Does that come with an extra ticket for your fiancee?

I did ask, and originally there were two tickets.



But they'd already sold yours to someone else

Well I hope she's lovely. I'd have come like a shot.

'she' is a large bald headed chap






Edit for dylsexic gnifers again.

Well in that case I hope he's erudite and amusing and has no unpleasant habits. I'm very jealous mind.

Just in case this hasn't been sung yet...

*All you ozzies are bound to lose,
you ozzies are bound to lose,
all you ozzies are bound to lose,
You ozzies are bound to lose"

lol!

I resent those comments about the wonderful Blofeld and CMJ.
I was brought up on John Arlott and Brian Johnson so it can never compare, still love it though.

My biggest problem with the channel 4 commentary is they don't bloody comment on anything, I've watched ball after ball after ball and they don't say a bloody thing.
I want analysis and nonsense and talk of strawberry sponge...

Yeah, you can't imagine these guys absent mindedly saying "the batsman's holding... the bowler's willy..." then pissing themselves with laughter for the next ten minutes.

AND I want Booker T & the MGs back. Lou Bega just aint the same (and I can't quite believe I've had cause to put them in the same sentence!)

Oh happy days...

dissident..u might have been singing a bit too early..
a draw was as good as a win for the aussies..
though the english totally outplayed us at trent bridge and should be 2-1 up but.....

Hmm, I did think I was a touch early, but there is still the rest of the series...


" All you Ozzies are bound to lose..."


I just hope I haven't jinxed the series now

I think you might be being a little premature - Trent Bridge isn't until next week!

Although, you're right - we did outplay you at Old Trafford...

I'm just annoyed that they're not releasing players back to their counties in the meantime - which meants Hants will be without Kevin Pietersen for the Semi Final of the cup - grr!

Sarah just remember that Yorks don't have Hoggard or Vaughan .... & as Harvey is 90% certain not to play we're already 1 man short.

p.s. THE C&G Semi (Hants vs Yorks) is on Channel 4 at 10:15 on Saturday morning. If Yorks had been drawn anywhere else (Edgbaston, Old Trafford or Headingley) I would have been there ...... but the Rose Bowl is just too far for a day trip, especially as it's a bitch to get out of in a car. Before you ask yes I've seen a county match there .... Jaques, our Australian, got the first 200 on the ground in the match

sorry..i do stand corrected ..it was old trafford that u were all over us and couldnt win..bring on trent bridge..go aussies
but what great cricket , hats off to the english , you finally have got your act together...harmison and flintoff are great bowlers

Even if we don't win this series, this is by far the best England side that I've ever seen. A couple of weak spots, but these are only noticeable because of the otherwise all round excellence of the side.

Well that sorts out my Saturday viewing then - doubt I'll get off the sofa!
I'm not that keen on the Rose Bowl, I grew up with the wonderful Northlands Road ground and the new one just doesn't have any atmosphere in comparison.
Having said that, the last time I went down there (my parents don't live in Hampshire anymore and neither do I) they hadn't finished all the building work so it may have improved since then!

Be warned the following is in boast mode.

I saw the last championship match at the old ground. Yorkshire won off the last possible ball of the game with Morris (a Yorkshire exile) being caught out & Hartley (another exile) at the non stikers end in his last innings for Hamps. I'm a self confessed county cricket saddo. Whilst the new ground is terrific I agree that the old one was far more homely & had far more atmosphere. The Rose Bowl does have oneadvantage. The golf club by the ground has one of the best breakfasts near to a crcket ground.

I hoped you enjoyed the match ........ it wasn't the best team that won ... it was the ONLY team that deservedly won. Yorkshire batted poorly, bowled poorly (Kruis excepted) & fielded appallingly ..... basically we're bl***y awful !

I was pleased that Hampshire won because they played well, not just because Yorks played badly.
I'll be at my parents for the final - I wish we were all at the final at Lords rather than watching it at the telly but there you go.

The Rose Bowl did look lovely on telly - I love how those trees have grown, its going to look really pretty in the coming years.
Nice to see both Pietersen and Warne lending their support, even if they couldn't play (grumble grumble!)

Talking to someone tonight, I very probably have a ticket for Sunday at Trent bridge as well as Saturday (again at the usual ticket price)

wear something cool aqua, and i'll like out for ya

it should be a good game (hopefully)

but i hope gilly's form improves. I LOVE gilly.

Once again the toss will be all important. Thursday will be interrupted with rain and the conditions will stay cloudy all weekend. Call right and bat first seems to be very much in order.

We will do well to keep our recent form, as TB will offer no reverse swing to our bowlers and either kasprowicz or tait surely can't bowl as badly as gillespie has so far.

England's best hope of victory is to place a few stray balls near McGrath and Warne's warm up areas.

Vaughany won the toss this morning, good good good!

Jacki B - Gillespie is so yucky! And they did a great close up of his head in the last test - showing his rather grey roots (about an inch of them) - the dude dyes his hair (as, so it seems do all the Aussie team - why do they think highlights look good? Yuck!)

Yeah spotted those grey roots too - getcha hair cut fella!

I don't think there is a finer sight in sport than Michael Vaughan cover driving an aussie for four along the ground.

It's just looks so fucking beautiful.

I'ts Benaud time...................22 for 2

22 for 3 *turns cartwheels*

My PA is an aussy

99 for 5 !!!!!!............and I have a ticket for the next two days


Hope that I remember to take them

Blimey 163 for 8

You'll hardly need the Sunday ticket at this rate

175/9

Very enjoyable day at Trent Bridge today. High spots were three sixes from Brett Lee. (two of which went over the stands and out of the ground ) a brilliant slip catch from Strauss.......................and Warne, having just walked onto the pitch, stopping Jones halfway through his run - up for no apparent reason only to be caught off the first ball delivery that he said that he was ready for.
As you can imagine, the majority of the crowd were hugely sympathetic

T'will be interestesting to see what happens tomorrow

eek eek eek 36/2

Aqua - you lucky lucky bastard!!

Indeed Sally !!
Fabulous day where the balance of the match changed, on occasions, by the minute. Some great bowling to get the Australian team out ...........but what a fight back ! Seeing Warne bowl so well (on what may be his last test tour) was brilliant. and The dismissal of Flintoff by Lee saw a lot of fingernail chewing by most of the crowd. Toward the end, with seven wickets down, I was a bit worried that I might have to go into 'work mode' as the chap sitting next to me (a South African England fan) was continually clutching both his head and the left side of his chest after each ball and I thought that he was going for either a stroke or a heart attack.
He explained later that he'd been at Edgebaston on the last day as well and 'didn't think he'd have to go through anything like that ever again'
Wish that I had tickets for the next one

...........I took my new camera by the way. I tried about 3 pics to see which mode would look best and then the batteries died

Ashes / Sunburn poem.

It has to be said,
I'm incredibly red,
'cause I went to the cricket on Sunday,
and whilst in the ground,
the sun moved around,
but I didn't notice 'till Monday.

A year ago we'd have lost that game after Flintoff had been taken out by Lee - what a superb delivery that was. But it's a measure of how far this side has progressed that they clung on and finished the game off.

ENGLAND ARE THE BEST SIDE IN THE WORLD AT CRICKET.

There, I've finally been able to say it with a straight face. Despite the bluster coming from Ponting there is more wrong with the aussies than anything a fit McGrath, or a high score from Hayden can fix.

I’ve heard lots over the couple of days about hoping for rain. I don’t think this side needs to do that, we have the measure of the aussies. If you made up a combined side only Strauss, Bell, Giles and Hoggard wouldn’t be guaranteed a place – and you could certainly put forward a decent case for including both Strauss and Hoggard. Provided they can keep themselves fit, this bowling attack will dominate world cricket for the next 3 or 4 years and the batsmen have shown that they are able to score both heavily and quickly enough to ensure that we can take 20 scalps.

I was at another cricket match .... & the last session was awful. There were a few people around us with radios ....& every time one of them said anything everyone around us went oohhhh. It was worse when the raidiolisteners commented on our match rather than the England one. Then 2/3s through a bowlers run uo everyone went mad. The game stopped whilst we celebrated .... yes England had won !!

* being very quiet *

actually, you guys deserved the win. england have been playing brilliant cricket, and the team just seems to have some real passion for the game at the moment.

I couldn't agree more Mo!

Unfortunately, apart from the Thursday afternoon - I've not seen any of the last test match, due to Reading festivities
If anyone was really fucking sad and happened to tape any of it, I'd love a peek!

Jacki, thank you for this post. Some Australians haven't been big enough to say what you have, whilst some Englishmen have gone a little over the top ... but it is more years than we care to remember since the ashes were a competiton.

Mr B walked nto work the other day (we have quite a few english people in the office) and he said "now i know how it feels to be a pom - we're losing at the rugby, and we're loosing at the cricket" not sure about the reaction, however

i hope that the last game is a good one. should be.

on a happier note, steve waugh was announced as australian 'father of the year' yesterday, which is lovely considering all he does for the indian orpanage. still love steve. mmmm.

a pic' from where I was sitting (Hoggard bowling)

With your 'new' digital cam??

Nice pic

I'm even more jealous now Aqua!

Watched Hampshire beat Warks yesterday - marvellous match, we do like to make it difficult for ourselves though.

Have to say, I did shed a tear when Mark Nicholas visited Northlands Rd for the first time since it became Marshall Square (named after the great Malcolm Marshall) - you could see he was completely shocked to be standing in a residential estate that was once a cricket ground. Really lovely little documentary about Hants, from exactly when I first started taking an interest in cricket.
Shaun Udal (Hant's stand in captain while Shane Warne is on Oz duty) is the only player left from the first game I went to see and he's going bald!
I don't like feeling so old at 25!

Sarah, you'll only start feeling old when no one playing is younger than you. You'll start feeling really old when some of the umpires are also younger then you, or when you can remember some of the umpre's carreers e.g. Peter Hartley. I saw his first match for Yorks, his last match for Hants (vs Yorks at the old Southampton ground) AND he's younger than me !!

Now where was my walking stick.

My little brother just 'phoned me to say that he took my nephew for his first day at school today.


Remarkably 'off topic' you may think, until I mention that standing behind him was Ashley Giles dropping his lad off too

Wow! That is so sweet!
I always thought that Ashley Giles was the old man of the team until I realised that he's only 32 - obviously standing outside in the sunshine as part of your job really does prematurely age you!

As a lot of them are in their ealry 20's Giles IS the old man of the team.