And that subject is Cricket, specifically the English cricket team who have beaten Pakistan convincing in third third test at Headingley, winning the test by 167 runs. This win means that England have an unassailable 2 – 0 test series lead with one test to play. Monty Panesar is fast emerging as a real talent in English cricket and is all but guaranteed a place on the Ashes tour this winter with his performances at Old Trafford and Headingley taking 14 wickets across the two tests. Hopefully he can produce more of the same in the final test at the Oval starting on the 17th of this month. It would be nice to head off to Australia with a comprehensive test series win under our belts to give the whole team a big boost, especially with ‘Freddy’ Flintoff back for the Ashes tour! It would be great to go to Australia to retain the Ashes on their turf, it’s one thing to do it with home advantage, but doing it on Australian soil is another matter completely, but with bowlers like Monty Panesar, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison, the English are in with more than a fighting chance. We did it in the rugby, now let’s prove we can do it in Cricket and bring the Ashes back to England!
In some Formula One news, Mark Webber has signed for Red Bull Racing alongside Britain’s David Coulthard for next season. There has been a lot of excitement and hype about the new [former McLaren designer] Adrian Newey designed car, but the problem is that often these things don’t live up to the hype and end up disappointing. I hope that isn’t the case as I would love to see David Coulthard back to winning ways, and repay the faith that Red Bull has shown in the Scot! Of course Mark Webber will push Coulthard all the way during the season, which can only be a good thing as I feel that Coulthard will be more competitive with a team-mate of equal ability! The second thing is that the FIA and GPMA have reached agreement over the freezing of engine development, and that will apply from the end of this season, so the teams’ best get their reliability issues out of the way before that time or else they’ll be stuck with that engine. This engine freeze will apply until 2009 when Max Mosely and the FIA plan a radical shake up of the way Formula One works. I must say that I am surprised that teams have agreed to this as if their engine isn’t competitive by the end of 2006, then they will end up being behind for at least two years. In some ways this is good as it keeps costs down, so smaller teams can afford to run a Formula One team, but at the same time it sort of kills of the pinnacle of motorsport tag that F1 currently has as it won’t be at the cutting edge of technology if engines can not be changed for a minimum of two years, but I am sure that the boffins will figure out a way around it by the implementation of electronics or gearbox technology, which isn’t my preference, the less technology the better as far as I am concerned, make it man and machine, and may the best driver win!
Finally, still no word from the debt collectors, so no news to report, maybe tomorrow eh?
Update [8/8/06 – 22:55] Plymouth Argyle won their second Championship match away at newly promoted Colchester United and new boy Luke Summerfield scored the only goal of the game in a hard fought match. Plymouth was on the back foot when Summerfield latched on to a poor clearance and fired off a shot into the bottom left corner from 25 yards out. But Plymouth didn’t have it all their own way, Colchester went close twice, once hitting the crossbar, so Plymouth can count themselves lucky that they come away with all three points from Layer Road. But it’s a win, and as long as Plymouth can grind out results, doesn’t matter if it’s not pretty, it’s the result what counts! So it’s a solid start to the season; four points out of six which isn’t too bad considering it’s been all change over the summer. And more importantly we are doing better than ex-manager ‘Judas’ Pulis’ team, although Stoke City did beat Derby County 2 – 0 at Britannia Stadium, but still sit one point and four places below the Pilgrims in the league, more of the same please Mr. Holloway!
