6.23.2005
rounders
I had my very last evensong this year with Queen's today. It was for the Incumbents, which are the priests around the country who preside over parishes the patron of which is The Queen's College of Oxford. It actually means that Queen's owns the land on which these parishes exist, and that, supposedly, the fellows of Queen's make decisions about how the parish is run and even who is hired to be the vicar. It is truly a strange system.
Anyway, afterward, we had a nice trip down to the Angel and Greyhound Meadow (which is, incidentally, right behind the Angel and Greyhound pub) for several games of what could only charitably be called baseball for complete and utter morons. It's laid out on a pitch that's not exactly a diamond, and the rules seem to be made up as we go along. Certainly, there are "official" rules here, but we didn't use very many of those. Don't forget the little .pdf at the bottom describing how to lay out a Rounder's pitch.
Rules as we played them were as follows: the batter gets to run no matter whether he actually hits the ball. Hit the ball, run. Don't hit the ball, run. Don't even swing? Go ahead. Run. If it's a "no ball", which is what in baseball would be a "ball", they'll call you back after you've run. If you're on base, run whenever the bowler pitches the ball. Whether the ball is hit or not. In fact, even if it's a "no ball" or not. Just run. Truly a ridiculous game.
So instead, I spent some time teaching two of the guys how to swing the bat like an American. Will actually learned and was quite good - he ended up going yard on two at bats. Nicely done. Robin, slightly less successful, though on a fluke he also hit a full rounder (what might otherwise be termed a home run). Interesting commentary from the townies sitting on a bench across the field: "those stupid toffs have no common sense."
Dinner afterward at Freud's, which is a cafe, restaurant, bar, and club all housed in the interior of a former church. I had two starters b/c I'm not feeling terribly well and I want to come home to sleep. I had marinated garlic cloves, which were delicious, and then a babaganouch with pita wedges that was more like babaganouch mixed with hummous. The garlics though were amazing. Innovative without being weird. That reminds me of the dinner I had in Cambridge, MA with Diana a couple weeks ago. We had deep-fried dill pickles, which were exactly what they sounded like: dill pickle spears dunked in batter and then deep fried. They were amazing and innovative, and yeah, a bit weird. But only the first bite or two. The rest of them were just yummy.
Anyway, afterward, we had a nice trip down to the Angel and Greyhound Meadow (which is, incidentally, right behind the Angel and Greyhound pub) for several games of what could only charitably be called baseball for complete and utter morons. It's laid out on a pitch that's not exactly a diamond, and the rules seem to be made up as we go along. Certainly, there are "official" rules here, but we didn't use very many of those. Don't forget the little .pdf at the bottom describing how to lay out a Rounder's pitch.
Rules as we played them were as follows: the batter gets to run no matter whether he actually hits the ball. Hit the ball, run. Don't hit the ball, run. Don't even swing? Go ahead. Run. If it's a "no ball", which is what in baseball would be a "ball", they'll call you back after you've run. If you're on base, run whenever the bowler pitches the ball. Whether the ball is hit or not. In fact, even if it's a "no ball" or not. Just run. Truly a ridiculous game.
So instead, I spent some time teaching two of the guys how to swing the bat like an American. Will actually learned and was quite good - he ended up going yard on two at bats. Nicely done. Robin, slightly less successful, though on a fluke he also hit a full rounder (what might otherwise be termed a home run). Interesting commentary from the townies sitting on a bench across the field: "those stupid toffs have no common sense."
Dinner afterward at Freud's, which is a cafe, restaurant, bar, and club all housed in the interior of a former church. I had two starters b/c I'm not feeling terribly well and I want to come home to sleep. I had marinated garlic cloves, which were delicious, and then a babaganouch with pita wedges that was more like babaganouch mixed with hummous. The garlics though were amazing. Innovative without being weird. That reminds me of the dinner I had in Cambridge, MA with Diana a couple weeks ago. We had deep-fried dill pickles, which were exactly what they sounded like: dill pickle spears dunked in batter and then deep fried. They were amazing and innovative, and yeah, a bit weird. But only the first bite or two. The rest of them were just yummy.
