Ted Max

Number six is not any more key than five or seven, I just meant it's a proper, full-on batting position - not one you can chuck a 'keeper averaging 30 in first class cricket (as just about all the available candidates do) into as a best effort approach. Flintoff has just bowed 40 overs. If Sidey is fit he can bowl lots too - as can Jimmy if he is retained. Colly and Pieterson could mop up 15 overs a day between them, easy. But Jones is a wicket taker who does something different. Broad is developing, just that. Developing. I like him and think he has a big future but he is being milked by the Saf batsmen right now and they need jolting out of their comfort zones.

What does Broad do in that team? He seems incapable of taking wickets - there only to store up an end for a while. Might as well play the proper extra batsmen until Broad has developed a bit more bowling threat. Number six is a key position in test cricket and you have to have a proper batter there. The keeper could be any keeper from Foster, Mustard, Davies, Scott, Ambrose etc. I'm not fussed - but none of the candidates is a test match six.

Abject. Five hundred and lots plays a brace of 200s. Still think England can nick one of the next two, though. They will, if they've got any sense, go back to six batsmen, keeper, and four bowlers. I'd like Jones to play instead of Broad. Wouldn't even mind Harmison back in - yes, it's that desparate. Side for Edgbaston: Cook, Strauss, Bell, Pieterson, Vaughan, Collingwood/ Shah, Flintoff, Ambrose, Jones, Panesar, Harmison/ Sidebottom.

Here comes the somewhat rat-faced Steyn. About time, I'd have thought.

Btw Brendan, keeping the thread on topic is very noble of you. And I'm sure that's your only motivation for not wanting to talk about rugby this morning.

I'm saying a Saf win some time tomorrow morning. Probably chasing 14 to win in front of 12,000 empty seats.

If they ever met the Welsh Patagonians, they could create a Rugby super-breed out there.

Strauss would be handy with an ?p?e, I'd reckon.

Although 123-5 is usually not very good anywhere.

Do you think - counterattack was a decent option I'd have thought. This bowling attack was always likely to do the business at least once this series, and winning the toss at a cloudy Leeds offers the best chance. No undue cause for alarm. Channels Boycott - "You never know how good a score is until you've had both first innings".

ALthough Doha is older, more established and historically classier, in recent times its immediate neighbour, Dubai, has attracted a new class of younger, more moneyed incomers, while Doha itself has stagnated a bit. So you can change the scenery, Alan, but not the situation. Seriously, I have a friend teaching out there at the moment and she is loving it.

Abraham got a bit confused there. Mistaking the grass for his hands. Entirely understandable.

Seems this time he did get a decent pill. And he shouldn't have been in at all - Bowden's decision arguably costing England two wickets.

Keef's favourite has gone again. England were offered a referral system for this series but declined it. I bet Strauss, Cook and Collingwood wish they hadn't.

Is Pattinson one of those typical, hard-to-distinguish Aus/Kiwis - coming over here, confusing national cricket selectors like JRussel. It might explain his selection.

England have dropped Collingwood and brought in Grimbsy-born Aussie Pattinson to play instead of the injured Sidebottom. Nice to see a bit more Aussie grit being added to the XI.

Now you're just taking the pith.

Now, as I'm sure you know, there's already a life-improving development that can help you with that.

Macroban is round at Reggie's now, giving a full .ppt presentation on how optimistic naivety is the classic fifth stage of the Greenberg-Meerstad theory of recessionary behaviour. And telling him his tomatoes will never grow in that potting mix as well.

Can you point to an example of what you mean?

I'd like a (.php/ J2MEE/ Midi2.0 etc etc) script which stopped people replying seriously to a Jrussel thread, even when they know they're being trolled as they do so. Perhaps a shock through the keyboard when they hit the "post message" button. And a soundtrack I could play out over my phone when I'm in the pub to make it sound like I'm in the office.

No, I have not lived here long enough to remember a Tesco on Lordship Lane. But I'm willing to wager you cheerily greeted its departure as evidence of the terminal decline of this failing retailing sector.

Drinking champagne at lunch will do that to you.

Sushi would appear to be a clear winner. I'm not sure why. Perhaps there's not enough mercury in the drinking water. (I'm willing to bet the PhatDhuc is where BellendenBelle had her spoon of mash experience, btw. Unless it was in El Bulli, in which case she can PRO (Phuc Right Off)

All these people with personal experience of meeting royalty, and yet they continue to live. This chap had the right idea, although he lacked, er, execution.