20/20 bores

8 August 2004

After great effort I found myself at Edgbaston watching the Twenty-Twenty semi-finals and final. A long day, this. You arrive at about 10am and finish at 10pm having watched 120 overs of cricket, a couple of mediocre pop groups and a bunch of skinny cheerleaders waving bunches of ribbons. The weather was stinkingly hot; I've never seen so many people lathering themselves with suncream, many of them men in their twenties. With over-priced alcohol and £25 seats you want to get your money's worth. The cricket was good and Leicestershire were worthy winners. What wasn't good was the usual boorish groups in the crowd - overcome on booze and heat they just couldn't help themselves. Sadly, many of the noisy ones near me were fat, over forty and should have known better. One graceless git insisted on shouting obsenities at players he didn't like. The oaf is probably a middle-manager. I can hear him saying "work hard, play hard" to excuse his ladishness.