After last week’s trip to Oxford for some league two football, I ventured even further down the footballing pyramid today. On a trip for the Non-League Paper I made way to the FA Trophy Quarter Final clash between Highbridge Town versus Tadcaster Albion in deepest darkest Wiltshire. Last week I said it’s been a long…
For Day 58 of my 2015 blog challenge, i’ve taken a bit of a cop out. After taking a look at Chris Gayle’s 215 through the medium of graphs and pictures, I thought it was only fair to give AB De Villiers brutal 162 the same treatment.
While many will point in the direction of the life-affirming story of Afghanistan, or the determination of Ireland as the enduring spirit of the World Cup, my focus during this tournament has been slightly less worthy. I have, I am unashamed to say, become a complete ‘Fantasy Cricket’ addict. Sure, I’ve done fantasy games before.…
The ludicrous decision by FIFA to award Qatar the rights to host the 2022 World Cup is looking dafter and dafter with every passing FIFA meeting, think-tank or committee charged with making this World Cup happen. It appears to be one problem after another since the Arab state was charged with hosting the largest sporting…
For today’s blog i’ve decided to do something a little different. By now, many writers have had their say on Gayle’s masterful double century against Zimbabwe, so instead of offering more noise to the chorus of praise, I thought I would offer a slightly different look at Gayle’s dominance. Here’s his innings in a series…
So England got off the mark. Hardly a quick start, more of an apologetic shuffle. They certainly didn’t swat away Scotland with ease, they laboured through the contest and a more ruthless side would have punished them for their inadequacies. Perhaps Scotland should just be happy to be at the World Cup. Perhaps that is…
It’s time for England to turn up. This stumbling about in the group stages, only to spring a surprise in the knockout stages is a great plan. So devious that nobody has yet figured it out. But this master plan of peaking at the opportune moment, of course relies on England actually being able to…
It’s been well over 5 years since I’ve attended a lower league football game. But today I made the trip to the Kassam Stadium to watch Oxford take on Mansfield in a good old-fashioned relegation six-pointer. Both sides have been languishing in the bottom of League Two, England’s lowest fully professional league, and were desperate…
‘Never mind Lucy Beale, who the hell killed English cricket’ Writer and Comedian Dan Schneider Last night, I settled down to watch Eastenders. I want you to understand this is not something I do often, In fact, I can proudly say that I haven’t seen a full episode in about 5 years. Yet through a…
In the style of those hideous blindingly obvious ‘Winning Objectives’ that World Cup broadcasters keep showing us, I thought i’d try and offer a few more useful pointers as to where success lies for England tonight. Firstly, and most obviously, they have to arrest their terrible decline in death bowling. Clueless would be the kind…
With the World Cup now a full five days old, and 13 of the 14 teams now having opened their tournaments, I thought I’d take a little look at a few things we learnt from these opening matches and what, if anything, they can tell us about the course this World Cup is going to…
Today’s offering at the cricket World Cup comes in the form of a potentially pivotal pool match between Bangladesh and Afghanistan. While on the surface, it may appear that there is little riding on this match between two of the tournament’s less fancied sides, if either side has ambitions of progressing to the knockout stages…
As Ireland cruised in their chase of 305 to beat the West Indies in Nelson yesterday, I wasn’t in the least bit surprised. And judging by the tweets and comments I was seeing from other viewers, not many people were. Herein lies the conundrum of the Cricket World Cup and cricket at large. Although the…
The 2015 Cricket World Cup is now two days old, and a full four games have been played. While they’re have been some dazzling individual performances and no shortage of drama or atmosphere, one element has been missing. In fact, it is the main factor that can make a global tournament so exciting. Thus far…
Where to begin then? Woakes’ costly drop? Finch’s brilliance? England’s inability to bowl a yorker? The fearsome Mitchell Marsh? Taylor being cruelly denied a century by an umpiring error? While the opening match between Australia and England was over as a contest after just 70 overs, the game was certainly not short of talking points.…
With the Cricket World Cup due to start in a matter of hours, I thought I’d keep my blogging powder dry until the action starts up. Hence no long ramble from me today. Hopefully over the course of the World Cup I can continue to grow this blog and attract new readers. I’m always delighted…
Just 7 years ago, Afghanistan were battling it out in World Cricket League Division 5 among such cricketing strongholds as Jersey and Germany. Now they stand just days away from a World Cup bow. Their rise through the WCL and into the ICC’s showpiece event has been well documented in the past few months, especially…
On the batting friendly pitches of Australasia, Sri Lanka will be pitting their bowling hopes squarely on the shoulders of one man. Lasith Malinga is back, and ready to wreak havoc once again. He may have been out of the game for a while, but right him off at your peril. He lit up the…
In a year in which New Zealand have found a new place amongst the game’s elite in ODI cricket, their captain has endured a remarkably lean year in the format. Brendon McCullum has been scoring runs for fun in the Test arena and led his side to their most successful year in their Test history.…
My latest player to watch comes from the side that I’m backing to go all the way and claim the World Cup trophy. Mitchell Starc has enjoyed a superb return to form over the past few months, and is now seen as one of the most in-form bowlers in ODI cricket. Starc’s recent returns have…
Jack Vittles 