John Howard at the presidential lectern in the White House with George W Bush. John Howard at the Pentagon with Donald Rumsfeld. John Howard being praised by Rupert Murdoch at a black tie dinner. John Howard with Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. John Howard visiting Aussie blast victims in a London hospital. John Howard chatting with John Major in the member's pavillion at Lord's. John Howard with headphones and mike in the CCCP (Central Cricket Commentary Position) live to air on the Beeb.

Before sifting through the Sunday papers, this from the Lords.org website posted on Friday:

'Daily Mail' apologises to ticket staff at Lord's

My question du jour involves Le tour: Can Australia wrap up the First Test before Lance begins his final pedal up the Champs-Elysees?

Australian free-to-air broadcasters SBS juggling cricket coverage with their pre-existing committment to the Tour de France - something Murdoch operatives have been gloating about as jointly owned Fairfax-Packer pay TV channel Fox Sports has complete ball-by-ball coverage to itself. On the other hand, it has the Sky Sports commentators all to itself...

There's probably nothing that gives me more pleasure in following cricket these days than charting the rise and rise of Michael Clarke. Friday, he breathed life into an Australian side that had been struggling to get on top of the First Test, and then looked set to add a debut Ashes century at Lord's to his CV.

Three BBC radio cricket programs currently available from the website through listen-on-demand:

I'm not sure when this went to air, but BBC Five Live has a 52-minute program in which Geoff Boycott, Geoff Lawson, Allan Lamb and Jon Agnew have a panel discussion of their Ashes memories.

The Dave Podmore Ashes Special went to air on BBC Radio Four last night. It runs half an hour.

Seventeen wickets on the opening day of an Ashes Test at Lord's. That hasn't happened since the century before last.

We have five contestants in the Ashes and More Tipping Competition, and no one has picked an England victory at Lord's. It's already a strange Test and strange things can happen.

There he is again. Right underneath the masthead subheading "We will hold firm" is the headline "Shane Warne loses control of his googlies AGAIN".

Number 500 for Glenn McGrath!

First ball after tea, no less. Trescothick tried to push away a ball going down leg side, he got a leading edge, which was taken by Langer in the slips.

Oh, make that 501. Strauss caught by Warnie at first slip.

Are we heading for an Australian first innings lead here?

Nice call, Ricky.

To be fair, 190 all out is an improvement on 87 for 5. But still not anywhere near good enough. Some great bowling by Harmison (5/43), and a little too much gay abandon from the Aussies. Justin Langer seems to play three types of innings - a first-over duck, a double ton, or a quickfire 40-odd-and-out. Today it was the latter. Nice symmetry from the middle order - Gilchrist 26, Katich 27, Warne 28.

All interest now falls to Glenn McGrath, whose next wicket will be his 500th.