“Pyjama Cricket through a Black Mirror”
More tales from the Summer of 2023
“Welcome back to the only BBC you’re ever gonna need, it’s The Blackford Book Club”.
The tagline of a madman.
“The Black Mirror knows no reflection
It knows not pride or vanity
It cares not about your dreams
It cares not for your pyramid schemes”
“Black Mirror” by Arcade Fire
"Pyjama Cricket through a Black Mirror" - Youtube
"Pyjama Cricket through a Black Mirror" - Original Article
"The Spirit of Cricket" - Available via Amazon
Saturday 1st July 2023
It was a little past 7pm and with the dust settling at Lords in London after a wonderful 4th day’s play in the Men’s Ashes that sees Australia on the brink of a dominating victory, we crossed to Edgbaston in Birmingham for the 2nd match in the ladies Ashes Series. In our delayed absence the visitors had won the toss, inserted their hosts into bat, and 9 overs into their 20 over stint with the willow England were 58–3 with Sophia Dunkley an impressive 35 not out. The 24 year old from Lambeth in South London would ultimately reach her half century from just 42 balls received before falling shortly thereafter for a well played 56 runs from 48 balls before watching her wicket-keeper Amy Jones rattle 40 quick-fire runs from just 21 balls received as England set their Australian visitors 154 runs for victory.
During the brief changeover between innings I mused on the hours of cricket I’d already watched so far today (I was approaching my ninth hour with still another hour and a half to go at least) and thoughts turned, as they always do when watching cricket, to my dear old Mum and the “pyjama cricket” she’d call the one-day version, memories of first seeing this colourful alternative in the early 1980’s but, more memorably, on England’s 1987 Ashes triumph “down under” in Australia as well as the controversy laden 1992 World Cup when I first purchased an official, bona-fide light blue England one-day international jersey. My Dad’s favourite player Imran Khan broke my heart in the Final as he led his Pakistan team to World Cup glory, but three decades on the ladies game has continued to change radically beyond recognition with an almost full house in Birmingham loudly cheering on the now darker blue and red of England against the pleasingly green and gold of Australia.
With the English weather now returned to a more seasonal mix of Summertime daylight and colder Spring like temperatures, I’ve hunkered down and away (for the time being) from my adventures beside the canals and rivers of central England and in the absence of any new films worth my late night time, I’ve disappeared back into the dystopian world of Charlie Brooker and the “Black Mirror” he pertinently shines on the upside down world around us. It’s hard to believe that a decade has now past since I first became hooked on Brooker’s alternate reality and the ever increasing merger with the machines that now, a decade on, largely control so many aspects of our lives as to be wholly forgotten about in an ever quickening pace of life that sees these digital gadgets, dystopian or otherwise, ruling our lives. From the apparently apocryphal story of a British Prime Minister and a pig’s head, Brooker blends the real with the unreal, the imagined to the unimaginable, and of people cycling for digital credits, being constantly credit scored on their social performance or living with a robot replacement for a dearly departed member of the family. Everything is up for grabs as a dark mirror is shone on our digital merger, life after death, synthetic and simulated lives or, as in the case of the latest season, five episodes ranging from being the unwilling participant in a life broadcasted to the entire world through alternate universes in the late 1960’s and 1970’s before one of the weakest episodes to date explodes in a fury under a full moon and the howling of a werewolf!
Thankfully, thoughts returned to Australia’s run chase and the ladies in green and gold had 29 year old opening batter Beth Mooney to thank for their 4 wicket victory, as well as a little cricketing luck as the game went all the way to the second to last ball of the entire match. Mooney “anchored” the innings and from opening the innings she effectively closed it too with a magnificent 61 not out from just 47 balls received. The World Champions had a blip when with victory in sight they lost the wickets of Ashleigh Gardner, Grace Harris and Ellyse Perry for just 10 runs and Sarah Glenn of England was frustratingly left dangling on the precipice of an Ashes hat-trick. England pushed their visitors all the way to the second to last ball but as Mooney remained not out, Annabel Sutherland crashed two quick boundary 4’s and 4 runs later, the Aussies had their second Ashes victory in succession, the second in a series of seven games, and an almost unbeatable series lead already, winning by 6 points to 0.
These cricketing ladies will cross batting swords once more on Wednesday at The Oval and quite simply England have to win every one of the five matches remaining in the series. With the men’s team heavy, heavy favourites entering day 5 tomorrow the spectre looms of both teams having identical 2–0 leads in their respective series and in essence, in almost unbeatable positions.
Black Mirror? More like Bleak Mirror if you’re an England fan.
I’m off to howl at a full moon.
See you on Wednesday.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering and the right way up in an upside down world.