Surrey have enjoyed making heavy weather of their victories lately. Monday night's quarter-final in the 20-over comp came down to a Duckworth-Lewis tie (Duckworth-Lewis tie in a 20 over game? sheesh). But instead of doing the obvious - five overs each way of extra time, and if it's a draw come back Wednesday morning for the replay - they went for the next most obvious tie-breaker, the penalty shootout... er, the bowl-out.
The women were first with a Cricket World Cup, holding their first in 1973 while the men didn't get started till 1975. Now the men have announced a medal for best player of the England-Australia Test series, five years after the women did the same.
I think England will probably win two of the five Tests, but I also think Australia will probably pick up two. I reckon it will be a two-all draw, Australia retaining the Ashes.
- Rick Eyre, BBC Radio Five Live, 21.6.05
I said it on radio last month and I'll stick with it now. The England-Australia Test series will finish in a 2-2 draw, which means Australia will retain the Ashes.
The SBS televising Test cricket in Australia would be a bit like Channel 5 showing cricket in the UK (oh hrm, that's next year isn't it?)
Still, they got the guernsey (or should that be yellow jersey) after every other FTA network declined the offer. So, on Thursday, Australia's multicultural television network begins its first incursion into the world of cricket.
One of the names I remember hearing in the news often in my pre-teens was that of General William Westmoreland. He was the commander of US forces in Vietnam while Lyndon Johnson was President.
Westmoreland died on Monday at the age of 91. Clearly a major figure in one of the nastier of America's many incursions into foreign affairs.
Just a reminder that my Test match tipping competition for the Ashes, and all other Test cricket over the next two months, is open for business.
Selections for the First Test will close at the end of the lunch break on the first day (that's 1.10pm BST on Thursday), so time is running short. However, if you happen to miss the deadline for the First Test, you can still join in later and pick your winners (or drawers) for the remaining eleven Test matches in the competition.
The future of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy is in grave doubt following the publication of an opinion poll in New Zealand on Monday. The poll found that 53% of those people questioned support the banning of New Zealand sporting teams from touring countries "that violate human rights".
Another site change. I'm outsourcing my photo gallery to Flickr and making those photos available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence.
I haven't ranted much about Surrey on these pages for a while. Their performances in their last seven days - played over ever-decreasing durations - do not leave me with any great feelings of joy.
In the past week, Surrey has:
- drawn a Championship game with Gloucestershire after scoring 603 and enforcing the follow-on;
- beaten Yorkshire in a day-night National Leaguer by three runs;
- failed to defend a fifty-over total of 358 to lose to Hamphire in the C and G Trophy quarter-final;
Now I could understand if this stadium were called the Goodyear Grandstand or the Michelin Mansion. But whatever possessed the architects to create a stadium that looks just like a spare tyre from the outside?
