PHILINFRANCE

Not any more it's not. It has been adjourned! Apologies, I was typing at the same time you were updating your original post.

I am not on, nor do I follow, social media, so would not be able to comment on your observations. By a process of elimination, however, I believe there are only a few possible candidates, i.e. the 'culprit' has to be one of the younger members of the squad - current or any time this past year - and, apparently, has only played a few Tests this year. I do have two further observations, though. 1. There was some suggestion that the ECB powers that be were of the mind to send OR home after the close of play on the first evening, i.e. when his historic tweets first came to light. It would seem that, for whatever reason, they had a change of mind, perhaps because all players in that Test were white? I wonder what the outcome might have been were, for example, Moeen Ali or Adil Rashid in the squad. I have not mentioned Jofra Archer as I believe there was no racist tweet about black people, 'just' Muslims. 2. My second observation is that DB has just been called up to the squad for the second Test as cover for Jack Leach. It will be interesting to see whether that changes over the course of the next few days, perhaps due to a niggling calf injury. Of course, my ideal scenario would be that the culprit is somebody else, both JL and DB play at Edgbaston and the latter takes a few wickets and scores a century....

I’m just hoping it’s not Dom Bess.

I doubt it (hope not). COVE's 'indiscretion' was some years ago and, more importantly, was on-pitch and, thus, dealt with at the time. Heaven forbid he had/has continued to post similar comments If so, there comes a time, surely, when the 'cricket' authorities must say, 'OK, Come clean with what you have posted as a youngster and we shall deal with it - disclose it now and we shall try and help you'. HEAVEN FORBID YOU SHOULD TRY AND HIDE IT, FOR WE SHALL FIND (BE INFORMED OF) IT AND YOUR INTERNATIONAL CAREER IS OVER. Apologies for shouting, but, inadvertently, my caps lock was on and I am too tired to go and correct it.

Was he the rather distinguished gentleman in a white dinner jacket who got banned for discussing recipes for gravy? Or were there more than one?

À propos creative defences, I am sure you recall Sir Alex Ferguson’s totally credible excuse for speeding/driving on the hard shoulder of a motorway, i.e. he had an extreme case of diahorrea (spelling) and was desperate to get to a toilet. He was acquitted.

He wouldn’t, though, would he? He is ‘quIte’ hard himself and has money. He also has influential ‘friends’, including a convicted Police killer. Should he be imprisoned, which I doubt, he will no doubt be feted by his fellow prisoners.

But this current offence is surely less serious than the previous one (OK, previous two or three or four....?) My understanding is that JB has simply pleaded Not Guilty, i.e. not even that the alleged offence was committed in self defence. My bet is 12 months suspended (maximum).

But was subsequently acquitted.

For a category three offence?

Is DC contracted to play red ball cricket?

Cahors is certainly strong in tannins, but such an earthy taste is a preference of mine when eating beef, whether as a steak or in a goulash type dish, or even with duck. Nevertheless, I would generally choose a bordelais wine for such dishes and, of course, duck is very popular in the south-west of France - I am sure you ate lots of it when you were in Cahors. Unfortunately, Argentinian wines and South American wines in general are quite hard to find in France, mainly because they are so heavily taxed and, thus, exhorbitantly expensive (in comparison to their French equivalent).

Firstly, apologies to @cidered abroad for the continued digression from the original point of the thread. I am familiar with Cahors wine, which, incidentally, has improved dramatically in the last twenty years or so - it used to be quite rough back in the 1980s, but improved once the relatively new vineyards became established, but must say I have never tasted an Argentinian Malbec. You suggest there is a large difference between the two: which is better, in your opinion?

Hmmm. England's batting order contains five men under 25, one averaging more than 34, four on a pair, and is missing its two best attackers. What they should have done is simply breeze their way to a total of 273 in 75 overs against a top team who have dominated them since day 1.

So, a (quite high points scoring) draw it is. Now comfortably top of the group, with just two games (Leics and Surrey) to come. Should Somerset beat Leics at Taunton and Hants win one/draw one of their remaining two games, we should go through top of the group.

You could be right: I’ll check and see what AGod has to say about it. I hope there is no problem with the light as, apparently, the faulty floodlight that caused play to stop early on Thursday is not due to be repaired until tomorrow!

I don’t know whether you watched the fight, but they were ringside and celebrated when he won. Nothing wrong with that, you and others may say/think, but imagine if he had taken a severe beating over several rounds before being knocked out.

Something slightly disturbing, distasteful even, seeing what I assume (by the look and size of him) his brother, wife/partner and young son sitting ringside.

Dubois has just won - KO in the 2nd round.

Well, he was injured, sort of, apparently.... From BBC: On the late argument on the touchline: "John Afoa got injured a couple of weeks ago at the Gloucester game and was due back next week. "On Thursday Kyle felt his hamstring tighten up and he failed a fitness test. We made a call to start John and then bring him off at half-time. "At the end we had the yellow card. I thought John had come off as an injury [replacement], but it was down as tactical. "The Leicester guys came in and started hammering us and accusing us of all sorts of things. John got annoyed with that, and said 'I'm going' and went and did it."

Indeed, and there was a match last season, I forget which, when (to my mind) he batted on too long when, if I remember correctly, rain was forecast the next day and we (clearly!) threw away a possible victory due to TA being over cautious. Of course, we won quite comfortably....

Of Course, but surely bringing on even just one of the attacking batsman I mentioned above, perhaps MdL, who, even were he to be out first ball, would have changed very little in the overall scheme of things, and might have given us twenty or so extra runs without jeopardising our position.

We scored just 12 runs in the 20 minutes (6 overs) after Goldsworthy was out. If we were/are looking to get a lead of 400 runs, with a maximum of 96 overs tomorrow and rain forecast both this evening and tomorrow (probably reducing that 96 overs), then, with 5 wickets still in hand, why didn't we get Tom Banton, LG, RvdM and/or MdL to have a 6 over thrash? I mean, I appreciate a draw is not a bad result, and a defeat would be quite a blow, but that approach is unbelievably cautious.

Hmmm. That would leave Hants chasing 400 in a maximum of 96 overs, although some rain is forecast for the morning - probably too much to tempt them.