you don't like cricket thenodrog.

we understand.

great.

now Kean off

Bit unfair Bryan......I do quite like the (severely) edited highlights.

Mm, Ashes is a bit of a clue Sherlock.

Eh? Why?

Limited overs cricket is like 4 or 5 a side football, interesting, exciting at times but essentially a watered down version of the real thing. Test Match cricket can be the most enthralling sport to watch. Who can forgot the drama of the 2005 Ashes series. Amazing nail biting stuff, games that see-sawed one way and then another. Just brilliant.

I think I probably managed it Tyrone, just remind me again ...who was playing?

I'd tend to agree with you TS, but I'm half tempted after the comments of mid 2013 from the northern hemisphere.

Seriously, test cricket is the be all and end all for me. Some of the best games have ended in draws.

I wouldn't know..... I'm always asleep by then.

Also when I was at school in the late 70s, early 80s, maybe 2 or 3 in the class said they were Rovers fans. I was the only who went. It was the same playing out in the local area.

LOTS OF LUFC MERCHANDISE ABOUT IN THOSE DAYS.

In the late 80s, before Uncle Jack put money in there were middle aged men in the local pub who 'supported' Liverpool as they were the successful team. They used to mock as we went to watch Rovers. As the Uncle Jack factor grew and Liverpool went into decline they switched to Rovers as lifelong fans and followed us all over. Now as the success has dried up, they never been near Ewood.

The majority of these I suspect have switched allegiances back to the Man Us and Liverpools of the world.

It is the same now as it alway has been but with the riches and media as it is today, the only club that the media want are the ones with large fan bases. As such the Premier League and the media want the rest of us to die so the next generation will have to support one of the big clubs. CORRECT. THE AMOUNT OF PRESS COVERAGE AFFORDED TO THE 3 DIVISIONS BELOW THE PREMIER LEAGUE IS SCANDALOUS.

I disagree with Theno who says that the only way to survive is Lancashire Utd. I suspect for a club to survive the only way is the MK dons way and franchise us to an area with a large population no professional football club within 100 miles of us.

WELL THAT CANNOT BE IN THIS COUNTRY CAN IT. INDIA? INDONESIA? PERHAPS? PERSONALLY I THINK SALMESBURY / BAMBER BRIDGE AREA IS FAR ENOUGH TO TRAVEL TO THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY STADIUM FOR A HOME GAME.

That will change IF you go your own way, how long will it be before you will need a bailout?

Bonnie Scotland, land of the midgies more like

It seems the penny has only just dropped about Scotland not being allowed to use the £ and having to become opart of the eurozone. Hasty and poorly thought out decisions brought on by resentment and the misguided desire to bite the hand that has been feeding it for centuries. They'll learn their lesson of course but it'll be too late.

Lets be honest just what does Scotland have to offer the eu?

You are becoming more and more like your avatar, Zaphod.

One head speaks sense ...

... and the other garbage ...

Ski jump? Maybe on second thoughts I should have said Craven Brow!

Unfortunately it also makes sure that the big clubs stay ahead of the have nots and totally destroys competition for the rest.

Exactly. It's quite simple, if you cant beat them... join them. Getting this across unfortunately is like trying to push a pea up a ski jump with my nose.

Or if a lot of the local residents didn't support sell out their own town and elect to support Man U or Liverpool, we'd have a much bigger fanbase.

Personally I'd horsewhip such.

If they are imposed then expect a third of the championship to be be on a transfer embargo this time next season...made of ex PL clubs

If that is the case as I suspect it will be then any club that has lived within it's budget and with a level head in charge will find good players will come extremely cheap. Wages will fall steeply and so will the number of hangers on. On the downside.... and there is always one, Ferrari, Bentley and Hummer shares will be in meltdown!

btw "The problem is that it is VERY elitist because unless you have big crowds in the PL then you are never going to achieve the dream..." A fact few are able to come to terms with. Too many pull the bedclothes over their heads and hope reallity will disappear but the plain fact is that for people in this area to ever support a local team which is able to compete in the top division it is necessary to amalgamate with our neighbours. It was unlikely before FFP but once that is in place there really is no option whatsoever.

btw good article that you found there Paul. I'd like to enjoy it more and throw some pebbles there way but unfortunately we are living in a glass house too.

Gave in (wife made me) and went to the Clogg for the first time since its been renovated, must admit I like the new layout, much better than before.

The food was good, although they didn’t have any partridge which was the main reason for going, but that can happen anywhere.

Just a note about the service, still poor even in a deserted restaurant, didn’t get offered the chance to buy a second drink, had to go to the bar, and our plates never got cleared away after we’d finished, we walked up and paid the bill.

This maybe being a bit picky, but you expect a certain standard of service and we didn’t get it, which is a surprise because the lad at front of house is very good and things have improved since he came back I’m assured by friends that have been recently.

Oh well

I do that at every opportunity these days Gav. It means that I can leave when I'm ready and not when other diners are being served AND more importantly that I am present whilst my card is being swiped.

I don't do Christmas (wife does) - I just treat it as any other day. I eat out on Christmas day, have done for years. Normally Indian.

How odd Pafell. Most prefer I know prefer Turkey or goose.

Both are as bad as the other I should imagine, and have been for a long time.

Good point. The aussies invented sledging are now developing it further. Did we really expect anything else?

Today, I've seen written that England had "doctored" the pitches to suit their bowlers during the last tour earlier in 2013. Scource: Michael Vaughan.

I also heard the same from Jonathon Agnew on the ABC 7.30 report tonight.

Really? Wow! Shock... horror!!! As far as I can see every cricketing nation does that. Happens in football all the time too.

Well done to the australians, they've won at a canter against our lot so fair play. But never mind pastimes that are quite literal kg past their time cos i'm pretty sure we'll pagger them at PlayStation games which appear to be the main thing these days...... Does anybody know a kid who got a cricket bat for Christmas back here?

Also if cricketers are still getting paid for their efforts then I hope our lot put their ill gotten gains into their pension pots whilst the Aussies spend all of theirs on elecution and etiquette classes. It appears that they certainly need to.

It does rather point at the management Tyrone.

Well tbh you said the 12 of you paid £1200 to Anson Bolton..it wasnt until the next paragraph that you mentioned the Millstone.

'Read the question carefully', was advice given before every exam at my old skoo Don.

Dunno how you could read it any other way tbh stuart.

I wager he'd struggle to recover 20% of that debt.

But in his position it's family or a football club that is in the hands of people that have spewed £160m already? Not really a tough choice is it? Somebody has to put the plug in the bottom of the bath and turn off the taps.

Think you might have been ripped off

I wasn't Yoda.... read it again.

thenodrog was that £100 / head at The Millstone? I've read it correctly?

£1200 / 12 = £100. Well done Paul.

I just cant see a way how you ever pay that off. Its mind blowing

The debt is unmanageable and unrecoverable. Same as ours. The solution is obvious to me, unpalatable to some but inevitable. Bankruptcy---winding up----- NW United.

tbh, Barry Richards would have been right up there, had it not been for the dark days over here. I would say that Richards would have been close to Bradman and Sobers easily. also Botham like that Aussie with the stupid moustache(sp) cant get to his name now lol, were more out there to entertain the crowd, and the crowd enjoyed that. Kallis on the other hand just got on with what he needed to do, which makes people look at him as boring

Nobody as boring as Boycott! Not an all rounder but just what is needed for a test match opener. Stubborn as a mule in defending his wicket and working the bowlers to soften em up for the rest of the batsman. (Unfortunatelt that stubborness saw him waste many years in the wilderness and denied him a batting record to top them all) Bowling at Sir Geoffrey in his pomp would have been like bowling at the back yard door! He should have been born this side of the pennines mind.

Well I'd be interested in your recommendations for something as good for what we paid - about £40 a head for three courses with good wine and coffee.

Fair enough comment o2g. I've never got away with that there but I guess the kicker is the wine/drinks bill.

btw I'm speaking as one of twelve (obviously all wearing donkey ears) who forked out over £1200 to Anson Bolton last night for a four course meal followed by a cheese board and a choccy or two with a glass of champagne on arrival and another at midnight! I had refused to go when it was suggested back in September on the grounds of the ludicrous price but er indoors agreed and paid without me knowing.

btw I must say at this point that everything was cooked and served to perfection as always at the Millstone BUT I get increasingly ticked off at establishments using the Festive season to effectively rip off their regular customers! If I'd not gone to the Millstone but instead gone to my local pub last night it would have cost me and er £25 just to get in, eat a few horses hooves and see the new year in! Considering the business I give them and the money that I spend over the year it's damned greedy and damned bad form. Compare this to the gesture by the Railway in Pleasington on Christmas Day of giving everybody their first drink 'on the house'. That is so much like it used to be a generation or so ago.

? Maybe I should have put this on the rant thread.

Kallis for me is the greatest all-rounder of all time, his stats are absolutely phenomenal. He is one of the greatest test match players of all time and he is easily the best players of his era.

Doesn't Gary sobers get a look in in this debate? He was quite good wasn't he?

Went to the Freemasons Arms at Wiswell last night for my birthday and for the first time. We had a quite outstanding three course meal. Everything was good but the pick was a duck egg custard tart for pudding which reminded me hw good a custard tart can be when done with care. Not cheap (£220 for 6) but worth every penny.

It is very good but imo given the competition around this area it's way too dear.

Just as an aside when it was 3-0 and the ashes lost why didn't we just come home? Nowt to be gained by staying there except a few bobsworth of gate money and we don't need it that much do we?

In your shoes I think I'd work on an 'ignorance is bliss' premise and a 'need to know' basis. Knowledge is power rem