Bill Bryson wrote the best description EVER of listening to cricket on the radio. It’s in Down Under, when he’s driving across Australia and it’s the only channel he can pick up on the car radio.

Aha, here it is: http://exitrowseating.blogspot.com/2006/11/cricket-and-other-things.html

I agree, though, that this is probably much funnier if you have actually heard cricket on the radio. It truly is like that. Very quiet, calm, and leisurely, with lots of ridiculous technical terms like “silly mid-on” (a fielding position). You can almost feel the gentle sunshine and taste the cucumber sandwiches.

I am nearly done with it! My original plan was to read one essay a night before bed, but I keep seeing the titles of the next essays and getting curious, and reading four in a row. So many thought-provoking topics.

That is extremely clear. Thank you! I feel so knowledgeable now. 🙂

Mine too. I kind of want to watch a game now, to see if I understand everything that’s happening in it!

OMG the ending was awful! Not awful in a badly-written way, but awful in that I desperately wanted someone to swoop in at the last minute and save the day and nobody did! That really drove home for me how limited these girls’ options were, in that time and that country.

I have Jack’s boots. At least a reasonable approximation of them. They are extremely piratey. 🙂

What if you don’t catch it clean? If it rolls and you pick it up, for instance, how do you make the batters stop running?

Thanks! Cricket does seem to be very complicated, though I suppose I just feel that way because I didn’t grow up with it.

You have very pretty eyes, Anna Banana.

Part of it for me was that I got confused between the two sisters. I thought Reet was going to be the point of view character, and then I kept getting confused when Asha was the younger, less beautiful sister.