> Hmmm, your forum name in connection with cricket rings a bell. It calls up images of white robots, a special cricket ball and something called "Ultra Cricket".

Ahh, good book that. Good name, too. My sister particularly likes the name "Zarniwoop", but thought he'd made it up himself rather than getting it from a book.

> I think I dont know anything specific about cricket. I freely admit this. So what is it ? What is so special about it ? What I do remember is how "King Ralph" played cricket, which had me in stitches :-)

Even though this is against one of the biggest British stereotypes, cricket bores me into the depths of the Earth. Encarta holds a potted summary of the rules, I think, and there are plenty of websites. There is a distinction between Test cricket and one-day cricket, Test cricket being the kind where each side plays until every member of its team is out. Those matches can last days and are exceedingly boring. One-day cricket has a limited number of overs (read a potted summary of the rules to understand what that means) so the players are under at least some pressure to hit the stupid thing. That's not so boring, but I really don't like either variant much.

> Sorry, cant help you there. I dont even know what "BNP" is. Never heard of it before.

The BNP's the British Nationalist Party. They're the ones who have been stirring up racist violence around Britain, and what's scary is that in the election they got quite a few votes. No seats in Parliament, thank goodness, but they do have some support. Their manifesto's absolutely loopy - have a look at their website (don't know what it is, never want to see it, just search at alltheweb.com).

Phil-"Scariness comes in BNP boxes"-bee