Snowballs, sledges and fast bowlers

Well, I don't know how the Burble readership spent their New Year, but I spent mine on a ski trip to Les Arcs in the French alps, tumbling merrily down slopes and spending £6 on a pint of lager (thanks, credit crunch). But - before you start wondering if this is now Ski Burble - let me tell you about our New Year's Eve.

After a decent dinner and a quick trip to the local bar, we hit the slopes a shade before midnight in order to watch a fireworks display and see in the New Year climbing up and sliding down the lower slopes on some small plastic trays affectionately known as 'bum boards'. A few slides into our session and 2009, we noticed we had company - a lumbering hulk of a chap and his son were just about perceptible in the dark engaged in similar sliding pursuits.

Despite the gloom, a fellow cricketer within our party and I became increasingly aware that we recognized the world-weary gait and the gruff voice that answered our greetings: Angus Fraser. With neither of us looking like approaching the guy to plug Cricket Burble or give him some batting tips, another of our party took matters into her own hands ("Are you Angus Fergus?" - near enough! - "My friends are too shy to ask!"). Mind you, I fortunately managed to recover from this humiliation in time to meet a rather weak Fraser snowball with the observation that he'd lost a yard of pace ("And the rest!" said Gus).

It brings a whole new meaning to sledging...