I don't miss Sky's commentary tean - Ian Botham has never been known to tell a story that doesn't show how wonderful he is. Michael Vaughn has been accused in some quarters of only ever pushing players that are signed up to an agency in which he alledgedly has a financial interest. Michael holding is the best of the bunch.

I'm prepared to give Shane some leeway - not only is he the greatest spin bowler ever (because I discount the leading wicket taker as a "chucker"), but while he was at Hampshire, he never left the ground before he had signed autographs for any waiting child - even if there were hundreds.


I very much missed Tony Crozier this summer when the Windes were here. The first woman commentator on TMS was the very talented Donna Symmonds who went on to practice law.

willit - thank you for reminding me of Donna Symmonds' name - I was trying to remember it earlier. And I too miss Tony Cozier [not Crozier I think] but his replacement this summer, Fazeer Mohammed, was a hoot - did you hear him doing the calypso in between his ball-by-ball commentary? Sheer genius.

Interesting about Shane; I don't judge him as a human being so much as a commentator at which he is better than Botham [a plank of wood would sadly be better than Beefy] but far inferior to Michael Holding - his is another voice to which I could listen all day. Bumble is weird but funny too; I can just about tolerate Sky so long as he or Holding are on duty at the time.

As for Vaughan, I know he has his detractors but he is interesting to listen to, which in the end is [for me] what it's all about.

Well guess I have to eat my words. I gave away my ticket for the Boxing Day test. Lunch with my sisters ( on our own) was too good an opportunity to pass up.
Oh well still a lot of cricket to be played.

Watching the cricket today on tv and listening to Ian Healy and Michael Slater was enough to do my head in.
Ann hope you catch up on some sleep.

Watching the cricket today on tv and listening to Ian Healy and Michael Slater was enough to do my head in. >>

i'm not surprised, cheska. But can't you put the radio on and listen to that while you watch with the sound turned off? According to TMS, there are three stations you can listen to - a local station, plus the one that Glenn McGrath is on [begins with a G I think] plus ABC. Of course if you could get TMS that would be your best option, but you probably can't do that.

and yes I did get catch up on my sleep - I made myself stay up late then went to bed and listened to the first hour, which convinced me we were going to lose, then slept right through. You see, it's the hope that gets you. Once I knew we'd lost I could sleep quite soundly.

Ann if I could politely explain why I couldn’t get the radio to work I would. Needless to say that once it was explained to me how to get it turned on without having a honours degree in electrical engineering the cricket was over.

However the positive thing was I got all of our accommodation booked for Spain and England for our trip April- June next year.

well you'll have the radio for the next test, won't you? so it's not all bad - and you won the match!

Where in England and Spain are you going?

The cricket is on ABC Grandstand which is digital .
Glenn McGrath is on Macquarie radio - the stations vary from match to match .
I see Stokes is having talks with Canterbury in NZ !
Will the selectors put Maxwell in ( he made 247 in a shield match ) or the talk they won't disturb a winning side?

Ah, we can rely on you, Northie for the Ashes gossip. yes, Ben Stokes has received ECB permission to play some cricket while Somerset and Avon plod make their minds up about whether to charge him or not. [is one of them a closet Aussie supporter I wonder, hanging out the decision making for as long as possible in order to disadvantage the Poms?]

Don't know about Maxwell - certainly the English tendency over recent years has been not to disturb a winning side apart from where someone is "injured".

The good news for us is that because the Adelaide match is a day/nighter, we will be able to "enjoy" the last few hours of play every morning. That may also turn out to be the bad news of course, but we haven't entirely given up hope quite yet.

The Adelaide test will be fantastic to watch as it is a beautiful oval. So the radio will be on and the tv although with the sound down. Not sure what the forecast is for Adelaide but the east coast of Australia is tipped to have possible foods this week. Oh yea more rain. We have had so much rain and thunderstorms where I live I am over it. I don’t even live in the tropics.
Adelaide was 39c today so I hope that holds up for the weekend.

Haven’t quite finalised the itinerary for England and I am hoping that Prince Harry marries anytime after the 22nd of May because that is when we arrive. However, my DH is not so excited about the Royal Wedding.

Places to visit are Oxford Chester Harrogate Lincoln and Windermere. Then end in London so I can visit Westminster Cathedral. We visited England in 2013 and I loved it. I just love that there is not a gum tree to be seen.

We will focus on Northern Spain. Will arrive in San Sebastián from Paris. We are going to be in Villers Bretonneux for Anzac Day. That is going to be something special.

May the best team win.

Not sure what the forecast is for Adelaide but the east coast of Australia is tipped to have possible foods this week. Oh yea more rain. We have had so much rain and thunderstorms where I live I am over it. I don’t even live in the tropics.
Adelaide was 39c today so I hope that holds up for the weekend. >>

Your weather is definitely very mixed at the moment though I'm sure that the England team doesn't hope for 39C at the weekend!

<< We visited England in 2013 and I loved it. I just love that there is not a gum tree to be seen. >>

you haven't been to Cornwall then! plenty of gum trees here. But probably too far for you to add into your mix of places, which looks good - rest of trip as well. I had to google Villers Bretonneux:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viller...ional_Memorial

and yes, may the best team win.

cheska15 - we went To Villers Bretonneux 2 years ago just after Anzac Day - see my trip report under my name - also Amiens , and Fromelles - all very moving for Ausyralians .

Roll on Adelaide .

I didn't know Ben Stokes was born in NZ - the other day ABC said it was the first team with all English born players since 2002 - love all the usual,trivia - lucky Ben wasn't in the team or they wouldñt have had that piece of gossip .

northie, I didn't know that either. The majority of players being English born IS something of a novelty - I remember after one series v SA, some wag quipped that our South Africans [including Strauss, Trott and Petersen] were better than their South Africans.

DS has decided to put his alarm on for the end of "tea" [or whatever they are going to call the second interval] so that he can watch the last session of play which should start at about 7am GMT - who knows I might join him [at least on the first day!]

Hopefully there will be no rain delay . South eastern Australia has been having severe storm warnings since Thursday night - expect equal to our whole summer rainfall in the next 3 days .

northie. Really enjoyed your trip report. We are very excited about visiting VB for that day. Sadly we booked to late to get accommodation so it will be a long day from Paris. We don’t mind though.

Rain Rain go away. We have had enough as it is playing havoc with the roses, and the rest of my sort of English garden. Even the native plants have had enough.

What should Australia do if they win the toss. Outfield will be slow I think.

What should Australia do if they win the toss? >>

Bat. Or if in doubt, bat. [per WG Grace and he knew a thing or two].

If you want some more up to date advice, this is what Mike Brierley has to say:

http://www.pitchvision.com/reading-t...win-the-toss#/

So Root took Brierleys advice !!!! Maybe he thought he should use reason 3 ��.

cheska - glad you liked my report - if you get time visit the Newfoundland site at Hamel - the young Canadian guides are great . I have the name of a guide who can pick you up at the station and drive you to VB .

The sledging talk is ridiculous - certainly put Smith off his game . I laughed at the article by Anderson on Aussie sledging - they say he's the worst of the lot .

Did your son get up early to watch annhig?

Did your son get up early to watch annhig?>>

no, but I had the radio on most of the night. [ok, call me a masochist!]

Root's decision not to bat IMO shows his inexperience - if he was going to do that he should have made sure that his bowlers were up to the job, which clearly they weren't, apart from the rookie Overton.

As for sledging, I'm not sure who's the worst TBH - the aussies clearly got under Bairstow's skin in the last test, making a fuss about something they hadn't mentioned for a whole month, and there was something going on in the first innings of this test with Smith, which I think was the afters of that press conference, but I don't think he can blame anyone but himself for getting out in the 2nd innings - finally we have started to bowl well. Why it's taken so long for them to find the right length and a bit of zip I have no idea.

And why didn't Smith make us follow on? Madness, particularly as the weather may not cooperate tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm expecting your team to win tomorrow despite their poor batting today - I just don't think that we've got anyone, let alone 2 anyones, who can block it out for a draw and you have simply played a lot better than us.

annhig I don’t think Australia will win this game. Very poor batting, and our bowling early is poor. But then I have been wrong so early in this series and so often what would I know. I just don’t have confidence in this team.

Smith really annoys me as a Captain as I think he antagonises people. I expect the Captain of a side to have a bit of class off the field.

cheska - I disagree - I think Smith is a great captain and is normally very composed on the field - that's why the was so much surprise that he let the sledging get to him this time .-.Opinions - everyone's got one !

I fell asleep with the radio on the night before but only missed the bit where it rains and pay finished - which is why I wine up to music .

Can't work out why Smith didn't follow on either . Why didn't he refer the Cook LBW?

Lovely story involving Bairstow - a man Andrew Johns who when he was about 8 answered a question about who was the wicketkeeper for England - it was David Bairstow . For his prize he received a pair of wicket keepers gloves autographed by David . Just yesterday Andrew gave the gloves to Johnny Bairstow . Andrew said I just lost my dad so I thought how important it would be for Johnny to receive something his dad had written on especially as David had tragically died when Johnny was 9.
Johnny was very move to receive them and took the gloves to the Adelaide .