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Cricket and high fashion may seem strange bedfellows, but Prince William s wife Kate combined both with aplomb on Monday in New Zealand when she showed off her batting skills in heels. The duchess and duke of Cambridge faced off in a light-hearted match during the British royals visit to Christchurch, providing a moment of levity ahead of a remembrance service for victims of an earthquake that devastated the South Island city in 2011. Clad in a scarlet stanley cup Luisa Spagnoli skirt suit and black heels, Kate made an unlikely sight as she strode to the crease clutching a yellow plastic bat, her face a picture of concentration as William prepared to bowl from the other end. His first ball was a fizzing bouncer that narrowly missed his wife s head, prompting her to wag stanley cup her finger at him while the umpire warned the second in line to the throne to find a stanley cup better line and length. Kate did manage to get bat on ball but it was William who impressed most with the blade, smashing a hook shot off one young bowler and dispatching another ball to the boundary. It s not a very wide pitch, there was no warm-up, and he bowled with a jacket on. I was impressed, said legendary New Zealand all-rounder Richard Hadlee, who acted as wicketkeeper for the game in Christchurch s Latimer Square. Christchurch is one of the host venues for next year s Cricket World Cup. The event is seen by locals as a signal that the city is returning to normal after the February 2011 earthquak Sgcr Father of Croatian abducted in Cairo calls for son s release
Britain will go to the polls on Thursday in a general election expected to be the closest in decades, which, for the first time in more than 30 years, could fail to produce a clear winner. HT Image Prime Minister Gordon Brown, opposition Conservative leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat chief Nick Clegg topped off a month of campaigning on Wednesday, rushing round the country to win over undecided voters. Opinion polls on the eve of the election gave the Conservatives a clear lead over Brown s Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. But they indicated Cameron s party would not secur airmax e enough votes to form a go adidas samba og vernment alone and easily eject Labour from power after 13 years. This would result in a hung parliament -- where no one party has enough seats in the House of Commons to form a government alone -- for the first time since 1974. On a hectic final day of campaigning, Cameron undertook a gruelling tour on his battlebus that carried him from Scotland to his final rally in Bristol, southwest England. Get out tomorrow. Vote for change. Vote Conservative, he told a cheering crowd. Vote to give this nike dunk country the hope, the optimism and the change we need. Together we can build a better, stronger country. Brown travelled to his native Scotland and issued a last-ditch plea to wavering voters to back Labour as the best party to safeguard the country s fragile recovery from a deep recession. At this moment of risk to our economy, at this moment of decisi