Sorry Stephen, but my day Lording it over the Poms has made this sheila an Aussie cricket convert

At Lord’s on Saturday for a thrilling Test match, the writer Kathy Lette had relied on her friend Stephen Fry to educate her in the finer aspects of the game. By Sunday, she had to go into hiding after that ‘dubious stumping’ made all Aussies public enemy number one. And now? Let the serious sledging begin

Go to Lord’s with Stephen Fry, they said. It’ll be pleasant, they said (Kathy Lette)

I was never a big cricket fan. Hell, I’ve had marriages that have lasted less time than a test match. It seemed like the sporting version of tantric sex where the only thing that gets sticky is the wicket. But that was before the Aussies started thrashing the Poms at this year’s Ashes. I became an overnight cricket convert.

No Aussie in Britain has been able to resist a little light gloating. I mean, it’s so rare that we get to feel superior to you locals; especially the British upper class who tend to see us as a recessive gene; the Irish of the Pacific. I’ve looked up so many noses since moving here – even people shorter than me.

When it comes to Antipodeans, many of the Gin and Jag brigade have a condescension chromosome. A snooty British book critic once explained to me that “condescension” means “talking down to”. So, when Australia pulled ahead it proved irresistible not to swan off to Lord’s to... well, Lord it over the Poms.