Pass the Tissues

Think I need to test hayfever tablets again.

I'm sensitive to a few kinds of pollen, although it seemed to be the types that came early and late in the season. I tended to be ok in the middle of summer. Not now though. Eyes have been streaming and the nose has been running ... Lungs have been fairly ok but still not brilliant.

The eye streaming thing has a knock on effect - I think the hayfever tears spark off a depression like : Sad -> tears, Tears -> sad. Anyway, that's been getting to me lately in a Brainzzzz kind of way :

Why don't I take hayfever pills I hear you ask ? Side effects ...

One of the side effects I realised I was getting was a type of chemically induced depression. I'd take a hayfever tablet to give me 24 hours relief from streaming eyes and I'd then be grumpy for the next 36 hours. I'd take an anti-histamine to open my lungs up for cricket and find that my legs went utterly unresponsive for fielding. I could still run but when I looked for something extra for sprinting, it felt like there was no gas in the tank.

(And by gas, I mean energy - not the type that makes fielders fall about laughing when a bowler makes a series of raspberries when running in to bowl - and I've done that a couple of times !)

Thinking of cricket, one thing I realised from watching the old highlights while it was raining is that umpiring standards have improved no end recently. It used to be that you could instantly say whether you'd see a stream of errors from the umpires in an international as soon as you heard who would be officiating in a game. Some of the umpires changed the results of games through their appalling decisions.

You don't see the likes of Darryl Hair, Billy Bowden or Daryl Harper standing in games at the moment. Darryl Hair was blind (although kudos to him for calling certain bowlers for throwing) and Bowden and Harper thought the game was to show them off, instead of the umpires being there to support the players.

What's really improved standards has been the Umpire Decision Referral System. In a Test Match, each side has 2 chances per innings to refer an umpire's decision to TV evidence. What that means is :

The umpire makes his decision,
The players get a chance to say "we think you're wrong"
The TV umpire checks lots of evidence
And the correct decision is given

I think it's given umpires the confidence to go with their gut. Before, the benefit of the doubt would be given a lot more in a "yeah I think it's hitting the stumps but I have doubts - not out". Those get given out nowadays, with the onus on the batsman to refer it.

What we've been seeing is a lot of referred decisions staying with what the umpire on the pitch said. The benefit of the doubt is given to the umpire. It's turned into something very good for the game. It supports the umpires and doesn't hold up play very much. And most important, it's fair to both sides and game changing decisions are given correctly.

Will other sports go the same way ? Rugby already does. Football is refusing to.

PS Watched Snow White & the Huntsman tonight. If you buy one Snow White film from this year, IGNORE this one ! Buy Mirror, Mirror instead. SN&tH is another of those admittedly well made films that just doesn't have the storyline. Mirror, Mirror was far more entertaining.