A change of pace

A glorious end
to the
golden summer of sport

Two years ago to the day the first substantive post appeared on this blog.  Since then there have been 768 posts including this one. There has been at least one post each day since then - Fantasy Bob's mastery of all things technical has meant that there have been posts even when FB has been elsewhere.  A stunning achievement?

768 is more than any batsman has ever scored in any innings.  It may be more than Fantasy Bob has scored in his entire career.

Fantasy Bob therefore thinks he is due a wee rest.  Time to take his sweater from the umpire and graze for a bit at fine leg before coming back to sweep up the tail.  FB needs some thinking time.  For the next innings, his posts will therefore be less regular than daily.  There is no guarantee that they will be more thoughtful than they have been but it is worth a try.

FB is grateful  to his worldwide readership of 3 for their patience.  To their number must be added a faithful but shadowy audience of spam sites and bots who seem to find his witterings irresistible but ensure that FB has no idea what his real readership is.

In common with all cricket writing over the last 2 years, the most frequently occurring name in this blog has been Kevin Pietersen.  FB leaves it to others to follow the next twist in this sad tale.  If KP's innings at Headingley is his last great effort on the big stage, then FB is only too pleased to have witnessed every stroke of it.  It was truly great.

Mahler -
could he have helped KP?

But KP's domination was not FB's intention when he set out 2 years ago.  His primary objective was to examine from all sides the many controversies surrounding Gustav Mahler's bowling action, including the radical suggestion that he did not have one.  But where has Mahler featured in this blog?  How has he been treated?  Shamefully.  Indeed while Wagner and Beethoven and Mozart have featured from time to time, as have several others who can only be described as pop musicians, Mahler is notable by his absence.  FB's lack of attention to the great symphonist is something that is of deep concern in the higher levels of the MCC.  If nothing else Mahler could teach Kevin Pietersen a thing or two about orchestration.  KP's attempts to orchestrate opinion have been unsuccessful.

Fantasy Bob sees all around challenging issues facing cricketers across the world. Too many questions, not enough answers.  Cricketers will have to make up their own minds on these issues without FB's guidance.  His brain hurts. For instance, they must work out for themselves who in their right minds would buy a book written by Stuart Broad or Jimmy Anderson?

But the key question to end this golden summer of sport is far more vital -  can Vaughany's knees survive the Latin section of Strictly Come Dancing?