Re: Congrats to England thread

[Gary 111]

well played to the Poms on retaining the Urn...well organised, resourceful and clever with the bat, ball and in the field

i hope we are able to provide sterner competition in future series

aye horrie.

Huge well done to Miller, Flower, Saker, Strauss, Cook and the other players. Better selections, better culture, better coaching, better preparation, better toss calling, better captaincy, better team.

All true, but while Strauss is from the land of Shakespeare, The Beatles and Monty Python its a bit harsh to blame Ponting for only having the Minogues, Men At Work and Sheila's Wheels to fall back on. Its hardly Ponting's fault.

[Mick Sawyer]

The Beatles and Monty Python its a bit harsh to blame Ponting for only having the Minogues

phurt. Who'd want to shag insects or reptiles.

[horace]

hmnn...why create a new thread when one can be recycled...again and again it would seem!

Congratulations England on a fantastic series win

[skully]

Aye h. Our arses were comprehensively served to us on a plate by Strauss's boys.

Special congrats to Chef and Jimmy who led the way.

[Zat]

Will post some of the pics I took today when I get home. Congrats again to the enemy.

[Guest]

[Jontyh]

[furriner]

Yeah, well done England. Amazing result.

[PeterCS]

well played to the Poms on retaining the Urn...well organised, resourceful and clever with the bat, ball and in the field

i hope we are able to provide sterner competition in future series

aye horrie.

Huge well done to Miller, Flower, Saker, Strauss, Cook and the other players. Better selections, better culture, better coaching, better preparation, better toss calling, better captaincy, better team.

All true, but while Strauss is from the land of Shakespeare, The Beatles and Monty Python its a bit harsh to blame Ponting for only having the Minogues, Men At Work and Sheila's Wheels to fall back on. Its hardly Ponting's fault.

At least Oz can't be held responsible for Split Enz or Russell Crowe. Or Russell Brand.

[Invader Zim]

Aye, well done England. Out played and (worryingly) out thought us the whole series. The WACA Test was obviously a fluke.

Can’t see much hope of improvement in the Aussie side until we have some new leadership off and on the field. The selectors are obsessed with finding a new super star, yet England flogged us with a team of honest toilers. They played as a team, whereas we played as a group of individuals, most of whom where most concerned with their own performances. Bereft of ideas and players with any heart, it was perhaps the most depressing performance I’ve seen us put out since the 80s.

England had bowlers who could bowl the right lines and maintain pressure, batsmen who could be patient and take advantage of bowling mistakes. They hunted as a group, even though they where somewhat held back by their skipper. Of course when compared to the Aussie on field leadership team, Strauss comes out looking like a combination of Clive Lloyd, Steve Waugh and Tubby Taylor.

Have we reached our nadir? Probably not. Got a feeling that’s yet to come, especially if Clarke takes over from Ponting.

[PeterCS]

Well (and graciously) spoken, T. You know a few forummers - esp unwashed Poms - had issues with your dismayed and disordered flounce mid-Test of some time ago. As far as I am concerned, this assessment consigns all that to the bin of history.

("That's big of me" - well okay, just a point of view on my part.)

To the substance ... Oz may have further to fall, as you suspect, but I think that's an open question. It would help a great deal, surely, if Messers Hilditch and Nielsen in particular could be nudged aside. As England have found, "positive-taking" denial - in public, but even worse, in private conclave - is the worst enemy of reasonable and reasoned progress. The two named gentlemen seem positively to bar the door to the future with bad selections and the worst sort of obstinacy.

There are some good signs for Oz, in the form of individuals, but better still, in their spirit. You are right that the collective ethos is all wrong, but it is individuals who make differences in cricket, if their example is heeded and followed.

Khawaja, Katich (still), Hussey (still), Siddle (limited maybe, but easily Test class if he has a couple of like effort and skill around him), and to an extent Haddin, and Harris (unluckily probably out for good) all showed better signs. Watson has the talent if not yet the gumption or the training (he is still overtoned). Hauritz would patently have been a better choice - entirely predictably, this is not the benefit of hindsight. And better than Hauritz, those such as Krejza should be nurtured rather than banished. Paine is surely the face of the keeping future. There are others around who can grow into the key roles - if the management grows some common sense apart from anything else.

You're right that England achieved a lot with fairly limited stocks. At the same time, I think this can be overstated. There are a few players of genuine talent there, it's not merely that they have been nurtured and coached properly. (I think the 2010-11 crop would probably beat the 2005 Ashes team, if that were possible - Strauss Opener 2011 might not statistically be much cop, but he is wiser and better on shot range and selection than he was.)

I'm not sure the WACA Test was a fluke ... above all, I think it was a case of the ultimate loose cannon firing at its optimum, in conditions optimum for its confidence. (Not that cannon have psychologies.)

[Guest]

Aye, well done England. Out played and (worryingly) out thought us the whole series. The WACA Test was obviously a fluke.

Can’t see much hope of improvement in the Aussie side until we have some new leadership off and on the field. The selectors are obsessed with finding a new super star, yet England flogged us with a team of honest toilers. They played as a team, whereas we played as a group of individuals, most of whom where most concerned with their own performances. Bereft of ideas and players with any heart, it was perhaps the most depressing performance I’ve seen us put out since the 80s.

England had bowlers who could bowl the right lines and maintain pressure, batsmen who could be patient and take advantage of bowling mistakes. They hunted as a group, even though they where somewhat held back by their skipper. Of course when compared to the Aussie on field leadership team, Strauss comes out looking like a combination of Clive Lloyd, Steve Waugh and Tubby Taylor.

Have we reached our nadir? Probably not. Got a feeling that’s yet to come, especially if Clarke takes over from Ponting.

Ah, fair play, yes I did miss this.

[Growler]

And so did I.

I guess to Aussies, this Ashes was the equivalent of our last tour for us ..... a few brilliant individual performances, but generally a series to forget.

Zimmys post summed up the series IMO. Sure, Aus had some poor selections, but I'm not sure it would have made so much difference to the result.

Our bats punished everything remotely off line, and our bowlers simply didn't allow your top order to settle. Perth aside, we didn't have a single poor session in the field.

Different Aus selections may have put up more resistance, but I think it would only be in respect of making us bat again in a couple of matches and thus avoiding innings defeats.

[JKLever]

I miss Zimmy circa 2003, none of this softc0ck 'well done' malarkey...

[Zat]

I guess to Aussies, this Ashes was the equivalent of our last tour for us ..... a few brilliant individual performances, but generally a series to forget.

What Ashes? The last series was in 2006/7...

[Henry]

I miss Zimmy circa 2003, none of this softc0ck 'well done' malarkey...

Aye. I preferred the coftc0ck Zimmy circa 2005- "waaaaa, we're gonna lose the ashes this time for sure, waaaaaaaaaa " after one session of the series.

[Guest]

I miss Zimmy circa 2003, none of this softc0ck 'well done' malarkey...

Aye. I preferred the coftc0ck Zimmy circa 2005- "waaaaa, we're gonna lose the ashes this time for sure, waaaaaaaaaa " after one session of the series.

Well, he was right to be fair...

[Henry]

Prophetic.

[taipan]

So who did the Zimmy impersonation?

[G.Wood]

Whoever it was it wasn't a very good one

[eowyn]

Just ordered my free copy of this.

[Zat]

A souvenir of something that never happened. Clever.

[eowyn]

I know the sprinkler happened, that's what I'm celebrating.

[Brass Monkey]

Personally think Aus have reached their nadir - it's the usual hype that we could expect from England, post-mortem on a drubbing. All they've done is get mugged off by India (who wouldn't? get off the plane - no acclimatisation - just a fair old sh!tting on), couldn't cope with the No-Ballers over here which is more than fair enough and get drilled by a cohesive unit with distinct plans, every base being covered. It was a fine performance. If the NSP weren't so f*cking unbelievably thick it would've been a lot closer. Steve Smith is a joke. Any spinner but Hauritz is a joke. Get rid of those two, get Khawaja in at six, Hauritz in and get Watson to man up and bowl more overs. They'll be competitive.

[skully]

Danny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome back, old c*ck. HTF have you been?? And hearty congrats on the English victory.

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