Eddie

There was no doubting Jansen's quality, and had it not been for that injury I'm sure he would be in the England squad now. He had an intelligance to his game that can't be taught, combined with great ability, and of course the advantage of having a left foot. Since his injury he has shown glimpses of his old self, with a few very well taken goals, but simply can't do it game in game out. This does make it clear that whatever problems are still there are mental rather than physical, hopefully he can over come them, until then we all live in hope, if Jansen was back to his old self than Jansen and Bellamy would certainly be one of the best pairings in the premiership. For anyone to knock the Jansen of old is simply ridiculous. I can understand why some believe that by now we should have moved on, given up hope and let him go, but what the boy did before his injury was great. If only we could get it back.

Add to that the fact that in past ashes series we've been plagued by injuries, never heard the aussies calling it a hollow victory. Let's not be too english.

Aye thanks for that...really puts some pressure on me to produce something good with the second one! Good preview though and hopefully it will be an equally good start to the season for us. A win would be nice, certainly possible and really these are the sort of games we have to win if we do want to push into the top half of the table (interesting that after the community shield coverage on sky they mentioned us as a possibility for pushing into the top 6...quite a change eh?). Having said that, if we do lose it isn't the end of the world and what I'll be more interested in is the performance. If we can look like scoring, continue to look solid at the back and just have that same attitude about us then I'll be happy.

Most certainly the greatest ever test I've watched. The range of emotions from day 1 to day 4 was almost unbelievable. I couldn't watch towards the end of that, but the feeling of winning was fantasic, leave it to England though to do it in the most difficult way. Well done boys, let's just follow this up with 3 more good performances.

The first lesson I was taught about Cricket, one that I'll live and die by one, is that you can't know what a good score is until you've seen both teams bat. Just over 400 seems a bit low, but I doubt it is so low that Australia will be able to post a target that in itself would put England out of the game. At the same time, if Australia are all out for 300 or less, with them batting last they could easily find themselves in a very difficult situation. Should we have scored more? Yes, but hell did I enjoy todays cricket. I couldn't stop watching and I was never bored, and isn't that what sport is about, entertainment? Hopefully tomorrow will skittle them out and everything will be great, it probably won't happen, but I enjoyed today. If England can entertain me then I'm happy. Let the ageing aussies have their last day out. We had a small glimpse of Australia without McGrath today, imagine them in a couple years without a few more of their 32+ players.

Or perhaps he sees shifting Enks on as a way to make some good money. If we can find a free replacement to be the back-up keeper who can do the job in a decent manner, considering how infrequently Friedel is injured, then we may be able to get, let's say, 800k-1 million for Enks and then use that money in areas of the team that need to be improved. Perhaps not a smart move considering Brads age, but just an idea.

Yes, all are good, though the rollerblading is only on friday nights.

Just a few other good tips for you. Make sure that you go to Sacre Coeur, a lot of people don't go, despite the beauty of the site as well as the stunning view, great art on show in the area as well, just watch out for the odd pick-pocket. A boat ride on the river is also nice, you get to see basically everything all in one go and it is also very relaxing.

I'm sure that as soon one of the big jobs does become available you'll be hearing O'Neill's name again.

Don't worry Bryan...Hopefully you'll eventually have me!

Well the target wasn't under 350, if it had been and we had been 80-0 I think the Aussies would have been worried and those coming in next would have been in a postive frame of mind and not felt like they were fighting a losing battle. Whether or not that would have really helped our failing middle order I'm not sure, but it's nice to think that it would have.

This is horrible to say, but at least he wasn't arab.

The only good thing you can say about Kidd is that he bought Jansen.

It's got a few hills, plus one big rise around the middle which is a really big test (where most will give up), so be prepared for that. Really though, if you are a good runner and have been doing training it should be a breeze. Not sure if I'll be doing in this year because of going to univeristy, but if I do I look forward to seeing that blur!

That's what you're doing? No kidding, do it every year!

Well the optimism lasted long didn't it! This England team has lost matches before and won series, and played badly and won series, and come from behind to win series. There is no reason why they can't come back from 1 down, everyone predicted a loss at Lords anyway, now it's time to take the positives from that match, we did afterall take 20 wickets and could have had 26/27 easily, while Pietersen, Tresothick and Strauss all showed that they can contribute well with the bat.

Well it's sunny here! Let's just hope the test series follows the same pattern as the one dayers, we one the first match there and look what happened.

Basically Giles has shown that, against this Australia side at least, unless it's a pitch where you NEED a spinner there's no reason to have him in the side, even then I might prefer it if other more attacking spinners were looked at.

Yes Paris Plage is up, though you'll be lucky not to find somewhere that isn't simply exceedingly dirty. Pigalle is alright, but generally it's where the French yobs, gangs and various other groups hang around, not really that nice. It does have a few things to offer when it comes to nightlife, but whatever there is can be found elsewhere in nicer areas.

Well played Australia. I'd say England probably only were the better in three sessions, first two of the match and then the last on day two, simply not good enough. The batting was awful, wickets were thrown away almost and major technical errors made. The bowling was decent, but it wasn't supported well enough by the fielding, probably accounting for an extra 100-120 Australian runs, in other words the difference between having a real chance in the second innings rather than simply hoping to bat out time.

Totally agree, I just don't believe Thorpe's time was up quite yet.

Hadn't seen that, looks interesting. Pigalle...there's a place I wouldn't go! haha. Perre Lachaise is interesting, but you have to like that sort of thing.

Well I would have had Thorpe instead of Bell, though would have picked all three for the squads. They are of a similar style, and though I'm sure Bell will make a great player he doesn't yet have the experience that is sometimes needed.

I think you are talking about the open-air cinema at parc de la villette? If so that runs for about a month, 19th of July until August 28th, except for mondays. Here's a link to an English website with details. Open-Air Cinema at Parc De La Villette

Over here in France there are a large number of plain clothed police, but the general rule is not to stop. There have been a number of instances where criminals have used this to their advantage, pretending to be police and then stopping cars or stopping people in the street. I'm pretty sure that if I had been shouted at by men with guns I would have either done a runner or probably dropped to the ground terrified.