Back in Canada during playoff season I would have called myself a hockey widow. Here the term did not apply. I was not left to my own devices while dh watched every playoff game from round one. It was kind of nice actually, he was following the games, but not spending the hours watching them. Of course, once the dvd set arrives from Canada I'll lose him to all 7 games at once, but I digress.
I knew, however, it wouldn't be long before dh found another sport to watch. Back home he had been known to watch darts on a slow sporting day. He was going to find something and I knew it would be sooner rather than later.
His first option, cricket. Take North American baseball, put in 2 batters, 2 pitchers (but call them bowlers), take out 2 bases (but call them wickets) and stretch it out over 5 days. That's test cricket. Back in the 1960's they began to limit the number of overs in a cricket match to make the games shorter, roughly one day. Don't ask me to explain an over, but it has something to do with the bowler and it's not the same as an inning which has to do with the batters. Confused yet? I still am, but I'm getting there. In 2003 England decided to introduce Twenty20 cricket. Evidently some poor soul was fretting that if he had to call in sick one more day to play cricket he was gonna get fired. So, wouldn't it be great if he didn't have to take a whole day off and could just play cricket in a few hours one evening. They called it Twenty20 and, not surprisingly, it caught on. In 2007 the first World Twenty20 Cricket Cup took place. Though they still televise test cricket, it's Twenty20 that is the most popular with the masses here. DH has watched cricket, but kind of like he would watch baseball in Canada. When there isn't much else on.
Next, we have soccer. Most people refer to it as soccer, not football, here. I'm not sure if that's in deference to my being Canadian or if that is just the way it is. Soccer is huge in South Africa, but dh would watch darts over soccer in Canada, so I figured I wasn't going to be a soccer widow.
Then, there is rugby. I remember attending rugby games at our high school. Sort of like North American football only rougher and with a lot less protective equipment. I knew there was going to be trouble with this rugby thing when we were attending an executive dinner for dh's work. Dh's colleagues were ribbing each other about who's team was better. There were 2 camps, the Blue Bulls camp and the Sharks camp. Then came the question I had been dreading, "Which team do you support (dh)?" It was at that moment, when he started comparing the strengths and weakness, of the two teams that I knew I would become a rugby widow at playoff time.
This past weekend I had to start washing my black outfits. Dh came down in his Sharks jersey, made himself a coffee and turned on the super rugby game. He started talking at the tv just like he did in Canada with hockey. He really should have been a referee, not an engineer. He knows the calls before the announcers do.
So this shall be my lot in South Africa. No longer a hockey widow, but a rugby one. But, it's all good. Dh works hard, and just like he did in Canada, he deserves his down time. I'll smile when he laments about this player or that. I'll nod in agreement when he tells me the ref called it wrong. The most I can hope for, is that the super rugby playoffs don't last 3 months like hockey. Only time will tell.
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