Sport unfolds 140 characters at a time

I marvel at new technology. As a person who blew up a bunsen burner in Form 3 and was never skilful or tough enough to mix it with the tech stream guys, I have had to meander through a white collar existence. Age, experience and often necessity have improved me some what, but I still have to be honest and man enough to say I cant reverse a trailer (or caravan).

As a person who had only a vague understanding as to the way telephones worked (two tins and a piece of string gave this phenomenon some reality), I was always going to struggle with the fax machine. The mobile phone and all its capabilities is really too much to digest.

This doesn’t mean that I shy away from them. While not driven to have the latest gadgets, I consider myself to be a late adaptor to both the hardware and software. The hardware is usually updated at the behest and cost of whoever chooses to employ me from time to time. The software is often driven by what the kids put on the phone / computer (or should I say electronic devise?).

One trend I have succumbed to is Twitter. While having some morbid fascination as to why Shane Warne was covered in bruises and understanding why someone kicked Lara Bingle is often revealed in less than 140 characters, it is the following of test cricket that has me sucked in well and truly. Being a notorious tight arse, I refuse to purchase Foxtel. This leaves me somewhat devoid of options as this exciting series from Sth Africa unravels.

Yet, here Twitter is to the rescue. Not only can I get the official updates from the Cricket Aust updates as well as the various news and sporting outlets, but also from like minded individuals who some may say see the game in a different light. To have one contributor make the comment “That’s four to Bucky, only 111 more of those to go”, let me know that all was well with the world. Like so many punters back home, I slept soundly after the last peak when we had reached 1 /120. With rain of biblical proportions expected the next day, I thought we were going to be robbed of a world record victory, much like we were when they dug up the pitch in England that time when the great KD Walters was poised to lead us to the promised land.

But alas at first peak in the morning, I learnt that the wheels had fallen off. Marsh a pair (is there any other sportsman who is so yin and yan), Doolan a failure, Clarke tired, Smith a good one, Haddin not against SA, and the tail failing for one to hang on. All this appeared to me scroll desperate scroll. Surely it cant be true. But it was. And out of these ashes rose the wit that makes Australians famous. “Watson now most wanted man in Sth Africa” !

Then this week it was off to the desert to “see” the final round of the matchplay final with Jason Day. Agonisingly hole by hole, shot by shot we had updates tweeted to us. Then the photos came through. The fact that #Vdub kept getting up and down from spots I only thought hacks like me visited on courses, it seemed incredible. While not being there, locking yourself away and watching it all unveil is perversely exciting. Maybe with this modern invention we are seeing a glimpse of the olden days, when updates came through spasmodically or we had to wait for a goal to “go around the grounds”

Let us give thanks to this new device. Let us also give thanks to the fact that it wasn’t around when G Norman was at his peak !

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A mediocre local sportsman now paying for the sins of the past. Golf and walking the only options. As JTH said, you are not a golfer if you cant shoot under 85. Im not a golfer

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