I was fortunate enough today to get a second crack at NSW.  I was surprised to be asked, when checking in at the pro-shop, if I wanted to play in that day’s competition.  Since the other three in my group were competing, I decided to do so as well.  I was playing with Michael, a friend of Terry, an Adelaide based air traffic controller who is a friend of James, also based in Adelaide, who I played a couple of games with nearly ten years ago.

The weather, as it has been all week, was simply beautiful and, it transpired, the company was a match.  I played pretty well.  My score of 26 stableford points was 7 behind the winning score and I couldn’t have scored fewer and was the same as Michael achieved.  I hit the ball well pretty much all the way round and only a couple of misread putts prevented me competing.  Most importantly, however, my first impressions of NSW were confirmed.  By the end of this trip I may have played a better course or two.  I won’t have played a more beautiful or thrilling one.

John, Michael and Joel, today’s playing partners

After our game Michael and I had a beer with John, one of the other two players in our group, before sitting down to lunch.  Michael, it turns out, is a wine buff.  People think I’m a wine buff but this man is serious.  He has a cellar with 9000 bottles.  It was my goof=d fortune that the NSW GC wine list has some serious wines on it and also that Michael wanted to show a couple to me.  With (very good) steak and chips we tried a very Burgundian Chardonnay, before enjoying a 2004 Penfolds St Henri.  The Chardonnay was lovely and improved in the glass but the red was simply delicious.  2004 was, apparently, a good year in South Australia and the wine perfectly accompanied the steak, before providing great pleasure as we finished it.

Before I knew it it was 5pm and time to head back.  As I set off from the clubhouse, an elderly couple who had been introduced to me in the clubhouse (he had played cricket in Neacstle upon Tyne for an NSW representative side in 1959) offered me a lift to a bus stop.  I continue to be surprised by just how generous Australians are.

After a beer and a bite to eat in a local pub (The Local Taphouse – very good if in the area of the SCG), I returned to the Allianz Stadium, right next door to the SCG where AFL side Sydney FC were due to host Melbourne Victory.

The Allianz Stadium is a 44,ooo capacity ground which, as well as being home to Sydney FC also hosts international rugby matches.  I was fascinated to see what AFL soccer was like.  The ground flt about half full (the official attendance was over 19,000) but the Sydney fans did a good job at compensating for the empty spaces.  A group of around 2,000 behind one goal barely sat down and sang for pretty much the whole game.  The atmosphere certainly compared well to a number of English Premier Leaguse grounds.

As to the match itself, Sydney dominated possession throughout but, for the first 60 minutes, Melbourne bore the greater threat.  A missed penalty in the first half eventually proved vital but, deservedly, the Victory took o 1-0 lead into half time.  In the second half Sydney huffed and puffed unconvincingly until a substitute, David Carney was brought on.  Why he hadn’t started is beyond me, since his introduction transformed the game.  After only a few minutes he scored an equaliser (albeit one with s strong hint of hand ball as he controlled the pass) and, later, he scored the goal that proved to be the winner.

I had been sceptical about the entertainment that would be on offer.  However, I watched a very, very entertaining game between two sides who would both be extremely competitive in the English Championship.  The level of skill on display was impressive, counterbalanced by some very naive defending.

Combined with the atmosphere the quality of the game made for a very entertaining evening

I’m a bit of a sports tragic.  I love to watch and talk about football, golf, rugby, cricket and hockey.  Obviously I play golf but I still turn out regularly to play both cricket and hockey.  My first sporting love (no matter how much I love golf) is cricket.  As a young boy I would get the bus to meet up with mates to play a make-up game in the park.  As a teenager I would walk a couple of hours to get the tube to St John’s Wood to watch Middlesex play at Lords.  I would stay awake in the small hours to listen to England play cricket abroad in the winter.

There’s nothing in cricket as meaningful as the Ashes.  The oldest and still most meaningful rivalry in the game. There are moments in Ashes history that are etched in my mind.  In all sports there are iconic grounds.  Australian cricket has several.  As I write, the (soon to be replaced) WACA is seeing South Africa gain the upperhand in the first test of a series.  The Melbourne Cricket Ground and its Boxing Day Test is another, and the Sydney Cricket Ground, or SCG is yet another.

At the end of this trip I will spend a day or two watching Australia play South Africa in a day/night test at the Adelaide Oval, another iconic ground.  Yesterday, however, I took the opportunity to spend a couple of hours watching New South Wales play Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield at the SCG.  The SCG is a big ground.  It has a capacity of 48,000, provided mostly in huge, modern stands.  In one corner, however, there remains the old pavillion:

A wonderful old building, dwarfed but not dominated by the surrounding stands.  It was in that corner that I spent watching NSW gain a first innings lead over Western Australia.  Test hopeful Nic Maddinson made a very accomplished hundred on a turning wicket, with Western Australian Ashton Agar, who famously made 98 against England on his test debut, the most threatening bowler (he ended the innings with 6 wickets).

Whatever the stae of the game, however, this was about the experience of watching first class but not test cricket.  If there were 100 people in the ground I’d be surprised, Maddinson’s hundred was celebrated wildly by his team mates and mildly applauded by the “crowd” and most attendees drifted between watching the game and talking to mates.  Which is not to say that this was not a great way to spend a couple of hours.  The cricket was on, I read the Sydney Morning Herald, reminding me of happy days spent reading The Guardian at Lord’s, and was entertained when I did focus on the cricket. A soothing and wonderful way to pass the afternoon.

Maddinson, by the way, looks a talent.  A far better prospect than Moises Henriques, who I also saw bat and who is regularly suggested as a potential Australian test cricketer and ikt’s difficult to see how he couldn’t be a step up from Mitch Marsh, the current Aussie No 6.

 

I just read that if Andy Murray wins his next match he will become number one in the world.  I’m 52 and, for the vast majority of that time, the idea that the world’s best tennis player might be British (let alone a slightly chippy lad from Dunblane*) was simply laughable.  He has his detractors but surely it’s now time that Murray should get the acclaim he deserves in his home country.

*Thanks to professional editor Adam Lawrence for spotting the original mistake here.