MrDuck

On 28/02/2019 at 03:01, chrisp65 said:

I do a fair bit of driving with my job so for a few years I've had a hobby / game of trying to collect funky gravestones. Rule is: no major diversions, the graveyard has to be visible from the route I was taking anyway.

 

I'm imagining piles and piles of gravestones in your back garden that you've collected over the years, but I'm pretty sure I must have got this wrong.

4 hours ago, blandy said:

This neurotic England fan (is there any other kind?) wonders "have we peaked too soon?

We've been at and around this level for a couple of years now.

I don't worry about peaking too soon, more our capacity to completely self-destruct every now and then. As a neurotic England fan, you just know that game will be a semi final at the WC, instead of a dead rubber against Bangaladesh!

4 hours ago, Zatman said:

It wont happen but I would like to see a managerial transfer window that a manager can only be sacked in summer or a certain month mid-season

Nah. Change it so managers can't be changed until they've seen out their contract

ECB reveals new details of The Hundred....

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/the-hundred-details-revealed-by-ecb-new-england-cricket-competition/2019-02-22

Quote

 

Key playing conditions of The Hundred

100 balls per innings

A change of ends after ten balls

Bowlers deliver either five or ten consecutive balls

Each bowler can deliver a maximum of 20 balls per game

Each bowling side gets a strategic timeout of up to two and a half minutes

A 25-ball powerplay start for each team

Two fielders are allowed outside of the initial 30-yard circle during the powerplay

 

If England don't win the world cup, it'll be the cricketing equivalent of Brazil's failure in 1982!

We have the most destructive one day batting line up I've ever seen.

Is Roy now the universe boss?

This thread man, jesus.

We keep trying different openers that repeatedly fail, none has shown anything other than flashes of potential for years now. In the absence of any obvious candidates for the role, I say just stick Roy & Hales at the top and tell them to play their natural game. I can't see how they could do a worse job than any of these other guys and we might even get the odd decent start to an innings once in a while!

6 hours ago, snowychap said:

Well, well, well.

Can we keep Mark Wood fit until August?

Absolutely not. He's even more injury prone than the Australian quicks!

The important thing is the mileage on the clock, rather than the age.

12 hours ago, jackbauer24 said:

If Grealish is on 45k a week, he's on 180k a month. That means a donation of £1500 is approximately 0.8% of his monthly wage. If you earn circa £2k per month 0.8% of your wage is £16. And arguably you have less available cash too so that £16 means something.

 

#GrealishOut

Interesting position he finds himself in now, being managed by MON and Keane.

Hard to fault Solskjaer so far, doing a great job. Reckon they'll nab a CL place, which looked out of reach under Jose.

I hate all you folk with snow. I want snow. I love snow. I love the cold. Instead I'm sitting here waiting for a 39 degree weekend of hell

On 26/01/2019 at 02:14, Rodders said:

Mentally Mo has become like Broad, his batting is so fluffy and weak. He's fine when we're in a good position, and there to accelerate the scoring but any pressure and he's utterly poo.

On 26/01/2019 at 01:25, veloman said:

 I thought Ramprakash was an odd choice, bearing in mind his performances against top level opposition.

It's interesting that England's batsmen look great at times but cave in under the slightest pressure, just like Ramprakash did.

It's also interesting that Australia's batting coach is Graeme Hick - and the Australia batsmen look great at times but cave in under the slightest pressure, just like Hick did.

13 hours ago, villa4europe said:

stopping or limiting subs during injury time

 

 

Yes please. No subs in injury time would be a good call.

Good night out at Marvel Stadium last night to see Melbourne Renegades beat Hobart Hurricanes, although if I'm honest I was slightly disappointed not to see a gladiatorial fight between Thor and Hulk. Still, over 18,000 people for a Monday night was not a bad effort.

18 hours ago, sharkyvilla said:

I don't think this is anywhere near the best XI they could pick even without Smith and Warner.  Interesting how the quick bowlers haven't been able to get anywhere near as much movement compared to the Ashes, I wonder what has changed since then...

Who else would you pick? Lots of different batting options that are much of a muchness... they have a real lack of batting talent at the moment in red ball cricket. Glen Maxwell is the only person who would clearly improve the team, but Langer doesn't get on with him.

Absolutely no doubt there was ball tampering in the Ashes - the ball always went back to the bowler via Warner, who had his hand bandaged <cough> for pretty much the whole series.

Pujara, currently sitting on 183 not out in the 4th test of the Aus/Ind series as I type, has now batted a staggering 18 hours longer in this series than any Aussie batsman! India well on course for their first series win in Australia.

Australia have been mostly woeful this series, I suspect they'll get trounced in the Ashes this year - with or without Warner & Smith.

After 4 days of test cricket during the day and a Big Bash game every night, I think I may have overdosed on cricket this Christmas.

Horrendous story from Riise about Bellamy on Liverpool trip to Barcelona in 2005...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2018/dec/28/craig-bellamy-raised-the-club-and-swung-he-could-have-ended-my-career-john-arne-riise-liverpool

Quote

I woke in the dark to hear someone opening the door. Obviously I thought it was Agger. I turned, but my eyes were half-asleep, and I didn’t see anything in the sudden, bright glare. But something made me realise that it wasn’t Agger. And soon I could see him – Craig Bellamy at the foot of my bed with a golf club in his hands.

Steve Finnan, who shared a room with Bellamy, was there too, but he just stood there. Bellamy raised the club over his head and swung as hard as he could. He tried to hit my shins, which would have ended my career, but I managed to pull my leg away in time.

I jumped out of bed, pulled off the sheet and held it between us like I was some kind of half-awake matador. Bellamy sputtered: “Nobody disrespects me like that in front of the lads!” He was completely gone.

“I don’t care if I go to jail! My kids have enough money for school and everything. I don’t care. I’ll f**king do you!” He raised the club and swung again. This time he connected. Full force on my hip. I was so pumped with adrenaline that I didn’t feel the pain, but he hit me hard. It was an iron.

3 hours ago, Xela said:

If you are paid £200k a week you should sweat blood every single day for the team

They're employees. Money doesn't come into it... they need to be motivated and treated right by their bosses like everyone else, or they won't give their best.

Just clarifying that despite what others have said, the best Christmas movie is actually Elf.