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jdaw1 wrote:

AHB wrote:I received an email over the weekend to say that my name had come up trumps in the ballot for tickets to see day 2 of the Lord's test against Sri Lanka. I bought two tickets in the Compton Stand (5-4-97 and 98) and would be happy to offer the spare ticket to someone who wanted to join me - face value is £60.

If there is a proper cricket fan able to accept this kind offer, then that proper cricket fan should accompany Alex on Friday 10^th June 2016. But if not, and only if not, even though it seems to be an inefficient use of a ticket, I would like to accompany Alex.

Please could I be first reserve?

That's fine by me. I shall keep track of attendees and what they are bringing in the traditional manner:
Place: Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood
When: Friday 10th June at 11am (or earlier if preferred)
What: Bring a bottle and watch some cricket
Who:
1 - AHB
2 -

Reserves:
1 - JDAW

I will also muse whether the fact that I will be in London overnight on June 9th will require an emergency to be declared. More on that in the appropriate forum in due course.

AHB wrote:Who:
1 - AHB
2 -

Reserves:
1 - JDAW

To prevent a problem with counting one can have the bbCode do the numbering. Viz:
Who:

1. AHB;
2. —

Reserves:

1. JDAW.

Looks like England are going to hand the final test to South Africa. Chasing 382, Hales, Cook and Compton are all out, 18-3. Weather might be the only hope.

flash_uk wrote:Looks like England are going to hand the final test to South Africa. Chasing 382, Hales, Cook and Compton are all out, 18-3. Weather might be the only hope.

A 2-1 win to England might reflect more accurately the balance of the teams in this series than a 2-0 win. Weather is indeed the best chance for England saving the game, that or another double century from Stokes.

Over and out for Hales? My thought for next in line was gritty Compton, but the way he got out today wasn't clever. And for all the bigging up of Bairstow, by the usual Yorkshire suspects, I would still like to see Joss Buttler given another run in tests. Despite his previous poor performance I think he is a better batsman with more shots than Bairstow.

flash_uk wrote:Looks like England are going to hand the final test to South Africa. Chasing 382, Hales, Cook and Compton are all out, 18-3. Weather might be the only hope.

I read in the paper at the weekend that one particular commentator (I forget who) was suggested that Bell should be given a chance to open with Cook. That would be a great step forward, planning for the future.

AHB wrote:I read in the paper at the weekend that one particular commentator (I forget who) was suggested that Bell should be given a chance to open with Cook. That would be a great step forward, planning for the future.

I think we are getting a plan together here, Bell to open, Pietersen at No. 3, Swanny comes in for Ali, does anyone know if Alec Stewart is still available?

AHB wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:

AHB wrote:I received an email over the weekend to say that my name had come up trumps in the ballot for tickets to see day 2 of the Lord's test against Sri Lanka. I bought two tickets in the Compton Stand (5-4-97 and 98) and would be happy to offer the spare ticket to someone who wanted to join me - face value is £60.

If there is a proper cricket fan able to accept this kind offer, then that proper cricket fan should accompany Alex on Friday 10^th June 2016. But if not, and only if not, even though it seems to be an inefficient use of a ticket, I would like to accompany Alex.

Please could I be first reserve?

That's fine by me. I shall keep track of attendees and what they are bringing in the traditional manner:
Place: Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood
When: Friday 10th June at 11am (or earlier if preferred)
What: Bring a bottle and watch some cricket
Who:
1 - AHB
2 - DRT

Reserves:
1 - JDAW

I will also muse whether the fact that I will be in London overnight on June 9th will require an emergency to be declared. More on that in the appropriate forum in due course.

It appears that all places have now been taken. What I will bring will depend on the weather and will be declared at a later date. Thank you.

LGTrotter wrote:

flash_uk wrote:Looks like England are going to hand the final test to South Africa. Chasing 382, Hales, Cook and Compton are all out, 18-3. Weather might be the only hope.

A 2-1 win to England might reflect more accurately the balance of the teams in this series than a 2-0 win.

I would agree. South Africa are not the force they were, but England did not perform consistently either.

AS for opening batsmen, I have reached the conclusion that there is no one currently who is good enough to partner Cook. England will need to accept for a while that they have a weak link at No 2. I like Taylor in the side, but he needs to work on his test match approach.

I think it's a great shame that we didn't nab Stephen Cook 10 years ago when he was playing cricket for Reading CC. We could have had Cook & Cook opening the batting and mined an endless seam of "too many cooks spoil the..." jokes.

Whilst describing [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Model]The Standard Model[/url] in a chapter titled The Rules of the Game from Human Universe (2014), Professor Brian Cox wrote:

Screen Shot 2016-02-22 at 19.17.22.png (53.25 KiB) Viewed 18276 times

It is difficult to argue with that hypothesis.

DRT wrote:

Whilst describing [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Model]The Standard Model[/url] in a chapter titled The Rules of the Game from Human Universe (2014), Professor Brian Cox wrote:

Screen Shot 2016-02-22 at 19.17.22.png

It is difficult to argue with that hypothesis.

Sounds like a candidate for a patron of the as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations next year...if his love of wine includes port of course!

Oh dear, Scotland need 21 of the last over to beat Afghanistan on the opening day of the world T20 cup

The follow on, or lack of it. A half witted safety first decision, which does not make the game safer.

LGTrotter wrote:The follow on, or lack of it. A half witted safety first decision, which does not make the game safer.

That is exactly what I thought until I heard Cook explain on the radio why he did not enforce the follow on. It's all about mind games, it seems. Destabilising the opening batsmen.

On a more local note, I have just enjoyed my first County 50 overs game in 3 years. A victory for Surrey over a Gloucestershire side that never really got going in their run chase.

That was a pretty impressive fight-back by England today versus Pakistan. Finally Alex Hales gives a decent performance as a test opener. You have to think if England could find more consistency with their No 4 and 5 batsmen, they'd be quite a formidable team. Superb to see Woakes coming good as well. Jimmy can't go on forever, so we need more pace bowling talent to come through.

Having been out of the country for much of the first half of August, only this morning did I fianlly catch up with recordings of the one day internationals.

What I want to know is who this team of imposters is? They are clearly not England. England cannot play one day cricket. So who is this odd group? I shall refuse to attend any more cricket matches until the team pretending to be England have the decency to start losing again. Preferably to a minor county like Scotland or Ireland or the Netherlands.

Oh they are still England, their batting is still flaky and their bowling was flogged round the park for the fastest fifty by a Pakistani not called Shahid Afridi. Oh and he was a number 11.

I hope you're feeling better now England lost. But it would have been better if they had only scored 260, getting past 300 is a bit modern.

LGTrotter wrote:I hope you're feeling better now England lost. But it would have been better if they had only scored 260, getting past 300 is a bit modern.

I am feeling much better after the last result. A reassuring loss which really should have been a victory.

I need guidance on the result of the county championship. Without wishing to sound too much like a sore loser I wonder what others feel about the captains of Yorkshire and Middlesex getting together to manufacture a result at Lords. While I can understand what motivated them to try to produce a result I did feel a little uneasy about the extent to which the captains worked together, even to the extent of field placings. A very exciting finish though.

If Carlsberg made first innings as a Captain...

Only the second best score by a captain on his first day in the job I gather!


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Nice work Rooty!

Given the number of South Africans I have in my family, Sunday was a very satisfying day.

AHB and I have just spent a very enjoyable evening at The Oval watching Surrey beat Essex in a very close T20 game.

We also had the singular honour of watching Kevin Pieterson's first appearance for Surrey in two years. I think we joined everyone in the ground hoping he would be bowled out with an outrageous lash at the first ball but to his credit he had an outstanding over that included four sixes and helped him to 52 and his team to a rather paltry 150.

What followed, which excluded KP due to "a calf injury while batting", was a remarkable display of bowling and solid fielding by Surrey to win the match in the final over.

KP summed up this magnificent team performance as: "I absolutely loved it ... to get the victory for the boys is magnificent."

The Ego has landed. Perhaps he will now be texting Jo Root asking if he needs him for the third test?