The Spin | Secluded pleasures: why Test cricket remains the best sport not to watch | The Guardian

Following England’s win over Pakistan via patchy wifi was thrilling and a reminder that the game has often been enjoyed from a distanceI spent last week in Shropshire, where my family and a few others had clubbed together to hire out Wilderhope Manor, the wonderful and historic National Trust property and youth hostel whose splendour and all-round magnificence must make it among the most unlikely places in the country to find creaky bunk beds, rubberised mattresses, shared toilets and bargain accommodation.Despite its antiquity the property is equipped with many modern conveniences including wifi, the only problem being that the modem is housed in a cafeteria that was locked for the duration of our stay, and the signal stubbornly refused to worm its way through the massive stone walls that have held up the house for the last 450 years or so. With mobile signal largely nonexistent internet access was thereby limited to a small corridor outside the cafeteria’s locked door, and strongest in a pocket of space little more than a metre square in which we placed a single chair. Much of the time access to the outside world was limited to the individual who occupied this seat. Continue reading…

Following England’s win over Pakistan via patchy wifi was thrilling and a reminder that the game has often been enjoyed from a distance

I spent last week in Shropshire, where my family and a few others had clubbed together to hire out Wilderhope Manor, the wonderful and historic National Trust property and youth hostel whose splendour and all-round magnificence must make it among the most unlikely places in the country to find creaky bunk beds, rubberised mattresses, shared toilets and bargain accommodation.

Despite its antiquity the property is equipped with many modern conveniences including wifi, the only problem being that the modem is housed in a cafeteria that was locked for the duration of our stay, and the signal stubbornly refused to worm its way through the massive stone walls that have held up the house for the last 450 years or so. With mobile signal largely nonexistent internet access was thereby limited to a small corridor outside the cafeteria’s locked door, and strongest in a pocket of space little more than a metre square in which we placed a single chair. Much of the time access to the outside world was limited to the individual who occupied this seat.

Continue reading…