h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I watched a World Cup game yesterday. I just sort of fancied it. I had nothing else to do and I was starting to get cabin fever, not having been out of the apartment much these past few weeks. It was England, and it was in the afternoon so the bar across the street would be pretty quiet. All my usual drinking mates are away at the moment so I haven't had a pint for a while or two.

I wouldn't consider myself a football pundit by any stretch of the imagination, but it seemed to me as if the England team were playing like a bunch of friends having a kick-about on Hackney Marsh of a Sunday morning. In the second half, Uruguay's tactics came across as 'if you get a shot at goal try to get it in the back of the net', while England's were 'if you get a shot at goal kick it straight at the keeper'.

Right, now that's out of the way, back to the cricket

I quite fancied watching Costa Rica after work, but ended up staying in work an hour later than planned.

Once the pressure's off England and they're irretrievably eliminated, which is a foregone conclusion, let's face it, I predict a 6-0 win over Costa Rica

I could see something like that happening!

That used to be the way it went with the cricket. The West Indies or the Aussies... or anyone really, would beat us in the first three or four Tests, sew up the series, and then we'd thrash 'em in the final Test at The oval, and in the one-dayers.

And a pox on the house of this poxy keyboard with its poxy shift key that doesn't poxy well shift.

There's something special about a test match that just isn't there in the one day limited overs type of games, don't you think?

Absolutely. It's like the difference between reading The Lord of the Rings and reading The Hobbit. They're both fun and they both have their own allure, but there's so much more to get your teeth into with a five (or however long it ends up lasting) day game. There's far more intrigue and tactics in a Test.