cricket

RIP Phillip Hughes

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RIP Phillip Hughes

Incredibly sad to hear of the passing of Phil Hughes today. He seemed like a lovely young man and was incredibly talented… 25 is much too young to be taken from us.

Like everyone at the moment my thoughts are with his family and friends, and also with Sean Abbott. It must be incredibly difficult for him but it was a freak accident and there was nothing he could have done differently… hopefully in time he will be okay.

I was lucky enough to see Hughes bat for South Australia against Victoria at the MCG two years ago. He scored 158 and it was some of the best batting I’ve ever seen… he dominated the bowling, particularly on the off-side, and it was wonderful to watch. I took a few photos of him during the match. I thought I’d post them now as a tribute.

Rest In Peace Phil. You’ll be missed.

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Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes

Photos © CJ Levinson 2012-2014

The Clouds Gather

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Clouds Gather Over the MCG

Dark clouds
Gather overhead
Like stormy skies
Hanging over my heart

I took this photo during a short day trip to Melbourne on Saturday. Despite living in Sydney for most of my life, it was actually my first trip to Melbourne (just something I’ve never really got round to before) and I went with my father to see some of the fabulous Christmas decorations around the city, particularly the Myer window displays. We then stopped in at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch a session or two of Victoria taking on South Australia, which is where I took the photo.

It was a good day’s cricket, with Phil Hughes scoring a hundred, but what surprised me was how few people were there. There couldn’t have been more than 350 people at the ground and as you can see in the photo, almost all of the stands were empty. I know Sheffield Shield games don’t attract huge crowds but I thought there’d be at least a few more people watching than that. It happens at most other grounds as well unfortunately and I don’t understand why as the quality of Shield matches is usually very high. I guess most people are just more interested in international matches and T20s.

The haiqua came to mind while I was sitting watching the cricket and the clouds, thinking back over the past year. It’s been an eventful year, both personally and around the world, and that’s made me feel a little reflective and sombre lately. I guess that’s what inspired the haiqua’s tone.

Photo and haiqua © CJ Levinson 2012

Cricket at Coogee Oval

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Leather and willow
Crashing on the radio:
The sound of summer

I took this photo yesterday at Coogee Oval. Randwick-Petersham were taking on Penrith in a first grade match and it was the first match I’ve been to this year. Randwick-Petersham have been having a pretty good season so far but they were bowled out for 49 yesterday. Maybe I’m a bad luck charm?

I edited the photo to remove some of the detail as I wanted to give it a bit of a dreamy look, more like an oil painting than a traditional photo. I like how it turned out in the end.

Photo and haiku © CJ Levinson 2012