Batting with the boys

The wicketkeeper of the England women's cricket team is set to play for a county side, the first time a woman has played in the professional men's game. Sarah Taylor is in talks with Sussex CCC to become the back-up wicketkeeper for the county's Second XI this summer.

Cricket is one of those games where the division between men and women has never made much sense. Apart from adjusting to the faster bowling, there shouldn't really be any problem as far as I can see.  In fact, apart from full contact sports such as rugby and American football and others like swimming and athletics where body size is a factor, it's hard to see women not being able to compete alongside men at top level given the right coaching and support. Someone once told me that any male tennis player in the top 100 could easily beat the top woman but I'm not sure how true that is.

Smoky schnapps

I had a taste of Schlenkerla Rauchbierschnapps yesterday from the bottle I bought in their Bamberg brewpub last summer.

It's nothing like any of the schnapps I've drunk before. The kick of the spirit is infused with the smokiness of beechwood malt. Like their beer, I suppose you either love it or hate. A bottle of Schlenkerla Rauchmärzen makes for a great chaser with it.

The Life of Riley

I've just been watching a DVD I got for Christmas, The Life of Riley about bluesman B.B. King.

Having read B.B.'s autobiography Blues All Around Me I knew most of the stuff about his early life and career but there are plenty of other gems in it, including interviews with fellow blues guitarists Buddy Guy and Peter Green paying tribute and acknowledging his influence on their sound.

The most moving bit though is right at the end where a tearful B.B. stands next to the Governor of Mississippi in the state legislature as 15th February is declared B.B. King Day. You can imagine what's going through his mind in a building that as a young man he would probably have been beaten up, if not worse, just for entering. B.B.'s isn't the only eye it brought a tear to.

Take Me Out to the Ballpark

As usual, I spent a large part of Christmas with my head in a book someone bought me.

Take Me Out to the Ballpark by Josh Leventhal is an illustrated guide to major and minor league ballparks of the past and present. It also has sections on things like ballpark food, souvenirs and how the architecture of baseball's cathedrals has changed over the decades. There are basically three generations of ballparks: the idiosyncratic wood and brick "jewel boxes" built in the early twentieth century, the indentical, concrete, doughnut-shaped "cookie cutters" that largely replaced them in the 1970's and the "retro ballparks" that have sprung up across the major leagues in the last twenty years incorporating many of the features of the originals.

My first trip to the US in 2002, a baseball tour along the East Coast, took in games at all three types of ballpark, the retro Camden Yards in Baltimore, the "cookie cutter" Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia and the ultimate "jewel box", Fenway Park in Boston. Fenway is still my favourite ballpark notwithstanding a later trip to Wrigley Field in Chicago - its small size gives it a wonderful intimacy, like watching a baseball game in your front room. I also have a lingering afffection for the now demolished Shea Stadium in New York which despite being a "cookie cutter" had a lot more atmosphere than Veterans Stadium, mainly because the outfield wasn't enclosed by seating and you could practically wave to the pilots of planes landing at nearby La Guardia Airport.

As well as Shea Stadium, Veterans Stadium and Yankee Stadium have also been bulldozed since that 2002 trip and replaced by retro ballparks. I might have to add the US East Cost to the list of places I need to go to again.

A Special Guinness

I rounded off my festive drinking with another beer I hadn't tried before, Guinness Special Export Stout.

I've drunk Guinness Foreign Extra Stout before. Special Extra Stout is the 8% version brewed by Guinness for the Belgian market (David Hughes in A Bottle of Guinness Please explains how that anomaly came about).

Special Export Stout is quite like Foreign Extra Stout in having a smooth, velvety mouthfeel which reminded me of Graham Greene in Brighton Rock describing a woman singing in a pub as having a "rich Guinness voice".

Smoky bacon beer times ten

As well as Eiche, I drank another Schlenkerla beer for the first time over Christmas, the 6.5% Urbock.

If you think Schlenkerla Märzen is a bit too smoky then Urbock definitely isn't the beer for you. The smokiness hits you as soon as you pop the cap of the bottle - drinking it is like sticking your head in the embers of a bonfire (probably not a good idea). I'd love to try it in Schlenkerla's Bamberg brewpub in winter when it's available straight from the barrel.

Oak smoke

I started my Christmas beer drinking with Schlenkerla Eiche.

Eiche is German for oak which the malt is smoked over rather than beechwood in Schlenkerla's other beers. I like the smoky bacon punch you get with Schlenkerla Märzen but I know it's too much for some.  This is far more restrained, a hint of smokiness in the aftertaste rather than a smack round the chops. It reminded me a bit of the draught Lagerbier in another Bamberg pub, Brauerei Spezial.