England Demolish Australia / TDF etc.

Hurrah!  We'll be claiming the whitewash, Australia can't count a rain abandonment as a draw.  It is great to see England finally improving as a one day side, just so long as it does not accompany a slump in form in the longer game.

Shane Warne said before the series that England were becoming "arrogant" and were going to be humbled by Australia.  Well Botox features, you couldn't have been more wrong, the visiting Australian side were weaker in every department than their English counterparts who completed their series whitewash in stylish and accomplished form.

On a serious cricket note, I am sure that everyone who loves the game sends their best wishes to Mark Boucher after the freak accident that has caused his early retirement. Boucher has been a stalwart member of the South African team in recent years, a fierce and determined competitor who had said in interviews prior to the England tour that he wanted to lead SA to a series victory and up to #1 in the test rankings.  Jacques Kallis said the day after the accident "It's not about cricket any more," he said. "It's about a mate and hoping he recovers fully. It puts cricket and life into perspective."

Mark Boucher

Over in France Bradley Wiggins didn't just win the individual time trial, but won in by such a margin that so long as he can stay out of any further crashes he has set himself up for being the winner of the yellow jersey. Team mate Chris Froome also excelled at the Stage 9 time trial, both of the Sky riders were comfortably ahead of defending Australian champion Cadel Evans. What's that ? England* beating Australia again, they must be getting sick of that.

*I know, Wiggins was born in Belgium and Froome in Kenya, but that's English enough when it comes to giving the Ozzies a spanking.

Former England Star Makes A Fool Of Himself

Flintoff questions Atherton's ability to commentate in expletive filled attack

Flintoff is wrong, just as Pieterson was wrong to have a go at Nick Knight.  The argument that only someone with equal or better skills to the person being criticised is illogical and fatuous.  I do not have children of my own, yet I can tell the difference between well behaved and badly behaved children.  I have never played football to a decent level, yet I can still see the difference between a really good team, Real Madrid for example, and a fairly average side, such as Bradford City. I do not need to have played Premiership football to be able to criticise Leeds United's defensive shortcomings last season, I just need a basic understanding of the game and some experience of watching it. Flintoff's argument is one that would preclude the overwhelming majority of us from being to talk about anything at all.

'Freddy' was a good cricketer, and had moments of glorious greatness on the field of play.  Off the field though his alcohol inspired buffoonery is as much a part of his reputation as his sporting prowess is. When it comes to criticising fellow players, whether ex or not, perhaps Flintoff should have kept a lower profile, in abusing the 37.69 test average Atherton for criticising the then form of the 48.54 average Cook, perhaps Freddy should kept in mind the fact that his own test average was only 31.77. Whatever Flintoff felt about Atherton's on-air comments, he should have presented his case in a much more measured and calm fashion, calling a former England captain a "fucking prick" at a public function is very poor form and does Flintoff's personal reputation no good at all.

Sachin Tendulkar IPL 5 Wallpaper

Sachin Tendulkar IPL 5 Wallpaper

Sachin Tendulkar in New Jersey of Mumbai Indians For Indian Premeir Leauge Session Five.

Baseball ?



Tom Stoppard

"I don't think I can be expected to take seriously any game which takes less than three days to reach its conclusion" - Sir Tom Stoppard talking about baseball and cricket.

ICC Dinner & Wine Night

Image via WikipediaThe food cooked by Dave, Richard, Owen & Callum, Maitre D'd by Liz, and served by Ellie and Rae of this parish, was wonderful.  Seriously folks, hats off to you, I think you did a quite remarkable job cooking a five course meal for 50 people from what is really just a standard home, non-commercial, kitchen, I was most impressed.

The ICC wine nights are a fund raising event for the cricket club, always popular and very well supported, where a team of very hard working volunteers cook and serve the food, and a selection of 'wine experts' select and present a wine to go with each course.  I got to choose the dessert wine (with a fabulous budget of £6 a bottle), and my presentation ran like this....

"Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a wine, the grapes for which are grown only in a single, near inaccessible valley in the Nava De Roda hills of the Ribero Del Duoro wine region in Southern Spain.


Lavish care and attention is spent on the grape vines, grape tenders camp out in the valley ensuring that each vine receives exactly the amount of water it needs and keeping the vines clear of pests. The grape tenders have to be somewhat accomplished at a musical instrument, for wine grower Jesus Montilla is convinced that the grapes grow riper with music, preferring light classical music in the growing season, and a little flamenco as the grapes ripen.

The Moscatel grapes are only picked at night, during the first frosts of Autumn, and only after being blessed by the bishop of Valencia. They are then transported in padded baskets on the backs of mules, at the winery each grape is inspected for ripeness and any that do not pass Jesus Montilla’s exacting requirements are rejected.

The grapes are then gently trod beneath the feet of young girls, filtered, and barrelled for two years before being bottled. The resulting wine is said to taste somewhere between sexual ecstasy and religious revelation, and this, ladies and gentlemen, is not that wine.

However, there is another wine, grown in vast quantities on the plains of Valencia, where the grapes are watered by the urine of passing goats who are herded by the infamous winemaker Pablo Ossario. They say that if you are downwind of Pablo that on a breezy day you can smell his BO in Madrid, on a bad day in Portugal. Pablo seasons his goat piss tinted grapes by spitting regularly and heartily into the fermenting vat, and because Pablo can’t be bothered waiting for the grapes to really ripen he sweetens the resulting wine with antifreeze (which is only rumoured to cause cancer in lab rats). This pale green, sometimes lumpy and frankly repellent vintage is bottled in stolen Marks & Spencer bottles and shipped to the UK to be aimed at the slapper & chav Lambrini girls market.

This ladies and gentlemen, is that wine, cheers."

England Whitewash India to Become The No.1 Test Side

I know I have not been blogging of anything much apart from my Uni work recently, but that isn't to say that I havn't been watching and listening to our glorious cricket team demolish India to become the best test team in the world.  England have been dominant in all departments, bowling, batting and fielding and the previously powerful and talented Indian team have look tired and weak in comparison.

Andrew Strauss's team really have become something quite astonishing, and now we are on top the team will have to work equally hard to keep this position, India will want to return to the top of the world and Australia are always hungry for victory.  At least until the next round of tests though....

My Captain, My Captain, My Captain

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThat is the strange news that as from today england has not one, not two, but three cricket captains, one for each format of the game.  Andrews Strauss will now remain as captain of the test side, Alastair Cook will lead the ODI team, and young hothead Stuart Broad captains the 20-20 side.

Well, I am sure it all makes perfect sense to someone at the ECB, just not to me.  I can almost see the diea behind having different test and short form captains, but splitting the ODI and T20 jobs just seems that england have been forced to accomodate Broad's enormous ego.  Strauss and Cook are both calm, collected leaders of men, Broad has shown that he easily allows his temper to get the better of his judgement and will have to grow up if he is to extend his captaincy into other formats in the future.

Sachin Tendulkar Wallpaper

Sachin Tendulkar Wallpaper