Thursday, December 16, 2010

Cricketers Need a Carlsen

As I type these words the Australian cricket team are at the receiving end of some serious whipping by their English opponents. And it's ugly. 4-65 going into lunch. From where I'm sitting, these once-arrogant Australians have zero hope of a comeback. Zero chance of regaining the Ashes. That is, unless they can show the same sort of merciless fury as Magnus Carlsen did in the just completed 2010 London Classic.

After posting 2 losses from three games, Carlsen proceeded to knock 'em dead, beating, coincidentally, all three Poms in the event. Of course, it should be said that Carlsen really benefited from the irregular scoring system, the football method. But to my mind the football system is the just way to reward a "winningest" performance and here was no better an illustration.

In the women's invitational, the attractive WIM Arlette van Weersel won with a score of 8 from nine. While the antipodeans, Shannon Oliver and Natasha Fairley, settled for just 3 and 2.5 points, respectively.

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