rest day

cricket forces a rigorous relentless thinking of failure. in cricket failure is always opposed by glory. both are present and the net magnitude is zero. an error is always coupled with a perfect execution. the perfect execution isn’t always the result of skill being applied perfectly. an imperfect delivery can induce an error (clara tice) as much as any perfectly executed plan. so perfect execution resides in the domain of chance. a chancey conglomeration of events. when its perfect the net magnitude is zero. isn’t it always perfect? how can any delivery be anything other than perfect when viewed as the conglomerate it is – with the shot, the fielders, umpires, commentators… glory / failure error/perfect execution … never with any value. cricket levels. the individual cricketer probably doesn’t remember it like this. the pain they felt was too great for them to have been a part of nothing. the joy so immense it was surely a part of something.

but this is only personal nostalgia – based in cultures of vengeance cultures of heroism cultures of style…

the film ‘the final test’ begins with an american arriving in london keen to examine and understand all elements of english culture. the very first thing he is confronted with is newspaper headlines : england on verge of collapse ; england may collapse today… he is shocked by the countrys pessimism. quickly though he learns that the papers are referring to a test match being played against australia at kennington oval and immediately heads to the ground to watch. hutton bats superbly it rains a bit and england bat for 2 days to achieve the draw. the headlines australia produced to during and after the melbourne test would have had the american wondering why australians are such haters, so venomous and scornful. awful terrible A DISGRACE. All commentary is obviously lies but it has an impact on crickets personell. It impacts on the depth of failure they feel and on the glorious heights they attain. At a nostalgic level it plays its part in the conglomerate that produces zero. at some point nostalgia and chance become bound together. nostalgia and skill. nostalgia and error. nostalgia and reverse swing. nostalgia and the cut shot. nostalgia/chance and skill. nostalgia/chance and error. nostalgia/chance and reverse swing. nostalgia/chance and the cut shot. eventually cricket forces a relentless thinking of failure and chance.

day 5

husseys zinc

at the end of 5 long days finally for the first time this summer i get to sit down with a beer and watch some test cricket. seems to have transported to the waca seems australia are in the doldrums but putting on a last gasp little resistance firing glimmers of hope claras innings was a flicker counter attacking attractive aggression rock back n smash but his intensity went unrewarded the freedom with which he was playing left him loose outside off n he dragged 1 on. finns deliveries were leaping viciously off lengths often far too short but when they were up they had the wagtails hopping reactions were on. watsons reactions were on. the retravision hoardings induced a feeling of nostalgia but the nostalgia inspired was being defined in the moment – the hoardings were stating something nicely unforgettable i was remembering

blob day 0st (0)

so the ashes begin

flat deck

questions to be answered

same old dignitaries deliveries

dying through to the keeper

not much really

we ricky ponting await definition

somere looking to judge us on this

earth can man with mental reaching nothing on help surrey cricket

partial text appearing on the door opening onto the players

viewing area see the flesh move spots of rain

bell sneers clark trott flintoff siddle snarls awaits definition

clara is nothing but the process of definition she does not wait

to duck its important yr kneesre bent

target = blank practice

square

that mad mass of time between deliveries

atherton quietly hums us to sleep fr england its gonna be _______

blob day 0st

beowulf – lineages always empahsised

the son of …

olsons documentaries also contain a lot of genealogy

family names localities marriages

in mal peets book about football el gatos fathers doubled

maldorors something like grendel

grendels monstruouss only a mother … ?

daniels fathers dead he travels to okinawa to watch miyagis father die daniels mothers absent as is the blonde in the blue dress (immediately erased – miyagi fixes the engine in a matter of seconds)

claras no parentage shes produced by a synthesizer out of trajectories of pure desire

blanchots thomassre something like clara

unlike grendel clara cannot be evil – she manifests only productive openings of desire

brings about marriages brings localities into play forms clusters

shes no fear of the tenuous duck

or seagull

the bails a vital element within ashes mythology – its there at and prior to the origin

the seagull pervades all cricket its influences untold

after lee sends the bail flying the gull for a moment claims it

the players wonder if its going to eat it but the gull simply sits on a nearby roof with it

the communions incompleete

clara understands the ways in which things fall

she does not necessarily pay a lot of attention to the events leading up to the fall

rather than being historical historical momentsve modern presences

genealogys not her concern michael clarkes her grandpa

gullgamesh-gullespie

though segments may suggest conclusions the series is never decided batailles ovals future momentsve modern presences

crickets played out within blobs ultimately it occurs to make something out of the blob – to add to the blob subtract from the blob multiply or divide the results (create averages – an idea of form)

thats to say

crickets blobs play out

prediction : 0 – 0 the seagulls retain the ashes

3st dossier – no flintoff todossier

making it simple

theres 2 deliveries

short / full

depending on the match

situation one is good

the other bad

1st day australia correctly applied this morality

good n full to the top and middle orders get them driving

good n short to savage the lower order

2st day englands attempt at piety failed

and fell into a morass of immoral short bowling

bad short to the top and middle orders

bad short to the tail

dry bones can harm no one

therere no templates for the application of this morality n englands hastily constructed bible was torn asunder by the infidel

on the 3st day australias moral sense had lapsed n england made a little goodness

too late to save the world n perhaps the ashes n power justice

(though this is clearly still undecided as all moral ground reverts to the oval)

1st day – no flintoff today

after an extended genesis a moment at last recognisable as the ashes – we ahab v the white whale.

all 15 days to this pointve held a sense of preliminarity – they were a setting up. figures were introduced developments vaguely sketched out erased reversioned alliances n rivalries suggested. but largely all remained unfamiliar. it is not 05. who knew what marcus north even looked like or recognised the work of hughess feet? warno did not appear his usual self. things were occuring in a strange land and the techniques of combat were not what we ahabve been accustomed to. ahab himself was sorely questioned. we too would be defined by this – that is were up for grabs.

we ahab pulled ferociously at harmisons length. prior to that clark proved a team is able to function without warno – a breakthrough in science. the pitchd pace n bounce. an australian all seam attack used this pace n bounce off a full length destroying the english top n middle orders siddle then tore the tail from the demon with short heroic savagery … tore off grendels arm

it was striking. it made an impression on the english bowlers suddenly they wanted to be siddle – to repeat his feats but the image they attempted to replicate consisted of only the heroic moment and not the considered movement toward that moment. drunk on pace n bounce they bowled short katich fed their delirium sacrificing himself early to a delivery sharply rising toward his throat. the bowlers arms thus spirited away from any bowlers rational control we ahab feasted. at least 2 of our ahabs pulls will remain as two of the greatest hits ever made in any form of combat. our ahabs innings had the platform of a masterpiece. in the background was everything that had gone before between him (us) and the whale. an epic rivalry renewed we ahab let our obsession run. earlier claras catching at 1st was exquisite. once nostalgia kicks in its immediately feeding the future callin it on.

headingleys a site of nostalgia flintoff the new bothams absent thingsre being reworked it is not 81 hughess feetre absent or belong now to someone else

lacuna

weve put together a series of measures to ensure that those people who want to watch the cricket are not disrupted by those who are simply there to have a good time

imagined or predicted tests

the version of the epic of gilgamesh clara reads with modern loves full of lacuna

ands made up from all sorts of tablets giving versions of the text

the repeating lines with a word changed here and there have thick action

thiss countered by continual sudden moments of nothing no tablets complete and all tablets together are incomplete …

giving lacuna

edgbaston was full of lacuna already all cricket moves with the thick action of repetition for all broadcast matches this thicknesss multiplied by replay technology

it rained a lot on the 1st day

it rained all day saturday

[it rained] a lot on the 1st day

it rained all day saturday …

it rained alot on the 1st day …

it rained all day saturday

clara was …

clara was on the go monday

q ask me what i think of ponting

a dunno ve never ponted

keys

we ricky pont

we ricky ponted

we ricky ponting

when theres a lacuna in a test match only times lost no action

no actions lost only potential quantity of action small pieces of actionre missing from the epic of gilgamesh but mostly times not lost its taken up by the accumulation of versions …

imagined or predicted test action could be substituted for …

during lacuna clara likes to insert appropriate segments of play from past concurrent and imagined or predicted tests despite the interruption upon the taking of the field we ricky ponting find the situation of play has moved on [accordingly] …

despite the interruption…

upon the taking of the field we ricky ponting find the situation of play has moved on accordingly weve put together a series of measures to ensure that those people who want to watch the cricket are not disrupted by those who are simply there to have a good time

timesnt good or bad but occupied

ask me what i think of clarkeing

dunnove never clarked

cricketers in winter

kps living dangerously as long as hes living kps a massive threat

before i ricky ponting was through typing the above line hilfenhaus smashed kps wkts it was all astonishing. the ball penetrates the batsmans heart. the wkts are guarded as the most valuable treasure or volatile secret of all time all space – kp lets it go in.

winter is a nontime. cricketers enter stasis. the dreams they havere vivid but rarely remembered beyond a few details. these details are useless to the cricketer – they have been held onto only because some familiar thing allows the detail to be in some way intelligible. the bulk of any dream is entirely fantastic and provides all manner of sensational experience and the keys to unthought problems. if a cricketer clarke for example was to awaken during winter and leave the casing the experience would surpass even this dream bulk. he would find winter people initially incomprehensible. within new relationships clarke would be an altogether different entity perhaps a number of them. it would not take long for friendship to develop.

on the radio some guy is talking about tripping on mushrooms for 4 hours he lay in a field havin all sorts of glorious revelations about his realm the elements that inhabitat it and the relations between them. in the glorious cardiff sun lolling about on the green. fielding in fawkner park claras learned much. warno getting back to his troubling best claims the wkt of strauss haddin rises into they sky in recognition.

out of the footholes they rise up grabbing for debris

sophia gardens the wettest fine leg in the world