Women's Cricket in Australia - Playing the Game
Women's Cricket in Australia - Playing the Game
Julia's 2000 World Cup Diary...Day 20-30
(read days 1-8 and 9-19...?..then have a look...)
Day 20 – 12th December 2000
Another sleep-in this morning and then off to an hour and a half of fielding. Our fielding to date has been a little scrappy so Johnny thought a bit of a run around would smooth things out. We now have half the team injured due to practising 50,000 relay throws. Team spirit however has been improved with everyone in a superb mood and back to take the mickey out of each other. Charmaine Mason is also back to her usual form. When discussing the Pommie team, Charlie has started discussing the captain Clare Connor. Charlie, however, chose to keep calling her Sarah. Nice one Arnie. Hasta la Vista Baby!! Just to top off a good morning Brogsy decided to let fluffy of the chain, to really bond the team while on the team bus.
Lisa Ross yesterday went and got rid of the bomb blast haircut and has replaced it with a small firecracker. Lisa chose a much more controlled cut. I give it a week.
The Poms played the Sri Lankans today and won by about 100 runs. Despite Claire Taylor scoring an unbeaten century today, her performance was overshadowed by two male streakers invading the pitch shortly after one of the Sri Lankans scored a fifty. After doing a couple of laps around the pitch, the two males ran straight from the field and into a waiting car and drove off naked. This leads me to question what the streakers arrived in?
Tonight we organised a BBQ with the Pommie girls. Free-lunch Chris Matthews turned up as well and has set herself the challenge to see exactly how many meals she can get free over the World Cup Tournament.
The BBQ went well with Brogsy keeping the English girls entertained with some of her favourite stories and then Fitz bringing out "Something Stupid" videos to show-off some classic Aussie humour.
The services of Dr Olivia Magno were tonight called upon by the Irish Team. One of their players was experiencing light-headedness, blurred vision and slurred speech. After a routine check-up, it was decided that the player was drunk. Word soon spread through the Irish camp of the scandal and from now on mid-strength beers will only be consumed at training.
We have been discussing tonight some activities we have planned for Thursday. One of those is Badminton. Brogs seems to have never heard of the game and pronounces it Bammington. After explaining to her that it actually has a d in it she now pronounces it like an Asian with a g on the end.
All is quiet tonight around the University especially in the New Zealand compound, which we have recently christened Waco. We have South Africa to play tomorrow so I’d better be off myself.
Day 21 – 13th December 2000
Started with a good plait this morning and knew it was going to be a good day. During our game against England while we were at about 4/50, Belinda happened to catch a glimpse of a small but notable kink in the bottom of my plait. She was much happier to notice this morning’s plait was as close to perfect as you can get. We lost the toss and were put in the field to reduce South Africa to 8/169. It was here that the day took a turn for the better when Karen Rolton smashed her first 50 from 36 balls and her second from 21. We passed their score in the 25th and had an early afternoon.
Brogsy is still struggling with the word Badminton so we have told her she can call it by its other name of shuttlecock. For some reason Brogs finds this easier to remember. It has been revealed that she has had trouble with the words Gemini, specific and hospital in the past.
Anyone who was born in the 60’s or 70’s will remember Jan Brady from the Brady Bunch and her ability to talk to herself inwardly. Well Lisa Ross is very much the same as Jan except she verbalises her thought processes. For instance tonight at dinner Betty had an argument with herself whether she would get up for some cheese or not. I was lucky enough to witness this phenomenon. It went something like this: "Oh I’ve eaten too much" "I’d really like some cheese though" "No I won’t I’m too full" "I might just go for a look" "Yes in fact I will have some cheese"
Games day tomorrow between the wings of the apartments. We’ve got two injured in our wing as well as Karen Rolton so it looks like Lou and myself will be doing all the work. Better rest up.
Day 22 – 14th December 2000
Today was our Games Day. Each wing in the accommodation had to think of a name and uniform to compete in. The teams consisted of:
The Super Oars – Joanne Broadbent, Karen Rolton, Lou Broadfoot, Therese McGregor, Julia Price
Inside Outs – John Harmer, Steve Jenkin, Sally Bailey, Janine Stainer, Cath Brady
Bomb Blasts – Lisa Ross(c), Belinda Clark, Cathryn Fitzpatrick, Avril Fahey, Olivia Magno
Yellow Socks – Lisa Keightley, Julie Hayes, Cherie Bambury, Zoe Goss, Charmaine Mason
Uniforms ranged from the Bomb Blasts with imitation Lisa Ross hair to everything inside out, to boardies with playing socks to togs worn on the outside of clothing while sporting ponytail from the front of the head. As ridiculous as this all seemed it was great fun to have a change from cricket training and the everyday monotony of Lincoln. The first events were lawn bowls and volleyball. With Cherie a lawn bowls greenkeeper, the yellow socks thought they may have an advantage against The Super Oars. They did not however bank on Karen "blast them out" Rolton to make sure every rubber was a dead one if we looked like losing. The same tactic applied when playing volleyball. Scores at the end of the tournament ended with the Inside Outs somehow leading on 7 points from The Super Oars and Bomb Blasts on six. The games will continue. Note: Games did have an alarmingly similarity to Hanna-Barbera’s Laff-a-Lympics. This was mainly due to Lisa Ross and her volleyball skills. Lisa Ross’ audible thinking - "Leave it Lisa, leave it Lisa it’s going out". Avril - "Rossy that was a pass from me"
We then moved to the swimming pool where all those that had spat it because their team wasn’t winning (Charlie Mason) suddenly became the winning side. Bowlers v batters in swimming relays proved too much for the batting side and we had to concede graciously, after first throwing goggles and anything else found floating in the pool at the bowling side.
In my attempts to remain clean, I have somehow forgotten to remove my mouthguard from my pocket of my playing pants. Generally this wouldn’t be a problem, but as I have washed and dried them, the mouthguard now seems to have shrunken to the size of a ping-pong ball.
Charlie and I are heading out with the Irish and Dutch into town for a couple of quiet drinks. Training booked in for 7.30am nets so it won’t be a late one.
Day 23 – 15th December 2000
After consuming two pieces of banana cake last night for dinner, I somehow decided voluntarily to go for a run this morning at 6.45am with Rolts, Zoe, Lou and Sally. Generally this wouldn’t have been such a problem; however, we did stay out a bit later than expected, so naturally I struggled to get up. On return from our run, most of the other girls were dragging themselves out of bed to try and start a net session at 7.30am. At about 8.55am most of the girls had woken up and had realised that it wasn’t a bad dream after all and we really were training this early in the morning.
On our outing last night, Charlie and I were fortunate enough to have the company of one Billy Bowden. Billy is not much different off the field as on the field so as expected raised a few eyebrows when he was out. He also tends to talk in the third person. "You’d be having a great time if Billy could come out" etc etc. This scares me a little as the only other person I’ve ever known to speak in the third person was Grievous from the hugely popular series (not) Fire. I thought these people were only fictional.
After a 45 minutes stretch after our brunch, we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Some chose to go back to bed, others shopping. Fitz, Bill, Chuck, Julie and I along with about half the Irish team decided to hit the races. This seemed like a good idea at the time and even better when we started to win some money. But as the light faded at the gallops so did our chances of coming home with any money. The only winner for the day was Belinda who hadn’t won anything the entire day but backed a 20:1 donkey in the last to come home with an $80 win. During the day we were stopped all the time with people mistaking us for the Irish cricket team. Naturally as soon as they found out we were Aussies they didn’t want to talk to us anymore. At one stage, management got so confused over who were the Aussies and who were the Irish we were asked if we were having a stopover anywhere on our flight home. The only stopover would be somewhere in the middle of the Tasman Sea, which, although cheap, probably wouldn’t have adequate facilities to cope with the Australian Women’s Cricket Team.
John has again managed to lose some keys again. This time it was however Olivia’s keys he lost. John has in fact just picked up Olivia’s keys off the table and walked off with them. After Olivia enquired if she could have her keys back, John denies any knowledge of having them. "See I’ve only got my own key" as he pulls out from his pocket Olivia’s key in his left hand, and his own in his right.
A practice of our team song to perform at the Christmas party tomorrow night ensued tonight with it coming along just as expected – badly. Better get back to it. Netherlands tomorrow.
Day 24 – 16th December 2000
"You guys are really serious aren’t you? Do you like train and everything?" Reynolds, Member of The Netherlands team.
This pretty much summed our day up today. The Dutch scored 107 and we passed the total without losing a wicket in about the 24th over. It has been discovered that there are only 400 players in The Netherlands, and considering that, they did alright. It was a case of oranges vs the bananas today when the two brightest teams in the competition took to Lincoln Green. It was noted by one of the players the difference in smells (and possibly this could be one of the reasons behind the Dutch going home without a win) being emitted from the dressing rooms. Ours smelt like sweat and dencorub, theirs smelt like coconut oil and cigarette smoke.
While speaking to Mrs Broadbent today, it was noted that Brogsy’s speech impediment seems to be hereditary as her mother has problems also saying Badminton.
Due to the early finish of the game most of us took time out to enjoy a little sun while it was out and basically just relax before the Cricinfo Christmas Party.
Cricinfo Christmas Party was headlined by the Fab3, which included Katrina Keenan, one of the members of the New Zealand Team. Always a bit of an eccentric, Katrina took it upon herself with her crazy carry-ons, and whacky costume, not to mention her cardboard guitar, to entertain the entire party. The Dutch did their best to take over when they decided to do a medley of some Five songs. They had the costumes, they had the voices, they even looked pretty much like them (a little too much in fact). The only problem was they couldn’t count and there were only 4 people. I believe that would make the band be called Four. After a stint of about 2 hours of bad dancing to some bad singing I became lactic and had to leave the party for bed. Not before trying to show up Katrina on stage with my rendition of Simply Irresistible on her cardboard guitar. I do have to apologise to Katrina for criticising her singing as only upon playing her guitar did I discover that it was actually not tuned properly which may have thrown Katrina’s voice out slightly.
It was noted that Charlie Mason was one of the first and last on the dancefloor. Unlike today’s game where she was last on and first off due to a groin strain. Nothing like a bit of ABBA to fix up a strain. Looks like Lisa Ross is out and Anna and Freda are moving in.
Day 25 – 17th December 2000
After a long night of bad dancing, a recovery swim was required first thing. My neck hasn’t pulled up too flash due to some excessive hair flicking and muscular contortions in my bad dancing stint. In fact it is the most exhausted I have felt the day after a game.
It has been reported that some of the Irish and South Africans were noted coming back into the University approximately 6am this morning.
Immediately after the swim session, we headed to the nets for a light workout. That is except for me as Chris Matthews turned up to train me and wanted to see me suffer. I think she enjoys it.
The rest of the day was spent, in my case, sleeping or watching videos. A few of the girls went shopping and made yet another visit to Kathmandu for the 50% off sale. Steve tacked along as he made some purchases the other day, and being a man, didn’t try them on so had to change the sizes. He also has been spotted working on his tan on the other side of our building where he wouldn’t be discovered. Shopping? Sunbaking? I believe Steve is booked in for a seaweed body wrap and fruit acid facial at the House of Chanelle on Tuesday.
It is Charlotte Edward’s 21st birthday today so she has headed out with the majority of the teams no longer in the competition to the local Irish Pub. After seeing Lotti’s form last night, it is sure to be a big and loud one.
A quiet night for us as we play against South Africa tomorrow in the 1st semi-final. Fingers crossed.
Day 26 – 18th December 2000
Before we even started this morning’s semi-final against South Africa, it was revealed that they had already booked their return flight for the 23rd December, which is the day of the final. Obviously confident of their chances. As it turned out we chased 180 and got the score 1 down with Belinda being dismissed on 75 and Lisa Keightley scoring 91 not out. Karen Rolton was caught a little short 11 runs before the game had finished. Rolts, obviously confident in Lisa and Belinda’s ability to finish the game decided to tuck into a chocolate muffin. With crumbs still on her face, Rolts had to go out to help finish the game off. Due to the fact that she was stuffed full of muffin and couldn’t run singles, it took Rolts 14 balls for her 2 to assist Lisa in the win.
After the game we went for our usual warm-down swim in the University pool only to discover the Sri Lankans in there. They were playing a game of throw the ball around and it wasn’t long until we had stolen the ball and an all-in brawl had started between the two teams. I don’t think one english word was spoken the entire game but it was great fun and we killed them as it ended up only myself, Av and Rolts against the entire Sri Lankan team.
It was revealed to me this afternoon by an anonymous source (Lisa Ross) that Sally Bailey was spotted this morning on her run and practicing her bowling as she was running down the road. Sally has been on the sly learning how to bowl and some fierce rivalry has erupted between our physio and fitness adviser. I think we will have to have a bowl-off before the tour is out.
A BBQ was organised with the South Africans tonight. They are a crazy bunch and when the cake fight started that was my cue to exit. I think I’m getting old.
Mrs Price will be arriving on the Wednesday to replace Mr Price who departed last week. His position as Chief Oi Oi Oier has been sorely missed, as the rest of the POPs don’t seem to really know what to do after Mrs Keightley puts up the Aussie Aussie Aussie call. I hope my father has been giving my mother some instruction. Bed early (for me anyway)
Day 27 – 19th December 2000
A very quiet morning for most around the University. Last night’s BBQ seemed to include every team by the end of it and turned it quite a big one. I, being one of the more sensible members of the team, chose to go for an early run with Sally and Zoe. After a quick breakfast we headed off to the pool to do a recovery session. That was the sum total of our compulsory training for the day.
As we have been here 20 odd days, we were allowed last night to stay in town if we wished. About 6 of us took advantage of this a quickly booked a room in one of the hotels right in the middle of the city.
The other half of the girls went to watch Zimbabwe v Canterbury in a day/night game. The game was pretty uneventful until probably the last 10 overs when we decided to start cheering for Zimbabwe. This naturally made every kiwi around us hate Australians even more than they already do. The South Africans were going for Zim as well but they didn’t seem to have the same effect on the locals. After the game most of us met the Zimbabwe team out for a few drinks at one of the locals, and pretty much let our hair down. The last time before the big final anyway.
We’ve noticed quite a few shirts and slogans around New Zealand which leads us to believe that we are not the most popular country in the world, contrary to our belief. One of our favourites that we have seen on many occasions is the T-shirt saying "Were you born with that bad attitude or are you just Australian!" Boom Tish.
Day 28 – 20th December 2000
Today was the second semi-final between New Zealand and India. Expecting to be a close affair, it was made compulsory for us to watch the game. Unfortunately for India they succombed to some silly run-outs due to some good fielding from the kiwis. New Zealand passed the Indian’s score of 118 for the loss of 1 wicket in the 27th over.
During the lunch break we had a much needed fielding session on Lincoln Green. It is the first time we have been allowed to do any fielding on the good grounds due to the numbers of teams here wanting to use them. It was good to have a run around and start to work on the little things we haven’t been doing quite right.
Much to the delight of our vego Zoe, we had a team dinner tonight in a vegetarian restaurant in town. Much to the disgust of Therese and Shorty however, they were forced to have a corn quiche due to the fact that they didn’t like seafood. How delicious not. After a good fielding session to day and some unhappy campers in the restaurant we are working closer and closer to that team hug that seems badly needed. Got to love a team hug.
I’ve been told I’m required to go to plait training everyday from now on. Belinda approached me during the South African game looking very coy. After circling me for about a minute Belinda says "How’s the plait Price?" "Perfect Bill, nothing to worry about" She actually looked relieved. Bit of pressure on me for the final. Better go off and practice
Day 29 – 21st December 2000
An early morning run again started this morning. I’m wracking up some brownie points and make sure that after I have completed my run I make as much noise as possible so everyone knows I’ve been for a run. If that fail, I then go to breakfast in my running gear complete with sweat rings to really emphasize the fact that I am out there doing my bit. The only drawback is that I can’t walk for the rest of the day.
Brogsy was telling me today after training how she hasn’t featured in the diary recently and how she’s happy she hasn’t done anything stupid to get in it. In the same breath she asks me if she can borrow the stereo so that she can play her latest purchase Leo Sayer’s Greatest Hits on it. Shouldn’t be long before I get the stereo back.
The pool in the last few days has become a place to vent frustration. The other day Sri Lanka vs Australia was a monumental battle with only a few of the Aussies contracting scratches to various parts of their body. Today however the English stupidly decided to take on the Aussies in a similar game. Now if you look carefully at the last Olympics you’d notice that Australia did quite well in swimming and women’s waterpolo two sports which England do not excel in. This became obvious when Fitzy discovered that they had no defence to the ball skimming across the top of the water. Due to Claire Taylor, England’s opening bowler, being hit in the eye while attempting to defend herself against one of Fitzy’s skimmers, the spelling has now been changed to Clare Taylor. The other victim, a small child, was rescued by his mother shortly after Clare’s vision was impaired.
Day 30 – 22nd December 2000
Most girls decided to skip breakfast after an incident in the food hall this morning. It was reported that there was a full-page article on Katrina Keenan in the paper depicting her as the Face of Women’s Cricket. It also highlighted the fact that she is the extrovert in the kiwi team. A small quote from this morning’s paper.
"When she takes a wicket at the women’s cricket World Cup, White Ferns pace bowler Katrina Keenan does an elaborate celebration dance with team-mate Haidee Tiffen."
The dance hopefully will not be making an appearance tomorrow in the final. It goes on to say how typical it is of Katrina to have some fun on the field. Another of the classic quotes goes something like this in referring to Katrina’s music career. "But if Shania Twain needs a hand over in Nashville, I’m more than ready to help out." If anyone can please help with Shania’s number it would be greatly appreciated.
After a light breakfast we headed straight for the nets were we once again commenced with our skipping routine. Rolts pretty much missed every jump and took out every person behind her. I’m sporting rope burn on my neck, which resembles a hickey, Olivia received a blood nose and Lisa Keightley has slashed ankles and is hoping for a speedy recovery overnight. During the warm-up Fitz and Charlie decided to test out exactly how ‘elaborate’ the dance was. I’m not sure how elaborate steps have to be to be called elaborate over here, but in Australia if they can be done while skipping it certainly isn’t Fred Astaire.
A BBQ lunch was organised today for all the parents and supporters of the Australian team to thank them for being here for us and all the support they have given us especially over the past month. Naturally Free-Lunch Matthews was present and is at the moment working on being Free-Dinner Matthews as she has discovered that she has been left off the invitation list for the final dinner.
Wanting to look her best for the final tomorrow, Rolts decided to respray her batting pads today. Now Rolly has been in the Australian team for 6 years and it only occurred to her today that after painting her pads indoors, that every other time we have done it outside for a reason. The upstairs Perspex and carpet is now a lovely shade of yellow. Rolts thought that it would come out with water. That’s why we use paint on the outside of houses Rolly because that will never get wet, will it?
From Rolts’ disaster to another, was Shorty running into a concrete rubbish bin. This could have been a real tragedy as we use that bin a lot and if Shorty had broken it, then there would have been hell to pay.
At our final team meeting tonight, we presented Cathy, our liaison, with a few gifts to thank her for all of her efforts over the past month. It was then that Cathy informed us that when countries were being allocated to liaisons, that Australia was the short straw and that nobody wanted us. However due to our irresistible charm and sense of humour we have swayed Cath to like us and even barrack for us against the kiwis. Got to love her even if she can’t drive.
Early night to mentally and physically prepare for the battle tomorrow.
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