Sat 29 July - more rain, swimming, Bledisloe, 5th Test, SWC Final, more rain

We woke to rain and the forecast of even more rain later in the day, so we stayed at Gray for another day, with the same recipe; thesis writing for Rita and more sport for me.

In anticipation of what might be to come later in the day, I checked up on a sport I normally don't follow - swimming. And was pleased to see that Australia was dominating the World Swimming Championships.

It was just as well that I checked the swimming results before watching Australia play NZ in Rugby Union for the Bledisloe Cup. Ugh, what more can I say?

In contrast to yesterday's stolid day of Test Cricket, England unleashed their Bazball style in the second innings, and made 389 today to leave Australia needing to get 378 in the final two days of the Test. Because England batted so quickly in getting their score, it leaves Australia with plenty of time to get the required runs, if they're good enough.

My sporting Saturday concluded with the Final of the Speedway World Cup, which saw Australia's team of five riders pitted against teams from Poland, Great Britain and Denmark in the 20 Heat Final. Going into the second half of the meeting, any of the four teams could have been the winner. But Australia suffered a major setback in heat 15 when their best rider of the series, Jack Holder, was knocked off his bike by the Polish reserve rider. While the Polish rider was excluded as being the cause of the accident, Jack was too injured to take his place in the re-run and was replaced by our reserve rider (his brother Chris). He was also unfit to have his fifth ride of the night later in the meeting. In the end, there was only 6 points separating the winning team Poland from fourth-placed Australia, One can only imagine what the final scores might have been if Jack had not been injured.

To round out the day, we got more rain!