PHILINFRANCE

Right. This is now, surely, the make or break partnership. Nat S seems well set (she scored a Century against Australia last time out) and Sophia Dunkley is a very promising young batter. Fingers crossed.

Even more unlikely now that Heather Knight has gone. I was going to post earlier that Tammy B was batting well, but didn't want to jinx her, and was just going to post the same about Heather K. I must get these thoughts out of my head as Nat Sciver is also batting well. It is very unfortunate as, in normal circumstances, a score verging on 6 an over against Australia would be considered very good indeed, but, sadly, will be nowhere near enough today.

The pitch is apparently very good (like a road according to the commentators), so a good score is possible, but 350+ at 7 an over? I was going to post that there is still a chance if Tammy Beaumont can continue batting so well, but now she is out....

Apart from an excellent Alyssa Healy, Australia's batting was superb throughout. Anya Shrubsole aside, England's bowling was pretty poor, although those two early dropped catches of Australia's eventual top scorers might have changed things.

Australia beat England in the 1988 final. Things have changed just a little in the intervening 30 odd years. Watch the groundsboy (girl?) 10 seconds in. https://abc.net.au/news/2022-03-18/the-australian-womens-cricket-team-claims-victory-1988-world-cup/13801770

Wow, that's a very young and inexperienced bench.

It was the same here at 09H00 (08H00 your time). I set off for the market in brilliant sunshine after yesterday's snow, and my (gloveless) hands were frozen as I walked back with two bags full of bread, fresh fruit and veg. Hopefully, I shall be able to find a stream later and warm myself up with a nice jaeger tea whilst the goulash is slow boiling.

Would Steve Cotterill have known George Nurse when he was at Ashton Gate?

Wow, that is awful ?. I had to look up the name of the airport, but I just couldn’t figure out any connection with France. I was concentrating on Eglinton, rather than Derry. Very Clever.

Eglinton. But you have completely lost me with the French reference.

I see that Mel's £80M stadium is now being offered at a cut down price of £22M. Bargain, or does anybody think it might perhaps have been slightly overvalued ??

I think this might possibly be my best ever. Daily Quordle 65 quordle.com ??? ? ????? ?? ??? ???? ????? ?? ?? ? ???? ?? ?? ? ??? ? ????? ? ?????

We have a poster on here, who goes by the name of: Sir Colby Tit. Have you realised what his name is?

Lucky guess again. Wordle 284 4/6 ?? ?? ?? ?????

Over here, of course, we had that wonderful fixture earlier in the season: Nice Brest.

Which brings us back to the idea of a short (one/two season max) trial with Stuart Broad as captain. Not necessarily a bad idea, although all our reviews would be lost on the first morning if he were to open the bowling as captain ?.

Tom Abell is clearly a very good player and a good captain (for Somerset) to boot, albeit sometimes slightly negative a la Joe Root. He must be bordering on an England cap, but I question how he might be expected to be chosen as captain if he is unable to justify his place in the team; it would be very much a Mike Brearley selection in my opinion.

I see that Somerset's site is not much better than City's when it comes to editing and 'spell check'. Modernisation works going on at Gimblett's Hill. The work is being done in order to improve accessibility on matchdays, while retaining the history and character of one of the most popular parts of the Copper Associates County Ground.

Sorry, I wasn't particularly clear in my earlier post. For First Class games, there is normally a very good stream on the main Somerset CCC site, usually with a link to the home team's stream for away games, although the quality differs depending on the team. For white ball cricket, though, I agree that SKY's coverage is excellent, and I generally watch on SKY, even if the match is available on the Somerset site. In case you had forgotten, the season starts next week (Thursday) away to Hants - there will surely be a stream - and I am sure Friday's three day friendly home to Warwickshire will also be streamed.

A very religious island, where it is important to get to the cemetery quickly. Just like in Ireland. From 3.30 minutes in.

One last job and then we can all retire. Who cares about the reputation?

I must have missed something here. I agree that SKY's coverage of cricket is wonderful, but I wasn't aware they actually covered County cricket. Has it been around for some time, or is this something that is coming in this season?

This is from the Derby forum, and is pretty well done in my opinion. Let's again try to summarise our position only this time using visual metaphors . The first one depicts where we are right now. Imagine all the 'good guys' are pulling on the lead and that the dog represents all of the current potential buyers... For clarity, here's the same metaphor would look like if the buyers could actually see some value in the deal and were keen to buy at the prices being quoted... And to fix this problem, here's the erstwhile admins trying to persuade Morris (the dog in this case) to drop the stadium cost and make all these problems go away forever... Meanwhile, here's what we're all doing.... Hope this helps! x

Well if you thought Derby were a big club, Staines is massive.

I am assuming you both refer to Somerset when mentioning County Cricket, but is watching on SKY any different to watching the live stream on the official SCCC site? The Somerset stream gives a wonderful picture with very enjoyable commentary.