On 28 Dec 2010, at 17:59, Geoffrey Heard wrote:

> Cricket is very simple, Ferren. It is a form of offensive-defensive play like soccer invented by the English so they could impose it on other peoples then demonstrate pseudo humility when beaten on the field by those people whom they look down on.

I was talking to an English chum today and he told me about a rugby league match in Wigan he'd been to many years ago where the Australians were thrashing the Great Britain team. This, he said, was cause for much merriment among the Australian supporters.

Then for reasons that pass understanding the British team got their act together and actually started winning points. Despite the Tooheys and XXXX that Australians had drunk in great quantity, their vocal reaction to the good play of the British was pukka, generous and totally unpartisan.

Quite clearly, Geoff, the Australians have inherited all that is good from their English forebears ( those who abandoned them when the poor lads had landed up on the hulks at anchor in the Thames) with absolutely none of the bad.

Please don't blush. You know it's true,

No need to tell you that the Australians won the rugby match, though.

T