England v Australia, 4th Test, Old Trafford, 19-23 July, 2023

Meh. I'll take it. Ashes retained.

And the added bonus is Piers Morgan crying into his corn flakes.

skully wrote:Meh. I'll take it. Ashes retained.

And the added bonus is Piers Morgan crying into his corn flakes.

Lol the sobbing is truly hilarious.

The failure of the Pomgolian venture is clear.

Jesus, the pommy whinging is absolutely hilarious.

"I wouldn't want to win a Test like that".

"I wouldn't want to retain the Ashes like that".

"I'd be embarrassed to face the media after being saved by rain".

"We absolutely hammered them, it's wrong to end a Test like this".

Farken LOL!!!

Fact: England didn't take the necessary 20 wickets in the available time to win the 4th Test match. As a result of winning 2 of the first 3 Test matches in the series, as holder Australia retains the Ashes.

End.of.Story. Morals, whatifs and couldabeens don't come into it.

Is this the Brexitaffect?

The English reaction through this series - the col blimp broad, the boorish crowds , bitter Atherton etc - is the kicking of the traces of a dying cricket culture.

Their captain is lucky to not have done time, Root and Fatty are products and beneficiaries of a racist club etc.

Imo, never has the Ashes more deservedly been retained. Not once has the Pomgolian commentariat credited good play by their opposition. Truly dismal.

After their wanton slow over rates and failure to declare, the Poms did not deserve a result in t4. Each drop of rain on their parade was richly deserved.

Fred Nerk wrote:Your bloody town Athers....your ancestors went to Lords a thousand years ago (approx) and somehow convinced the powers that were that planting a cricket pitch in the middle of a place where it rains 362 days a year (and it would drip off the trees the other three except there ain't any) was a spiffing corker of a wheeze.... doesn't that look like an Einstein marvel of an idea right now?

Put a roof on the sodding place, I mean Wimbledon has two now, southern bias in action?

‘We flippin’ murdered ‘em’.

At least David Lloyd wasn’t a total cock. Thommo knocked half of it off.

horace wrote:Is this the Brexitaffect?

The English reaction through this series - the col blimp broad, the boorish crowds , bitter Atherton etc - is the kicking of the traces of a dying cricket culture.

Their captain is lucky to not have done time, Root and Fatty are products and beneficiaries of a racist club etc.

And obviously Australia has never had any racists, thugs, cheats or dickheads, on the pitch or in the stands?

They have, but not as many.

lardbucket wrote:They have, but not as many.

It’s a pretty close contest.

Not really.

Talking of putting a roof on a cricket ground… just saw a link to an article about a couple of indoor matches played by England at Cardiff’s Millennium (rugby/football) Stadium in late 2002, just before the start of an Ashes tour. Don’t remember it at all!

The team featured the likes of Hussain, Simon Jones, Blobert, and Crawley sr. (unrelated), with Wasim Akram and Courtney Walsh in the RoW opposition side. Apparently, as well as standard sixes, 8’s and 10’s could be hit by finding different tiers of the stand.

Sounds like an April Fool with hindsight, apparently crowds were poor… maybe that’s why a few months later they decided on a different idea as The Future. 20 overs per side outdoor cricket. It’ll never catch on…

1
But when I came unto my beds,
With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
The toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain, it raineth every day.

2
He that has but a little tiny wit--
With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--
Must make content with his fortunes fit:
For the rain, it raineth every day.

2
The rain it raineth on the just ...
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because:
The unjust steals the just's umbrella.

(3 not by Will, but Charles Synge Christopher Bowen)

What's worse than a sore loser?

Answer:

A sore winner.

PeterCS wrote:What's worse than a sore loser?

Answer:

A sore winner.

What about a sore drawer?

Hard to open.

Still trying to claim the high moral ground, are we lads?

Just a little side note. I always give a well done to English bats and bowlers when they perform, and ALWAYS congratulate England on a win, no matter how much pus and bile inevitably transpires in the contest.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen a single begrudging "well done Aus" on retention.

It's been nowt but "we average better", "we were unlucky", "the rain stopped us", "we have been the better side", "we wuz robbed", "spirit was murdered", woulda, shoulda, coulda, whatif, ifonly.

Sorry lads, HALATSB. Results are all that matter in the end and as far as history is concerned.

Who's sore here?

skully wrote:Still trying to claim the high moral ground, are we lads?

Just a little side note. I always give a well done to English bats and bowlers when they perform, and ALWAYS congratulate England on a win, no matter how much pus and bile inevitably transpires in the contest.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen a single begrudging "well done Aus" on retention.

It's been nowt but "we average better", "we were unlucky", "the rain stopped us", "we have been the better side", "we wuz robbed", "spirit was murdered", woulda, shoulda, coulda, whatif, ifonly.

Sorry lads, HALATSB. Results are all that matter in the end and as far as history is concerned.

Who's sore here?

Well said. The level of rancour directed at Australia from Day 1 of Edgbaston onwards has been unprecedented.

One thing I'd love the ICC to look at is intimidatory bowling.

While I make jokes about Broad taking block next to the Square Leg Ump, I believe it is inappropriate to repeatedly bounce bunnies like him, Jimmeh, Boland, Murphy and Hazlewood. These guys are at particular risk of head knocks and concussion.

I have no great hope it will happen.

There does seem to be a common assumption amongst English fans that the Oval Test will inevitably be won by England and the series will finish at 2-2.

It may go that way, it may not. The Australian team has not yet been seen after a toss win or when the conditions are in their favour. Despite that they managed to get to a 2-0 lead, a lead that was always going to be difficult to overcome, given how rarely it’s been done before, and the quality of the team that did achieve that feat.

lardbucket wrote:There does seem to be a common assumption amongst English fans that the Oval Test will inevitably be won by England and the series will finish at 2-2.

It may go that way, it may not. The Australian team has not yet been seen after a toss win or when the conditions are in their favour. Despite that they managed to get to a 2-0 lead, a lead that was always going to be difficult to overcome, given how rarely it’s been done before, and the quality of the team that did achieve that feat.

I’m not sure either, it’s a semi-dead rubber in terms of the Ashes themselves no longer being at stake, and England may go into it feeling a bit deflated. A first-day collapse or the wheels coming off in the field could quickly end it as a contest. Of course the weather may intervene as well, forecast looks mixed though probably not indicating complete washout days.

We'll see!