AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL..

.....there might be some light?  Well, we`ll see -literally.  I promised not to post about the corona virus and I will try to keep to that promise.  But it`s difficult to avoid it sometimes and today it is just one of a number of things that can combine to bring about a feeling of frustration.  The main problem, for me at least, is that this winter seems to be going on and on - it`s a bright sunny morning here in deepest Kent but it`s bitingly cold;  the late afternoon sundowns should be getting later; maybe they are a bit but it`s a slow process. 

In short, I can`t wait for Spring to arrive but in the meantime there has been the odd shaft of light in this seemingly interminable tunnel.  And they come, not surprisingly for me, from the world of sport. 

A brief note about football;  Southampton finally managed to beat Arsenal in the FA Cup, this time with a narrow but deserved 1-0 win at St. Mary`s.  Up next, Wolves at Molineux - always a difficult place to go to.  Forest Green Rovers finally saw the error of their ways and picked Scott Wagstaff to start their away game at Leyton Orient, where they too managed a 1-0 win to move up to second in League Two.  Gillingham secured a 2-2 draw at home to Rochdale and Maidstone United maintained their target of just missing out on promotion by losing 2-0 at home to Braintree.  (I wonder how Braintree got its name?)

But it was in the wonderland of cricket that some hope for the future has been restored, not just on the field of play but also in its ambience where the prospect of sunlight, warmth and long hot days watching the beautiful game shines a little brighter.  I`ve just been watching England win the series against Sri Lanka in Galle - a tremendous example of test cricket at its best, full of outstanding individual performances and played in good spirit, all of which raised my own spirits in this tedious winter of discontent.  Makes me long for some summer days under the Canterbury sky.  Well, here`s hoping.

I`ve been intrigued to see politicians being interviewed on television from the `privacy` of their abodes and to see the libraries they have on their bookshelves.  At the risk of a passing reference to the pandemic, I saw Health Secretary Matt Hancock`s recent interviews and as one might expect the backdrop has been a pretty wide selection of his books.  I think it tells a lot about someone when you see the books they have on their shelves.  So I was surprised but impressed to see that high up on one of his shelves was an edition of Wisden`s Cricketers Almanack.

So he may not be too bad after all and if he can have Wisden on his shelf then maybe there is hope for the rest of us as we climb our way out of the tunnel of winter towards the light of Spring?