The Carroll family is beginning our 4th year here in the UK and there are still a few things that confuse me. It might be that I never took enough time to delve into the mechanics of these things, maybe someday I will. But for now I’d rather rant about their inaccessible (in my eyes) nature of these things. In doing so I join the rest of the naive but strongly opinionated masses that have the sense enough to share their opinion online about things like politics, religion, and celebrity gossip.
Rugby- Right now the UK is in the throws of participating in the 2015 Rugby World Cup. It sounds pretty fantastic and I have had several friends that have traveled to see these matches. Evidently it is a pretty big deal since England is the host country. Strangely, the sport consists of a bunch of really big muscled dudes who play with a special ball and are rewarded just for trying. In fact, to date their have already been 155 tries at the 2015 Rugby World Cup! Good effort guys! But, maybe with just practice you could actually succeed! Also, the sport appears to have highly religious undertones. There have already been 109 conversions! Impressive from a pastoral perspective.
It appears that somehow the USA have gotten involved in this sport. I’m sure that the Washington Redskins had a flight mix up and, based on my own experience with UK Airports, their luggage — which included their American football pads — was lost in transit. This gave them ample opportunity to saunter into a stadium and play. I’m not sure how they are doing, that would require a few more more mouse clicks than I have the will to preform, but I am assuming they are awesome! Evidently the best team in the world, and the hands down favorite, is New Zealand. This also make sense because the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed there.
Cricket- Any sport named after a chirping bug deserves extensive review and an in-depth analysis in a blog somewhere. I’m really not that interested so I’ll limit my comments to a few short bullet points.
- I don’t understand a sport that one team can be leading a match 347-3, especially when they have only played one inning, an inning that lasts for 3 days.
- The phrase “sticky wicket” is used to refer to difficult situations here in the UK, it is nonsensical and hopelessly confusing to us poor foreigners.
- Why dress in all white? Seems like a commercial for a Laundry detergent company waiting to happen.
- The bowler bowls a ball down a pitch towards a crease (not the kind found in well ironed trousers) and tries to knock over a wicket. The batsman attempts to bat the ball and score a run by running to the other end of the pitch (a minuscule 10 feet or so stretch). If the wicket gets knocked over the batsman is stumped. Cricket? Not really sure why its called “Cricket.” Every other legitimate sport’s name has, at its fundamental core, at least something to to with its own name.
And last but not least, why does everyone here hate Donald Trump? Its not like he used his money and influence to bully small farm owners into selling their land so he could open an exclusive golf resort that caters to rich oil executives and is now running for president of the US. Seriously! He has my vote if only for his vast biblical knowledge alone! If there is any doubt just watch this!
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/16/politics/donald-trump-bible-favorite-verse-2016-republican-debate/
Well maybe, given time and a bit more effort on my part, some of these things will eventually become clear. But for now I think I am safe in assuming I am right, especially if I refuse to listen to anybody who would tell me different.
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