Just not cricket

Last night, we took Tom to his first ever cricket match, the Twenty20 fixture between Sussex and Hampshire at the gorgeously beautiful ground at Arundel. It looked like we (Sussex) were going to lose for most of our innings, but a late flurry of boundaries soon put paid to the opposition. Tom clearly is a lucky person to take along – maybe I should take him to a few Seagulls fixtures next season. He took the whole thing in his stride, as he tends to do, although he was a little alarmed by the shouts from the crowd and the loud music as Luke Wright and Yasir Arafat (insert joke about dishdash here) swiped umpteen boundaries in the last three overs to wrap it up.

One thing the BBC report doesn’t mention is the way in which Matt Prior was dismissed. Chris Adams was batting at the other end and was caught from a no-ball. He started to walk but then people in the crowd shouted that it was a no-ball. By this point, the Hampshire players were together celebrating and Matt Prior was still half way down the strip. Everyone looked to the umpire, who confirmed that the batsman was not out, at which point the Hampshire fielders realised that Prior was out of his crease and threw down the stumps. Prior briefly protested to the umpire (he clearly hadn’t realised that it was a no-ball) before walking. Is there a Law on how a no-ball should be called by the umpire? In any case, it was certainly pretty unsporting on the part of the Hampshire players.

We topped the night out with a cup of tea with the bikers at the Hikers café at Whiteways on the way home. Frankly, if ever you think that a bunch of bikers makes you feel threatened, you should go and see the bikers there – mostly middle-aged men (some women too), standing around drinking tea and discussing health issues and the correct daily fluid intake (presumably in the form of tea), as far as I could make out.

Spam milestone

Today, Akismet caught the 100,000th spam comment sent to this site. The first 50,000 took 139 days to arrive, whereas the next 50,000 were posted over just 95 days – so the rate of spamming is increasing, in spite of the fact that not a single one of these comments has been published.

Over the last three months, 527 spam comments have been posted on grayblog each day, on average. This equates to one new spam comment every 2 minutes and 44 seconds.

Soundtrack

There is a lot that I should be writing about here at the moment, but time pressures prohibit me from doing so. I’m travelling to the Netherlands this week, so if you’re lucky you might get some airport blogging.

In the meantime, here is a current playlist (aside from several CDs that are getting a lot of rotation time):

  • Lupe Fiasco – Kick Push
  • Amerie – One Thing
  • Hird – Love Again
  • People Under The Stairs – The Dig
  • The White Stripes – Blue Orchid
  • Ladytron – Soft Power
  • Go! Team – Ladyflash
  • OMD – Sealand
  • Curve – Coast is Clear
  • Bass-O-Matic – Fascinating Rhythm (12" version)
  • Editors – Munich
  • Jazzanova – Bohemian Sunset
  • Ladytron – Fighting in Built-Up Areas
  • Neotropic – Under Violent Objects
  • Siouxsie and the Banshees – Dear Prudence
  • Zombies – Time of the Season
  • Amon Tobin – The Lighthouse

Willfully eclectic?

Vote Seagulls

The Seagulls Party is formed to contest local elections and by-elections on a platform of supporting the new Brighton and Hove Albion stadium at Falmer. I don’t suppose that they will put a candidate up for Ruralville (we’re too far away), but if they do then they’ll get my vote.

Still very busy

I’ll try and update at the weekend, possibly including exciting pictures of The Front Garden Project, which is now well and truly underway.

Hmmm. The banned cartoon post was the 6000th post here, and I only just noticed.