Alex

Not a fucking chance Warner will still be in the side by the next Ashes. Agree about the quicks. The strategy should be around as many as possible being available next time round. Although I reckon Archer will probably concentrate on white ball cricket if he ever gets back to playing regularly

I remember the dance troupe were called Elektra and the onboard band were called Blackjack last time I went. You can tell what they were like just going off that

Declaring earlier would’ve just meant Australia got ahead in terms of runs earlier, so it wouldn’t have made any difference given there was only about 3 hours play on the last two days combined. I actually think declaring would’ve made a draw even more certain. I think they did the right thing in hoping they might be able to just bat once and that there might just be enough play possible. At the time little or no play was expected on Saturday with Sunday looking much more promising. So they had the weather in mind but I think the way it transpired showed you can’t make plans for exactly how much time would’ve been lost. ‘Bazball’ working or not is just a daft way of looking at it though. When they went ultra aggressive they lost the first two tests. And the wicketkeeping errors, which were the result of a ‘Bazball’ selection, were also a huge factor in the defeats. Even headingley was less comfortable than it should’ve been because of reckless second innings batting. The only time England were massively dominant in a match was this one. And they actually scored more, at a faster rate overall, by taking stock at the end of day two and Stokes and Brook not giving it away. Obviously Crawley’s innings was a massive part of that and he created the early momentum. In other words it’s not one or the other, it’s applying the aggressive strategy with a bit of control at times. It’s not a choice between ‘Bazball’ or everyone batting like Chris Tavare. It is about winning though. It’s a fucking stupid term anyway. Even McCullum doesn’t like it. All the “I’m not a cricket fan but….” bellends can kiss my cheeks too tbh. They’ll be back on to love island and Arsenal podcasts now Australia have retained the ashes. I completely agree with TP about the mental schedule too. I do however think, given this Australia side are coming to the end of their cycle, that England possibly have their best chance in a while next time down under. They need to nurture some genuine quicks though. Wood has made a huge difference and a lot of the pitches will be similar to Headingley

Not been on the ferry to Ijmuiden for a good while but I remember the cabaret-style entertainment being so fucking bad it was good

I think we better hope they’ve already been born

I’m not sure it works like that. I don’t think Harold MacMillan went drinking in Stockton on a Saturday night, for example

You basically have to just about kill someone to get a custodial sentence atm. There was a case in the local rag recently where a bloke kicked his partner in the head and strangled her until she passed out. He got a community order and suspended sentence. Meanwhile the Just Stop Oil protestors are getting 3 years in prison.

I live a less than 10 minutes walk from a metro, use it to go into the office 2 or 3 times a week. Often only stay in for two stops to get sone extra steps in, although even if I didn’t it would only be 3. And it gets on my tits due to how poor the service is. You then have the added bonus if it being charva central due to it being so easy to ride it without paying. I appreciate loads of people don’t bother paying (can’t say I blame them) but you’d stop most of the anti-social behaviour if you more or less needed a ticket / pass to use it. If that’s my experience it’s no wonder people use a car if they can

I’ve had the good fortune of coming into contact with a couple of SPADs through work and it would appear to be a pre-requisite that you’re an unmitigated cunt. Not that it should be a top priority but the HoL really does need reform. The cronyism is off the fucking scale at this point.

Either a mag agent provocateur or, alternatively, one of the huge legion of USMLFs since the Netflix series

I was saying previously this new thing about Newcastle fans being the only ones (adults anyway) that go around wearing football tops almost certainly stems from it being so difficult to get hold of a Sunderland top. I do love how they try and make everything into some mad moral and/or classy crusade

Think the biggest issue is lack of appearances and the time it takes him to get back up to speed. That and FFP and the timing being right with a bid coming in. Last season he might’ve just been unlucky I suppose but you get the impression that hamstring injuries could be an ongoing issue. I do think he tried to adapt under Howe but it probably stifles his game. I’m not that arsed though because he really isn’t and never was all that

Then today TUI (who they went with) and Jet2 have cancelled all flights to Rhodes until the 25th July

£30m + £150m in add-ons

Could be worse. My cousin and her family (husband, two kids 11 and 13 plus her parents who are both in their 70s). Flew to Rhodes last night. The travel company told them they had to go or they’d lose all their money and when they got there they discovered that not only was the resort they were staying in being evacuated but the hotel had already been destroyed by fire. They were then told the next flight home is Tuesday. Her sister in law works for a different travel company and has managed to sort a ferry to Turkey and accommodation there. Mental that the travel company sent people there though. The resort they were supposed to be staying in had photos, footage etc of people being evacuated from the beach via local fishing boats and whatever else was available. That was before their flight even took off.

I think I mentioned it on here at the time. But there was a woman I used to work with. She voted leave by post about 4 weeks or so before the actual referendum. Within days of the result she said to me without a hint of irony that it was her intention to retire to either Spain or Greece and she was now worried that she wouldn’t be able to.

Well that’s just the EU singling out Britain ( and the other 60 or so countries with a similar status) out of spite

There’s nothing they can do to stop it. And you’d imagine any attempt to regulate fees would be totally unworkable anyway. As it’s far more subjective than sponsorship deals. Even then we know from the past any regulations are only going to benefit the richer clubs anyway. On top of it being ludicrous given what’s already happened

Reading that, MF I remember him appearing on kids telly including Tiswas now too.

You should be using car batteries. Those AA ones aren’t powerful enough

@Christmas Tree Are you going to tell what happened then?

Yeah. I’ve always thought Revelations had to have been written under the influence of something like that. That’s the only way it makes any sense. Not that it makes any sense, but you know what I mean. Stuff like ergot, magic mushrooms etc. must account for loads of ghost sightings, religious experiences, etc down the centuries. Stuff like the burning bush (that didn’t burn), mass hysteria etc.

I’ve got (very vague) recollections of them