Hols

Fresh back from my hols in Lanzarote. OK, I know its not the Maldives, but it was just the ticket for a week of rest and relaxation. I was a little sceptical of the travel agent’s claims for the Coronas Playa in Costa Teguisa but it comfortably surpassed all expectations. The hotel was well worthy of its 4 stars; 2 swimming pools, excellent food, attentive and happy staff, and best of all the place was entirely kid-free. Wonderful.

The week was taken up with a mix of lazing in the sun, lazing in the shade, squash, running, and eating too much.

Travel Notes

Enjoyable – I know it shouldn’t be hard to organise a package holiday, but its still a nice surprise when everything goes off without a hitch. Thomsons did a good job.

Aggravating – First day back in the real world was a meeting in London. The train journey up to Paddington was 25 minutes late. Left home at 6:45 and got to my 10:30 meeting in London with 2 minutes to spare. The return journey was even worse. The scheduled 2 hour journey turned into 3¼ hours. Wrong sort of sunshine, I expect. I’ll keep you posted on my attempts to extract some sort of compensation from First Great Western (their words, not mine).

Cricket Notes

While I was away, England succumbed to Murali, the king of spin. England’s batting looked very frail on that 4th day, with the top lacking application and the tail very long (Geraint Jones and 4 rabbits). If KP and Flintoff don’t get runs, they struggle. Hope Vaughan gets back to match fitness soon; Collngwood is keeping his place in the side warm for him.

Glammy actually won a county championship game, but are still mired at the bottom of division 2. Only Ireland are below them in the C&G one-day league table too.

Better news for the Haddocks though. In spite of m absence (or more likely because of it) they won last week. Dan (the Godfather) crashed it about late in the game to save the day and see the Haddocks through to victory with one over to spare.

Normal service was resumed last night though. Well beaten by a useful Pakistani team who took full advantage of some cafeteria bowling (help yourself), including a new record for Andy McMahon with 1-0-32-0 (12 wides). Set 166, we started slowly (just 1 for your correspondent), but Tim Musgrave with 30 and Gnasher Raja with 31no pushed us to 97. We were never really in with a shout. And Andy went home with a shiner after he top edged a ball into his face.

Rugby Notes

Wales went down to Argentina, and went down in the first test to Argentina. The young team didn’t seem to trouble the Pumas too much. The pack struggled, and too often when they had possession they died with the ball (Mark Jones was the biggest culprit). Good debut from Ian Evans though. Great indictment on regional rugby when a cap is given to James Hook from premier side Neath but who can’t get a game in the regional structure.

England got trounced by the Aussies, so not all bad news.

Soccer Notes

If you want to read about the World Cup, look almost anywhere except here. En-ger-land fans doing well though, with swastikas and german helmets much in evidence. They even fought amongst themselves in London on the weekend. Good job they won, eh?