the majority of the runs will have to come from Hodge and Hussey.

Quiney, bottle blondes and a pompous fast bowler

These are my disjointed notes on the one dayer between vics and blues.

I got to the ground just after the wild man Dirk Nannes (say it out loud now) finished his spell and 3 New South Welshman.

Shane Harwood came up with a new variation on the Tony Greig theory of straight and full in one day games. He decided to keep the straight, but forget about full and just bounces the batsmen with two men out. Slowed Haddin down, next over he went out forcing a ball that wasn’t there.

Brett Lee was sent out as a pinch hitter. Not every intimidating when a batsman walks out with an arm guard though is it. He then made 11 off 14 before Thornley scorched him. Probably all for the best though, because Moises Henriques came out next.

The kid looks nothing like a cricketer. But he sure acts like one. He could be the complete opposite of Shane Watson. He made 11 off 5 balls, and he made them so damn easy you wonder why they even bothered giving Lee an arm guard and sending him out there. His bowling wasn’t brilliant, but it was fresh and certainly more potent than Thornely’s.

Future PM (next election) took a blinder at long on after miss reading the ball and then plucking it one handed. He then ran in from long on and did a weird rock the baby dance.

Being that I am a MCG member, I sit next to the players area. Which means I get to see all the players girls, families and such. It’s good for a couple of reasons, one because you get to see the players off the field. And where there are fit and talented men there are bottle blondes, which are good to look at. Oh and also Bryce McGain’s mum, who seems like a nice lady.

Is it wrong I sometimes hope Klinger goes out? I’m sure he is a nice guy, and he is talented, but he just aint fun to watch.

Nsw definitely think Hussey doesn’t like it short and fast, I spoke to Sime on the way home and he said on the telly they were saying similar. He actually seemed to handle it ok I thought, and it certainly didn’t get him out.

Hussey has the best wrist work of any Australian I’ve ever seen. Nope scratch that, I remember this chick once, she was a magician.

Quiney is an interesting dude to watch bat. He looks like a club cricketer, he seems to over balance a lot, and he plays these weird guiding shots all the time. Then its like a switch is flicked and he just turns it on. He still bats like a club cricketer mind you, at no stage does his technique look perfect, but who cares, and the boy hits a mean ball.

Just as Quiney and Hussey got their funk on, Katich brought on the power play. Not earlier when the small and diminutive Klinger was batting. Twas odd. It lost them the game, as Quiney and Hussey smashed Brett Lee and Stuart Clark everywhere. Not even Lee’s pompous did I tell you I’m the leader of Australia’s attack slow the Vics down.

In the massacre Hussey charged and then backed away as Lee followed him with a bouncer that he sliced away for four. Don’t try it at home kiddies.

Michael Clarke sat in the dug out, with a tracksuit on, even though it was hot, maybe he has the mumps too. This didn’t stop him giving advice to Katich all game. Auditioning for Punters job are we?

As Nsw lost the game I tried to come up with a traffic pun about them being the Speed blitz blues. Then I realised something, the name is funny enough on its own.

Victoria made light work of an attack with Bracken, Lee, Clark and Hauritz in it.

Quiney especially, the man was brutal, I haven’t seen a non Hussey/Elliott/Jones/Hodge guy dominate for Victoria against a good attack like that. He was unbelievable, he really did treat the bowlers like they were club grade and he needed to get home and feed his cat.

Should I get excited?

Memo to MCG, the sightscreen at the city end makes a weird high pitched screeching noise when moved. Is there anything we can do about it, I know it won’t be a problem during internationals, you know the games with the crowd and such.

Special mention to Dirk Nannes (say it) who tried to imitate Quentin Lynch, the west coast eagle forward by charging at a ball so hard he forgot to use his hands and chested it away instead. Nice work Dirk.

Free Our Chuck

Grab your pitch forks, kiss your woman goodbye, and follow me to the streets my friends.

Our hero is under attack.

The great Chuck Berry, a hero to all right thinking Victorians, has been thrown into exile, Imran Khan style.

For what I hear you ask.

Our Chuck stood up for David “future Pm” Hussey after he was given out by a drunken third umpire who is clearly anti Victorian.

Chuck, who asked politely for an explanation of how you could give out Hussey with such unclear footage, was sent from the box by this dictator of an umpire.

Then to add insult to injury our Chuck has been banned from domestic cricket for 2 months just for having the guts to ask why the umpire had made such a grievous error.

2 months, do you believe that boys and girls.

Friends of Chuck follow me to CA house, our hero needs us, he was standing up for Victorian cricket, so let’s stand up for him.

the slaughterhouse

This Bushranger tour of the Gabba has been a blood bath. (no pun intended)

First Dick Pound kidnapping Ashely Noffke just as his transformation to superhero was complete.

Then Greg Shipperd breaking Andy Bichel’s hand with a Victorian vice like grip.

Now Lee “where has he been” Carseldine decides to strike back at the vics by breaking our Cameron Whites foot.

It’s really not safe to be an allrounder at the gabba these days, Watson, Noffke, Bichel and White all succumbing to injuries.

While all this was happening the vics fell apart, the all to common site of Hussey, Hodge or White saving them did not occur and the rest did not step up.

John Hastings whose name rings no bells for me at all, made a good debut with the ball taking 3 for 50.

Shall be interesting to see how the vics travel without white at the helm…

bushrangers conquer gabba with my help

Thanks to Dick Pound, Greg Shipperd and my blogging genius Victorian have produced the most unlikely result since Julia Roberts allowed Lyle Lovett into her life.

You can forgive the new texas bulls for being a down after losing Noffke, Bichel and Broad from bowling duties.

But getting bowled out for 70 odd is nasty and usually you can’t blame injuries on your bowlers for it.

Losing Noffke for the bulls at the moment is akin to losing Hitler 4 weeks into the war, things will go on, but they won’t be the same.

I think it’s a good thing for the Queenslanders that they can blame this loss on their injuries, because we know that the Bushrangers were gonna come back and win this one regardless.

Nofke and Bichel run away scared

Apparently my blog holds more weight than I thought.

Ashley Noffke has disappeared, the word on the street was that Aliens had abducted him, then I was sent via telegram this afternoon.

“I, Dick Pound, having stared at Ashley Noffkes jar of wee for 12 hours, and having watched the past and present tapes of Mr Noffke, can come to no other conclusion that Mr Noffke is a Drug cheat, and as such he is in a underground bunker in Monaco being interrogated by rabid monkeys”

So that explains why he wasn’t out there.

All this confused Greg Shipperd, who after reading my blog knew that he needed to get rid of Noffke, but since Dick had him, Greg decided to take Andy Bichel out instead.

These brave men have made it slightly easier for the bushrangers to make one hell of a come back.

The main man of the Brad pack, Hodge, went on a rampage against the newly toothless new texas side and scooped up a double ton. While that was happening Nick (sot) Jewell decided on a big hundred of his own. While the rest of the vic batsmen played cards.

Could victoria really win this game?

whats he been sniffing

Drug testers need to get up to New Texas as soon as possible.

Ashley Noffke needs to be piss tested.

There is no way he can really be that good.

He cannot take 6 for and then make 80 odd, that’s f*cken superhuman.

This is the same guy that use to bowl pies for a living.

Suddenly he is Keith Miller or something, its disturbing.

Someone on this blog did suggest that all victoria needed to do was slow Noffke down and we could win this game.

Perhaps Shipherd doesn’t read this blog, which isn’t good enough.

Do the Victorians want to win, because if they did, they would listen to me, and therefore not be 200 runs behind after the first innings.

Victoria you need to start listening to your bloggers, we have your best intentions at heart.

Your future depends on it.

vics vs new texas called off

There was a rumour about a victoria playing Queensland, but apparently they decided to call the game off (personal reasons) and instead they sent a junior Victorian team.

The poor little blighters tried their best but got bowled out for just over a hundred.

But for a bunch of juniors they did really well.

They even got 4 of the queenslanders out.

Well done boys.

goin to new texas

Victoria stroll up to the gabba this week.

I say stroll, because they usually the crawl like wimpy little babies.

But if form and pitch conditions are anything to go by, they should be favourites to take this game out.

No excuses about early season grass tops.

The gabba looked like it was in Hobart last week.

Ok so Harwood is out, but surely by now Victoria are use to going into games with Shane Harwood out through injury.

He plays less cricket than Hansie Cronje after all.

The new texas bulls won’t have their captain, and since he was the only batsmen who looked like he could hold their bat against the warriors, that can’t be a bad thing for the vics.

The vics do have to understand that some things will just happen in this game, Noffke will take at least 6 wickets and will make at least 60 runs, that is because he grows an extra leg (Keith Millers I think) when he plays us.

This is to be expected and Greg Shiperd can formulate some plan to have this extra leg just far enough away from the Victorian butts by day 4, that he can’t kick them with it.

The Vics cannot afford to lose games like this, kick em while their down, steal their lunch money and ask their girlfriend out before they regain consciousness I say.

Out Harwood, In Nannes

Shane Harwood has broken down again.

If he was a horse, someone would have put a screen up around him by now.

Its hard not to like the man, he is tough, fast, and bowls reverse swing.

And didn’t come through the namby pamby representative teams. He played country cricket, until he moved down to town to take his cricket seriously.

I’ve never met a Victorian cricket fan that has bad things to say about him.

They don’t build guys like Harwood very often, offcourse if they build someone like him, perhaps they’d make a model that needed less repairs.

Harwood has always reminded me of a boxer who spent all his time beating up guys in the car park, before someone threw some gloves on him.



The bushrangers seem to breed fast bowlers who are close to 30. I can’t remember the last time a young Victorian bowler came through and played more than a handful of games before disappearing.

The 30 year olds, Lewis and Harwood, especially have been damn good to Victoria. Winning us more games than anyone other than Matthew Elliott in the last ten years.

The latest in this line seems to be Dirk Nannes.

I must admit, before I ever saw him bowl I liked him. It’s the name, Dirk, Nannes, say it with me, DIRK, NANNES.

Best name ever.

Then I saw him bowl, and I liked him even more.

I like left arm quick bowlers, not left arm swing so much, but left arms quicks who bowl aggressively.

Nannes bowls with his heart, you can see it in every delivery.

Nannes is clearly not that best bowler in Victoria, but he does try harder than most, and he is a handful to play on his day.

You can’t imagine him ever not fighting for a wicket.

Harwood out, Nannes in. Warrior for warrior.

day four

The Bushrangers used their Tasmanian connection to finish off the tigers. Denton took 6 wickets to completely and utterly destroy them.

The vics are looking quite good at the moment. Their loss to the warriors, which at the time I thought was sh1te now doesn’t look so bad with their current form.

This demolition of the Tigers by victoria means that the warriors form line is even better.

Early on the three teams that are separating themselves from the back in the Shield are Nsw, Vics and Warriors. Tasmania still have a good team, but seem to be struggling so far.

shield wrap up - day 3

Imagine the irony, or perhaps the nasty coincidence.

Victoria pick tassie up and put them over their knee, with Wade (90odd) and Denton (2 wickets) leading the charge.

That must suck @ss, seriously, these are two quality players. Although if Wade was back home he wouldn’t get a game, and Denton, well he’s no Hilfenhaus, but you’d rather have him than not.

Victoria are six wickets and a short chase away from the beating the reigning champs. Hopefully in the second dig old man McGain can do some more damage.



New South Wales have allowed the redbacks to claw their way into the game. Ever so slightly.

Regardless of that, South Australia needs a miracle to actually win.

So on my recent form they are a sure thing.



Luke Ronchi smacked a hundred off 50 odd balls, to further prove that they boy can play. Queensland have been turned inside out by the Warriors.

The Warriors are the surprise packet this year. Tom Moody is some coach and guys like Ronchi and Pomersbach are looking like names you need to learn how to pronounce so you can use it in conversations when you wanna look like you know sh1t about cricket.

shield wrap up - day 2

Victoria stumbled across first innings points. Brad Hodge didn’t quite get his ton, but he did get his groove back. Hussey and Jewell both got starts, but they didn’t go on to really press home Victoria’s advantage. The best red headed all rounder in Australia made sure Victoria got the points.

The game is still there abouts for Tassie, if they can plough through Victoria’s amazingly fragile looking tail.

Hodge and Hussey need to make hundreds not 50’s and 90’s if they want to push for selection. Remember boys, selection is only a hamstring strain away.

For Nsw, Simon Katich made a hundred to almost single handily beat South Australia on his own. These days you only need a player or two to beat them.

While for the warriors, Matthew Inness

31.4 19 38 5 1.20

destroyed Queensland, I checked the score at 5/215 and then I heard they were all out for 228. Their batsmen are now turning the screws on the game.

When Inness was a youngster (and a Victorian) he was a terribly exciting young cricketer, but over the years he struggled to take enough wickets and ended up outside the side.

From there he has struggled to be a permanent fixture in Wa, but he is now there with some other Eastern state bowlers, and he seems to be finding the wickets again.

shield wrap up

As I was not at the G today, I had to work, I will give my score card analysis of the days play.

Tasmania obviously thought that timeless pura Sheffield cup Shield games had been introduced. Or they thought they would grind out a draw early on the first day.

Wise and Harwood finished off with figures that usually only come from dodgy curators or the home side batting first in the shield final.

Bryce McGain (worlds oldest first class cricketer) is playing well again. I like the boy. Even if he is 22 years older than me.

Apparently the wicket was fine and the tigers gave their wickets away, but its hard to see that from the scorecard.

I will say that the tail did not seem to having too much trouble making runs, so it can’t be a minefield.

Tassie need a Victoria style collapse tomorrow to stay in the game.


Warriors were bored to death at the Waca. Maher put them to sleep and when they woke up at the close of play the New Texas Bulls were 5 for 220 and Maher had made a hundred.


South Australia were the only team to be bowled out, but still batted quicker than Tassie or Queensland. The redbacks are rubbish. Good on them for picking youth, and not recruiting from other states, but they are rubbish. But even though they got out for 178 they did get 2 wickets to scare NSW

Player Profile Cameron White

My player profiles aren’t like those prissy ones you read in official match day programs.

This one is filled with my observations, right, wrong and otherwise. I’m not going to over stat you or dwell on what his child hood coaches or Terry Jenner might say.

Batting.

Like most tall batsmen, can look awkward when not in great touch. Works his way into an innings well. I always feel like he gives you a chance if you attack the stumps early on. Once he is on song he looks like an ancient Greek warrior, and really it is only his confidence that gets him out. He bats like an all rounder, similar to someone like Freddy Flintoff. This is a strength and a weakness.

He makes breathtaking 70’s and 80’s. He needs to make great 130’s, hell completely awe inspiring 200’s would be better. Can look a bit odd playing a short ball, but it does not seem to be a weakness. Hits the ball as hard as anyone in the world. That six off Dan Cullen a couple of weeks ago is still travelling. Look he can bat, but unless he averages over 50 at first class level in Australia you’d have to say he’ll struggle to ever make the national side.

Bowling.

I remember seeing him when he first came onto the scene and he seemed to have much better control than he does now. The two things I notice with his bowling are that he bowls way too many legside balls and that good batsmen milk him with ease. The legside stuff is ugly, he is essentially an Aussie version of Anil Kumble, and Kumble hardly misses the spot. White has to do the same. The other one is tricky, Everytime I have seen White bowl to a really good batsmen, Lehmann, Langer, and Collingwood they seem to score off him seemingly at will.

It’s not all bad news though. He has great variation, and when he is bowling well he seems to be able to trouble batsmen. His action does look rushed but I understand he is trying to get through the crease. Even though he is a quick leg spinner he may in fact be suited to the longer form of the game when it comes to bowling.

Fielding.

Great slipper, has good stillness that is the most important thing about being at first slip. In the one day game he may not be as quick as the other fielders, but he reads the game to so well and has such great coordination that he still causes more than his fair share of troubles. Looks ugly, but gets results, I knew a girl like that once.

Captaining.

Probably his greatest strength. Problem is he may never get to show it if he doesn’t start making big scores with the bat. Seems to understand batsmen really well when in the field. He understands the best place to put his field, and when he doesn’t he is willing to experiment until he finds the right mix. Like all bowling captains he doesn’t bowl himself when he should and bowls himself when he probably shouldn’t.

Problems.

Not enough big scores. Ponting doesn’t seem to rate him as a bowler. Ponting doesn’t seem to like his constant advice on strategy in the field. His bowling isn’t good enough right at the moment for international cricket. He is behind Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds, and Brad Hogg. He can’t seem to not annoy Ponting. Good batsmen like facing him.

Plusses.

Has enough talent to be a 10 year player for Australia. Has an abnormally great cricket mind. Is still young enough to work on his batting and bowling. Is immensely respected by his teammates in Victoria. Can hit the ball further than anyone else. Is possibly the best 2020 domestic player in the world. Is a better middle order batsmen than Shane Watson.

The Package.

Would probably be batting number 7 for most countries in the world right now, maybe even 6. But he aint in most countries in the world. He needs runs, he needs maidens and he needs to play a long spell for Australia in the one day game so he can get his feet.

The Uncle J Rod verdict.

He is one of my favourites, however my favourites don’t have good selection records, (Chuck, Elliott, and Harvey)

Australia’s loss is Victorias & Somersets gain.

Will have a long career with Australia but it may not be in the format he wants.

Marketing 101 for Cricket Victoria

American’s get a lot of things wrong.

Including but not exclusively, wars on terror, pop music and international globalisation of fast food restaurants to name a few.

But that doesn’t mean they balls everything up.

Marketing is their speciality, hell they sell themselves brilliantly.

When you travel to a city in America you can usually find amazingly cheap replica NBA singlets of that cities team.

For instance I went to a Washington Wizards game, at the stadium I got a Jordan singlet for about 20 bucks, it could have even been 15. So when you are in the crowd almost everyone has one.

In New York I got a Knicks singlet for Latrell Sprewell for 10 bucks.

Both of these were official singlets. Made by champion.

If you tried to buy a Jordan or Sprewell singlet outside of these cities you were looking at minimum 50 bucks.

I say this because if cricket Victoria did something similar, and sold all the Vic tops for 25 and junior ones for 15 bucks they would sell a bunch of them.

Think of parents buying stuff for their kids, they come to the one dayer, there kid wants something and the Vic tops are 15 bucks and the Aussie ones are like 60.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
It becomes an instant form of guerrilla marketing.

Victoria has come up with some good marketing ideas, the metlink one is a ripper.

I know in this world Adidas probably has the rights, and they control the price, but that’s where Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria need to subsidise or work out a deal with Adidas.

I mean they probably only cost 10 bucks or so to make, if that, and its not like adidas spend a lot of money promoting them. Also it will get more adidas logos out in the market place, so its not like they are losing out here.

Lets be honest only a handful of people wear the tops at the moment, so why not quadruple that in one summer.

Vic tops are cool as. I have 4 of them from over the years and when I was younger I would have bought a new one every year, if I had the brass razoos.

It’s a good colour and generally, with only a few exceptions (giant bushrangers on the shoulders) are a great design. But they cost more than a night with German escort at the moment.

Oh and when I got back to my backpackers that night (after seeing Jordan's last 40 point game) every guy there had on a Jordan singlet.

things i forgot

More notes from the bushranger v warriors the other night that somehow I forgot to blog earlier.

Brad Hodge pulled a sharp bit of work in the field and then spent the next 30 seconds watching himself on the big screen, he looked quite impressed with his work.

You know it’s a quiet game when you have a your mp3 player in one ear and you can still clearly hear Michael Hussey tell David Hussey that he was dreaming after a big swipe off Sean Ervine.

Its such a shame to see Sean Ervine playing for the Warriors. I still remember him giving his all in the perth test where hayden temporarily borrowed Lara’s record.

This is victorias new mascot.

This is an actual photograph of Brad Hogg catching Adam Crosthwaite. Remember when Adam was going to be the next aussie keeper.


Oh and these photos are from my phone so obviously they aint great.

the finch report

Since I know a dude in Colac and a Colac player made his debut for the Vics today here is my attempt at Rupert Murdoch style news brief about it.

Colac native, Aaron Finch made his debut for the Victorian bushrangers last night in the heavy defeat inflicted by the Western Warriors. Finch got his first chance in the big time when Cameron White steered a shocking short ball to backward point leaving the Vics at 4 for 130.

Finch was a ball of nerves on his way to the wicket and David Hussey (future Pm David Hussey) tried to calm him down as best he could. Finch looked nervous between balls, but was still solid when each ball arrived. After six balls he got off the mark by squeezing Brad Hogg to backward point for one.

His nerves still a problem in the next over he started to set off for what could only be described as a suicidal over throw and was only saved by David Hussey’s experience. The following over Finch was struck on the pads by Brad Hogg, the umpire gave it not out after considering it. Next ball Finch was gone completely beaten in flight and ended up almost losing his footing as Gilchrist completed the dismissal.

He made 2.

For the 20 year old opening batsmen from Geelong this was surely just a stepping stone in his career. He will learn a lot from this experience.

game report

So I went to the Bushrangers v Warriors game last night and this is how it broke down for me.

Got there a touch late, saw Gilly walk out to bat with Langer.

Gilly got run out, I swear I have seen this man go run out more than any other dismissal. Maybe my man crush for him puts him off.

This Luke Pomersbach character may never make the Australian team, because then selectors will have to learn how to pronounce his name. He does have some eye and a large pair of ballocks on him. He got off the mark with a KP style charge that he miss hit. But his second scoring shot an aerial straight drive almost knocked down one of the Rupert Murdoch billboards here at the G.

Great moment happened in front of me, when Chuck Berry gave fielding advice to one the bushranger quicks. Its hard to explain a body language of f*ck off when you see it, but I think I saw it.

They give you a great little booklet for free on the way in to the ground. It’s written in a careful press release non-confrontational positive speaking style type of dialogue. In it is possibly the most boring description of David Hussey (future PM David Hussey) you can imagine. But hey it’s free, and it has Hussey’s picture on it. And a scorecard for the really nerdy kids, as the really nerdy adults bring there own score sheets.

After being run out Gilly sat 4 rows behind me, and six seats across. Can you imagine the pressure I was under not to look behind me every ball.

My Gilly moments.

Waking Gilly up on the flight home from South Africa.

Booking his wife and mother in law frequent flyer tickets, and speaking to him over the phone on 3 occasions.

Him sitting 4 rows behind me and six seats across.

This Bryce McGain guy, (listed age of 48 years old) has had to wait to become Victoria’s leg spinner for a long time. Peter McIntyre, Shane Warne and Cameron White have all been Victorian leg spinners who have played for Australia in that time. McGain actually bowls similar to how I imagine I bowl. Except he has the added bonus of skill, talent, perseverance and experience.

Western Australia had the game in the bag at 4 for 220 odd with Hussey and Langer in. Victoria, like Warrick Capper, the ancient Greeks and Tom Cruise from Days of thunder like to come from behind. They didn’t wake up until Langer started really cutting loose, then they quickly mopped up the tail. Weird mob us Victorians.

Moody just walked behind me, you can see why he was once picked for Australia on height alone, he must be 6’6 if he’s a cracker.

The bushrangers have a mascot, it’s a performing arts reject wearing a padded suit, a cape, a v sign on his chest with a bucket on his head. Just like Ned Kelly before him.

Gilly signed autographs for what seemed 25 minutes. Langer was asked for one and declined, well I’m assuming the kid asked for an autograph, might have said are you my daddy.

Langer doesn’t like Victorian cricket fans, trust me on that one.

Aidan Blizzard (who I may or may not nick name the smurf) looked awesome. It’s the first time I’ve seen him bat. The kid has something. Like to use the air to find his gaps. When he hits the ball (insert big hitting cliché here).

I’d like the record to show that Brad Hodge did not show dissent. He tugged at his pad, he stared at the umpire, he shook his head, he walked off very slowly, and he looked back at the umpire whilst saying something I couldn’t quite pick up. But in no way did he show dissent.

Lets make that clear.

Victoria fell apart and lost. But you probably already knew that.

Hello everyone, my name is Uncle J rod, and I am a bushrangers fan

As cricket with balls is an international cricket blog I did not want to inundate it with tragic writings of my other life as a fan of the Victorian bushrangers.

I have been in love with the bushrangers since I went to my first game against NSW at the G. It started with Mike Whitney (the host of who dares wins) slipping over as he bowled the first nut.

The only other thing I can remember from that day is Simon O’Donnell trying to hook and getting caught on the fence.

I have seen Victoria win one day titles and a four day title.

I saw Matthew Elliott man handle Stuart’s (Clark and Macgill) in the best hundred I have ever seen with my own eyes.

I was on the ground when the great Chuck Berry announced his retirement.

I have seen Justin Langer threaten a Victorian with a beating(s).

I have seen Glenn McGrath stick his finger up at the crowd.

My 21st birthday present was a signed Ian Harvey shirt.

And I bantered with David Hookes the day he left us.

I am a Victorian supporter.