Dickie

Good to hear your input on this Ewerk as someone who has been through a grammar school system, and the grammar school system in NI is clearly producing a lot of well educated kids, but I don't think anything could convince me that its right to tell an 11 year old that he has to go to a completely different school to his mates because he didn't do well on some tests. 11 years old is far too young for a start, but to segregate kids into completely different institutions based on perceived academic ability (or any other reason for that matter) doesn't sit well with me. 16/17/18 is plenty early enough to start segregating them into universities/technical colleges/jobs/apprenticeships etc imo. If the NI secondary string schools are as good as you say they are then it would seem preferable to me for all schools to use them as a model, with internal streaming to make sure the more able kids aren't held back. As others have said, there are so many things wrong with our education system but for me the prospect of re-introducing grammar schools to fix it is almost as depressing and misguided as the prospect of leaving the EU to fix the rest of the country's problems.

Selective grammar schools with an entrance exam at age 11 is brutal, cruel and just wrong iyam. At best the kid is going to take a massive knock to his confidence and at worst he's going to feel like he's consigned to the scrap heap before he's ever had a chance. Flexible streaming within the comprehensive system has to be the best way - that way kids can move up and down as they develop at different speeds. 11 year old seems to be arbitrary and it's far too young. I was a little radgie at that age, was right near the bottom of the class in every subject, especially maths. I developed late and got my act together just in time for GCSEs and went on to do a phd in applied maths at one of the best universities in the world. If I'd been told at 11 that it had been decided that I was an academic no hoper I wonder if that would have become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Cheers fellas Aye, my claim that we'll be going back to Italy is going on the assumption that I don't fuck things up

Just got married 2 weeks ago - we went to Cilento region of Italy for the honeymoon. Seems to be a bit of an undiscovered gem - one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and very few Brits/Yanks/Krauts, which is always nice. I recommend it to anyone who likes beaches, swimming, seafood and scenery - we're definitely going back.

Aye I agree but if you look at the league tables for the last few years we probably need another 24 or so wins out of the next 43 games. Based on what we saw in the last 10 games of last season and also Rafa's career record, plus the fact that I would say on paper our squad looks good on paper for this level, I can't see us not doing that. Then as long as we can draw more than we lose out of the remaining 19 games we'll be there or thereabouts. Losing 10 might even see us in the top two spots, losing 7 almost certainly would. I don't think we're going to run away with it by any means, it's going to be a slog but I just think we'll be picking up results consistently all the way through and we'll just do enough. Alex I totally agree - I'd far rather have the 09 squad than the one we've got now, but I think we'll still have enough to get one of the promotion spots. We'll need some luck with key players (last time we were extremely lucky in that regard) but you can say that about any team at any level. Ritchie and Hayden are already looking like they might make the difference for us this season, and if Gayle can get 20 or so goals we'll be laughing.

I said after Huddersfield we'll be fine and we'll still go up. The league is full of dross just as it was last time. It was terrible to watch last time - we bludgeoned our way out of the league and had Alan smith in centre mid for large parts of it ffs. We'll get promoted because Rafa will have us playing more consistently than anyone else and that will be enough. It won't be pretty, we've had two narrow defeats to start with which has lead to some people getting carried away but they'll learn how to stop conceding those goals with proper coaching, which I am confident they have at last. However I get the feeling that it won't be as much of a laugh this time, as more of the clueless wankers (10,000 is my estimate) have probably clung on due to the 'rafalution'

Michael Vaughan seems to be a bid advocate of going to 2 divisions but I haven't heard/read him explain his reasons. I don't know - it's just a shame that it really does seem to have come to a crunch for test cricket, and according to that documentary it's all because of 20:20, the Indian cricket board's obsession with it, and the lack of will/ability of the other boards to stand up for the best interests of the game worldwide.

Just had a look at that blog, seems good, cheers! They both come across as canny lads in the film

Aye fair enough, Vince needed to make a score this series really and he had enough chances to do it. Yes Alex, it's always sad when the last test is over and done with. By the way I watched Death of a Gentleman last night, an excellent film about the state of the game. I've never been a fan of 20-20 right from the start, but I had no idea how dodgy the whole thing is! Anyway it's a quality film and definitely worth a watch for anyone interested in cricket, especially if you grew up watching test cricket.

Yes, good series with both sides playing some very good and some very abject cricket. I wonder if they'll stick with Vince for the winter series as pitches will be slower and lower over there, so his weakness outside off won't be such a big deal. I think I remember hearing on TMS at some point that he's good against spin. On the one hand you think he's had his chance - if you can't make one score in a whole home series then you can't complain, but on the other hand it's not nice to see players consigned to the scrap heap. Unless there's someone scoring millions in county cricket at the moment I'd be tempted to take Vince on tour although I'd prefer to see everyone move up one another spinner (rashid?) to come in, probably with Stokes coming in for Finn.

I still think we'll be going up. This league is dross, just as it was last time we were in it, and just as most of the premier league increasingly is. The squad doesn't have the quality of 2009 but we've got a better manager and still a a fair few players who should start stamping their authority on things. I think this season will be the making of Shelvey and Mitrovic, plus hopefully one or two others. Couple of narrow, annoying losses to start with but I've got confidence that under Rafa we'll get on a roll and be able to pick up the 25 or so winds out of the next 44 that will see us around about the top of the league at the end of the season. Could do without a third straight loss though, obviously!

If he ends up at Madrid I'll be absolutely staggered. Unless we are all missing something the gap between his self belief and the level of his performances is as big as I can remember from any player. When the likes of Woodgate and Cabaye went to world class teams you could see why those teams were interested and you accepted it but with Sissoko I really can't see it.

Nice Parky, off to Italy first week of September for our honeymoon, a place called Castellabate on Costa Cilento. Looks decent and should be quiet

Well they've made a right pig's ear of this!

Aye it's a shame I think. It means they're going into a tour of the subcontinent without a full time spinner having played a single test this year. I know people are often reluctant to change a winning team and they probably want to give Vince a chance to get a score to his name, but to me it feels like a missed opportunity on a wicket that everybody expects to take spin. Arguably on current form swapping Rashid for Vince wouldn't even be weakening the batting too much.

Christ! What were you using for bait? Looks like a lump of steak, no wonder you've attracted a crocodile. What else did you catch?

Fuckin hell, he never makes tackles. For me he's a similar player to what Jonas was - his best attribute is that he can relieve pressure on the defence by picking the ball up and running 50-60 yards to gain some ground and put the opposition on the back foot, even if just momentarily. He hasn't done that anywhere near a regular as Jonas did in the 2-3 years that he was a useful player for us (2008-2011?), principally because he hasn't shown the same willingness to track back and muck in with the full back. Neither of them had much quality on their end product but, without knowing the stats, my feeling would be that Sissoko has more assists and goals than Jonas. Neither could pass a ball, neither could shoot, but Jonas' big plus was that he'd almost always win a free-kick at the end of one of his 50 yards runs, whereas Sissoko more often than not just surrendered possession, especially in the last 2 seasons before Rafa came in. If we can get 20 mil it would be great business (assuming the money gets reinvested).

Ah right, cheers . I remember it being used as an insult in Shields (N) in late 80s and possibly into early 90s mind - as with most things we were probably a bit slow to catch on

Is my memory failing me or wasn't "Mackem" always a derogatory term? There's something bizarre about seeing a Guardian political commentator use it: "Mole is one of 82,934 Mackems who voted to leave the EU seven weeks ago"

What are you on about?

Nice, let's hope they take the chance

Yes those two definitely tried to change the culture at the time. The 90s - early 2000s Aussie teams must be up there with the best sports teams of all time, 2001 Ashes team was better than 97 I reckon due to Gilchrist, Hayden, more mature Gillespie. Their rugby league team of the same era was also incredible as it happens, but being an international RL team they'll never be revered as a truly great international sports team cos the competition from other countries is so limited.

Yes he had a few match winning performances through the 90s didn't he. He was a quality bowler on his day. I read his autobiography on holiday about 15 years ago and thought he came across as a sound enough bloke but whenever I've seen him on telly more recently he comes across as a bit of a wanker. He's good on TMS though.

Ah right, that makes sense. The Oval always used to take spin anyway, but that might have been cos they always used to play the final test of each home series there, so it was always late summer. I remember Tufnell taking a hatful there against Australia in 97, the same series where Hussain scored a double hundred in the first test. That was a brilliant series, even though England got howked in the middle 3 tests - the standard of cricket was higher then I reckon.