March 11 - Cricket Lesson

This is out of sequence but wanted to post this anyway. After leaving the Adelaide airport to drive to Wilpena, Jay and I stopped at an electronics store to by a cable to hook the i-pod up to the car stereo. In the small park area adjacent to the store was a group of 4 guys and a youngster named Cooper talking batting practice in a cricket cage. I decided to go over and watch and hopefully get a chance to play. As I walked toward the cage, a ball slipped beneath the caging and headed toward the street. I retrieved it and returned it to a tall 30ish man named Ben. I was wearing my UW tee so it was apparent I probably was from US. Introduced myself and Jay and asked if a couple of US baseball players could have a whack at it. Ben and his friends were eager to oblige ;and tell us all about the gear and the game. Ben helped me put on the batter's leg pads, told me how to swing the bat -- more like a golf swing -- and where to stand. The other guys and little cooper took turns "pitching" to me. I managed to hit a few. Afterwards I tried pitching. Quite an unorthodox motion for a former shortstop. Jay took his swings and pitches too. We had a great time meeting Ben, Cooper and the guys and took a great pic of them that we wlll post when we get the chance.

Thanks Ben, Cooper and guys. You added a special experience to our Australia trip.