Aubrey Maturin

Nah mate just a wee bit dull.

Aye it helped to numb the pain.

That's what happens when you spend the winter hiding in Cargo. Fish Supper oot the Pentland Fryer on Friday.. Not bad.

This. Darts is better viewing having those two competitive. It's quite hard to tell with MVG as he looks bonkers at the best of times.

You should have leapt out the van with your banhammer

Did that diagnosis take your breath away?

A great game to be followed by two of the most boring characters in the history of darts. Wake me up in half an hour please.

Six and that was more luck than anything. Can't believe my knowledge of Japanese literature is so poor.

You probably improved it,

Was he Greek?

It's Tubize v AS Eupen on Friday night for me and the lads in the Belgium second division then Saturday night is Cercle Brugge v Gent. Basically it's two nights of drinking and away from families

Were the cans and bottle empty?

Exactly. Eoin Doyle is not to be left in charge of navigation.

Good luck doing that trip skipper

Yes, watch it immediately after a meal. HTH.

Fair play to him scoring a ton at his age

Of course one of the key men of that series was the explosive Simon Jones who had the ability to reverse swing an old tattie. Vaughan was blessed with a wonderful varied attack who had the ability to take a wicket when it was needed. He was however a tremendous captain and was always looking to attack. It's a shame his injuries took his toll as when he was at his peak he was incredible to watch.

Bowl the ego instead of the spinner on debut. how to boost the boy's confidence skipper. On a side note KP had the ability to bowl a lot more in his test career but never applied himself.

Being a good player does not mean you're a decent coach. Plenty of footballing examples spring to mind. Arguably England's best bowling coach was Troy Cooley who had an absolutely terrible career as a bowler yet was an excellent coach.

Yes that is a fair point as back then you expected a complete pumping and like you say this Oz team is average. 100 all out beckons. Hope Ballance and Stokes can make a few though.

Maybe Ballance will bring equilibrium to the England line up. All out for 150 I reckon sadly. I haven't watched shite like from England this since the mid nineties.

That shambolic leave by Cook and Bell's attempts to get out sum up the England batsmen's performance this series.

I wonder if the ambulance would have put the sirens on?

Ever since the latter days of Hussain and then Vaughan England have been blessed with an excellent attack and great back up from the first or second change bowlers. They consistently performed at a high level and very often bailed out at times lacklustre batting performances. Unfortunately there is nobody to throw the ball at as a first change bowler who will either keep the pressure on or take a wicket. Hopefully Finn gets back into form as he can be that man and a decent spinner is needed as Monty is quite frankly an awful cricketer. Jimmy Anderson looks like he needs a long rest to recuperate and get back to his best form and Broad is another who is always on the verge of injury. I would give Finn and Rankin a shot in Sydney and leave Anderson & Bresnan out.

Kallis is one of the games true greats, a wonderful all round talent. Getting back to the joke that is England, Cook really is a dreadful captain. He had no previous experience of captaincy yet England went down the old route of let's pick our best player to be skipper without any real thought as to his suitability. He is negative and one dimensional and just lets the game drift. As a result of picking Cook their best player is off the boil as the weight of skippering gets him down and as such England have lost their most consistently effective batsman, setting the tone for the rest of the side. Bell has also been shite and has returned to his normal standard of making starts and throwing it away. It's all became a bit stale and England are now a very boring side so for me a change of coach and captain is needed. The selection policy over the last year has been baffling which was epitomised by the inability to find a partner for Cook, despite starting to forge a good partnership with Compton, the selection of Bairstow, the belief that Root is anything other than a number 6 at present and the bewildering decision to take the awful Monty on tour. Furthermore the selection of Bresnan is odd seeing as he is clearly not fit and Tremlett is so knackered and done he shouldn't have been anywhere near the squad. The coaching staff also seem to have wrecked a fantastic talent in Finn who now looks as wayward as Harmison in Brisbane all those years ago., Graham Onions must really have pissed somebody off. Of course the odd selections started a wee while back and who can forget the bizarre inclusion of Woakes and Kerrigan in the last test of the summer which seemed as if the selectors have been on the lash all night. An interesting summer awaits England and we shall see which direction they decide to move in.