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 | |  Friday, 8 March, 2002, 13:41 GMT Red faces all round  Beware the effects of the sun in New Zealand England cricket fan Phil Long enjoys New Zealand's adrenalin capital Queenstown in his latest BBC Sport Online column. There were red faces aplenty as England's supporters enjoyed both the cricket and tourist delights of Queenstown this week. The harsh New Zealand sun took the blame for taking its toll on a number of pale-skinned fans. But several members of this travelling circus suffered some embarrassing moments too.
Those not used to the unpredictability of the weather in the deep south of NZ found themselves with a rather unhealthy glow later on in the evening as a day in the sun caught up with them. When you're watching cricket down here, even if the weather seems less than impressive, a hat, sunglasses, suncream and zinc cream all need to be in place. Otherwise, as ex-soldier Paul Mercury found to his cost, burnt shins mean that the seven kilometre walk to the ground becomes a very painful one! Brakeless luge Queenstown's reputation as the world's adrenalin capital was put to the test by a number of press, players and fans during our four-day stop in the town as they threw themselves off, on or into absolutely anything. One person who probably wishes he hadn't was Dan Welsh, who only arrived in Queenstown to join the tour midway through the second's day play.
However, he hadn't allowed for a brakeless luge and unfortunately for Dan his right arm acted as a brake for around 100 yards of the run leaving a bloody smear along the track. Whoever tackled the course next must really have wondered what they had let themselves in for. Another group left with red faces were the organisers of the game at the Queenstown Events Centre. They had somehow been duped into believing some 500 back-packing England fans would be rolling up to watch Nasser Hussain's men. When the 20 or so England fans who fall into that category trickled into the ground during the rain affected first day they were keen to know when the rest of the Barmy Army were arriving. Now Queenstown may have one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in the world but I'm sure it would take a lot more than that to coax that many English fans to a tour warm-up match. Scorers untroubled If I thought I'd seen my last red face for a while as I jumped on the coach to Christchurch, I was very much mistaken. The driver on board appeared to be a little too keen to show his passengers exactly what his coach could do and we hadn't even got out of Queenstown when things went horribly wrong.
The fact that he was wholly responsible this minor calamity meant that all those on board heard one or two expletives that would certainly have earned a three-game ban under current ICC directives. Finally, it wasn't just on the terraces and in the Otago Cricket Board HQ that there were one or two blushes. No less than nine batsman (six of them English) failed to trouble the scorers during the game against Otago. And their embarrassment was rather more obvious than the miscalculations in supporters, luge brakes and sunburnt shins. You can contact Phil on his New Zealand adventure by sending an e-mail to a_longwayfromhome@hotmail.com | |
See also:  Other top England stories:  Links to more England stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||
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