We've had some pretty amazing heroes in the last few months at the Reverse Sweep - including Douglas Jardine, David Gower, Dennis Lillee, Hedley Verity and even Justin Langer (yes, we were surprised too), but none of these actually saved our life. Test Match Sofa did.
Being an ex-pat living in the South of France, broadcasting restrictions prevent us from listening to Test Match Special at work. So, having managed to wangle being at home for the Centurion and Durban South Africa vs England tests last year, we were at our wits end what to do about the Cape Town Test, which would be concluded whilst we were sitting behind the desk in our boring IT Sales job.
And then Google came to the rescue and our Test Match Sofa initiation began. And what an initiation given the thrilling climax to that particular match where Colly, Bell and Onions saved England's bacon - see Heroes of Newlands.
At first we were suspicious about what is essentially some cricket fans watching Sky and commentating live on the Internet whilst reading out Tweets and emails from listeners. But despite being a life long fan of the other TMS, we became immediate converts to the Sofa - sorryAggers and Bloers.
Since then we've tuned in when we can find time between a busy job, two babies and weekend chores and thoroughly enjoyed "the alternative cricket commentary". And with a raft of business trips lined up during the Ashes to non-UK destinations, Test Match Sofa will actually save us from the utter desolation that would be missing the action.
The biggest compliment we can give the Sofa is that it stands on an equal footing to TMS. Dan is the Sofa's Agnew - erudite, amusing and the backbone of the team - and even better he shares our worship of Douglas Jardine and belief that Percy Chapman's 1928/29 side that won the Ashes 4-1 in Australia is England's greatest ever. That excuses the ridiculous socialist nonsense he is prone to spout!
Manny is the grumpy sod of the Sofa, but like that other moaner Boycott most of what he says is both incisive and interesting. Jarrod is the archetypal Aussie - loud, brash and full of expletives but invariably picks a chink in a new batsman's technique far quicker than the so-called experts do on Sky. And we also particularly like Gary's commentary style despite him being a fan of the wrong football team in Liverpool.
It's probably unfair to pick out these four - we should also mention Tom, Sophia and Aatif - as all the regular commentators are worth a listen. It's hard to pick any fault with the Sofa, although the increasing references to bets can grate at times - but that is only a small criticism.
For saving us from the abomination of missing some of the Ashes and the likely hari-kiri that would ensue, Test Match Sofa is undoubtedly a Reverse Sweep hero.
Where next?
Check out all our other Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes
Ashes Squads: Player Profiles - England and Australia
The 25 Greatest Ashes Tests of them all: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
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Posted by: http://www.mexiaoyuan.com/sc/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2784609 | Wednesday, December 04, 2013 at 23:24