One-All: PE

---

Port Elizabeth is described by Lonely Planet as a charmless sort of place with not much in the way of things to do, despite its self-promotion as "the friendly city". It seemed pretty friendly to us on the whole, but it was perhaps short on spectacles.

"Don't walk in the centre at night", our cabbie advised us unnecessarily, as we drove through it and deftly activated the central locking as we stopped at the lights. "It's nice during the day but at night they turn into monsters". We'd worked that out a couple of days earlier during an exploratory walk in, and quick cab ride back.

We were there, of course, for the second one-dayer. My suggestion of going to the SA Airforce Museum was swiftly vetoed as a group activity, which left eating and drinking, hanging aroung by the pool in the pre-happy hour period at the hotel, and the dolphinarium.

The dolphinarium (renamed something snappier, but I prefer the old name which has not been overpainted on all the signage yet) was very excellent.

Transcending its modest all-concrete decor by virtue of its superbly trained sea lion "Kelpie" and dolphin Domino (not to mention his young daughter, Dominici). Each trick, is rewarded, quite rightly, with a fishy treat, but you get the sense that the animals love darting about the pool doing tricks and jumps. Domino even plays a good game of waterpolo, though we didn't see his "egg beater".

All this was a prelude to the big game. School was out in PE, and the stadium was crowded with kids who wanted nothing more than an easy win for the Proteas under the clear blue sun, along with a few cheap pints (3 for £2).

Sadly, things went badly for the Proteas, who just didn't turn up. They played so badly I wonder if Hansie Conje (who may have been driving the Murchielago we saw parked outside the hotel) had a hand in throwing the game.

The scoreboard displayed increasingly desperate SMS messages from the crowd ("do it for the country!", "proteas rock PE!" and so so) but from the moment SA were 5 down after 20 odd overs for about 70 runs you sensed it was probably going to be New Zealand's day, for a change.

One of the best performances by a touring team for many years, according to the paper this morning. Well, that's probably right.

---