Et Al Events: A Night at Como Park

Please make welcome....Glenn Maxwell

A warm welcome to all our new subscribers! It’s been a sometimes gruelling but ultimately affirming week, and many thanks to the Cricket Et Al community from Pete and myself for your support amid an unexpected challenge from which we’re now moving on. It did make me a bit late for setting up the PA and the chairs at Como Park tonight, but I needn’t have worried.

When I came upstairs from training, I at first didn’t see our guest Glenn Maxwell, so perfectly had he blended into the environs of the Yarras, beer in hand, chatting away to my clubmates and other visitors - one of whom, Cricket Et Al subscriber Rod Shearer, turned out to have been Maxy’s first junior coach at South Belgrave CC.

Then we settled in for some great cricket chat….

…before a packed crowd….

…which as you can see started in light and ended in darkness. It was, yes, a Big Show, though Glenn also explained why he abhorred the nickname, and actually demonstrated why it doesn’t suit him - in person he’s completely without airs and graces, polite and straightforward. Chatham House rule prevailed but I actually learned a good deal, conversation veering from Virat Kohli and Pat Cummins to Saham Toney and the Harp of Erin, along with a hilarious impression of Mike Hussey. The 2017 Chittagong Test sounds interesting! That might be, like the Giant Rat of Sumatra, ‘a story for which the world is not yet prepared.’ After chatting, we sold some books and stuck round for some beers - also in the audience were subscriber Andrew Walton, Maxy’s coach at Richmond, and Alex Davies, Maxy’s captain at Warwickshire.

…while I see that even Crash made an appearance.

Some day, I can’t help thinking, Glenn is going to be a really good commentator. He has a ready wit and great timing. His stories of facing Dandenong’s Peter Siddle and Darren Pattinson as a teenager for Richmond, and of fielding at slip to James Anderson at Lancashire, were rippers; his critique of Bazball was shrewd and measured. It was getting late, but Glenn was still going strong with a few of the boys, so I left him to it.

If you haven’t, buy his book: it’s terrific.

PS: If you’re after a good night out in Sydney rather than Melbourne, by the way, may we commend you to the Vanguard in Newtown on the nights of Friday 12 February and Friday 19 February, for an earful of soul from Cricket Et Al houseband The Bluesberries. This musical venture, orchestrated by Friend of the Pod John McMurtrie, is raising money for two Ukrainian charities dealing with the dispossessed and wounded. If asked politely, they might even play ‘Labuschagne.’

PPS: Beware: another post coming later today. I know subscribers sometimes complain that we’re writing more quickly than you can read, and this in the Et Al rather than the Cricket category, but do not adjust your set….