The last few weeks of the Canadian summer I have been getting up at 5:50 more or less every day. Not to spot some migrating birds, nor to catch sight of a beaver preparing for winter, but to fire up the radio and listen to the Ashes, the biennial cricket contest between England and Australia. … Continue reading Is cricket a lot like boxing?
Category: sport
The Big Game: Thermodynamics vs Evolution
Now I may be just a regular observer, a fan who pays their money to sit there and watch the sport like anyone else, but still, I can remember most of what transpired. At least, the important stuff anyway. As most games, races, or matches tend to start, so too this one began with a … Continue reading The Big Game: Thermodynamics vs Evolution
For the sake of it
Most games and sports are inherently simple. Get the ball through the hoop. Score the most points. Be the first to this line. This simplicity is probably a good reason for the wide popularity of sport across the globe, and indeed a simpler a sport is the wider its reach tends to be. But of … Continue reading For the sake of it
That first time
You’re bound to feel nervous, that first time, that very first time. Hands slowly clench and unclench, willing the nervous energy out of them; it just won’t go. You’ve agreed the date, the time, chosen what to wear. Not that all of your outfit is up to you, but you’re letting a little personality … Continue reading That first time
This is not a history
This is not a history, or a series of reminisces. I wasn’t there. I couldn’t possibly tell you how it started, or how it grew and came to be what you can find today. At least though, I can say what you would find today, if you went, if you go while there is still … Continue reading This is not a history
Rugby: A Feel Good Story
There's been a lot of feel good stories around rugby recently that have been giving me the warm and fuzzies. So I thought I would collate some here and share them with you, so you can feel warm and fuzzy as well. First up, my team Wasps signed Nathan Charles, who is probably the only … Continue reading Rugby: A Feel Good Story
Saturday night’s alright for fighting
On Saturday, 1st April, there was an event which gave you a few more stories than most Saturday nights. It was the 22nd, and my 2nd, instalment of Dynamite fights, a series of boxing matches organised at the TNT Boxing Academy in Guelph, Ontario. Read a rather breathless summary of the last one here. … Continue reading Saturday night’s alright for fighting
An odd shaped mirror
It seems obvious that a country’s culture is reflected in its art. The two are essentially inseparable. Art depicts what matters most to the culture, and changes with the flow of this collective stream of ideas. You assume that if a culture is particularly obsessed with heroism, the natural world, or family, then the art … Continue reading An odd shaped mirror
Fight night
They promised to train like beasts and fight like monsters. We came to see if they were true to their word. In a simple square ring, in an old garage, at the back of an unheralded industrial unit, down a small road in the city of Guelph. The smell of deep heat and old … Continue reading Fight night
Keep moving, just to be still
New country, new me. New sports, new food. New people, new office, similar routine. New bars, new beers, still get drunk, same old hangover. New job, same mission. Same blog, but from Canada. Having finished wandering through Morocco, Spain, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan and India, I am now becalmed in Southern Ontario, Canada. I have a new … Continue reading Keep moving, just to be still
Evolutionary Ethology Lab 