Huh? We don't care about that. Seriously, outside of a few of us who just love sports in general (like me), most Americans rank soccer below sticking hot soldering guns in their ears on the "stuff I'd do with a gun stuck to my head" list.
It's called Football. You see there is this ball right, that's round, not shaped like an egg, ok and you kick it about, with your feet! Hence Football.
Soc-cor doesn't exist here... :)
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Huh? We don't care about that. Seriously, outside of a few of us who just love sports in general (like me), most Americans rank soccer below sticking hot soldering guns in their ears on the "stuff I'd do with a gun stuck to my head" list.
It's called Football. You see there is this ball right, that's round, not shaped like an egg, ok and you kick it about, with your feet! Hence Football.
Soc-cor doesn't exist here... :)
:-)
It could be worse, we could be Canadian and discussing curling.
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Huh? We don't care about that. Seriously, outside of a few of us who just love sports in general (like me), most Americans rank soccer below sticking hot soldering guns in their ears on the "stuff I'd do with a gun stuck to my head" list.
It's called Football. You see there is this ball right, that's round, not shaped like an egg, ok and you kick it about, with your feet! Hence Football.
Soc-cor doesn't exist here... :)
New Zealanders call Rugby Union: Footie/Football
Australians call Aussie Rules (possible the oddest sport of all): Footie/FootballSoccer is a contraction of Association Football.
And every time I see a football player spasm like they're in their death throes because someone stood next to them I rechristen it Wendyball.
:b
So, yeah, cricket looking good for England on day 2, if they can dominate day three then it's all down to the attack.
Just don't mention the World Cup 2018 or 2022Huh? We don't care about that. Seriously, outside of a few of us who just love sports in general (like me), most Americans rank soccer below sticking hot soldering guns in their ears on the "stuff I'd do with a gun stuck to my head" list.
It was just another occasion for Obama to show his irrelevance away from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Good natured sledging about how bad the English are at sport is fine but it would be good if we could concentrate on cricket.
Examples
Merv Hughes & Javed Miandad - During 1991 Adelaide Test, Javed called Merv a fat bus conductor. A few balls later Merv dismissed Javed: "Tickets please," Merv called out as he ran past the departing batsman.
Ricky Ponting & Shaun Pollock - After going past the outside edge with a couple of deliveries, Pollock told Ponting: "It's red, round & weighs about 5 ounces." Unfortunately for Pollock, the next ball was hammered out of the ground. Ponting to Pollock: "You know what it looks like, now go find it."
Eddo Brandes: Somebody asked "Eddo, why are you so fat?" Brandes promptly replied: "Because every time I make love to your wife, she gives me a biscuit."
Some background:
The series is named after a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, in 1882 after a match at The Oval in which Australia beat England on an English ground for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.
The Ashes serries is played for five matches in the test match format...
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams, with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days. It is generally considered the ultimate test of playing ability and endurance in the sport.
Currently the first match was drawn it is now the beginning of the 3rd day of the second match and England have the advantage.
Day 2: ENG 2/317 (89.0), AUS 245
So Australia were all out on the first day for 245 runs (no side away rule in Cricket everybody bats until the 10th player is given out).
England managed to bat the whole day and only loose 2 wickets (wickets are all the sticks set up at each end of the pitch (stumps are the tall ones and bails are the small ones, you are out if the ball hits the wicket) which means they can continue to bat and force the Australians to field all in the heat of a 33*C day.
The best hope is that it rains or that Australia can hold on for a draw when it is their turn to bat.
Huh? We don't care about that. Seriously, outside of a few of us who just love sports in general (like me), most Americans rank soccer below sticking hot soldering guns in their ears on the "stuff I'd do with a gun stuck to my head" list.
It's called Football. You see there is this ball right, that's round, not shaped like an egg, ok and you kick it about, with your feet! Hence Football.
Soc-cor doesn't exist here... :)
New Zealanders call Rugby Union: Footie/Football
Australians call Aussie Rules (possible the oddest sport of all): Footie/FootballSoccer is a contraction of Association Football.
And every time I see a football player spasm like they're in their death throes because someone stood next to them I rechristen it Wendyball.
:b
So, yeah, cricket looking good for England on day 2, if they can dominate day three then it's all down to the attack.
It annoys me when people correct me and tell me that soccer is football... It makes me hate the game and all the more. Id rather watch lawn bowls than soccer.....
Rain stopped play.... we might be able to hold out for a draw :-)
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Rain stopped play.... we might be able to hold out for a draw :-)
I reckon you will.
Strauss is generally a decent captain but he plays too safe on these kind of calls. He should declare with the three-hundred lead so that the Aussies play some shots to try and win it.
He'll put another hundred on in the morning even if the weather is good, then the Australians will only have a draw to play for and will defend all day.
Good to hear that Pietersen had a good knock, hopefully getting back to form.
Rain stopped play.... we might be able to hold out for a draw :-)
Oh, dash and botheration. It's only supposed to rain when England are losing. I shall be writing a stiff letter to the Times demanding an explanation from the Met Office. I mean, if they can't even give us good weather when we're beating the Aussies, what good are they?
OH bad luck Australia..
Australia all out for 304 in their 2nd innings..England win by an innings and 17 runs.
OH bad luck Australia..
Australia all out for 304 in their 2nd innings..England win by an innings and 17 runs.
Humble pie is out of the oven - I having it with mushy peas, mash potato, gravy, Worcestershire sauce and some Newcastle Brown Ale.
You have a very good team and I think it will be a few years before we are number 1 again....
Got to get rid of Ponting and Clarke.
Stupidity knows no bounds.....For former test captains
Fierce foes for 33 years, it seems former Ashes captains Ian Chappell and Sir Ian Botham have been at it again.
Chappell and Botham reportedly had to be separated after an altercation in the Adelaide Oval car park on the fourth evening of the second Test between Australia and England.
"Botham, who hasn't spoken to former Australia captain Chappell since 1980 despite them working in close proximity in cricket ground television booths around the globe, was waiting for his Sky transport to collect him outside the Adelaide Oval," read a report in England's Daily Mail newspaper.
"Chappell muttered something highly provocative as he went past. A surprised Botham turned around to retort: 'What did you say?' And after Chappell made another incendiary remark, both of them dropped their bags and were at each others' throats before being quickly separated."
An observer of the incident said it was fortunate there had been others close by.
Ah Greg and 'Beefy'..that never gets old.
All England has to do now is play for the draw in the next 3 tests and they win the series.
Aussies changes should be interesting to see.
I dont think that there will be many.... I hope the Poms win the series and we not only get rid of Ponting, but Clarke and all of the selectors as well.
There it has been suggested that Warnie said he would play but only if they offered him the captaincy.
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All England has to do now is play for the draw in the next 3 tests and they win the series.
Not going to happen. Australia generally produces result pitches so playing for a draw is a big mistake.
Besides England just need one more win to retain the Ashes and they will go for that with all guns blazing. England need to go for the jugular whilst the Aussies are down for the count, don't give them a chance to regroup or get confidence back. It's what the Australia of 10 years ago would have done and if there's any team you should copy it's that one.
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so can someone please explain what this has to do with Buddy Holly?? He was not English.Buddy Holly was a great medium paceman and was a dab hand with the bat (although his weakness was the hook-shot). He wrote Peggy Sue while on tour with the Sc~~@horpe 11.
ROFL....
Scun thorpe is a rude word........ Filter doesn't like it.
Which means what preytell??
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Huh? We don't care about that. Seriously, outside of a few of us who just love sports in general (like me), most Americans rank soccer below sticking hot soldering guns in their ears on the "stuff I'd do with a gun stuck to my head" list.
It's called Football. You see there is this ball right, that's round, not shaped like an egg, ok and you kick it about, with your feet! Hence Football.
Soc-cor doesn't exist here... :)
It is officially Association Football, The term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford "-er" abbreviation of the word "association." It has been Soccer ever sense. :P
Which means what preytell??so can someone please explain what this has to do with Buddy Holly?? He was not English.Buddy Holly was a great medium paceman and was a dab hand with the bat (although his weakness was the hook-shot). He wrote Peggy Sue while on tour with the Sc~~@horpe 11.
ROFL....
Scun thorpe is a rude word........ Filter doesn't like it.
the C word makes up a part of the name of the town Sc_unthorpe and the obscenity filter picks it up and changes the characters. I feel very sorry for the people of Scunthorpe.
Yuck. England appear to lack a suitable pace replacement for Stuart Broad, if the match figures coming out of the game against Victoria just concluded are anything to go by. Okay, there seems to have been some 'declaration bowling' going on in the Victoria second innings (Strauss bowled four overs, for goodness sake, although he did actually take a wicket in one of them!) and it was only a three day game, but given that each side played two innings, I would have expected Tremlett/Shahzad/Bresnan to take more than one wicket in total between them over both the opposition innings.
I think the Australian team are so demorilsed that they have no chance... State sides are different - a lot of the players in a State side are looking to get onto the national side.... so they have a bit more fire in their bellies.
I am glad that Warnie is doing his best to score against the English... I think he bowled a maiden over.
Third Test and another Aussie batting collapse looks like it's on the cards..69 for 5 at lunch.
Australia all out for 268.
Tremlett seems to have done okay.England in to bat, currently 15 for 0, Cook making a good start.
The end of Ponting is nigh... just got to get rid of Clarke and the selectors...
I would push Hussey, Haddin, Johnson and even Siddle up the batting order and drop Ponting to 6.
Congratulations to the Poms you played great cricket.
Now if I was English I'd be most upset ..but I'm Scottish..totally neautral when it comes to cricket.
It seems to be a bowlers pitch though..
Well at least you got Ponting for 1. Bugger.... I want Australia to loose so we can can get rid of Punter but Haddin, Hussey and Johnson have fought so hard and the deserve the win.... arrgh torn on this one.
Here in Texas, people's entire lives are based on their allegiance to a particular college's American Football team. Watching the game, though, I always used to say, "This would be a lot more interesting if there were fewer people on the field, and if they kept playing instead of stopping every time someone falls down."
And, finally, an overseas friend clued me in: "The rest of the world watches exactly that game, mate. It's called rugby."
I don't want to seem pushy, but could you suggest some numbers for tomorrow's lottery draw.
Alas lottery numbers are a lot less predictable than the England men's test side's ability to plumb new depths of mediocrity - usually most spectacularly after they'd been giving their benighted fans some hope that they weren't (after Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) the worst test side in the world. It seems to me that the England women's side would often do better playing against the men's current opponents than the men are actually managing to do.
Hey-ho, the one day and twenty-twenty series will be coming soon though, and even on an off day the respective England sides can usually make a decent showing.
Mediocrity? You're being far too kind to the lickspittles who currently comprise the England team. I've seen houses of cards in a hurricane take longer to fall apart. Disgraceful. Ok, Igor, get me the onyx, the shovel and the location of W G Grace's grave. Tally ho, we're off to save her imperial majesty's blushes.
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The worst test side in the world after Zimbabwe and Bangladesh? Please!
The England team has not lost a series since March 2009. That's almost 2 years. That includes an Ashes series victory and a drawn 4 test series in South Africa. Since January 2009 their record is played 27, Won 13, Drawn 9 Lost 5. Hardly the record of a poor side. Frankly if that's "plumbing new depths of mediocrity" then you need a history lesson. Compared with the England vintage of the mid 90's this team is practically superhuman.
Yup England got spanked. Yup it happens. Does that make England a bad side overnight? No. England have a decent side, not brilliant but decent. They got beaten by a class bowler who suddenly found form and a class batsman who has been in form for the whole series. Besides the Aussies have far more problems than England, Ponting, Clarke and Hughes are walking wickets, Smith is a journeyman who got lucky, Perth aside the Aussie bowling has been poor and they don't have a player resembling anything close to a passable spinner. Frankly I'd rather be in the shoes of Strauss than Ponting.
The WACA is traditionally an Englishman's graveyard. It behaves differently from other grounds and as such England always have difficulty there. Besides Australia were always likely to win at least one test in this series.
They had a bad day at the office or 4. Nothing to be ashamed about. This series is not over, England will regroup and we will have a close series by the end of things.
If you want to criticise an England team start with Mr Capello's men, they really deserve it...
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I agree with much of what you say there Charles. What I was objecting to was the asertion that England are the worst team in the world bar Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. In my opinion that was a really exaggerated and incorrect evaluation of England's relative position in test cricket.
To be clear that was a bad loss for England. Not hitting 200 twice in a single match is a terrible result which ever way you slice it. Harris had a good match (particularly in the second innings) and Johnson in the first changed the course of the match. But that's the WACA for you, England never do well there.
My opinion is that England are marginally the better side with fewer problems. This, combined with the fact that England only need to draw the series, means that my money is on England. However, if Johnson keeps firing and Harris can continue to support him with wickets then I see no reason why Australia can't win the series.
The Aussies will keep an unchanged side (for once). Shahzad should come in for Finn, he's good against left handers and England need to find a way of dealing with Hussey. However I have a sneaking suspicion the will go for Bresnan instead. Not what I'd do but England like his reliability and greater experience. His superior batting ability might also come into play.
As for the batting order, I suspect that it will remain the same. Another heavy defeat might cause concerns about Collingwood but England are very reticent to drop batsmen and I doubt they will do so here. Moving Bell up the order is unlikely to happen, it will look like they do not trust Collingwood to produce and Bell has done better at 6 than at any other position.
If I have to stick my head out I would say the next test will be a draw setting up a winner take all final test.
Game on.
All out for 98 arrghh.
Somebody at MCG wants Ponting gone as much as the rest of Oz I guess..
England 157 for no wicket..makes you wonder who was fooling who in the third test
Which only proves that selectors everywhere are much the same no matter what the sport or nation...ie Out of touch
It's 5.15 AM here in the UK and England are on 340 for 5..242 ahead and half the batting order still to be got rid off..maybe they aren't so mediocre after all.
So declare at end of play today hope to demolish the Aussie batsmen in short order again and then have 2 full days to win...seems like a good plan.
444 for 5 at close of play on day 2