England Cricket

Sad Days in Australia ~~  at least the TMS team is not being inflicted on the Crikit World nor on us today due to Covid rules and regulations !

Great pity they allowed the teams in though 

And I reckon Captain Root wished they had not allowed him in either !   

And a Merry Christmas to all Down Under { NOT !! }

The Tail end tried grinding out a draw but to no avail alas -- hate to say this but I really do hope that Covid Protocols blank out the rest of this Ashes Tour, I am not sure if I can face three (3) more matches like this last one.

Well at least they made into the fifth day, possibly because the Aussies failed to enforce the follow-on

I would not say the Aussies 'Failed' to enforce the follow-on, Roger ~~ I think it was just part of their grand plan to grind our aging bowlers into the ground as much as they could.

That’s certainly true and it was possibly also to give their bowlers a bit of a rest. Do we still call them bowlers now that we’re calling batsmen batters. And did you notice that in Oz the lunch break is now the dinner break . Whatever next.

I’ve just read that it’s  likely that Burns and Pope will be dropped for the next test, however the fact they’re looking to bring Crawley back doesn’t fill one with confidence. Bairstow for Pope isn’t too bad I suppose.

Ah yes,  Hokey Cokey Bairstow  --  In out in out and shake him all about !

Poor lad probably won't know if it's Christmas or Easter or his sixth Birthday !

I still think he is the second best wicket keeper we have  ~~ the first being Ben Woakes !

Yep he’s certainly inconsistent and probably a better batter in the short format matches these days but he’s certainly no worse than Pope whereas I’m not sure that poor old Crawley is an improvement on Burns.

We shall see on Boxing Day.

Just heard the news that Ray Illingworth has died, aged 89.

 A Right, blunt Character  oh sorry that's just another way of saying a Yorkshire  man and pride to be such !

Sad news indeed. It was recently reported in the paper that he was ill, and having seen his wife suffer from cancer before her death, he was in support of assisted dying.

He was a really good spin bowler and captain. I couldn’t understand why he left Yorkshire and went to Leicestershire as he did, but knowing how Yorkshire operate there’s sure to be a back story.

RIP Ray Illingworth

I see the numpties playing down under have yet again shown how brittle their batting is.

That’s goodbye to the series and now all they have to play for is to prevent a whitewash.The chances of that are, I’m afraid, slim to say the least.