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Finally….

By
Fayyaz Muneer
-

It’s pretty extraordinary that we haven’t beaten the Aussies in 75 years at HQ. That’s a long time, which includes Australia’s decade of mediocrity in the 1980s. Wait, no more gloating. Enough of that has happened already, and there is at least one Australian whose feelings I care about enough to want to mock him in person.

Is there anything to learn from this, other than England good, and Australia bad? Australia can point to dodgy umpiring, a sort of mass psychosis whereby all their batsmen forgot how to pull the ball, shoddy Mitchell Johnson bowling, and a hangover from Cardiff. Thankfully for them, they weren’t beaten by a better team, because England aren’t a better team, Australia are, but only just. What needs to happen? They shouldn’t drop Johnson. It will send a terrible message, and deprive them of their best bowler (assuming he bowls decently). One poor test match for the majority of the team should lead to chiding and little else. The problem now is what to do when Brett Lee comes back into contention for the next Test. The temptation is to drop Siddle, who for all his snarling, is a worse bowler in England than the excellent Hilfenhaus. Australia will regroup, because neither Ponting nor their back-room staff are mugs, but they need to do it mighty soon.

On the other hand, England have little to worry about aside from Pieterson’s rib. A straight swap of Pieterson for Bell is probably in order, although a bold England might consider dropping Bopara. Again I wouldn’t, as I think England’s batting depth doesn’t warrant losing both Bopara and Pieterson. However, if Pieterson plays, I’d play Bell at three. He’s had his time away, and I’d like to see him learn to become our version of Michael Clarke, and not just our version of Daryl Cullinan.

 

Most read stories on cherwell.org

By
Marta Szczerba
-

‘Outrage over the naked KY Jelly wrestling at Kukui’ was the most popular story on Cherwell online in the past academic year. The article received 18169 hits.

A close second spot was taken by Cherwell’s scoop on the Oxford Union’s termcard sham, with 16966 people viewing the story.

However, one thing is undeniable – sex and racism scandals sell. Cherwell’s sex survey, an article on the naked charity calendar and the recent OUCA hustings controversy all resulted in numerous hits on the site.

10 most popular stories on Cherwell.org in 2008 – 2009 academic year:

1. Outrage over naked KY jelly wrestling at Kukui by Laura Criddle – 18169 hits

2. Oxford Union shamed by termcard sham by Fayyaz Muneer – 16966 hits

3. Castro, Che and Obama by Fred Spring – 13573 hits

4. Exposed: Oxford sex laid bare by Marta Szczerba – 6794 hits

5. Students injured in Turl Street brawl by Theo Merz – 6385 hits

6. Members suspended after OUCA’s racist hustings by  Cherwell News Team – 4879 hits

7. LMH student dies by Cherwell News Team – 3975 hits

8. Students strip off for charity calendar by Lara Adamson – 3472 hits

9. University to investigate uni rugby ‘Jew party’ by Liz Bennett and Gretta Mullany – 3224 hits

10. Students barricade Bodleian by Theo Merz – 2932 hits

 

From Swagger to Shuffle

By
Fayyaz Muneer
-

In my life, I’ve never actually experienced the Aussies under the sort of
pressure in Ashes that they are now. I was born in 1989, and they’ve banged
us every series, 2005 notwithstandin

g, in that period. My dad used to say
that you never beat the Aussies. You may win against them, but you never
beat them (I guess he meant into submission, retreat, etc.). This isn’t as
true as it was. This is an Australia team full of guys that either partook
in, or grew up watching, unbelievable dominance in the late 90s and early
noughties.

Ed Smith, who with the passing of Bob Woolmer is one of the sharpest brains
in the game, and on the planet, makes an interesting point (standard for
him) in his book playing Hard Ball: He says he always believed he would play
for Kent. But it never occurred to him that he would sometimes *fail* for
them. The same is probably true of every member of this Aussie team. Pontingis the only one who predates world domination.

And it’s really affecting them. There’s an insouciance, an ill-placed
remnant from the past, about the way Australia play now. Whereas before it
seemed like justified swagger, now it seems like the lack of a will to apply
themselves. When they are good, they are still unbelievable, and probably
better than England, man-for-man. But they play like a team with no
awareness of its own fragilities. Five batsman got out to the pull shot in
the 1st innings. Mitchell Johnson, who arrived with a rep the size of his
muscles, has faltered hugely. Interestingly, Australia’s best two bowlers
have been the ones with the biggest inferiority complexes. Hilfenhaus has
bowled beautifully this test. So has Hauritz, who I’ve cussed up a lot, but
who must have huge balls to dislocate a finger, bat well, bowl when it must
have hurt like nothing else, try and take a dangerously low catch, and get in the way of a Flintoff pull shot.

England meanwhile, chastened by their defeat in 2006-7, and various debacles
aside, are relishing the new experience of pressuring Australia. Even
carrying an out of sorts Bopara, a distracted Pieterson, and a bowler who
doesn’t warrant selection (Broad), they’ve gelled well, and have done
everything asked of them. Australia have a big job on their hands. They need
big men to bat and score big for them. They used to have Steve Waugh and
Justin Langer to do that. Over to you, Phil, Pup, and Mr. Cricket…

Union bans OUCA hustings in Frewin Court

By
Mark Rose
-

The Oxford Union society has banned the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) from holding hustings or any in-camera events in the Union buildings.

The motion was passed by the Standing Committee in 8th week. It was prompted by the recent controversy over the conduct of OUCA’s hustings.
 
James Dray, the society’s President commented, “The Oxford Union has, and will continue to, condemn the type of racist comments made in last term’s OUCA hustings. As such, the Standing Committee voted in 8th week to ban OUCA from having hustings or any in-camera events in the Union. We believe that the spirit of open debate upon which the Union is built cannot take place in an environment of secret meetings and hidden discussions, and feel that banning closed meetings is an appropriate response to the incident.”

The Committee also considered banning all events hosted by OUCA for a term, but the motion ultimately failed.

Charlie Holt, the ex-President of the Union, told the Standing Committee that the society has to be expelled from the buildings until they clean up their image. He said, “We should take firm, decisive action quickly stating that we will not tolerate this.”

A complaint with regards to the conduct at the hustings was brought by Andrew Scott-Taggart to the OUCA’s Disciplinary Committee (DC) at the end of last term.

However, before the DC took place two members resigned from the Association as a result of the controversy.

George Harnett, society’s Returning Officer concluded in a report, “The DC deeply regrets the events of last week, and reiterates the President’s apology on behalf of the Association to anyone offended.”

What is it with England’s middle order?

By
Fayyaz Muneer
-

A lot of people at my internship were at an event in the afternoon, so I clocked off early, and watched the last 30 minutes at the pub. It beat compulsively checking cricinfo and imagining the match based on their (excellent) commentary.

I make no apology for jumping on the Mitchell Johnson is awesome bandwagon earlier this year. I know he’s bowled poorly today, but the sharp difference between batters and bowlers is that bowling is more dependent on being a class act. Even between the nonsense, he bowled two crackers to get rid of Cook and Prior. The one to Prior is not a ball you can learn, or really practice. It requires the perfect combination of a low arm, arm speed, and wrist position. So I would still say persevere with Johnson, because he will get the best players out more than say, Stuart Broad. I was really impressed by Hilfenhaus today, who I knew little about before this summer, but who bowled really well today, and the ball to get Flintoff out was a bit of a stunner. Make no mistake, this is a good Australian pace attack, and with Lee to come back, they are to be underestimated at our peril.

What is it with England’s middle order? Having flair players at 3 and 4 probably doesn’t help that much. For that reason, I’d like to see Pieterson at 5 for a change. Keep the howls down for a second, I have a theory. Test cricket is played at such a cracking pace these days that number five isn’t as pressed for time as much as he was before. I think Pieterson finds it confusing to play second fiddle to a man already batting well, so why not let him marshal the lowish order, and have license to dominate. He’s not young, he won’t change his game just because the papers ask him to. To get the best out of him and England’s middle order play him at five.

Strauss of course batted rather nicely today, although it probably helped being assisted to 30+ by copious long hops and half volleys from Johnson (the same goes for Cook, although I’m glad he asserted himself finally). Strauss plays almost exclusively with a horizontal or vertical blade; not for him the diagonal slashes of Pieterson or Hughes. On a pitch offering exaggerated movement and a big slope (see Hilfenhaus today) that sort of technique will fare well. I’m waiting with nervous anticipation to see what Hughes will make of the slope, although he did score about a million runs for Middlesex early this year at Lords.

Big day tomorrow. England need to step up and really stamp themselves on the game in the first session. If Broad ever picked a time for a maiden hundred in Tests, this will do nicely…

England must make changes

By
Fayyaz Muneer
-

Welcome to Cherwell’s summer cricket coverage! After the engrossing vulgarity of the World T20 tournament, the real business of summer, the Ashes is upon us. I’ll be posting my thoughts on what’s going on periodically over the series, and you are all welcome to agree, castigate, and anything else in
the comments section below.

 

I, like most people, was absolutely thrilled with the result of the First test, although it wasn’t a case of “I’d have taken that at the start.” How to be less toothless when

we bowl? First, as I think everyone says, drop Panesar. He is worse than Swann at everything right now, despite his comedy antics. Harmison needs to be brought back pronto. A harder decision is whether to keep Broad 

or put in Onions. Of course, if Flintoff doesn’t recover, Broad will have to play, as a quasi-all-rounder, but also because nobody trusts Bresnan against Hughes or Ponting, or Clarke or North. I’d pick Onions. As much as I love Broad for his apparently Sobers-esque batting, and his uncanny resemblance to Robert Chase on the TV show House, he needs to learn to take wickets regularly. Not to guarantee that Onions will be a wicket machine, but he does what he does better than Broad does. Harmsion and hopefully Flintoff can provide raw pace, and Anderson swing. I’d rather have Onions than Broad as the decidedly fourth seamer.

I sympathise a little with Pieterson for that dodgy shot in the first innings. Yes the sweep gets him runs, and the amount of times I’ve got out insisting I can cover drive a leg stump half-volley makes us brothers of a sort. But it’s not like he doesn’t have the reactions or talent to pull out of an obviously wrong shot. Eoin Morgan can do it, and even players as limited as Nick Knight have pulled off that trick. Otherwise, Haurtiz will just bowl really wide of off stump with a short fine leg, a fine leg, a deep backward point for the reverse sweep, and a deep cover for the inside out, and choke the life out of Pieterson.

What of the Aussies? I don’t think there’s any reason to change the side. This was my first time watching Phil Hughes properly. Even if he only got 36, the sight of him cutting the ball like the love child of Lara and Jayasuriya is seared onto my memory. I’ve never seen anyone in test cricket cut the ball like that. It was pretty terrifying, and I don’t care if the Press think he’s weak against the short ball. He’s only twenty. One day, he’ll learn to hook and pull properly, and then he’s going to get thousands of runs. Tuck him up while you can with straight seamers. Its Ashes 2010-2011 where he’ll eat us alive. Brett Lee isn’t fit, and I was impressed by Australia’s unfancied duo of Siddle and Hilfenhaus. Siddle is a keen man, in the mould of Merv hughes, and Hilfenhaus is one of the most English of Australian bowlers. Hauritz bowled ballsily, and even if he’ll struggle on other pitches, I’m happy for him that he showed himself he could operate at the top level. Johnson bowled poorly, but laugh quietly. When he’s on, he can do as much damage to us as Hughes, Clarke, and Ponting. And that, friends, is a lot.


Oxford choir in Harry Potter movie

By
Derek Tan
-

The Choir of Queen’s College recorded a song for the soundtrack of ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’.

The choir was approached by Nicholas Hopper, the BAFTA-winning composer, in late 2007 regarding a possibility of singing a piece for the film.

The Choir recorded ‘In noctem’ in Studio One at Abbey Road Studios in London, the world’s largest purpose-built recording studio.

Georgina Watts, a second year choral scholar commented, “Recording at Abbey Road is just one of the amazing opportunities that I have been offered as a member of the Queen’s College Chapel Choir.”

The song can be heard at various points in the film, during the closing credits, and on the soundtrack CD of the film.

 

Saving Squirrel Nutkin

By
Joy Molyneaux
-

In Oxford, as across Britain, the sighting of a squirrel is not uncommon. Christ Church Meadows teems with the grey scavengers, loitering around refuse bins. Suburban streets see unwanted intruders, interested only in chewing peanut feeders – intended for the birds. Drives along country roads proffer many an opportunity to spot one, even as it’s scarpering across the tarmac in front.

However what is far more special is the glimpse of a red squirrel, the grey variety’s smaller relative. Greys cannot compete with their cousins on looks and cute-factor, what with its stubby face and coarser dull fur. The reds’ tufty fluffy ears and white tummy are quite strikingly beautiful – and don’t get started on the gorgeous rich rusty red…

The little rodent’s plight has been well-noted for many years, as numbers have dramatically plummeted to fewer than 140000. Their absence is especially acute in urban areas, for 85% are resident in more rural parts of Scotland. Now the red squirrel is protected as an endangered species across most of Europe, though it is not thought to be at risk on a worldwide level. The blame for the decline is regularly attributed to a struggle between the two kinds; however this is only one factor.

Historically Europe was home only to reds, until the grey variety was introduced from North America. Although the two are not directly hostile to one another, a disease (squirrel parapoxvirus) is carried by the grey type. This does not affect the carrier yet kills its relatives – which does seem a tad unfair. However family politics alone should not be a scapegoat. Loss of native forest habitation is another important consideration – a poignant tale across so much of the world, as deforestation clears the way for man.

Since January 2006 the UK Government has supported culling programs on grey squirrels. This facilitates a widespread reintroduction of the red variety, especially in England. However this direct method is supplementary to more humane regeneration schemes. A new four-year program, announced by the Scottish WildlifeTrust earlier this year, sees red squirrels advancing into urban areas and expanding their adaptability to new habitats. Forestry commissions, restoring the environment to an increasingly natural state, are growing in speed across the UK. The Caledonian Forest once covered swaths of the country, of which now 1% survives. The Forest has begun to be re-established in pocketed enclosures of Scots Pine and Douglas Fir, an encouragement to all native wildlife. This goes well beyond a love of red squirrels, for the schemes provide a host of mammals and birds – including pine martens, ospreys and wildcats – with a suitable environment in which to prosper.

Such moves to support nature are always promising. So there is good news for all species – and especially for Squirrel Nutkin.

The Ashes: What is it with England’s middle order?

By
Fayyaz Muneer
-

A lot of people at my internship were at an event in the afternoon, so
I clocked off early, and watched the last 30 minutes at the pub. It
beat compulsively checking cricinfo and imagining the match based on
their (excellent) commentary.

I make no apology for jumping on the Mitchell Johnson is awesome
bandwagon earlier this year. I know he’s bowled poorly today, but the
sharp difference between batters and bowlers is that bowling is more
dependent on being a class act. Even between the nonsense, he bowled
two crackers to get rid of Cook and Prior. The one to Prior is not a
ball you can learn, or really practice. It requires the perfect
combination of a low arm, arm speed, and wrist position. So I would
still say persevere with Johnson, because he will get the best players
out more than say, Stuart Broad. I was really impressed by Hilfenhaus
today, who I knew little about before this summer, but who bowled
really well today, and the ball to get Flintoff out was a bit of a
stunner. Make no mistake, this is a good Australian pace attack, and
with Lee to come back, they are to be underestimated at our peril.

What is it with England’s middle order? Having flair players at 3 and
4 probably doesn’t help that much. For that reason, I’d like to see
Pieterson at 5 for a change. Keep the howls down for a second, I have
a theory. Test cricket is played at such a cracking pace these days
that number five isn’t as pressed for time as much as he was before. I
think Pieterson finds it confusing to play second fiddle to a man
already batting well, so why not let him marshal the lowish order,
and have license to dominate. He’s not young, he won’t change his game
just because the papers ask him to. To get the best out of him and England’s middle order play him at five.


Strauss of course batted rather nicely today, although it probably
helped being assisted to 30+ by copious long hops and half volleys
from Johnson (the same goes for Cook, although I’m glad he asserted
himself finally). Strauss plays almost exclusively with a horizontal
or vertical blade; not for him the diagonal slashes of Pieterson or
Hughes. On a pitch offering exaggerated movement and a big slope (see
Hilfenhaus today) that sort of technique will fare well. I’m waiting
with nervous anticipation to see what Hughes will make of the slope,
although he did score about a million runs for Middlesex early this year at
Lords.

Big day tomorrow. England need to step up and really stamp themselves
on the game in the first session. If Broad ever picked a time for a
maiden hundred in Tests, this will do nicely…

Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

By
Rebecca Treece
-

The cinema is packed out with buzzing fans on the opening night of the sixth instalment of the ‘Harry Potter’ films, but I’ll be honest, my expectations are low. I appreciate that Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell and David Yates all shared a daunting task; their mission was to create cinematic masterpieces and box office record breakers based on books which millions of people worldwide have read and hold dear.

There is no denying that the pressure of having to satisfy legions of die-hard fans must have been tough but with a huge budget to play with and some of the Britain’s best loved actors behind you I feel that there really is no excuse for making this series badly. What fans want is integrity, attention to detail, the essence of the book captured on film: all things which the first ‘Harry Potter’ films lacked. Did Columbus go through ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ with a fine tooth comb, Peter Jackson style? I doubt it. The first four films had plenty of big name actors, great CGI, detailed costumes, an amazing set but it lacked the magic of Rowling’s novels. I had decided not to risk further disappointment by boycotting ‘The Half Blood Prince’ but having seen several promising trailers my curiosity got the better of me. So here I am, waiting to be convinced.

This film follows Harry through his sixth year at Hogwarts as he begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort’s past, going right back to the days when he was a student at the school. In the novel many of Dumbledore’s memories about the young Voldemort (Tom Riddle) are described and whilst Yates cut many of these from the final script, the memories that are represented are done exceedingly well. Hero Fiennes-Tiffin’s appearance as the young Tom Riddle leaves a lasting impression in a short but effective flashback. He sends chills down your spin with his deadpan declaration, ‘I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me.’ Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) gets the opportunity to showcase his acting ability in this instalment as he is pushed to the limits of his humanity by the dark forces at work in the wizarding world.

From ‘mild peril’ to ‘moderate threat’ the films are finally becoming darker. Whilst I can understand the difficulty of turning, what can be at times, quite chilling books into films which are suitable for children, up until now much of the dark matter of the novels has been played down or lost completely. On hearing that Guillermo del Toro had turned down the chance to direct ‘The Half Blood Prince’ I assumed that any opportunity to explore the more disturbing aspects of ‘Harry Potter’ were gone. However, in this film there were some genuinely scary moments: Katie Bell’s cursed body hanging in the air as she silently screams, the Dark Mark looming in the sky, the attack by the Death Eaters on The Burrow. Helena Bonham Carter is perfectly cast as the manic Bellatrix Lestrange; the tense scene at The Burrows, which was invented for the screenplay, allows us to revel in all her deranged glory.

Tension aside, the rest of the film succeeds in being surprisingly funny, without employing slapstick. As the teenage Harry, Ron and Hermione all experience the pangs of love comic situations arise. Radcliffe succeeds in carrying off a comic scene when he is acting under the influence of a ‘liquid luck’ potion with ease whilst Grint is blessed with many of the film’s comic one-liners. The three young actors appear to have improved dramatically since the filming of ‘The Order of the Phoenix’, although the dialogue in this film is much more realistic than the stilted lines of the early films. When I think of poor eleven year old Radcliffe being asked to delivered such contrived dialogue as ‘I.. I can’t be a wizard, I’m just Harry!’ in the first film my heart goes out to him. A workman can’t achieve anything without good tools and Steve Kloves’ script really allows us to see what Radcliffe, Grint and Watson can do. Whether the three young actors will be able to cope with the emotionally draining final instalment of Rowling’s series or not remains to be seen. But with David Yates at the reins again for the two ‘Deathly Hallows’ films, I’m now confident that it will be worth waiting for.

My verdict: whilst it wasn’t a perfect film (a lot of episodes from the novel were completely cut which I can only imagine will create difficulties in filming for ‘The Deathly Hallows’) it captured the feeling of the sixth book. Die hard fans hoping for an exact replica of the novel will doubtless be disappointed but I felt that this was compensated for in other areas: it was well shot, well cast and well considered. My final thought as I leave the cinema? What a pity it took so long for someone to make a ‘Harry Potter’ that leaves the audience spell bound.

4 stars out of 5

 

 

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