The third match in the Ashes series is scheduled to take place today, but weather may well win. It certainly is here as it has blocked out my satellite system so I can’t watch it.
With the series poised at 1-1 (and the points at 2-2) the winner, if there is one, will take the lead going into the 4 point Test Match on 11 August.
If there is any play, please feel free to put comments below.
In the meantime, I’ve updated a couple of Century Watches on The Extra Bits if you are interested. More stuff will go up on there during the day, all being well.
Being Outside Cricket 
Rain update: It’s raining less now apparently. Play may be possible this afternoon and they could even start at 4.00 and play a T20. But there’s also a scheduled rain day tomorrow.
LikeLike
Looks like they’re using the rain day.
LikeLike
Forcast for Worcester tomorrow is cloud, more cloud, extremely a lot of cloud and showers – they are correct in calling it a rain day because it will, rain!!!!
LikeLike
All this rain must mean that the summer holidays have finally started…
LikeLike
Worcester, hmm… bit of a history with rain, that ground…
LikeLike
Parked my car there on Saturday morning so I can happily confirm it was not quite as bad as Zeph’s picture, regardless of how wet Friday was. Has rained all Sunday in Worcestershire though. Might be reaching the boundary rope by now.
LikeLike
The game is happening, scuba equipment not required. Aus batting.
LikeLike
This is not looking very good for England. Edwards is a such a talisman (taliswoman?), when she gets out cheaply their heads drop.
And raining again now.
LikeLike
“England top order fail again” – No, not the men, the women – very poor display all round – is this an omen for the Test on Wednesday??? Australia relentless in their approach to this game in somewhat trying conditions.
LikeLike
Hm, not good. 89-run victory. And it seems (I couldn’t watch most of the match because of work) that England’s fielding was poor, always a bad sign.
This is all feeling a bit like being an Anglo-Saxon village subjected to some determined Viking raids.
LikeLike
Paul Nixon @Paulnico199 46m46 minutes ago
Want 2 Tickets for @TrentBridge for Sat 8th & a chauffeur picking you up & taking you home + Champers £500 reserve #Bid #Charity Plz RT👍🏼
right sort of family??????
LikeLike
Not relevant to this thread i know but lovejoy has just been completely owned by Glenn McGrath on Radio 5 Red Button show. Asked by Mark Chapman whose wicket meant the most when they took it Lovejoy replied when he got his brother out once. McGrath replied with the straightest of faces ” The best players of my generation, Brian and Sachin”.
LikeLike
Sadly this is getting far more traction:
http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/the-ashes/graeme-swanns-ruthless-kevin-pietersen-impersonation/story-e6frf3gl-1227460322567
No love, no joy, as someone once wrote…
LikeLike
Absolutely hilarious.
LikeLike
As was that idiot’s numerous attempts to make sure it got attention this morning on twitter.
LikeLike
Should you need cheering up, some of the fruitier responses to this tweet are (perhaps counter-intuitively) quite refreshing.
LikeLike
One of the respondents once ran me out at Addington!
LikeLike
This however is very sad.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jul/28/clive-rice-south-africa-cricket-captain-dies
LikeLike
I’ve never forgiven Swann for an interview he gave when he got into the England side, that included an oh-so-funny put-down of Monty Panesar whose place he’d just taken.
Darren Gough had the right idea.
LikeLike
I listened to the first 45 mins of that show last night, and Swanns contribution was revealing.
I should say I was a big fan of his bowling, and he was a huge part in Englands success of that period. In fact his bowling and KP s batting had more to do with England becoming number 1 than any of Strauss’s so called leadership and trust issues.
But the more I listen to him the more he comes across as a complete buffoon. I don’t know if he means to do it but every time he reveals his thoughts and what went on in the England dressing room he makes all the claims about Strauss and Flowers so called professionalism ring rather hollow. It all sounds rather fly by night. His claim last night that it is a very un English to have confidence in our ability to win a series as opposed to Mcgraths constant claim it will always be 5-0 May have a bit truth in it. However it reveals a dressing room far less confident than the one portrayed by the Selveys of this world when they try to elevate Flower to a super hero.
If you listen to Swann it all sounds rather schoolboy level. He also revealed the deep hatred England have for Warner. He made a point of pointing out that Warner had not told the truth about that incident in the night club with Root. Apparently Swann knows the real truth. Although when he was challenged as to whether he was there he admitted he wasn’t.
The worst part of his retiring mid tour, even if he had realised his career was over was the way he just bailed out. Even worse, when he sits on the same side of the anti KP brigade who complain about KPs lack of interest in the last test match. You can’t have much less interest than to just pack up and retire mid tour and bugger of back to blighty. Especially as Trott had already left the tour. But I get the impression that Swann seemed to just do what he wanted. Funny how those rules are quite arbitrary in the way the management enforce them. What ever you think of KP he stayed till the the end.
LikeLike
A radio show with Swann, Hayden and Waugh would be my idea of hell.
Swann’s a Strauss, look up Geoff Lemon’s transcription of Hayden’s commentary on a WC match in Tasmania if you’ve not already had the pleasure and, although Waugh isn’t quite as grating as those two, his ignorance of anything not Australian is legendary.
LikeLike
Talking of trust, I wouldn’t believe anything Swann says. I think he’ll say anything that comes into his mind if he thinks it’ll make him look bigger than someone else.
I do, however, believe that Flower did (as Swann claims) tell him to leave the tour if he wasn’t going to bowl. At his best he was a wonderful bowler and brought England a lot of success, but if he wasn’t going to be out there taking wickets you wouldn’t want him hanging around.
LikeLike
I just logged in to my very rarely used twitter account to tell Lovejoy he was a nob and it turns out he’s already blocked me.
I had to go back through my tweets to see if I’d ever sent him one before, I had indeed. I mentioned him in a tweet to Simon Hughes asking why go after Pietersen for liking money but not Swann for taking the Unibet shilling and promoting gambling, which I personally abhor. It seems he took exception to that.
Oh and btw, isn’t that ‘impression’ along the same lines as KPGenius?
LikeLike
@ArushaTZ
You may well think that. Look at the tweet Dmitri has linked in his latest….
LikeLike
Sorry to barge in on a thread, but I’m on my way home from the Death of a Gentleman London premier. Good event, good q&a afterwards. Nice to feel inside cricket for a change – or at least inside what I recognise as the cricket loving community.
Unfortunately Simon Hughes set up camp in the row behind me. I thought about moving when he started talking. At least on tv he can be muted. But I stayed in place. I wasn’t moving for him.
Funny thing happened after the film though. Sam Collins, one of the film makers, made a remark about the state of the game’s administration. He commented that: “Participation is down. Viewing figures are down.”
The ‘Analyst’ immediately turned to the chap sitting next to him and said: “It’s gone up, hasn’t it?”
“What?” replied his lucky companion.
“It’s gone up!” repeated Hughes.
I can’t say for sure which particular statement had attracted Mr Hughes’ disapproval, but either way, I can’t imagine what metric he was quoting that gives him such a wrong-headed impression of the state of the game.
They really do exist in a bubble of the ECB’s making…
LikeLike
I did wonder whether that was him. He looked older than I remembered.
Powerful film and I urge anyone who hasn’t had the chance to see it to go watch it – http://t.co/UOJsbnXzcQ for screening times. I’m proud to have contributed a small amount of money towards it back when it was “just” a documentary about Test cricket.
LikeLike
Hughes’s response just reveals the walled in ECB world they live in. They are completely clueless about the real world of cricket.
LikeLike
Clive Rice passed away.Rest in Peace.
LikeLike
Indeed. Sad news. Part of that ruthless Notts team of the 80s. Tremendous competitor.
LikeLike
Anyone who missed this a month or so ago, it is an absolute must-read:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/888925.html
LikeLike
2 gone of these heroes now… http://www.espncricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/118800/118884.jpg
😦
LikeLike
I sense SimonH’s teeth clenching…
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jul/28/the-spin-death-of-a-gentleman-icc-ecb
Might be all right… let’s hope so, we’ve waited long enough.
LikeLike
Way too soft on Clarke. Unbelievable.
LikeLike
Posted some of my objections on the thread – but I was so furious it isn’t especially coherent.
I’ll calm down (a little) and return later…..
LikeLike
SimonH, I hope you don’t mind, but I took the trouble to remind Galactus of this:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jan/21/the-spin-icc-reform-proposal-cricket
It’s worse than I remembered, to be honest. Amazing how much more well-informed the BTL community was. And of course (although I couldn’t find Selvey’s tweet) the Guardian had the draft proposal but chose not to run it…
LikeLike