Moores and Cook (as captain) are far too negative to win vs top teams. Time to change one or both of them.

Professional yorkshireman Boycott is a lifelong Man United fan. Anyhow, still saddens me re Ritchie, still havent heard a bad word about him. Its not very often when you have someone who's voice defines the sport across the world.

Best of luck to Mark Beaumont who started today on an attempt to ride Africa in 50 days in aid of charity. http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/news/local/perthshire/mark-beaumont-begins-africa-challenge-1.862546

RIP Ritchie Benaud, who has died aged 84, a legend as a cricketer and a commentator.

I think Hughes, Allardyce and Souness all have far better track records of identifying and developing young talent than GB Parson.

A lot comes down to the coaching and what they want from or see in a player. If you have academies full of ex-players who arent really focussed on the modern game, and are just looking for the quickest/tallest etc then they may misss the skillful ones, and to make a decision at age 12 is really harsh. How many of those players dont even go for another trial and just give up? Maj used to talk at length about the players who are missed because of the coaching myopia and some of the smaller clubs who have focussed on development of the individual to their talent, rather than the to the team style.

Boar Off

Im sure there was already something going badly wrong, and im not sure if time would have made any difference in this case, but if it had..... I'm not sure how often wrestlers actually get knocked out, but they really didn't look very concerned at all, even after finding out he wasn't feigning.

The thing that concerned me was how long he was left left unconscious on the ropes seemingly ignored even after one of the wrestlers showed the ref, then how slow and underprepared the medics where, they seemed to move him on a advertising hoarding.

Shanti lounge is no great shakes, but not poor either. Its a bit overpriced for what it is, but theres not a lot of competition on Buckshaw to be fair. Can't wait for the harvester to open, then we'll have 3 rubbish pubs to choose from, and a very overpriced poor italian. Must visit that Chinese in Astley Village soon, good reviews on tripadvisor.

Thanks Paul, yep, about 3 minutes walk away.

Any details Paul, thats pretty close to me, may be a worthwhile watch.

Ive played it on 2 platforms so far, can tell you it's amazing.

The clue was in the name to be fair CLB ;-)

Thats surely why god invented the record and fast forward buttons? Fargo is good, but it does seem they are spreading a slow paced story out over a long period of episodes.

I think if the scrum was actually the battle described then fine, but then how many times are they collapsed then re-set.

For those suggesting the codes merge, what would the rules be? Somehow they would need to take the boredom of the scrums away from union, whilst also taking the last tackle punt away from league. Both forms i enjoy, however the problem is if one team is more than marginally better than the other it rarely becomes a entertaining contest.

The difference I think is closely related to our mid-innings collapses versus the strength of the mid-order batting of the Aussies, you can blame both the bowling and also the batting for this, as there are reasons on both sides. In the summer our bowlers got us out of a few messes, in the winter they havent.

Its a failure of management if you cant get Pieterson (or any top player) on the park. You build for the future by bringing in players to a experienced winning team, replacing players when there are people better than them, not because you dont like them. KP has another 5 years at top level left, to me its a tragedy to see him removed so people who arent up to it to gain caps. Englands failings are far more down to poor bowling, and Trotts demise from being the brick on which we stopped collapses and built an innings by tieing up an end.

Admittedly Trott didn't excel in the summer, but that role I described is sorely missing at present from our side.

Hope you enjoy your day out. Massive day tomorrow for the whole Ashes tour. Personally think England lack a few more tough-nuts with the mindset of Atherton, Boycott, etc, a role Trott has excelled at in past few years. We also need a few more "effort" bowlers, as the pitches are really offering nothing at the moment.

Personally i think a poor day for England, the game is there for the taking for the Aussies, another 100 in the morning and England will be struggling not to go 2-0 down. Could have been worse, but i dont see anyone in England colours in good nick with the bat. Could be wrong, but i can see another pasting coming along.

Free 2 month trial from tastecard untill Dec 11th http://www.tastecard.co.uk/m/trial/headertry 2-4-1 deals at lots of local places (mainly weekdays and pre-booking). Think Theno has said he's used these before.

Agreed.Heard only 4 days more prep for England before 1st test. Enough time?

RIP Steve Prescott, who passed away today at the age of 39 from a rare form of stomach cancer. Believe the news got a fantastic reaction from the crowd at the KC stadium today.