I am aware that some people do not consider cricket to be a worthwhile pursuit, just as some people think that stand-up paddleboarding is a worthwhile pursuit, or that thunk is the past participle of think. This post is not for them.

In 2007, near the beginning of his world-tour career, a young Adrian ‘Ace’ Buchan wrote a blog for Surf Europe, in which he kept the Euro surf community abreast of goings-on and goings-off around the surfing world — a kind of roving correspondent, if you will. Occasionally, too, he would broach subjects not directly related to surfing. His first ever post is republished below in full. It was written almost exactly eleven years ago, but its content is almost as pertinent now as it was then; indeed, it could well have been written today.

In the winter of 2006-07, the England cricket team suffered a whitewash in the Ashes, which means Australia won five Test matches to England’s none, which means England got fucking battered. In this winter’s Ashes in Australia, England did at least managed to draw a test, meaning we went into the final test at Sydney only 3-0 down, having avoided a whitewash. Today, England lost that test by an innings and 123 runs. Australia captain Steve Smith averaged 137 in the series.

We laugh, that we may not cry — and, also, because Adrian Buchan belongs to that category of men affectionately known, in the vernacular of that most upside-down, back-to-front of nations, as funny cunts.

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