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GO HAWKS!

There has been a curious occurrence in the NFL recently (and perhaps longer). Of the last 8 Super Bowl champions, 4 did not even make the playoffs the next year, and the remaining 4 all lost their first round playoff game. Most pundits attribute this to parity in the NFL combined with a tendency for Super Bowl teams to need a few years to peak, by which time they have multiple players at or near the end of their contracts. Since a Super Bowl win boosts the value of every player involved, the team cannot afford to re-sign all of their stars.

Experts are predicting that will not happen this year. The Seahawks are predicted to do very well this season, reaching at least the NFC championship game if not the Super Bowl itself. The offense should be noticeably better (and it wasn't at all bad last year), while the defense should hold steady. While it is true that we lost a couple of very valuable assets on defense (Red Bryant and Chris Clemons most noticeably, both now with Jacksonville), their replacements look promising and we do still have the best secondary in the game. (Best Free Safety, best Strong Safety, and arguably the best Cornerback at least in his own mind.)

This week's opening game against Green Bay should be epic, in no small part because Green Bay is one of the other NFC teams predicted to be a strong contender for the Super Bowl. The only thing better than a repeat Fail Mary ending (just to rub it in for Green Bay fans) would be for Seattle to crush them.

Recent developments (read: injuries and suspensions) in San Francisco and Arizona have made Seattle's path marginally easier, so things are looking good for the season.

ROOOOOooooooot

36-16 counts as crushing them, I think.

The BBC: Geoffrey Boycott on England, Test cricket, the Ashes and his legacy.

This rather lovely book was left in my pigeonhole at work by someone, I've no idea whom. With being in Berlin, I haven't checked it since June. Eagar was a famous cricket photographer and the introduction contains a brief but fascinating history of cricket photography. Did you know they were using large-format plate cameras until the 1960s, and would sometimes run out of plates before the exciting conclusion of a day? Or that the first long lenses used in cricket photography were seized from Zeppelins shot down in the First World War - lenses still in use when this book was written!

QUIZ: which very famous photographer took the reputed 'first photograph' included in the book?

David Bailey?

About 100 years earlier.

Henry Fox talbot.

LGTrotter wrote:Henry Fox talbot.

Clever. Getting two guesses in because you're in a different thread. Not him either.

I see Kevin is doing the rounds of the sofas, defining an era of cricket in his own inimitable way. Do I hear the sound of daggers being sharpened?

Interesting comments on Prior and the bowlers.

Anyone care to own up to pre-ordering the book?

The man is a Walter Mitty. He can't see that nobody agrees with him except him: that dashing chap he looks at adoringly in the mirror every morning, lunchtime and evening. And occasionally in between.

Listening to a couple of interviews I started to notice how often he said 'I' and 'me', often about things which applied to the English cricket team rather than to K. Pietersen per se: "I won the Ashes four times" which, in a sense he did, but still...

You just noticed this???

djewesbury wrote:You just noticed this???

I was putting it out there. No comment on Broad and Anderson; the spoilt little teacher's pets?

And look what he called his good mate Swanny (allegedly): http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... 87889.html

There appears to have been a bit of a scandal going on in the cricket world while I was in the Caribbean. Is the absence of discussion here an indication that it is of no relevance?

I think everyone is just holding their heads in their hands and wondering what on earth can possibly happen next: the world's richest national cricket board attempting to sue one of the most bankrupt seems like a silly idea, but then should the Windies be allowed to get off scot free, after wandering away like this? The complexity of the negotiations between the WICB, the WIPA and the BCCI is enough, never mind the shady goings-on at the ICC. It's a dog's breakfast.

But the email just arrived asking me if I want to order my Ashes tickets for next year.

If you were starting from scratch, would you organise it like this?

I don't really understand how the cricket world is organised but "a dog's breakfast" seems to describe what I have witnessed in the past few years.

Which days are we going to The Ashes?

DRT wrote:Which days are we going to The Ashes?

The ECB wrote:England v Australia

Wed 8–Sun 12 July - 1st Investec Ashes Test - SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff

Thu 16–Mon 20 July - 2nd Investec Ashes Test - Lord’s

Wed 29 July–Sun 2 Aug - 3rd Investec Ashes Test - Edgbaston

Thu 6–Mon 10 Aug - 4th Investec Ashes Test - Trent Bridge

Thu 20–Mon 24 Aug - 5th Investec Ashes Test - Kia Oval

Trent Bridge is a lovely ground and Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem is a lovely pub. I've never been to Edgbaston. Cardiff is just a long way away, and in Wales.

The ballot for tickets for the Oval opens next week.. I'll keep an eye on it. The last match can be very exciting.

EDIT:

Surrey County Cricket Club wrote:The draw for the ballot will take place in early November and you will be notified of the result of your application by Friday 14th November. Winning ballot entrants will then be able to purchase from Monday November 17th.
***In the meantime why not let your friends know about the ballot? Who knows, maybe if they’re successful they’ll invite you!***

I am available on all of those dates

DRT wrote:I am available on all of those dates

Make sure to let your friends Gloria and Batailley know.

djewesbury wrote:

DRT wrote:I am available on all of those dates

Make sure to let your friends Gloria and Batailley know.

I have a friend sitting in the next room who is a Baron from a place called Pichon who might also be able to make it.

Oh we like a bit of class at the cricket. The more the merrier. I must say the chaps you brought last year were jolly decent coves.

DRT wrote:There appears to have been a bit of a scandal going on in the cricket world while I was in the Caribbean. Is the absence of discussion here an indication that it is of no relevance?

I wrote a lengthy post including Tony Cozier, Viv Richards et al, and the imminent collapse of everything starting with cricket. But then it disappeared so I never wrote it again.

LGTrotter wrote:

DRT wrote:There appears to have been a bit of a scandal going on in the cricket world while I was in the Caribbean. Is the absence of discussion here an indication that it is of no relevance?

I wrote a lengthy post including Tony Cozier, Viv Richards et al, and the imminent collapse of everything starting with cricket. But then it disappeared so I never wrote it again.

Sounds fascinating and insightful. Thank you.

I disagree with what Owen would have said.

djewesbury wrote:I disagree with what Owen would have said.

Daniel's got a point.

But how about the hot off the press news that Trott is back! Or at least he is going with the Lions to South Africa. I do hope it's true, England batting made a lot more sense when he was around.

LGTrotter wrote:

djewesbury wrote:I disagree with what Owen would have said.

Daniel's got a point.

But how about the hot off the press news that Trott is back! Or at least he is going with the Lions to South Africa. I do hope it's true, England batting made a lot more sense when he was around.

Is this hot off the press? Or did they announce his return a few months ago?

Is this a new announcement or is it an old announcement re-announced?

EDIT: It's new.

I am sure there was an announcement a few weeks ago that he was returning, which resulted in accusations that he was being a Deva when he pulled out of the tour.

I think he lost his central contract, I wonder if they will give it back. They seem to be saying it is/was situational anxiety rather than the vaguer "stress related illness". I reckon the comeback should be swift and complete, assuming he has kept his form.

LGTrotter wrote:I think he lost his central contract, I wonder if they will give it back. They seem to be saying it is/was situational anxiety rather than the vaguer "stress related illness". I reckon the comeback should be swift and complete, assuming he has kept his form.

+1. You'll be unsurprised to hear that I completely agree with Owen.

djewesbury wrote:

LGTrotter wrote:I think he lost his central contract, I wonder if they will give it back. They seem to be saying it is/was situational anxiety rather than the vaguer "stress related illness". I reckon the comeback should be swift and complete, assuming he has kept his form.

+1. You'll be unsurprised to hear that I completely agree with Owen.

I think I might have been drinking. I could swear I heard Daniel say that he agreed with Owen. There can be no other explanation.

I have been drinking, and I saw the same thing. Ergo, you must have also been drinking. Q.E.D.

Of course I agree with Owen. I always agree with Owen, what are you people talking about? Glenn, I'm worried, you struck me as a very rational and intelligent chap, but this kind of babbling is what makes the men at Google think we aren't a serious outfit.

Sharpen up, everyone.

In re the advent of Trott2.0 Aggers is now touting him as a potential opener, which in fairness he always looked like he ought to be. One can only hope that Mitchell Johnson pulls a muscle.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/29805657

Now I come to think of it there could be space made at number four.

LGTrotter wrote:Now I come to think of it there could be space made at number four.

And it was going so well.

djewesbury wrote:

LGTrotter wrote:Now I come to think of it there could be space made at number four.

And it was going so well.

I couldn't not. Recidivism of the worst kind.

Good to see the old debates dredged up again

Now, Owen. Have you booked your train ticket yet to get to London for the Port Walk?

djewesbury wrote:Of course I agree with Owen. I always agree with Owen, what are you people talking about? Glenn, I'm worried, you struck me as a very rational and intelligent chap, but this kind of babbling is what makes the men at Google think we aren't a serious outfit.

Sharpen up, everyone.

What can I say? As previously noted, I had been drinking.

It's a sad day for cricket. I saw some very poor web footage of the delivery that killed Philip Hughes, what a freakish accident. This will cast a pall over next year's Ashes, where Hughes might have been expected to cause us no small amount of difficulty.

Sad indeed. I hope the guy who delivered the ball is getting some support.

Is it, technically, a manslaughter or does the law not apply in cases like this? That seems to be a stupid question but I mean, is there a caveat for instances like this?

I know, of course, that nobody would think of charging him. I just mean hypothetically.

It's an accident during a game where nothing abnormal was going on. Were someone to wander across and casually swing their bat into someone else's skull, I think something like that might attract the relevant charge.

Sure, but just looking at this technically a death caused by an accident where someone else is involved is usually 'manslaughter'. Does it depend on how you think of the ball, as either nothing to do with Sean Abbott once it left his hands, or alternatively as a thing he propelled at Hughes?

This is an irrelevant question. Sorry. It's the way I'm made.

I might be wrong but I think if this happened in Italy the bowler (and possibly the officials) would have been taken into custody and charged. I seem to remember that happening at a Grand Prix many years ago.

But my post was more about emotional support. Despite the innocence of the accident this stuff would mess with your head if you were in the bowler's shoes. Life changing stuff.

DRT wrote:I might be wrong but I think if this happened in Italy the bowler (and possibly the officials) would have been taken into custody and charged. I seem to remember that happening at a Grand Prix many years ago.

But my post was more about emotional support. Despite the innocence of the accident this stuff would mess with your head if you were in the bowler's shoes. Life changing stuff.

Agreed with in entirety. What we used to call 'plus one'.