I’d could really come off my long run on that shambles of a performance Red but will limit my comments to just a few points: - England showed the oppo no respect in the way they approached the game and got royally biten in the arse. Good. I hope they’ll learn from it but I’m not overly hopeful. - Brain dead batting. Brook and Duckett the main offenders. Lawrence can’t be included as he simply isnt good enough to open in Test cricket. Looser than an ageing hooker’s fanny. - Selection. Josh Hull. I’m sure the lad has some talent but he looked like he’d won a prize to play for the England team. Bowled at a shade over 80mph at best so hardly quick. Needs loads more experience to prosper at this level and his ground fielding was dreadful. So well done Sri Lanka. They have the makings of a decent side with 2 very good spinners (Hasaranka and Theeksana) whom I assume missed the series through injury, to add to this squad.
The death of the long range screamer...!! As a football fan who loves a long range screamer, I was lucky enough to see Steven Gerrard knock a few in from outside the box, along with a few more greats, Scholes, Lampard, Shearer the list is endless. So when I saw the link on the Beeb web page this morning I had to read it, and it sort of confirms what I have been saying in my local about the lack of long range goals because so many teams try to walk the ball in nowadays... The link that they put up for the goal of the month has goals that are absolutely stunning...!! See what you think...
I'll be truthful Oddy, I'm not as keen to go out of my way to watch football like I used to as I do find some of the touted 'big' matches a bit of a bore. I did have 12 years watching and following Liverpool and loved my time in doing so, but it just dosn't have the same feel now, maybe as I don't go to the game anymore, i don't know. All I know is that players like Gerrard, Scholes, Lampard Vieira and Keane to give a few examples are not around anymore, that Roy of the Rovers type as statistics and that god forbidden 'expected goal ratio' tells coaches that your % of scoring is very low... What a load of ole bollox...!!!
Number of passes and % accuracy have bound to increased because they keep passing the ball to each other in their own half and back to the GK half the time. Even when they stride forward with the ball, as soon as they come face to face with the opposition they turn round and pass it back. You don't even need to be a footballer to do that
American becomes fastest woman to cycle globe This caught my eye, what an achievement, it must have taken some doing. But... When you get further down the write up I started to feel a bit like she's cheated when i found that... 'After pushing off from Chicago, Wilcox headed for New York, where she boarded a flight to Portugal.' no problem there, we cant cross water yet, unless your name is Jesus... 'She then spent several weeks journeying north to Amsterdam, down through Germany, across the Alps, into the Balkans and eventually across Turkey to Georgia.' which i would imagine would be a fantastic trip, but... 'She then flew to Australia, riding from Perth along the southern coast to Brisbane where she hopped on a flight to New Zealand.' Now I'm sure that there are some landlocked lands from Georgia all the way to say the coast of China, Vietnam of Thailand so flying for around a third of the globe, well it's breaking the 'Trade Description Act' of saying 'to cycle the globe'...!!! Apparently, according to the Guinness rules your journey should surpass 28,970km, which allowing for seas and oceans is way off the 40,000km it is if you travelled over the line of the equator... Well done to her, but...
The Guiness Book of Records is just a money-making machine. You can pay them to invent new records for you to achieve, it is all about money.
Good to see old Andy Carroll doing well in France, albeit with the 4th-tier side Bordeaux, who have experienced hard times over the past few years having to file for bankruptcy, etc. He scored twice with typical Andy Carroll efforts, after his team were 2 down to a rival club with the fancy name of Voltigeurs de Chateaubriant (sounds like an expensive wine?). His goal to even the scoreline was a trademark header, rising above the others and scoring from an outswinging corner. The Bordeaux fans just love him! (Source - Daily Mirror)
As was the rubbish that was supposed to be the main event. One would have thought Joshua would have been taught how to box by now. My 15yo grandson has far better movement and defensive qualities that that demonstrated by Joshua. Utterly shocking.
If this isn’t conclusive evidence that there is simply too much media coverage of everything, then I don’t know what is:
Spain and Barcelona great Iniesta retires, aged 40 So Iniesta retires and it sems that the whole world is saying he's one of the greatest players of all time and one that influenced a whole generation. Well he was a good player, but the greatest, that's open to debate and what you want from a footballer when you turn up to watch them play now isn't it...?? As someone who has seen a few class players in my time Iniesta isn't one that springs to mind as being 'the greatest of best' on the pitch, and I have seen him play on numerous occasions. I've not watched him week in week out, score an absolute worldie from outside the box, dominate midfield or play a Roy of the Rovers type of game, as it is those type of players that stick in my mind more than a passing machine that he most certainly was. No, the people who are talking him up all seem to be praising him for being part of a midfield three, Busquets and Xavi being the other players, and that makes me question if he is indeed the greatest of all time...?? The game of football nowadays is a 'coaches wet dream' for me, with players judged by how many touches in the opposition half they have, key passes for passing sake, and expected goals per match or what ever that means. And I think Iniesta is one of those players who definitely falls into that 'Coaches Wet Dream All Star list'. Now, I'm not fussed about those stats, that's for the modern day fan who needs to be told how well a player is doing without actually watching him play, as the information on those kind of stats are everywhere, No, I'd like to think that I know what a 'player' is when I see one regardless of how many assists, touches in the opposition penalty area or if he cost too much, as I've seen enough over the years. The old line of 'Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder' fits well to my little rant, such as it is, as the players who got me up off my seat in admiration, talent and sheer excitement don't seem to be around as much as they were to me, which is a shame. Maybe it's me, and I'm getting a bit too long in the tooth to appreciate the tippy-tappy football that is so prevalent in today's football, but as one bloke said to me in our local pub years ago, I like my music, but it's gotta be good...!!'
Absolute class isn't he our boy Joe Root, just so easy on the eye, effortless in stroke play and a damn fine cricketer full stop...
Taken from the Live Reporting from the BBC... Eng 434-3published at 87 overs 87 overs Trail by 122 That boundary was Root's 10th in this innings. That tells you how much running he has had to do in the heat. No wonder he looks so red in the face. Over 150 runs and he's scored only 40 of them by hitting the rope at a strike rate of 65 per 100...!! The mind boggles...
This Test match, which unfortunately i am following at work through the beeb web site, is utterly compelling. Records have been broken, some which you have stood a long time, the new Little Master Joe Root continues to keep to amaze with his batting skills and the new-ish pretender to the crown Harry Brook was sensational in his 317 run knock... Three more wickets required today as they are a player down, and it may well happen, but either way it's been an amazing match though tempered by the fact that the Pakistanis have crumbled like a rich tea biscuit under the slightest of pressure...!!
Well played the England cricket team after turning over a 1st innings deficit of 556 to win by an innings and 47 runs...!!
