Ashes Prediction

[=CfC=BlueDog]

5 - 0 whitewash by the  Aussies.    

Weather is the only thing that might save the Poms!

[=CfC=Father Ted]

Well Mr Blue "Glenn McGrath" Dog, I think it may be a tad closer than that.  Mind you, I'm writing this as the first day comes to a close and I don't think there'll be many draws!

I think England will win because their batting is better, but they are not the favourites that a lot of our press seem to think they are

[CFC_Conky]

Oh dear, here we go again....

[=CfC=BlueDog]

Mr Blue "Glenn McGrath" Dog

Ha, Ted.   More like Mr Blue "can't bowl, can't bat, can't field, can't predict" Dog.   My cricketing skills rival that of one of our former Prime Ministers, seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o8by05rtMY

[CFC_Conky]

At the risk of offending the U.K. chaps (at least those who can figure out the game  ), with the Admiral being half W.A., I must need root for Oz.

Pip, pip,
Conky

[=CfC=BlueDog]

Goodonyer Mate.

[=CfC=Father Ted]

We're only three days in, and I'm knackered already.  Which is the most incompetent team?  England, Australia, or the umpires?

[=CfC=BlueDog]

Uh-oh

[=CfC=BlueDog]

Lunch, Ted.   How tense is this?

[=CfC=Father Ted]

Too blooming tense! The Aussies need to reverse their batting order.

[=CfC=BlueDog]

Haha.   Only a minor change required: whole new top order should do it!   

Revised prediction:  Aussies 4, England 1.   Only weather will save the Poms.

[=CfC=Father Ted]

This is going to be a close series.  England have the firepower upfront, but Australia have useful seamers and a very handy lower order.  If Jimmy Anderson should happen to, say, step on a stray cricket ball in training, then I  think that the sides would be pretty much even.

[=CfC=Bounder]

Great match......but!

"To walk or not to walk.....whether tis nobler to suffer the slings and wides of outrageous Press...or uphold the last bastion of of a gentleman's sport?"

I have to agree with "Agner's". It will be a sad day when we no longer see a batsman not even look up at the umpire and set forth for the pavillion. The problem is that like all other sports, it has become tainted by money, sales and business attitudes.

What a shame!

Bounder

[=CfC=Father Ted]

I think that cricket has never really been the paragon virtue that people fondly imagine it to have been.  WG Grace once infamously refused to leave the crease upon being bowled because "they've come to see me bat, not to see you bowl, sonny".  At the level I play at the umpires are usually part of the batting side and the temptation to ignore flagrant edges and plumb LBs all too often overcomes them.  One season I did some stats to see how we got out and how we got our wickets.  We had two successful appeals for LBW and gave one to the opposition (I was umpiring!) in a whole season.

I guess what I'm getting to is that when male egos clash, the veneer of gentlemanliness quickly wears off, and probably always has done.  In fact, cricket probably has a greater problem than some other sports because of the lack of opportunity to get physical, so people resort to verbal attacks.

[=CfC=Bounder]

Hmmmm.... not how I remember the days of Peter May, Freddie Laker and others.....

They would be welcome additions to CFC....but not Mr. Broad!

Interesting though that Jonathan Agnew's opinion was also in minority yesterday....definitely a sign of the times!

Bounder (Retired .....of Tunbridge Wells)