I believe The Oval has plans to go to 40,000, Lord’s 35,000.

Quick glance at their forum, fans not too happy about it...

Very much like the Trent Bridge Test pitch against India in 2014. It was marked ‘poor’ by the ICC and they were officially warned and I think fined. What are the chances the MCG will get the same treatment? 0, 1%?

The problem I see is the difference between home and away conditions are getting bigger and bigger, or at least the away sides problems with dealing with said conditions, not good for Test cricket to see so many away sides rolling over. Look at India over here a couple of years ago, and then England getting battered in India, think I read that the SCG hardly ever sees an in play Test series, usually a dead rubber by the time the last Test of the summer reaches Sydney. The fact tours are crammed in these days, with no proper warm up matches won't help. Nowt we can do about it with the schedules as they are, but not good for the format.

You can swing a bowl at 90mph, you can hit the seam at 90mph. Watch Dale Steyn in his pomp. Or Wasim Akram or the classic Windies bowlers. Darren Gough and Flintoff had more bite than the current crop. I've read that a lot of our young bowlers can move the ball at pace, however once the Engalnd set up gets hold of them, they are that worried about fine tuning their action to avoid injuries that they lose the 'real' pace they once had. We are fine to carry on as we are and we'll win most of our home series, but we won't win on Oz pitches any time soon, but I could see them winning here.

We'll knock India over in the summer in seaming and swinging conditions and this will all be forgotten, just like four years ago. We'll continue to shoehorn the County Championship into the early and late parts of the season when the pitches are doing plenty, meaning counties don't need 90mph fast bowlers, as a 75/80mph trundler can take plenty of wickets in those conditions, or to even play a spinner. Then we'll go to Aus in 2021 and lose 5-0 again.

Downing, Smallwood, Bennett, Dack, Samuel/Graham/Nuttall, Whittingham? Plus a Scot and an Irishman. Sometimes a Northern Irishman over Whitts, another Scot instead of Bennett. So usually 8 out of 11 are British and Irish, not particularly extraordinary...

Rich Sharpe was watching the game (and presumably planning out his match report) whilst live blogging on the LT website AND co-commentating on Radio Lancs. No wonder his ratings are all over the place.

I imagine Northampton will sell out...

Unfortunately they've knocked the away terrace down and replaced it with your standard seated stand.

Don't watch it, however I did catch her first audition, thought she's quite 'posh' for a Blackburner, or 'well spoken' as me Grandma would say... oh she lives in Langho, fair enough! Watched it again on Saturday just to see the Catherdal Quarter in all its glory beamed across the nation, all of a sudden it was 'Who wants to go t'pub?' 'Areight Black-b'n!'

I was in Brisbane for the first test and what really struck is how into their sport the vast majority of the populace seems to be. Various reasons for this, but what I did notice is that nearly all their top sports are found on free to air televison. Football is our national game and can survive behind a paywall - plus there are some live matches on free TV, plus Match of the Day each week. The ECB threw away a golden opportunity after the 2005 Ashes and the fact you can't even find Ashes highlights on free to air just shows how low profile cricket has become.

Noticed that a fella called Ryan Grant is now writing the articles on the official website. Quick look on Twitter says he's our new 'Comms & Media Manager'. He's come from Man Utd, so let's see if anything improves...

Two loanees in the starting 11 on Tuesday (0 at Shrewsbury), probably a lower number than a lot of other clubs outside the PL. This summer we actually looked to do permanent deals instead of filling the squad with borrowed players.

Is Chapman the finished article? Not by a long stretch, but at the end of the day we are in the third division and there are enough bang average full backs that he can terrorise. I can understand perhaps playing more of an all rounder away from home - i.e. a Bennett or Conway type that will do their fair share of defensive duties. But at home, when the emphasis is on us to take the game to teams who are often happy with a point, he MUST start.

Just thought I'd chuck this thread in here: http://www.bournemouth.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=72835&start=1

There was a Dundee FC fan our train yesterday bemoaning the Old Firm. Cue a load of Rovers fans with strong Lancashire accents state how they are 'big Rangers fans'

The LT isn't much different, it is basically now just re-hashes stories from rovers.co.uk It doesn't even try and inform when it has the chance. For example there was an article about Leutwiler being called up for Canada, stating that he will 'miss the Blackpool game', will he? Surely any journo worth his salt would add a quick caveat stating that said game is now likely to be called off?

Technology isn't devouring everything equally, so how soon is in the 'very close future'? Apps are seeing off banks from the high street, but physical book sales are booming again. I noticed on my holidays this year just how few kindles were being used - they were everywhere 5 years ago.

Probably. Got chatting to one of CREATV former employees on the train back from Bradford (he'd been let go in the summer). Sounds pretty much like Neil Yardley does the lot media wise now, with the Football League picking up the slack through ifollow.

Who actually puts it together now? The infamous Paul Agnew having long departed, plus Alan Yardley's CREATV had to lay off most of their staff this summer with the end of Radio Rovers and big screen coverage.

Bingo!

I enjoyed it. Season 1 is an adaption of the book of the same name. Season 2 and 3 is original material. It's from the creators of Lost, so as you can imagine it gets fairly surreal at times...

Seems bizarre to keep Cat 1 status and then not be actively looking to blood the one's that are good enough. The likes of Lenihan and Nyambe were only given a chance through injury and are now pivotal members of the first team squad.. indeed Lenihan now has a decent price on his head - Venky's whole raison d'etre for keeping Cat 1 is surely for selling on for a tidy sum. Is it down to Mowbray (and generally today's managers) who know they are one bad run away from the sack? And in Mowbray's case, possibly one bad run away from ever managing at a decent level again - ergo no trust in youth players.

Gabba, my mate has family in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, so we get digs for free, result! For years we've said 'we'll definitely do the next Ashes tour'... and we don't, so we've finally bit the bullet!