Charlie Lytwyn

The realioty is that Tommy will have been singing like a racist budgie to his MI5 handlers for years. This is just the next step in his / their "project". Unfortunately, that "project" doesn't seem to involve the boneheaded, illiterate knuckledraggers he's been fleecing since the EDL started. They are no use to him now, so have been jettisoned. Expect the bold Tommy to come up with some new "legitimate" far right project which takes the battle "against militant Islam" more mainstream. I'm not sure there's room for a Geert Wilders with a Luton accent, but that's the direction it looks like he'll be going. Meanwhile what's left of the EDL will become ever more an irrelevant fringe of violent cretins with a penchant for being kettled pointlessley in draughty suburban car parks, cheap cider, cocaine, polyester clothing, bad tattoos, and jail.

Watson the worst no. 6 ever? Nah. That was Stuart "the walking wicket" Carlisle of Zimbabwe, who also opened as well, bless him. Makes Watson look like Brian Lara by comparison.

Well, I hope Boycott is being a pessimist and a way can be found to preserve test cricket for all the first class nations. I'd like to see new countries like Ireland and Afghanistan playing tests in the next few years- it looks as though both have sides that could develop. Scotland have done OK in the last fifteen years or so but they are a good way behind Ireland (in the 80s we were better than them), and I am not sure if there really is an ambition to step up to test level anytime soon. I think the Scots are trying their best in ODIs and seeing where that takes the side. Just a last thing on the West Indies- for any young 'uns who weren't around at that time, have a look at this fascinating documentary on the history of West Indies cricket- it was about so, so much more for them than just the cricket match. This is the first part, there are six of them.

Sadly the Windies seem much more interested in T20 and ODIs, these days. I believe England are not playing a test match on their next tour to the Caribbean, just ODIs They still have a few good young uns coming through but understandably they are concentrating on the forms of the game that a) are more profitable- the WICB can't make tests pay, for reasons i can't understand and b) they are more successful in. For all the entertainment the game finished has given us, the likes of Boycott have been predicting that test cricket may well be restricted to 3 or 4 countries that can make it pay in 20-30 years time; I assume England, Australia, India and South Africa. His argument seems to be that the New Zealands and Zimbabwes (poor sides usually) and the likes of W. Indies / Pakistan (some magnificent sides and players but perennially shambolic organisation) will fall away from the test arena.

Great performance today from England, hats off. For two and a bit days they were struggling but won it well in the remaining time. We have still never lost a test at Chester-le-Street, and never lost a test in which bell has scored a hundred. Hope Bell gets another 100 at the Oval and becomes the first Englishman to hit four centuries in an Ashes series. His performances throughout the summer really have been the difference. Here's some West Indies pacemen in their prime. Some of it is not pretty watching. The mid 80s line up of Marshall, Holding, Garner and Roberts was something else. Croft was good too, until he sullied his name by taking the apartheid dollar in '82. The West Indies teams that won back to back 'blackwashes' against England in 84-86 were absolutely the best teams I've seen in my lifetime.

A much better day from England, much more incisive with the ball, and Bell and the middle order batted really well. sixty-eighty more runs from England tomorrow should be enough, I reckon. But ti is a very tight game. England have done well after playing poorly for the first half of the match.

I'm always a wee bit grudging of hundreds that have required such repeated and massive slices of good luck to achieve. Rogers is stubborn and a complete pain in the arse. England are, at the moment, being totally outplayed by a poor Australian team.

yes, Cook apart England's batting was rank rotten and with a can't-be-arsed-will-this-do-listlessness about it. Only one team out there was motivated today, and it wasn't England. A rot has set in and it must be reversed, quickly.

A strange day, Australia bowled really, really well and England didn't really pass the examination. The problem is that our top three are all really out of form, having had poor series on the whole (Root's one big innings apart). It's an odd England side that blows hot and cold, this summer. It's a relief that Australia have been too weak overall, to take real advantage. Tomorrow I think is the most important day of the series. If England can bowl in the same disciplined way as the Aussies then I still fancy them to skittle them in a low scoring game. Cricket's such a momentum / form & confidence sport, and it is crucial that England dont toss away the advanatge from the first two tests, having retained the Ashes. If they do that for the remainder of the seris then it could not only be a long winter but have a really bad effect on this group of players in the next couple of years. Time for England to stop being so complacent and lazy, and start playing again.