Gday Everyone!Has been a while between drinks so thought I’d let you all know what has been happening. Suppose I can start off by telling you about my unsuccessful 2 days spent at Royal Ascot, in which from 6 races I had 4 winners and ended up 40 quid down – never mind I guess, it’s all about the day (I went on Wednesday and Friday), consumed copious amounts of that great amber fluid and got my bowl of fruit all beer stained didn’t I. Royal Ascot has just been finished with its renovations, and it looked awesome – so did all the ladies who decided they should dress up for the days festivities, I may well add! One of the guys who came with us, Skillsy as he is known, ended up £1500 in front, so its fair to say he was the evening sponsor on both Wednesday, and Friday.
So from there we played and won on the Saturday, made some runs again but now I cant bowl (some if not most of you will agree I never could) and am currently being dispatched to all corners. Most frustrating thing about this is I have had no luck for the first part of the season, and now I’m struggling a bit it makes my figures look even more uninspiring. But, I’m over worrying about it and I’m here for a good time, not a long time, so fingers crossed I get some more wickets soon.
TOUR OF HOLLAND
On Sunday morning (25th of June) I met up with the Frensham Cricket Club for their much anticipated cricket tour of Holland. A 6:30 meet (the earliest morning I’ve had since arriving in this country) followed by a 3 hour bus trip and 4 hours on a ferry, we arrived in rainy old Hook of Holland. Yet another bus to our hotel in Den Hagg, or The Hague as it is known by those Non-Dutch speaking countries (I am now fluent in the language). It is fair to say, on the ferry and upon arrival a lot of beer was consumed, mainly Amstel, which is an ok beer but they give you such a big head (again save the jokes) on your beer it really wasn’t my cup of tea. Figure a 10 ounce glass with half of it being head – exactly, not pretty. That night me and Pagey, Frensham Sunday skipper, headed off to a pub in central Hague, and watched the Netherlands V Portugal match – to which I continually sang “Aussie Aussie Aussie”, and, after almost 80 minutes of trying, and Holland being 1-0 down, we decided that maybe we weren’t going to get an “Oi Oi Oi” back so legged it quick smart back to the hotel.
On Monday (26th), the fixture secretary in Holland called and told us we only had games for Wednesday and Thursday. Sigh. More beer was therefore forced upon us. We went to a beach at a place called Scheveningeenen, really nice beach, pity it was raining and overcast. This aside we still played beach volleyball and quite impressed the boys with my apparent skill yet lack of mobility and jumping prowess. It is fair to say my team won, but in controversial circumstances. We then legged it back to The Hague, and a pub called “Cremers” – one of those smoking/coffee shops. My first impression was that everyone could be arrested if the cops rolled in, some dodgy stuff going on… But, this aside, we set ourselves up with some beers to watch the Australia V Italy match, with full Dutch commentary. Now that was fun. Seeing Kewell limp into the stadium on crutches was devastating – but the way we went out, I was shattered. So, the boys said they would shout me to dinner, take me to a nice big steak house. So, off we set, and after passing 3 steak houses I was beginning to wonder… And when we went round this dark little corner… There stands an Italian, outside his restaurant asking which one of us was Australian, and preceeded to wave his little Italian flag in my face. As angry as I was I couldn’t help but laugh and it turns out the bloke gave me the biggest bowl of spaghetti Bolognese you could ever imagine, with a truck load of parmesan cheese. Fair to say a hole was filled and some of my disappointment waivered.
On to Tuesday (27th) we ventured into Amsterdam. I thought it was going to be dodgy and turns out I was half right – a nice little boat around the dyke showed a fair bit of Amsterdams architecture, which was pretty amazing, houses are literally leaning against the next because the foundations are all rotting as they were made of wood – quite interesting stuff. When we finished our boat cruise we headed into the “Red Light District” – now, we find this nifty little pub, have a few drinks, and then go for a walk, just to see what all the fuss is about. It was truly the strangest, most out of this world thing I have ever seen, literally 3 blocks of pubs and porn shops, and hundreds of doors with women gyrating and shaking their stuff about. Now I’m sorry girls if this offends you, but it was sad, because the seedy underworld rings these girls fall into are something I just don’t wanna think about. They are all drugged up, off their heads and just don’t look like they wanna be there – but would you want to be? I mean they spend all day waving at people, having dirty old men all over them… It really is sad. Still, an eye-opener and if your ever anywhere near there its worth going and just having a look. So we headed back into The Hague for an early night (3am) as we had our first game the next day.
Wednesday (28th) came – and off to play the Hercules Cricket Club we went. They are based in a placed called Utrecht, and it’s a massive complex – 4 tennis courts, clay courts mind you, indoor football centre, indoor nets, 3 cricket ovals and the biggest clubrooms you will ever see. Oh did I mention the 3 hockey courts? We got a win, playing on synthetic, its not real cricket and they were rubbish really, their Aussie didn’t play but he was more of a coach. He does not Dights tho, Michael Dighton the Tassie Cricketer for those of you who don’t know, he is over there apparently, so I got him to pass on a Gday from the Moose. Small World, isn’t it. They put on a massive BBQ with squid (yep, squid) and some of the awesome pasta salad, just like Mum makes it, so that was comforting for both my stomach and the fact I’m missing home a bit. Its weird, I love it here, Europe in general, but still do miss home.
Thursday (29th) and we played Ajax Cricket Club – all that can be said here is coconut matting wickets are the trickiest to bat on, but by gee does it turn. Didn’t matter tho as their aussie made 150 and blasted me to all parts. Was a good club tho, and their opening bowler who is actually a Dutch Rep, for the women’s side… got me out. Caught right on the boundary. Silly, silly Scott getting out to a girl. Mind you, she was quite possibly the best bowler I faced over here. So the tour was over, a big night on Thursday, I actually ate frogs legs and escargo’t at a French restaurant, followed by a bloody long trip home when we arrived on Friday night, and I was buggered. Really loved it though, Holland is great, and I reckon I may even come back here to coach and play at some stage.
Well, this has been a rather massive update, so I’ll leave it here, and update you all at the end of next week with the results and whats been happening.
Until Then, Stay classy.
Moose.
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