Making the bigtime

As Charles Kennedy bites the dust in England, the New York Times decides to carry one of its usual a-whiff-of-the-exotic pieces by deciding to mention cricket in this piece on England's confused attitude's towards alcohol:

"This fall, when the English cricket team defeated Australia in the epic series known as the Ashes, the players embarked on a 36-hour orgy of drunken carousing in dozens of different bars. Freddie Flintoff, the star of the series, boasted to The Sun about how he "drank and drank and drank," appearing on national television with muddied speech, bloodshot eyes and an unsteady gait. One cricketer carried an open bottle onto the stage when accepting his Ashes medal; another reportedly threw up in the prime minister's bathroom during a reception at 10 Downing Street."

Standard NYT style: "the epic series known as the Ashes" and the use of Flintoff's nickname in a paper which refers to most people with "Mr." And the slight exaggeration - I doubt the players went to dozens of different bars. Its hard to move in the later stages of a pub crawl. BTW, who threw up in the PM's bathroom? I'd heard a few stories about Hoggard and his intemperate conversation with Blair but don't know if it included a royal upchuck as well.