A corner turned

Posted by John Winn

Today is the winter solstice aka the shortest day and for some the first day of winter. More encouragingly tomorrow there will be two more seconds daylight and you can face up those gloom merchants  who since mid summer seem to have revelled in the fact that the nights have been drawing in. It is our turn now, those of us for whom the glass is at least half full can look Bob Willis et al in the eye and say the nights are drawing out. OK there are still a few obstacles to surmount before the first call of play in April not least two more Ashes tests to be played starting on Boxing Day in Melbourne but what the heck, things can only get better. Or not. Tim Bresnan sounded less than 110% confident in a sound bite on Radio 4 this morning  when telling us that 'some of  the boys will be feeling more confident after Perth'. Stokes for certain but I'm not sure after that.

Speaking of test matches I have taken in on TV some of the current contest between South Africa and India where even on a delightful Saturday there are rows and rows of empty seats. This for a match between the top two ranked teams in the world and yet 90000 or so will be at the MCG on Boxing Day  to see the third and fourth teams in action and thousands of those have flown half way round the world to be there.

At home bits of news keep appearing on local league websites not least the arrangements being made to avoid a clash with Le Grand Depart in July. For my next posting I hope to bring a summary of these arrangements and other snippets. In the meantime thank you for your support and Happy Christmas to all our readers. The precise moment of the winter solstice in the Lower Ure Valley is 5:11 pm today after which the corner will be close if not quite turned. Enjoy.