The Ashes

.......Rolf Harris,Skippy,Dame Edna Everidge,Ken Rosewall,Ned Kelly,Paul Hogan,Gough Whitlam,Dame Nellie Melba....your boys took a hell of a beating!

So easy,just can't see how that Australian top order is going to make enough runs to be even remotely competitive in this series.5-zip is definitely on the cards now,Aussies look to be demoralised.Interesting question-obviously the Aussies have declined in the past few years but how much has England's improvement in the corresponding period been a factor in the evident one sidedness of the match? No question that England have more top class players in the team now,certainly since the 1970's/1980's,possibly even longer.How good are England?

I'm not sure England are that good. Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Prior have hardly scored a run but it hasn't mattered.

Even when the Aussies take a couple of wickets they can't finish England off.

This test Broad hasn't really bowled brilliantly but he hasn't had to, Swann steps up. Last test it was Anderson and Finn was shite. England are skittling them out with three bowlers.

David Warner's brother was tweeting this week about Watson being a selfish cnut who doesn't play for the team and how the previous coach has been made the scapegoat, or escape goat as he put it.

They're just in disarray and England are doing to them what they did to England for years.

To give the Aussies a little benefit of the doubt regarding their ability, they did have a couple of bad decisions given against them. Not that I think the outcome would of been different.
Having said that they did have us on the back foot and a little worried on more than one occasion
Onwards and upwards to next week  

Long hard day in the field as the Oz bite back, can't believe they have ignored Monty, his Test record at OT is mint.

Just liike old times,England reliant on the weather to scrape a draw against Australia.Forecast seems to be pretty bad,clearing up later in the afternoon.I must say Australia have played very well in this match,Warner coming in has given them a much more balanced look-England have been fairly negative [Pietersen and Bell aside] and have looked for a draw since losing the toss,the over rate yesterday was disgraceful,although they certainly aren't the first in history to slow a game down.The Ashes should be retained today but possibly under anti climactic circumstances-mind you,we'd have bitten hands off for this situation a few years ago,so maybe it's best not to be too harsh and critical.

Can anyone name both of these cricketers, pictured in 1986 ?

Free pint and pasty from me for the first correct answer, next time I go to bleddyargo  

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Tringreen wrote:

Can anyone name both of these cricketers, pictured in 1986 ?

Free pint and pasty from me for the first correct answer, next time I go to bleddyargo  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

What's the trick?

I checked it out expecting to see a photo of two pretty obscure nobodies.

Is one of them 'discontented of Larnaca'?  

Tringreen wrote:

Can anyone name both of these cricketers, pictured in 1986 ?

Free pint and pasty from me for the first correct answer, next time I go to bleddyargo  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I would say the wicket keeper is Andrew Brooks but i've no idea who the prat holding the bat is.

Village cricket!

Czarcasm wrote:

Is one of them 'discontented of Larnaca'?  

You know me so well  

Greenskin wrote:

Tringreen wrote:

Can anyone name both of these cricketers, pictured in 1986 ?

Free pint and pasty from me for the first correct answer, next time I go to bleddyargo  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I would say the wicket keeper is Andrew Brooks but i've no idea who the prat holding the bat is.

Joint winner with Czarcasm. Another of my favourite ATD'ers. I owe both of you a pint and a pasty, when I next visit the theatre of schemes.

Tringreen wrote:

Greenskin wrote:

Tringreen wrote:

Can anyone name both of these cricketers, pictured in 1986 ?

Free pint and pasty from me for the first correct answer, next time I go to bleddyargo  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I would say the wicket keeper is Andrew Brooks but i've no idea who the prat holding the bat is.

Joint winner with Czarcasm. Another of my favourite ATD'ers. I owe both of you a pint and a pasty, when I next visit the theatre of schemes.

Rather drink a pint of piss! 

Maybe we could combine a bit of beer drinking with a bit of golf as well-i'm sure Plympton Pilgrim wouldn't object to that particular combination.I'll hopefully be seeing him next week for the second instalment of this year's Titanic struggle between Hurdwick and Sparkwell.

Did ITB get many that day? Certainly a boon to be behind the stumps to watch it if he did.He used to scatter the crowd on a regular basis at Taunton in the 1980's,the place was heaving back then.

Greenskin wrote:

Tringreen wrote:

Greenskin wrote:

Tringreen wrote:

Can anyone name both of these cricketers, pictured in 1986 ?

Free pint and pasty from me for the first correct answer, next time I go to bleddyargo  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I would say the wicket keeper is Andrew Brooks but i've no idea who the prat holding the bat is.

Joint winner with Czarcasm. Another of my favourite ATD'ers. I owe both of you a pint and a pasty, when I next visit the theatre of schemes.

Rather drink a pint of piss! 

Maybe we could combine a bit of beer drinking with a bit of golf as well-i'm sure Plympton Pilgrim wouldn't object to that particular combination.I'll hopefully be seeing him next week for the second instalment of this year's Titanic struggle between Hurdwick and Sparkwell.

Did ITB get many that day? Certainly a boon to be behind the stumps to watch it if he did.He used to scatter the crowd on a regular basis at Taunton in the 1980's,the place was heaving back then.

Beef only got about 20 before one of my mates pulled off a miracle catch on the boundary, much to the disgust of the crowd. He did bat with Viv, who got the most effortless ton I've ever witnessed.
Fair made the hairs stand up on the back of my head being out in the middle with those two.

I'm a bit pressed for time this visit but we could well be based back in the UK in a year or so and golf, beer and pasties would then be on the agenda.

England 197-8.Very hard watching today and i can't help feeling that England are handing over the initiative through the negativity of their batting.When you get naturally aggressive players like Bairstow [14 in 77 balls] and Prior [16 in 58 balls] playing in such a grinding,almost strokeless way,it does make you wonder if they are playing to orders-if so,then those orders need to be reversed as soon as possible-could be very bad news for the winter if Australia get on top again and dominate this test as they did the last one.

Ian Bell has won this Ashes for England. Contributed in every game. 4 tons in his last 5 Ashes Tests.

3-0.Broad and Bresnan star men today,could have been very different if Bresnan had been given out when he had not very many to his name.England have won this series at about 70% of their potential,which you could interpret as a positive i suppose.They will need to improve greatly to win 3-0 in Australia this winter but congratulations to England,i guess it's easy to be ultra critical-a few years ago such a result would have been a product of imagination only.

Oh dear, glad I didn't go.

I was happy when it wasnt brought up on here.....

heads needs to roll for this series and the decline in the test squad since Silverwood took over

I expect Freathy will be predicting a win for England in the next test !

This Ashes defeat threw me back to the 1990s.

We will never compete with the SH in Rugby or Cricket whilst it's mainly reserved for posh kids.