England v South Africa, 1st Test, The Oval, 19-23 July, 2012

Bring it on!

Oh yeah, the Oval Test. The climax of another glorious English cricketing summer (although they've tended to stick a few pointless JAMODIs in September in recent years) and hopefully deciding a memorable series, cricket's equivalent of Last Night of the Proms, autumn is on the way...

Hang on? It's the First Test at the Oval? It's still mid July? That's like staging Wimbledon at Easter. I suppose it's down to Lord's being unavailable because of some people with bows and arrows? In any case, it's not right...

Still, we've had some classic battles with the Yarps here over the years, 1994 and 2003 come to mind. Let's hope this one doesn't disappoint...

All that matters is it's two good teams in a Test match and I cannot wait. I'm hoping it live up to its billing because it could be a quality slugathon. The more I think of it, the happier I am.

RIKKI THIS F*CKER!

Brass Monkey wrote:All that matters is it's two good teams in a Test match and I cannot wait. I'm hoping it live up to its billing because it could be a quality slugathon. The more I think of it, the happier I am.

2 Tests too short, but we've been saying that since the schedule first came out.

The SA series is definitely the one I look forward to most these days, alongside the Ashes. It's always close and we've had some real epics. And for the first time (certainly since SA's readmission) it's the two best Test sides in the world.

Both captains should play their 100th Tests in this series, although we must bear in mind the effect facing South Africa at home tends to have on England skippers...

The very fact it's only 3 tests diminishes it in my eyes. 1 bad session could screw either side, much like how India won here in 2007 or 8 was it?

How the hell have we gone from 5 to 3 farking tests when of all the series england play this has traditionally been the most closely fought?

Ridiculous.

Well, the original reason for not having 4 was because of the Olympics - then they schedule one up against the Games anyway and shove a load of JAMODIs in the middle. But the fact that with 6 Tests in the summer we had 3 against WI was a joke as well, history or otherwise they're minnows now, especially away from home. If there were to be only 6 Tests it should have been a 2-4 split.

I think it's going the way of the Ashes being the only series of more than 3 matches though. Nobody else seems to regularly, if ever, play a longer series now.

14 ODIs. That's why. 14. Yeah. Like these 8 haven't been painstaking enough. Shocker. Still, 3 Tests is better than 2.

First Test at the Oval is against nature. It's like bumming a horse.

It'll be rained off anyway.

We'll be lucky if we manage a one Test series.

beamer wrote:I think it's going the way of the Ashes being the only series of more than 3 matches though. Nobody else seems to regularly, if ever, play a longer series now.

india aus is a 4 test series. india england is 4 tests for now. will be 5 tests in 2014 or whenever it is we tour next

cant think of many others. we used to play 5 test series vs the windies till the early part of the century. thats stopped, the last was just 3

If India are still playing tests in 2014.

yeah who knows. we might start replacing tests with t20s during our prime home seasons

F*ck the future! This is the present and it's smelling all KERCHING!

Yeh cant wait to stick it to the poms again!

de Lange is out of the tour and replaced by the shorter Morkel.

hardly like for like. albie is great for the shorter stuff, but probably not enough pace for the longer version

though i guess windy, swingy england is the best place for him

Windy?

wet, damp, humid at the moment for sure.... but windy?

Think Tsotsobe would be ahead of Morkel in the bowling pecking order anyway.

JKLever wrote:Windy?

wet, damp, humid at the moment for sure.... but windy?

This is the Northampton correspondant here.. I can confirm that not even a leaf is moving on the trees at the minute. However, three nights ago it was almost gale force.

Back to you, John.

i was in london a month ago. was pretty windy

and cold. and damp..

Brass Monkey wrote:

JKLever wrote:Windy?

wet, damp, humid at the moment for sure.... but windy?

This is the Northampton correspondant here.. I can confirm that not even a leaf is moving on the trees at the minute. However, three nights ago it was almost gale force.

Back to you, John.

No wind here either. Though it has been known to happen now and again.

Howeverm, pretty sure the only test match that is known for its wind is Wellington.

JKLever wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:

JKLever wrote:Windy?

wet, damp, humid at the moment for sure.... but windy?

This is the Northampton correspondant here.. I can confirm that not even a leaf is moving on the trees at the minute. However, three nights ago it was almost gale force.

Back to you, John.

No wind here either. Though it has been known to happen now and again.

Howeverm, pretty sure the only test match that is known for its wind is Wellington.

They play cricket in Somerset?

freemantle doctor anyone?

the windies (pardon the pun) with their low lying grounds near the sea can get gusts. the wind can have a telling effect in most test grounds around the world near the ocean

of course i dont mean gale force winds. england has pretty changeable weather, so wind can be a larger factor than in other places

Silly comment by Lever. Port Elizabeth and Cape Town are known for it.

Apparently this is no longer a no.1 v no.2 contest as SA just slipped a place on the ICC test rankings.

Sucks for the marketing men if little else....