PHILINFRANCE

That's him. Quite amazing that he became such a great bowler, despite his arm injury. Mind you, Fred Titmus carried on playing Test Cricket after he lost some his toes following a boating accident in Barbados, and Colin Milburn (one of my favourites) persevered for a while after losing an eye, much like the Nawab of Pataudi.

Some of my earliest memories of international cricket are the West Indies superb fast bowlers - too numerous to mention - plus Lance Gibbs, whilst India had their great spinners, Bishen Bedi,Chandrasekhar (I can't remember his first name) and Venkat. I used to be glued to the BBC for days, whereas today I find it hard to even watch the current World Cup, let alone The 100.

ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP TEAM M W L PT NRR IND 5 5 0 10 1.353 NZ 5 4 1 8 1.481 SA 4 3 1 6 2.212 AUS 4 2 2 4 -0.193 PAK 5 2 3 4 -0.400 AFG 5 2 3 4 -0.969 BAN 4 1 3 2 -0.784 NED 4 1 3 2 -0.790 SL 4 1 3 2 -1.048 ENG 4 1 3 2 -1.248

I should be interested to know how many of England’s squad have actually played a 50 over match in the last year or so. Obviously, plenty of 20 over matches and the infernal 100, but not many (if any) 50 over matches. A great shame, in my opinion, as it is my favourite short form format.

As it turned out, chasing 400 exactly.

Not forgetting, of course, Southampton’s Ron Davies.

I have just this moment said to my wife that I am going to have a nice cold beer, and she has asked me to get her a glass of rosé. Santé mon ami.

Obvious, innit? One can draw water from a Well, and the missing ‘S’ was pinched from (S)Pring, from which you can also get water. Or something like that. Or just taking the water.

I was back in the UK late last year, and accompanied my mother as she watched a few episodes. I am embarrassed to admit that I did not pick up on one City reference.

So, is his Christian name Keir? Are you going to enlighten us?

Very Naughty

If The Netherlands go on to win this, and it’s looking increasingly possible, England should say a big Thank You to Roelof.

With Helmut Schon managing Germany. I didn’t realise your love of Germany and their football started so long ago - you would still have been in school then, sixth form - in fact, you would have left a year or so earlier - and Hanover was our German exchange town. I have just seen that Dieter Muller was playing up front, seven years after his older brother, Gerd , bullied us in Mexico. Also, one of Scotland’s former managers was also playing.

As did Johnny Quigley. The FA Cup game, in which both GL and JQ played, was in 1967, whereas they had both left by the time of the 1970 match, which was the League Cup, the semifinal no less, the first of three, all of which we lost .

This was my first season, and John Atyeo's last. When I first started watching (1965/66 season), the two full backs were Tony Ford and Alec Briggs, in front of Mike Gibson.

So, do you have a link after all?

As I recall, S O’D suggested that Flint was very expensive and that he would not have paid that much. To put his comments in to perspective, however, I am pretty sure he was suggesting that he would not have spent so much of his (limited) budget on a single player, and a defender at that. I daresay that anybody who watched one of Flint’s early games - away to Port Vale, I think - would have agreed with S O’D.

Hmm. Steve Cotterill certainly gave us a wonderful (promotion) season, but I’m not sure it was the best since the 1950s. Alan Dicks gave us a pretty good season in 1975/76, and a few years after.

Aside from all the embarrassment and ridicule that has emanated from our blue friends over the years, one praiseworthy body appeared a few years ago, Her Game Too. Unfortunately, I am hearing that this honourable group of brave, good intending girls and ladies have recently parted company with Rovers. What a shame and, whilst HGT appear to left graciously and with no fanfare or (stated) bitterness, one can only imagine the reasons for their departure. What chance of them receiving a warm welcome at Ashton Gate, football allégeances aside.

I always used to feel the same about Ipswich, especially when they were being managed by the late, great Bobby Robson. It is unfortunate that, like so many on here, my feelings have changed due to some irrational dislike for one of their senior personnel, late of this Parish.

Perhaps you could let @Shauntaylor85 know .

All very interesting, but, unless I missed it, you haven’t identified the goalscorer. Are you going to enlighten us?

As often happens, Wednesday’s next match is home to local rivals Huddersfield, who, of course, are now managed by none other than Wednesday’ Playoff winning manager, Darren Moore.

I have never been to India, but had a wonderful trip to Sri Lanka some years ago. Unfortunately, it was outside of the cricket season, but I did manage to get myself an unofficial guided tour of Galle. When I say ‘unofficial’ I actually paid a man who claimed to be ‘security’, but he was very knowledgeable and seemed to have keys to most rooms. Perhaps I’ll manage to go back one day to watch some cricket.