ARE OUR HOPES UP IN ASHES?

The man on the telly is being distracted by a certain cricket series

Obsession can be very distracting, and I fully confess that my fixation on the outcome of the Ashes has caused all varieties of problems this summer. By the time you read these words, the destiny of that little urn will have been determined.

It's a sobering thought as I sit here typing in my garden that cricket fans in England, down under and wherever Test match cricket is followed, face the probability of ten days of sporting torture, with two Tests still to play.

There have been times this summer when I have craved for a bank of TV screens, allowing me to watch the racing through one eye and the little red ball trickling to the boundary with the other. It has been forever thus; I recall in my youth watching the racing and cricket with my father, back in the days when channel hopping was an Olympic sport, the remote control only appearing on Tomorrow's World. You had to actually get out of your chair and retune imagine! But that was generations before Bazball.

Bucket loads of emotion is invested in following the sports we love, and I sometimes ponder what life would be like without the distraction of watching a race or a nail-biting cricket match. Racing satisfies most of my cravings but cricket is all encompassing, an epic roller coaster journey. I am an Essex supporter and one of my proudest possessions, apart from my mildewed vinyl collection, is a commemorative plate celebrating Essex winning their first County Championship in 1979.