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From: J Category: Life Date: 14 August 2007 Time: 06:47 AM Review: A rare excursion into the mainstream of middle england, with a noisy smattering of india thrown in. Christ almighty, even in the far reaches of east london tube stations, there are gray haired tubby men in straw hats reading newspapers. These are cricket fans. Thrown in a few yobby young white guys who drink 4 pints of beer a go and wear lacoste trainers, and may or may not sympathise with the bnp, or the barmy army. Then there is the nerd brigade, your general loner, the kid at school who liked dungeons and dragons, and now has found a few like minded fellows in his thirty years on earth, hippy too much padding round the middle, often prematurely bald, and fond of the usual matey banter which makes him feel like part of something. A few smartly dressed older men and some women mismarried or misgirlfriended complete the picture of england fans. There is a sense that this is the silent majority, or the real England, conservative and nostalgic and orderly, willing to put up with the tedium of cricket, even the insult of the teams leaving the arena because it was too cloudy, without complaint or riot. And how happy we must be that they only crawl out the woodwork on occasions such as these (coronations, elections, real ale festivals?) for they would spoil our lovely zany rainbow city if we saw too much of them.