gingerjon

Isn't it? Locally, I thought we'd got the best when Saltdean put out a rather vague statement that they'd ceased all connections with a couple of people who, when you googled (they didn't lay it all out like Staines), had just been caught in a police snare as members of a serious organised crime gang. But it's tame in comparison. No Russians at all.

Are you sure? This sounds like a new and radical strategy.

As expected, Australia absolutely hammer the Windies in the semi final. Reduced to 45 overs, they still got past 300. Windies were 'all out' with eight wickets down. Can't fault their effort but when your board hasn't put in a domestic league since 2019 and you're up against the best resourced, prepared and focused side in history (who could probably beat any of the other 7 with their reserves) then there will be days like this. England v South Africa later. Winners gets to be stamped on by Australia in the final unless it rains and they sneak a bowl out.

Enjoy. I'm not a huge motor racing fan (no, really) and have never been to F1 but the motor sport events I have been to have always been really good fun. My own slightly tipsy pre-Christmas sign-up was the Manchester Marathon. I think yours sounds less painful.

Adding a team. Season runs from mid May to the end of August. https://www.rugby-league.com/article/36910/betfred-womens-super-league-south-fixtures-announced?fbclid=IwAR0X7JRr5J4PhF-_uH_P9E9bYocvq2s46KDpgasyUJVe28Enlcia4JVP720

But, thankfully, no tickets for the race itself so you can enjoy Austria's many fine cultural offerings?

I think they may have had bubbling issues for quite some time!

There are screen grabs on social media. Basically, because of modern slavery and murder *and a whole lot more*, they've had to suspend playing for the time being.

The bar for club statements has just been raised http://stainestownfootballclub.co.uk/urgent-club-statement/

Aye, I think we're pretty close on this. Where things are transferrable are things like captaincy, preparation and coaching. I don't really like Morgan the man but I really do admire Morgan the captain. He seems to understand what his role is, takes time to learn and constantly takes the pressure off his players when they make mistakes or don't deliver. The white ball team has been showered with money but then the Test set up isn't poor. But the white ball side have plans that always seem to make sense and they do seem to support players through coaching. Meanwhile, the red ball set-up complete half bakes everything, constantly undermines players, exposes individuals to press wrath and has decisions about everything from fielding placement in game to player rotation to game time for development that just seem to fly in the face of any kind of sense at all. Burns, Sibley and Pope (and the rest) are obviously not bad players but the way we hang players out to dry - and expect them to somehow find the skills themselves even when their entire confidence has gone - is close to obscene.

We do overthink. We don't really need a red ball reset. We need a pathways opening. I don't want Rob Key anywhere near an organisational position but at least he has recognised that - even if his solutions wouldn't help. There aren't enough players of international standard out there in England right now - and those that are close aren't getting the development they need to get them over the line. Also, I think you are so massively wrong about what Morgan did with the England white-ball team. He absolutely understood that in limited overs cricket the key word is limited. If you're a bowler you get 60 deliveries (24 in T20 obvs), if you're any batter other than the openers then you will have a diminishing number of balls to face. So it's about two things: balancing the team (and that can include finding batters who may face 20 balls every other match but can still make a difference) and bowlers who can do a job consistently. It isn't rocket science but it's also very much not about whacking it throughout the innings.

I'm an absolute sucker for stuff like this - and, related, really think we have a perfect sport for doing it in RL but we never seem to ...

And you still haven't. Badum-tisch.

India had to win by enough and, I believe, even if they win now they can only overtake the Windies and so finish 4th.

Whatever happens now, it's England v South Africa in the World Cup semi final. Whatever happens now, England's red-ball-reset is a joke and the future direction of men's cricket cannot be left to people like Andrew Strauss or Rob Key - or the kind of people who think that Andrew Strauss and Rob Key are the right people to appoint. But it will be.

I'm absolutely the wrong person to ask because I'm very much into sport for the fun and whimsy. I'm hopeless when it comes to tactics, personnel and the like. Going on what smarter people than me have written about this Australian team though ... it looks like they're in trouble. The analysis is that Football Australia have strangled the talent pathway (for the men, the women seem to be okay) and that is now being reflected in performances where they stand no chance of winning - and now being in Asia (their choice) it means they can't blood people in games v American Samoa and the like.

Population for City of Wakefield is 325,837. Population for area covered by Newcastle City Council is 300,820 (according to them). It's not a hill I particularly care about, let alone want to die on, but I didn't just make the figures up.

I always forget that it's quite big. Also that Newcastle is a lot smaller than people seem to think it is. We seem to have digressed anyway. My overall view is that rugby league places and teams are so poorly known by the population at large that the presence, or not, of any of them in a single game of irregularly programmed content on Channel 4 will not be the reason for a higher or lower viewing figure.

Newcastle has a smaller population than Wakefield. The things you find out on wiki.

In that they probably recognise the name but have no idea how big the place is, what goes on there, exactly where in the country it is?

They really don't.

Even that is "to an extent" and context dependent. For people to know 'Leeds', it really requires Leeds United to be doing well. Which, relative to their recent past, they are - but it'll be flying under the radar of most people.

We've done this before but it's worth repeating: the vast majority of the country don't really know the geography of the rest of the country. I wouldn't expect anyone in West Yorkshire to know that Bexhill United v Little Common is a local derby and no one down here will know that Leigh is a small town in Wigan or that Wakefield v Castleford is A Thing. Few will really understand just how hyper-localised the game is within the north, either. The Prime Minister keeps muddling Bradford and Leeds up by the way. That about sums it up.

Pondering ... I wonder if it has anything to do with coefficients and the like? It does all seem a bit pointless.

FIFA do a ranking thing after the World Cup. This is the relevant part for 2010.