England retain Ashes

Congratulations to the England Test cricket squad whose brilliant play in the first two tests produced a two-nil lead in the Ashes series.

The abandonment of the third test due to rain makes it mathematically impossible for Australia to overhaul England so even if they square the series England will retain the Ashes.

A great result but a shame it's due to rain: both England and the Aussies have produced moments - and ineed hours - of brilliant play and deserved a decision which was not the result of the British climate.

A Russian general once said that his country had two generals on which it could rely - "Generals Janvier and Fevrier" (January and February). Whenever England is trying to save a test match during a home series there is a similar possibility that our weather will intervene.

Let's hope we get some more good cricket during the remaining two matches.

Comments

Jim said…
I always thought cricket was rather a silly game really. I remember the final ashes test 4 years ago, England were all out for around 3 runs in the first innings, Australia scored 700 million for 2, then it rained a lot so it was a draw.
1:22 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Cricket is an acquired taste and you have to be prepared to put up with the possibility that a match can last five days without a result - or four and a half days and be rained off.

But when a cricket match is great, it's REALLY great.
1:46 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

Image
I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more