The trumpet shall not sound
I was moderately surprised this morning to read about the trials of my old mate Bill Cooper, trumpet player extraordinaire and key member of England’s Barmy Army, currently stationed in Brisbane for the first Ashes test. Bill was chucked out of the Gabba ground just after lunch on Day 1 having been warned by the police that playing his trumpet in the stands was not permitted.
Initially putting it down to a transparent attempt by the desperately insecure Aussies to sabotage one of English cricket’s most deadly weapons (given the quality of English cricket so far this week they needn’t have bothered), I was saddened on further investigation to discover that the long arm of the law reached as far as the home fans as well, stamping out such dangerous behaviour as the Mexican wave, the throwing of beach balls and the consumption of alcohol (and given that one of the most dangerous places in the world is between an Australian and a tinny they must be seriously worried about potential crowd trouble).
Someone should show the Queensland police some footage of the kind of behaviour seen at English football games during the 70s and 80s, so they can see just how lucky they are only to have Bill and his trumpet to deal with.
It’s CRICKET for God’s sake!!!!
