Yet Watling Yet Santner Yet Win

England 353 all out 

v New Zealand 615 for 9 declared 

England 197 all out 

New Zealand win by an Innings & 65 Runs 

Monday 25 November 2019 

1st Test 

Played at Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui 

Different New Zealand Ticks = 100 

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Right. This is a Beer Blog. Let's start with the in-ground beer. The main Sponsor offer was from Monteith's. Owned by big boys DB Breweries. In turn owned by Heineken Asia Pacific. Sigh. You get the drift. I put the binoculars up on Day 1. One of the impromptu gazebo bars on the far side had a van parked behind it with the Mount Brewing Co logos & beer clip art all over it. Hello……

Goodbye….

The people from The Rising Tide pub & Mount Brewing Co were just running, not supplying, the bars. Monteith's or nowt. On all five days, the price charts just listed two Monteith's beers.

Monteith's, Original Ale on keg at 4%. Honestly, I'm not a fan of that one. I didn't get it at all, and I couldn't see where it was going. Barely malty. And certainly not Hoppy.

Monteith's, Bohemian Pilsner on keg at 5%. That was OK. A quite decent finish. But, it needed a bit more & thicker sugar for that to come off.

One of the guys from The Rising Tide pub told me he'd been bombarded with info on likely beer sales in the weeks leading up to this Test. But, they'd still managed to sell everything they were hoping for five days, on the FIRST TWO. He'd had to call in favours at Distribution Warehouses to get the act together for 3/4/5. They didn't let on at the bars. But, in order to do that, they'd had to stick some Monteith's, Golden Lager (5%) on. None of the signs changed for this unexpected & unbilled in ground tick. And … it wasn't as good as the Bohemian Pilsner anyway.

Those three in-grounders have helped push my different NZ Beer Ticks to 100. So, we have a number of new contenders. I'm going to mention;

Garage Project, FRESH IPA Vol 2 on keg at 7% in The Rising Tide. That was simple & superb. It wasn't overglooped & grew gently. But, when it got there, that abv takes your head off. A bit of tangy orange late in the finish.

As for the cricket. Paaaah. I'm glad I got bogged down and didn't waste my time Blogging day four. With hindsight, England never looked like saving it from the moment Williamson got off his chair to declare. Memorable moments include. That hoiked sweep up in the air by Burns. Pope chasing a wide full toss. Buttler watching one hit off stump (and a touch of middle I fancy) with his bat in the air. You know what? It was shit. They were shit. But, I don't even blame them. Our game is in a pickle. We've got a theoretical system for teaching players how to play 4 & 5 day cricket. How to be Watling. How to be Santner. It's the County Championship. But, we can't use it. So, we have to see whether we can find likely lads in white ball cricket. And, I know some will be questioning my use of "can't use it" and feeling all "won't use it".

But, the County Championship is UNSUSTAINABLE. Not enough people who claim to love it support it financially. So we have to have a cross money subsidy. From International Cricket. From T20. From The Hundred. From somewhere. And that dilutes four day cricket. Pushes it to April. Have a dart. Against a dibbly dobbly trundler. Seaming it sideways. On a damp track. Pushes it to September. It's gone. Because people don't go. The only issue is. Same in NZ. Yet Watling. Yet Santner. Yet Win.

Stats
I have now Blogged from 878 games in 1,924 days