We’ve Got The World Cup In Our Hands…

Yee ha! We won. And what a game, to see Gilly make 149 of something like 104 balls was absolutely amazing. And the chant of We've got the World Cup in our Hands ... started well before the game was finished. We knew we had it and we were celebrating. Actually the final ball took a long time coming, and it was actually tossed down by Roy in the dark, which was all very confusing but we didn't care. The cup was ours for a third time in a row and We were the Champions. When the first light was called and the boys thought they had the cup punter erupted in mass excitment and started running (or rather sprinting) around and then grabbed one of the players and started hugging, then there was a mass hug. I don't think I have ever seen punter show so much emotion. Then it turned funny and they had to go back and bowl 2 more overs so Pup and Roy did the job and there was another celebration. Merve put it well, where else could you see two world cup victories in 30 minutes, normally you have to wait 4 years. I am not sure what the papers have been saying back home, but over here we all felt very privileged to be part of the most amazing world cup final you will ever see. And for that matter never see again.

But I digress slightly because I haven't detailed the 4th beach cricket test in Dominica. We were all set for a big day as we docked only to once again have rain. But in true Aussie spirit we headed out to find a beach. That in itself proved to be a bit of an effort but finally after a very exciting bus trip along narrow, windy potholed roads we arrived at the islands only beach resort. The man at the dock had rang ahead to alert the resort that we were coming, since they are normally closed on Friday's, when they go to the farm. Obviously what we think of a resort and what is classed as a resort in the Caribbean is something totally different because we arrived at a black sand beach with a run down shack on the edge of it and the place was completely deserted. Then after a while a few people rocked up and opened the shack and served us some beer. Very funny day and one of those things you just had to experience, almost impossible to explain. But the beers flowed cold, there was fried chicken (or course) and we played cricket all day and mixed with the locals who were mostly just lounging around stoned out of there brains. One Aussie guy was there and he was so off his tree we couldn't even understand most of what he was saying. What we did get was he rents a tin shed on the beach for $1000 per year and just hangs around getting smashed all day every day. That was very funny!!!

We tried to get Kerry O'Keeffe to come with us to the beach cricket but he had just partaken in his annual exercise. He had donned his running shorts and a sports shirt, backpack with cut lunch and a water bottle, then headed down to the end of the pier and back (280m). When we saw him he was sweaty and heading to the bar for another Heineken saying " My Body is my Temple". A very funny man!

So it was in the early hours of a Saturday morning that we all arrived in Barbados and commenced our cueing for passports in preparation for the big day. The weather didn't look to bad early but by the time we cleared the boat (after an inspiring briefing from tour hosts Merve and Kerry) the heavens opened up and we got drenched on our walk to the ground. Myself and Hubbard elected to cab it for $3 US rather than get wet, but it didn't help because we then got we cueing to get into the ground. Merve and Kerry had their predictions and as usual Merve sat on the fence (we hounded him for a few errors in the first cruise so he was a bit hesitant to make any stands) However Merve, like he had said in every previous match briefing that Gilly had one big innings in him for this world cup and he had him for Man of the Match. Go Merve you legend! So after being totally pumped it was a bit of a downer with the rain delay, but the beers were flowing and it was not to long until we were under way with a 38 over match. And not too long after that we were treated to one of the best spectacles of one day batting you would ever get to see. I think it was 8 sixes and god knows how many 4's from the Man and the sixes were not just clearing the rope, they were cracked into the second tier of the stands all over the ground. Unfortunately we didn't get a catch attempt but it was close.

So it was that we had the cup and the party's were many and hard and it was generally huge. And it was with headaches that we all slowly limped into Lobster Alive for the 5th and final beach cricket. However it all failed miserably when we realised that the stupid saffa's left the gear in Dominica. It was ok though because we had the ball so we just pelted that around while drinking beer in the waves and generally recovering.

That night was an even bigger party with the ship's second pub crawl and this time there was 60 of us. I can't really tell you too much just that I was chained to Gino all night, we drank some farily horrible stuff, we were in team 17 and we won the games, we stole a bra, we danced, I sprained my ankle and we all woke up with horrible hangovers. The photo's done by Hubbard are an absolute scream and I will put them in the Gallary.

Well here I am in Miami in transit to LA and heading home from the trip of a life time. It has been huge, I have met some great people and I hope we all keep in touch. I hope you have enjoyed my scrawlings and I hope we can all do it again some time.

Have fun and catch you all later

Shaz