This is What a Hypocrite Looks Like

I mean, if you weren't convince that this perpetrator of austerity (which has been proven to impact upon women hardest of all) wasn't actually a feminist at all then her decision to award Geoffrey Boycott, a man with a conviction for punching a partner twenty-two times, a knighthood ought to remove you of any doubt that actually Theresa May is what a hypocrite looks like. 

That she followed up one of her last acts as PM, the introduction of a domestic abuse bill (a last ditch attempt to secure some kind of legacy) with an act of disgusting cronyism that affords a wifebeater a knighthood, along with her former advisors and staff Robbie Gibb, Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy, is utterly sickening and says all that we need to know about this Tory government. 

As for Boycott himself, well his words say it all really. On Radio 4's Today programme Martha Kearney began "The Chief Executive of Women's Aid has said -" to which he interrupted with "I don't give a toss about her, luv. It was 25 years ago" It's also worth remembering that Boycott once remarked that he would have to "black up" to receive a knighthood, arguing that they were handed out to West Indian cricketers "like confetti".  That is most emphatically not what a sporting hero looks like and it certainly shouldn't be what a knight of the realm (if we have to have them) looks like either.

Playing Away (1987)

Horace Ové's 1987 comic film Playing Away tells a culture clash tale of inner city, urban contemporary black Britain with rural picture postcard village olde (and exclusively white) England through the game of cricket.

The fictional Suffolk village of Sneddington is our location, where the charity minded, ultra conservative residents have been staging a Third World Aid week. To round the event off, the village team have invited the Brixton Conquistadores to a 'friendly' game of cricket which quickly proves to be anything but friendly.

Screenwriter Caryl Phillips claimed that his aim with the film was purely to entertain rather than address any deeply ingrained social issues, however I think he's being too modest. There's a really sound commentary going on here that shows the divisions not just between the Sneddington hosts and the visiting black community of Brixton, but also the divisions that occur in each group: it's clear that there's a line drawn between the middle aged Conquistadores such as team captain Willie Boy (Norman Beaton) and his deputy Robbo (Joseph Marcel) who arrived in the UK some twenty odd years earlier and their younger counterparts like Gary Beadle's pugnacious Londoner Errol. Willie Boy and Robbo are now at an age where they've realised their hopes and ambitions for a modern life in 'the mother country' have come to nothing. They're now considering making the move back to the West Indies, whereas Errol, who is undoubtedly a product of Brixton, represent the contrast and conflict between generations defining himself as he does as Black British. Likewise, there's a class division to be found in Sneddington, as best exemplified by the fact that the village has two pubs; one for the well-to-do captain Jeff (Nicholas Farrell) and one for the imposing ruddy faced real ale drinking farmer Fredrick (Bruce Purchase) and the local mullet-headed, disenfranchised youth who have seemingly just heard about punk some ten years too late, as represented by a pre-fame Neil Morrissey and Ross Kemp.

What's interesting to watch is just how quickly the friendly veneer falls away, largely through a fug of alcohol as resentments and racial prejudices come to the surface. The local yokel boys, incensed by the sight of Errol getting friendly with a busty young blonde they've clearly long since set their own sights upon, pick up Willie Boy's daughter Yvette (Suzette Llewellyn) in their Starsky & Hutch white-striped cherry red Ford Cortina and drive her to a secluded spot with the vague intention of raping her. It's a jarring moment for a film whose main aim is - as Phillips stressed -  to amuse and entertain, but it feels palpably real. Mercifully nothing comes of it, but it says a lot about the impotent frustrations of  such young men and the bitterness they feel towards outsiders. Meanwhile Willie Boy himself strays drunkenly into the 'better class of' pub and is soon given short shrift. Only the somewhat aloof and dreamy Godfrey (Robert Urquhart) proves to be an ally to Willie Boy and the visiting team, thanks to his time spent in, and lifelong appreciation for, Africa and the West Indies.

My favourite scene has to be the moment in the vicar's garden party where Errol, having watched a rather humble looking villager waiting on and handing out sandwiches, goes up to him and rather glibly asks "Can't you see they're oppressing you?", "What's oppression?" comes his suitably bemused reply.

Out On Blue Six : Sherbet

England have just drawn the second test of this year's Ashes tournament to a premature close with a victory against the Aussies. So, howzat!

Sherbet were an Australian band, but sadly its the Aussies hearing howzat today rather than singing/saying it!

2-0 to England

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Out On Blue Six : Duckworth Lewis Method

To commemorate the second Test in The Ashes starting today (c'mon England!) here's Duckworth Lewis Method

I love their album! The narration bit in the middle there when it goes all film noir/zither The Third Man is by Daniel Radcliffe no less. Just one of many celebs lending their voice to the album.

There are still some miseries who don't get cricket. Understandable I guess, but I would point them to the above song, before directing them to this quote from Wayne Hayes of The Daily Mash regarding last week's England victory and extolling the sport's virtues "You can get arseholed whilst watching it, it's officially not allowed to be played when the weather is terrible, and yesterday we pissed off the entire continent of Australia. If all that isn't enough for you then you're operating on a level of jaded that I can't actually comprehend"

Lastly I'd just show you this

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Out On Blue Six : 10cc

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Theme Time : Booker T. & The MGs - BBC Cricket

It's the start of The Ashes today so the Theme Time could only be cricket! 

Back in the day when the BBC had the rights to broadcast cricket on TV, the tune they selected as its theme was a 1968 number from R&B outfit Booker T. & The MGs

C'mon England!

Out On Blue Six : Strawbs

I'll let you all into a wee secret, back in the early to mid 00s when I served as a shop steward for the PCS union, I would play this before heading out to the picket line whenever we were out on strike! Cheesy and daft I know, but it always raised a smile. Sadly, I believe the Strawbs themselves were all Tory bastards and this was something of a two faced cash in during the militant tide that swept the nation - and the record buying public - in the 1970s.

Seeing as its cricket season with The Ashes starting this week too, I thought this was a suitably apt union poster to share...

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Out On Blue Six : Duckworth Lewis Method

Like music but think there isn't enough retro 1970s sounding, Caravan/ELO/Supertramp infused or inspired cricket based albums out there?

Well wait no more, here's Duckworth Lewis Method and their song 'It's Not Cricket' featuring commentator Henry Blofeld ...

Featuring the pairing of Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy and Thomas Walsh from Pugwash, their new album Sticky Wickets is a blast!

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