I say that because I have just watched the Irish Eurovision entry on the BBC website and to say it’s bizarre is an understatement. The Irish had entered a puppet called ‘Dustin the Turkey’ which unsurprisingly failed to make it through the first of the semi-finals last night. Apparently ‘Dustin’ is a children’s TV puppet on Irish national broadcaster RTE. I can only assume that Ireland didn’t really want to participate in this years contest, I can’t believe that they thought that such a bizarre entry could win. The United Kingdom gets automatic entry into the finals as the UK is one of the major contributors to the Eurovision. Andy Abrahams who was runner up on ITV’s X Factor programme will be representing the UK in this years competition. It’s a decent enough song but it won’t win, there is still far too much anti-British feeling in Europe because of Tony Blair’s choice to back George Bush in Iraq. Let’s face it; Eurovision isn’t a serious competition, it’s all about political voting and generally the standard of music has been poor with the exception of Lordi two years ago. The best part about Eurovision for me is Terry Wogan, that man is a comedy genius when it comes to Eurovision, he is the only reason many Brits tune in. It’s a shame this year I can’t watch it because I am working and I can’t get anyone to cover so I have to babysit DJ’s.
As expected England drew the first test at Lords against New Zealand. The Kiwi’s managed to bat out the final day to frustrate the Englishmen. Jacob Oram hit 101 before eventually falling to Ryan Sidebottom and opener Jamie How knocked up a useful 68. The rest of the squad never made it past 30 with England looking like they may take an unlikely victory but Oram put pay to any hopes of an English victory facing 121 deliveries hitting 15 fours and 2 sixes as he steadied the ship as England dropped too many easy chances in the slips. So it’s onto Old Trafford for the second test and hopefully better weather as bad light and rain ruined the first test denying England time to build a decent lead in their first innings!