Player Profiles

Some great news recently, with the guys at Stickcricket really buying into what we are doing and coming on board in a big way. Any office-bound cricket fan will tell you how addictive this game is. They get 3 million visits a month during peak season apparently. I'm generally one of those visitors and had the brainwave to spam them with an email as to what we were up too. Within a few hours they had emailed back offering to not only programme a game with Team's Tenzing and Hillary facing off, but also promote our blogs and also put up an offer of prizemoney to the team who hits the most sixes in an over. Needless to say we are all pretty blown away by their generosity and enthusiasm. We are meeting up with them this week to confirm it all. We're gonna be on a freakin computer game!!!!

In other news, we had another expedition meeting on Saturday. This probably wasn't as enthusiastic as the last one, which was understandable as last time we were on the back of the high from the freeze mobs. This time it was after back-to-back Trim Trail and Net Sessions. And there was no coffee. It was also painfully pointed out to me that the honours board in the dinky little lecture hall that we were in at the back of the Lords Museum was actually just a replica of the actual board in the dressing rooms. I may, or may not, have wondered aloud about the dubious placement of something that I may, or may not, have thought was the actual honours board.

Announced was the fact that newly appointed South African captain of England, Andrew Strauss, has thrown his weight behind Team Tenzing. In true English spirit, Andrew said, 'Ja, Ahhh think it's moerse lekker that my boeke's are climbing the big mountain eh. That reminds me of the massive hills near the gamepark that I grew up on. Long live the three lions. Also best of luck to that team I captain' .... or something along those lines (it turns out the three lions he referred too were his childhood pets, not the english logo). Jokes aside it was a very nice surprise to hear his statement read out, along with Alistair Cook throwing his weight behind Hillary. If you take a look at that pic, it's amazing to see how big Cook actually is. Wes is no small-fry, yet he dwarfs him. Talking of Wes, he and I had what could only be described as an entertaining and hard-fought draw in the chat-war during the meeting. I got the early upper-hand with a couple of choice comments however he pounced on a mistake of mine and punished me accordingly with an incisive comment towards the end of the meeting. The crowd left satisfied.

Back to Stickcricket. I got everybody to describe their bowling to me to send it to the guys so we can set the online game up as accurate as possible. Here are some of the highlights:

Wes: I obviously get my skills upped... i.e. my batting is a 9.5 out ten and fielding a Herchelle Gibbs esque 9. Bowling can be an 0.5
G-Unit: slow medium swing bowler with barely legal dislocated shoulder 'Jean Claude Van Damme drunk in kickboxer' roundhouse action. C'est unpredictable. dark brown hair, blue eyes, size 11 feet, 1 massive swede, eight fingers and two thumbs up
Blinky: "An aggressive bowler who loves to steam in, bend the back and drop it short to intimidate batsmen. "Probably should have added... before returning to his mark and abusing the umpire for calling a wide". I could also add, remonstrates with umpire for 10 minutes despite already atrocious over-rate, storms back to mark before running in like a petulant child and hurling the ball as fast as possible, generally somewhere near the pitch, in a fit of rage.
Butler: Gas
Mike Preston: Is "awesome" a batting style?
Joe Williams: It is critical that the local air traffic unit is contacted whenever and wherever I bowl due to the trajectory of my loopy pies.
Haydn: My bowling has been nicknamed by Wes as "The Windmill"
Dave Christie: you miss I hit…… I have a mounted ball at home from a trophy – a hat-trick in the Under 12’s - my most valued possession.”
Hillsy: Right arm concoction with frantic shining to get swing plus unparalleled effort equals full, juicy, mostly-off-side slowness that somehow takes wickets

It could be an interesting game.