West Indies Cricket Fans

howzdat wrote: ... Talking of which does anybody know if Mr Farah ever needed a TUE certificate? ...

So there I was posting all sorts of off-topic remarks on the recently concluded Super50 Fantasy League topic when the above question came to mind in connection with a thinly disguised long distance Champion bolter character named Mohambot Rastafarah.

Now we read a headline entitled "Mo Farah: Supplement infusion 'not recorded properly by UK Athletics"

So how allyuh doing? I hope seh all is good and getting better. As for me everything is as alright as it can be & long may it continue. Well, given the eclectic mix of subject matter that does end-up posted on this here topic one can never guess what will come next. So in attempt to satisfy as broad a range of eyeballs as I can never ever dream-up the suffix "@howzdat Poping The Fete @" will serve as a kind of intro heralding a tangled web of lunacy! So here goes ...

Having recently & rather ignominiously desported myself on two fantasy league competitions I thought I'd take a tour of the www and try to acquaint myself with some of our fellow competitors (unbeknownst to them) who mikesiva seems to gather-up for the competitions from over there at cc.com aka caribbeancricket.com . As a stalwart on this here topic let me assure them that is no hard feelings that they are not regular contributors on this site because as I am fond of saying all a we is one family. Having gotten that out of the way let me say that I hope allyuh windians managed to keep allyuh eyeballs in you heads while watching that young lady dancing in a family multiplying kind of way in front of the steel pan players -hai yagga I aint want anybody windianna to vex with me on account of my jukebox so try wid you good looking eyes dem.

Anyway, over at cc.com I notice that they have a few jokers does lime in a corner that they call The Rum Shop <<< please do note the capital T, the capital R and the capital S I reckon datzhow must be some big time virtual drinking does be going on over there because from what I been reading some posters fingers does get well and truly loose. Of course we don't go in fuh that sort of carry-on over here on windiesfans.com because hot sun and alcohol don't go too well. Aint it true? Pardon, allyuh never look good pon dem tourists come tea time at the match? Stuupppppssss

Whilst I was checking the cc.com site out I spot nick2020, mikesiva, vix which names our regulars might recognise ... talking of recognition every time I see vix name in the fantasy league a voice in my head does follow-up quick quick with vaporub only t'ing is the voice does talk now nah in a west indian accent so it does sound like vix vayparub! ... Yes, you guess right that I had was to get that one off my chest.

And then I see a poster name nissan (sometime back mine was a cherry) ; and I also read somebody posting under the name voiceofreason which, according to google, is voz de la razón for our Spanish speaking comrades in South America <<< watch how di guyanese dem gonna big up dem chest when they read I write about dem continent in this here caribbean people business! Lord! is stuuuupppssss fuh truth cos is carry-on like a dat included in poping business. If you aint understand go ask your parents dem

Anyway enough if the name-checking & free plugging of cc.com for now.for now but the place look alright specially the rumshop. I see was one windianna posting over there was getting nuff, nuff good humoured tantalising and tekking it in true west indian spirits however I aint know if I would dare, so is good luck to dem pardna.

Tennis (Indian Wells): Elsewhere on the www I read that a personality mentioned previously on this topic, namely Caroline Garcia, recently defeated Johanna Konta the new British player on the block. Unfortunately, Heather Watson whom has also been mentioned in times past was beaten in the second round by Konta.

While Konta has now firmly established herself ahead of Watson in the British rankings, I still have hopes that Caroline Garcia will push on in the world rankings. She will now face a tough match against Svetlana Kuznetsova.

One of the most deadly serious games I ever came across is Snooker! Courtesy the world-wide wait am watching a match between Judd Trump & Rory McLeod. I say deadly serious because like cricket it is a game of numbers, but in addition to that it is a tremendously tactical game in which every shot can count for you or against you.

Just watched a tremendous tussle for frame 14 in which Rory McLeod held it together to win and lead the match 8 to 6. He is playing Judd Trump who is no slouch; McLeod happens to be black and so is the most unlikely snooker player you ever did see reaching the latter stages of a big international competition, and ladies and gentlemen this is the World Snooker Championship. The match is best of 19 so it is nail-biting time, every slip-up can be disastrous.

Frame 15 is equally tight but Trump has made a mistake which lets McLeod in who eventually misses and then Trump flukes a red in but has to play a safety to end the break. McLeod comes to the table with a four point lead and after an exchange of safety shots Trump misses and so concedes a four point foul! After further tactical exchanges he manages to fluke a shot that results in a fortunate 'snooker' in which it is the pocket that serves as the obstacle.

From an uninitiated West Indian perspective, It would not be way out of hand for a lunatic to imagine that snooker is reminiscent of gam but played on a table and you take aim with a stick Alright, alright I know that I could have said pool but hey it is a West Indian madman ain't it

Oh Lord, McLeod plays a magnificent shot to snooker Trump behind the yellow! Trump misses - a foul which gifts 4 points to his opponent - and is invited to retake the shot. McLeod has a 12 point lead with a maximum of 52 on the table! Another scrappy exchange ensues at the end of which Trump has a chance after fluking a red! Trump has control of the table till he plays a bad shot to bring his break to an end; but he is odds on to win this frame after establishing a 5 point lead.

A scrappy exchange follows at the end of which Trump flukes a yellow off three cushions but eventually misses to bring McLeod back to the table needing blue, pink and black to win! 18 points on the table; Trump leads by 14. Ladies & gentleman this frame has lasted 45 minutes! Trump misses the blue so conceding a foul, five points to McLeod, and is invited to retake the shot - It is squeaky bum time indeed. Trump is left-handed which to my mind is an advantage at this game. Trump eventually does win the frame to make the match score 8-7. It goes without saying that either player will want to win this next frame before the intermission.

On that note i will say adios to The Crucible as life calls. May the better player on the day win!

Well, well not only have i returned to discover that McLeod won the final frame to lead 9-7 (meaning that Trump will need to win every remaining frame to get through the match), but also that the the bookies offered odds of 1000-1 for a McLeod tournament victory! That's fair metinks, however as this match will be played out to a conclusion on the resumption, the pockets will start to look very much smaller for him now that the finishing line draws nigh!

As i said may the better player on the day win!

McLeod held it together and duly won his first round match, much against the odds. However, The Daily Mail, a UK tabloid, described his defeat to Stephen Maguire in his 2nd round match as a 'demolition'. McLeod lost 13-3 with a session to spare. Well played Rory & datz how you just keep the balls rolling.

Given the advent of the www and the way that it serves to make the world a much 'smaller' place, one of my 'foreign correspondents' brought this incident & the unfolding news coverage to my attention.

A concerned citizen advises me that during very early reporting of this incident there was a broadcast and online reporting of an interview in which an alleged 'well placed eye witness source' was heard to say that he saw groups of BLACK individuals 'misbehaving' violently at the venue on the 'night' in question. Implication being that from what he personally saw, the incident could well have been an overspill of violence between ' the usual suspects aka 'warring black inner-city dwelling misfits embroiled in a violent dispute amongst themselves'

As the story unfolds we now learn that...

"The boyfriend of The Only Way Is Essex star Ferne McCann has been charged with 15 offences following an alleged nightclub acid attack. Arthur Collins, 24, is charged with 14 counts of wounding with intent and one of throwing corrosive fluid on a person. Twenty people were hurt - including two each blinded in one eye - when they were doused with a substance at the Mangle E8 club in Hackney on 17 April.
A man aged 21 has also been charged. Andre Phoenix faces seven counts of grievous bodily harm.
Mr Collins, from Hertfordshire, was arrested at an address in Rushden, Northamptonshire, on Saturday.
He and Mr Phoenix will appear at Thames Magistrates Court in London on Monday.
The Metropolitan Police said a man and a 22-year-old woman both lost their sight in one eye after the incident. Other people were treated for severe burns.

The substance has not yet been confirmed but samples retrieved from the scene have been sent for analysis.
The man blinded in one eye and another victim, a 29-year-old man, were transferred to a specialist burns hospital in Essex and have since been discharged.

A 24-year-old old man arrested in north London over the attack on Friday has since been released

If my correspondent is to be believed, I leave you, dear reader, to research the ethnicity of those charged by the police.

regards & peace

howzdat

Usman Khawaja will captain Australia A in South Africa .... ESPN Cricinfo staff write that ....

Usman Khawaja will captain Australia A's four-day team and Travis Head will lead the one-day side for a series of matches in South Africa in July and August. Glenn Maxwell, who scored his maiden Test century on the recent tour of India, will be vice-captain to Khawaja in the first-class games and will have the chance to push his case for retention in the Test side when Australia next play.

See the full article here

As things stand Khawaja's stats are as follows:

Tests: 23
Innings: 40
Not outs: 4
Runs: 1726
Highest Score: 174
Average: 47.94
Hundreds: 5
Fifties: 8

A batsman with an average of 47.94 having to make a case to be retained in the team? Ah well, good luck Usman. You are a class player in my eyes.

The Story
... a young fast bowler visiting the UK from Barbados called Jeshua Ferdinand. Three weeks after arriving in England to play club cricket for Mayfield C.C. in the 2017 Sussex Premier League, Jeshua was hospitalised and partially paralysed by a rare autoimmune disorder, Guillain-Barré syndrome, that attacks the nervous system.

As a result of extensive, specialist, emergency hospital treatment (including X-ray, MRI and CT scans, lumbar punctures, drugs and electrotherapy), Jeshua now faces months, possibly years, of intense neurophysical rehabilitation. Sadly, what he, his agent and many of us didn’t know was that on October 1, 2016 the UK’s reciprocal healthcare agreement with Barbados was cancelled. Without the necessary insurance, Jeshua and his family now face a crippling medical bill for his treatment so far and that to come in the months ahead.

We are asking the cricket community to do what it does best – pull together as one team and help our cricketing brother. He is not physically fit to fly home to Barbados and requires daily professional medical care until he's able to make the trip. To date, the NHS bill is over £16,000 and rising.

Cricket is a unique sport full of special people. Club cricketers travel far and wide just for the love of this game and all it gives, creating unique experiences and lifelong bonds. And many more have played alongside new friends from overseas who bring humour, funny accents, new skills and drinking rituals. In cricket clubs in every country, we look after them as part of one big family.

Today, a guy called Jeshua Ferdinand needs your help. Every donation will make a difference. Let’s do this together. Mayfield C.C. is collecting donations through its PayPal account, 100% of which will be given to Jeshua directly to pay his medical expenses and future treatments. Thank you.


About Jeshua. He’s a talented 24 year-old quickie with a big smile, easy nature, and a 2 year-old son called Jaden. He joined Mayfield C.C. with glowing references from ex-England and West Indies internationals and his 2016 English club, Brixworth C.C. in Northants, who spoke not just of his talent, but character – a lovely and kind young guy with a big heart.

After just his second game, an upset stomach turned serious when he felt pain in his legs. Within just a few days Jeshua was struggling to walk, and then overnight he was practically paralysed. Unable to move his legs and with only limited movement in one hand he was taken to hospital. Jeshua was diagnosed with the rare autoimmune disorder, Guillain-Barré syndrome. The cause is unknown, and it affects 1 in 50,000 people worldwide, attacking the nervous system, proving fatal for 7.5% of victims and leaving around one third with permanent weakness.

More information on Guillan-Barre syndrome: http://bit.ly/2oEbr1u" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
More information on the termination of reciprocal healthcare agreements by the NHS in Oct. 2016: http://bit.ly/U9TasQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.youcaring.com/jeshuaferdinand-826494" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well we are back at another so-called bit of hallowed ground (according to the English) to see what will be inb a tennis match between my dreadlocked buddy Dustin Brown and Andy Murray, Scotland's two-time Wimbledon Champion.

Firstly, I will say that come what may I am rooting for Brown! And whether the Brits wanna thunk it or not Andy Murray's 2017 Wimbledon could be ending in this match - but we will see. Being a generous sort I will give the Scots a chance to get their excuses in first because according to what I can see Andy Murray is not fit and Dustin knows it. I will bet all my cents that Mr. Murray will be doing a lot of laps in this match and only time will tell whether his injured hip will prove to be a merely a trifling inconvenience as his superior tennis skill.

Lawd what a lob from Dustin to go 30-15 up in the sixth game of the 1st set! He follows up with an exquisite stop volley which Murray can not run to get to. Dustin holds serve to level the set at 3 games all. Murray does well to win the seventh game to love, however Murray is most definitely limping. I will forecast that it will take a miracle for Murray to successfully defend his title. Dustin serves a double fault to drop serve in the 8th game so Murray leads 5-3 and will serve for the first set.

Murray duly holds serve and so wins the first set ... and the next two 6-2, 6-2 to record a straight sets victory in the match. Well played.