Carter's Column

Crap puns to start this article? I don't  see  why not. I recently had laser eye surgery, and have had many people ask me about it and what it involves, how the recovery is going and many other questions so I thought I would put it into writing (not braille) for you here so that you don't go into it blind. OK, that's enough.  Get on with it. The morning after my surgery under the effects of lots of medication. Back in the days when I used to play cricket and take it somewhat seriously I decided to have a season abroad in Australia to make myself a better player. When I got back to England the improvement was there for the first half of the season, and then I went on the sort of streak that makes me wonder how I didn't give the game up then and there; SEVEN ducks in a row, three of which were Golden (For those of you who don't know about cricket, a duck is when you are out without scoring, a golden duck is when you are out from the first delivery you face). I...

I don't remember a time when I wasn't aware of cricket, when the game didn't have some kind of spell over me. I remember English summers in a small Oxfordshire village watching the local team play and wishing I was allowed to, but also being afraid of a "real" leather cricket ball. A home-made block of wood that my father drilled stump holes into would be used on the street with a tennis ball and whosoever happened to be around and wanted to play would dictate my cricket until we moved to Devon, where I took up the real sport. Unbelievable to be bowling in the nets with Shane Warne just before the World Cup Semi Final in 2015 at the SCG. There is absolutely no doubt that the game of cricket has given me the life I have today. I have been fortunate to play with and against some excellent cricketers, international cricketers and to train with international teams alongside people I'd only ever seen on TV. I have so many happy memories of cricket that it...

With my Grandfather on the flight deck of Concorde Alpha Charlie, G-BOAC at Manchester Airport. This aircraft was the "Flagship of the Flagships". LOOKING BACK AT WHAT SHOULD BE THE FUTURE For 27 years you could take off from London at 11:00am local time and land in New York at 9:30am local time. You could have breakfast in London, lunch in New York and (theoretically but hardly practically) be back in London for dinner. You could cross the Atlantic ocean in a little over 3 and a half hours while sipping champagne, eating caviar and mixing with people you had only ever seen photographs of in tabloid newspapers and magazines. As of October 2003 the same journey takes 7 or 8 hours depending on the Jetstream and you are eating standard airline food whilst mixing with 300 holidaymakers on your way across the pond. From 1976 until 2003 you had another option, although the possession of deep pockets or copious amounts of luck were required to do so, but you could have done...

In a world where Baa-Baa is now a "Rainbow Sheep" and where your kids sports days are bereft of winners because everyone has "participated" it's refreshing to know that there are still people out there willing to throw Political Correctness out of the window and tell a good old fashioned joke, without diluting the target at all for fear of causing offence. There are many comedians out there who have made a career on telling edgy jokes; Jimmy Carr, Jim Jefferies, Frankie Boyle to name but three. However, there's only really one who achieves it as a reflection of their true personality; Kevin Bloody Wilson. Well, actually two, because his daughter Jenny Talia From Australia does it too. The apple clearly doesn't fall far from the tree and there's something about that uniquely Australian personality that makes you just want to get to know them as people, not just entertainers. Last weekend Serena Williams lost the US Open Final to Naomi Osaka in New Y...

Better the (Tassie) Devil you know It is always exciting to travel to new destinations and take in new sights, sounds and experiences. Usually I like to have a good idea about the places I travel to; to such an extent that if we were to suddenly get a huge cash injection via a lottery win (chances minimal, we don't play the lottery) I could plan a holiday around the USA with enough activity and destinations to last us a full year. So it was unusual for me to have nothing to do with planning our last holiday, and it turned out to be the best possible thing. Jess did an awesome job planning it all out, an because I had no real expectation of what to expect from Tasmania it blew me away with its beauty, and made me angry with a small but infamous part of its history. All action at Hobart Airport Our week started by flying to the beautiful, quaint little city of Hobart; the island state's capital, we visited Port Arthur Historic Site, explored Bruny Island, went up the...

An Open Letter To All Members Of  Macquarie University Cricket Club (Past, Present and Future) Playing the final game of the year in 3rd Grade in 2006/07 As I sit here writing on the cusp of my 100th match representing Macquarie University Cricket Club, I can't help but look back and be thankful for this great club and how it has shaped my life. My initial arrival to Australia in September 2006 was a strange introduction to the Lucky Country; the day before I left the UK the world was rocked by the news that Steve Irwin was dead, killed by a Stingray's barb to the heart. The day after I arrived I was taken to a Mazda track day at Oran Park, South West of Sydney, and was in the car with some bloke called Dick Johnson. Turns out he's a pretty big deal in V8 Supercars, of course I know that now as a Bathurst regular. He was given a phone, and was told that Peter Brock had just been killed (another Supercars legend, now the Bathurst 1000 trophy is named in his hono...