Tasmania University Cricket Club

Latest News (5th. July 2006)

The Morro Diaries. An update on our export to Switzerland.

For an explanation of Morro's Swiss experience see Morro off to Boarding School in Switzerland.

26th. May.

Well after more than 23 hours in the air we arrived safely yesterday in London. The trip was so long and tiring but we were happy to see the end of it finally. We were met by George at the airport after he was paged over the main speaker as I wasn't let through Customs and immigration to begin with as they had trouble in determining where I was staying for the next few days until I flew to Switzerland. After giving George a million questions, they finally let me and my sister through.

We drove to George's house, which is well out in the country, a good 1.5 hour drive from the airport. George is well and still his friendly and funny self. He treated me and my sister to dinner at a local pub last night in which I was served a pint...to my amazment of the size it took me a good half hour to finish. The best bit is that the legal drinking age is 16 in Switzerland so when I arrive back I will be able to drink just about anyone under the table!

5th. June.

I arrived back from Italy safely last night. It was truly an amazing place, I couldn't believe that we could drive for 2 hours and then be in such a place that is so different, in both temperature and scenery to Switzerland, and yet it was still so beautiful, if not better. I got a small chance to wind surf but it was so god damned windy that I almost made it down to Greece as the wind decided it didn't like me very much!!

Italy was extremely cheap compared to Switzerland, half price on all food and drink. So we pretty much ate out both nights that we were there, and both days. The food is good, yet the presentation is really lacking as all they want to try and do is get the food out, and turn the table over as quickly as they can. I'm grateful I don't work in an Italian restaurant as people still walk in for food at around 12-1am and sit down, knowing that they will be served. So maybe I've gotta lighten up when I'm at DaVincis, although one doubts I'll even be working back there when I return.

8th. June.

This week has gone exceptionally fast as I have had a pretty busy week with training and a lot of cricket practice. I s'pose now that I am in a routine as such, my weeks will only continue to fly past quicker and quicker and before I know it I will be back in London and then returning here to Switz for the last 6 weeks of teaching, so it will all go so quickly.

One of the boys called Leopold wanted me to go to Saint Moritz this weekend to go and check out some of the night clubs around there, as it seems that all the students go there on Saturday night to go clubing. I'm not sure about it as I have got a sport competiton on this weekend and I know that I am doing things with George, but possibly on Saturday I might be in Saint Moritz anyway, which means I could go and meet some of the boys once I am finished with George.

13th. June.

Well I am really loving it now, everything is falling into place and now that I come to think of it, I couldn't have asked for a better start to my trip away. Everyone has been so helpful and friendly and I'm known around the place as part of the school now. The students that I dont know always say hello, and the ones I do know walk past and hit me like I'm one of their mates!

As for everything else......... Life is sooo good! I am loving getting up each morning and looking forward to what the day holds. Cricket starts properly this weekend, which I am really looking forward to. ....... strutting my stuff out on the cricket field and hopefully having a good start to my cricket career over here.

19th. June.

Well, what a week and and even more hectic weekend! The cricket festival went really well. It was an U15's competition but George put about 5 or 6 older students in it. I wasn't able to play as I was the assistant and I was also an umpire for most of the time, which was good fun. The Lyceum team played quite well, won two and lost one to the team who went on to win the tournament. George was reasonably impressed with them, but they have A LOT of work to do on their match practice, and just their cricket in general.

The week itself has been good. Same old lessons with students, and I am getting a lot of interest from more students who want private lessons....I have around about 30 students each week now which is a huge number!! I am enjoying teaching, but it can become a little frustrating trying to teach cricket to the students who have never played or even heard of cricket.

This weekend is the big one, The BIG cricket festival!! This will be the first game I play in...and apparently the standard isn't too bad at all. I am looking forward to playing though and seeing what it's like and how everything goes. We had a muck around game this week and I played against George.....I was batting with Doug and he ran me out, was rather funny though, and didn't bother me at all....I made 46 so I was happy with it.

26th. June.

Well the weekend is finally over and what a weekend it was!! It has been the one that I have been looking forward to, as it was the first Cricket game I have played since I've been here, and hopefully I was going to show George and all the boys the talent that is somewhere hiding within! On the Friday night all the teams arrived - 8 in total, and all of them congregated at the Dorta for a night on the booze. George was rather happy as all the other teams were getting sozzled before the tournament, which meant it would make it somewhat easier for us on Saturday.

The games were decided by random pick from the hat. We got the Old Boys to start off with and they had a reasonably strong side, but George said that we had the talent and the players to beat them. We lost the toss and bowled. They got off to an OK start; their captain, the old gamesmaster from the school (the position that George now holds), was batting really well. It seemed that no one was going to get him out....But of course on came Morro and after being hit for a couple of runs, I managed to get him caught out, trying to play a cheeky shot. I then picked up another wicket and bowled my limit of 6 overs. We got them out for 154. Our batting started terribly, with Dougy being out in the 2nd over and then a guy called Frederiko not long after, which left me and a guy called Felix to try and steady the innings. Felix out, in came the Captain, Etien (Edi), his Dad's the richest man in Switzerland. He batted well with me and we both put on a good partnership which saw us last to the end to win the game. So a good batting display.

The second game we came up against last year's winners, Basil, and they were very strong again. We won the toss and batted and once again a horrible start. I came in at four again and was in with Felix, Etien, George and Andre before all of them got out around me. George was run out in a mix up between him and I. Of course he blames me but it really wasn't my fault!! He takes the piss out of me for it now, but it was actually his own fault as the call I made was 'to wait'. I got out playing a stupid shot, but I know I actually wasn't out. The umpire gave me out, stumped, but I believe that I was well in. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything about it. George was disappointed with me for the way I got out but I batted really well and top scored again. We ended up with a big score of 194 off 30 overs. Once again our bowling was rather poor. We were getting belted by this big guy who could really bat. George then decided to bring me on, and this is were everything went really bad.......... I bowled a ball and they went for a single, our wicket keeper Felix picked up the ball and I yelled bowlers end, where I was, he threw it and it was going well wide of the stumps, and no one was backing up so I dived at full stretch to stop overthrows and I landed really heavily on my bad knee!!!!! I thought I had broken my leg again!! I was in so much pain. Well I had to be stretchered off the ground and my knee was extremely swollen and sore.

An ambulance was going to be called but George said that he would take me to hospital. We put ice on it and strapped it for a good two hours and then we looked at it again. I had movement in it and the swelling had gone down a bit. I got up and tried walking around and I could walk a bit, but it was still sore. George was insisting on taking me to hospital, but after sitting down and having it iced I felt alright and didn't think it was that bad anymore. By the end of the day it was ok and I could walk alright on it. We ended up just being beaten by Basil in the last 2 overs which was a really good effort. We went out for dinner again and my knee was feeling a lot better. A few beers at the Dorta after dinner and then it was bed.

Sunday was the play off for us to see if we came 3rd or 4th. We finished 4th last year and George was really keen on improving that position. We decided to bat first and George mixed up the batting order big time. Dougy didn't open and all the order was changed, I was at No 6 and George had himself at No 11. I think he wanted to give all the boys a decent go at batting, but basically it came back to bite him. Not one of them did very well. After we were about 3-20 George said. Right Chris you're in at number 4. I quickly padded up but couldn't find much gear. I had tiny pads on and crap gloves, but I had to go in. Well it couldn't have gotten much worse. I was batting with Etien again. After watching him swing and miss at 5 balls that should have been punished to the boundary, he finally smacked one back over my head which I was positive was going for four. I jogged up the pitch and for one run and was waiting to hear the umpire say 'four', but I the turned and saw that it wasn't going to go for four! I then called 'yes' for some stupid reason and the fielder threw the ball in and a direct hit from the boundary meant I was well short of my crease and run out for a Black Duck. Dougy and George both added a few runs on the board and we came up with 160 after 25 overs. George asked me if I was alright to bowl and I said I'd have one over to see how I went with my knee. Winterthur were 1-47 and were doing quite well. Well I bowled really well. I was on a hat-trick twice but failed to take one on both occasions. George was fielding on the boundary for one of my hat-trick balls, and was talking to some of the school girls. The ball got hit to him and if he was paying attention he would have caught it, but because he was talking, he only realised the ball was heading his way after I yelled at him to catch it. It dropped short and he just missed it. I am positive that if he had moved straight away to take the catch I would have had my hat-trick.....but oh well. We ended up winning the game and we finished 3rd out of the 8, which was a reasonably good effort.

Overall I thought I did quite well. One guy came up to me after the third game and said....'So you're the Aussie boy who everyone's talking about'?......So I was "famous" at the tournament and I am pretty sure George was happy with me. I really did do my job rather well in all games, either doing well with the ball or bat, or both, in the games.

3rd. July.

It is now Monday. I was in a place called Cossonay, a good 6 hour drive from where the school is in Zuoz. We left early Saturday morning and arrived in the afternoon, after I sort of stuffed up the map reading and got us a little lost!! At least I was able to correct it easily and got us back to where we were meant to be heading. It was the U16 team from the school so I wasn't playing for the school.

The boys did alright, but lost both games they played, although not by many runs at all. The second game they only lost by one run on the last ball of the game. Geroge was obviously disappointed, but still happy with the boys' effort.

This Saturday is the Maturafy, the end of year Graduation party, so it's going to be a HUGE weekend in which almost every student will be going to a club in Saint Mortitz which the school hires out, and all the Graduates and all students, as well as all teachers get drunk.so I'm really am looking forward to what should be an awesome night.

The teaching is still going well, and surprisingly I am still getting heaps of students asking for private lessons. I now have around about 35 private lessons each week. Well ahead of all the other assistants that have been here. It gets a little tiring at some stages, but I am enjoying it. I am continuing to make more and more friends and everyone continues to be really friendly, and pretty much treat me like a student, but also havea certain respect for me being a teacher as well.


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