Fourth Ashes Test, Headingley, day one:
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By Ben Dirs
1025: This is absolute chaos - and by the way I did mean Newsnight without Paxman. Prior is back out! Bit of a grimace as he’s warming up, or is that just his face England, meanwhile, have asked the Aussies to delay the toss by 10 minutes. No need to poke my housemate with the ‘fat stick’ to check he’s not dead this morning, he’ll be glued to this… “I haven’t cried for roughly three years, but news of Big Fred not playing at Headingley has made my bottom lip quiver!”
Gary Mills in the TMS inbox “Football Prior is out because they were playing football!! Everything the Aussies can do, we have to try to do one better. What’s next Onions out due to an intense game of monopoly”
Aneesh Desai, Brussels, in the TMS inbox****1019: If Prior doesn’t play, then we’re assuming England will ask Australia whether Colly can start off behind the stumps until a replacement can step in. Here’s where those prospective replacements are: James Foster is in Southend with Essex (might need a helicopter), Tim Ambrose is in Birmingham with Warwickshire (couple of hours in traffic), Steven Davies of Worcestershire was in Durham, but may have gone home, and Phil Mustard of Durham is also at the Riverside… 1015: For those looking for a ray of light on an otherwise depressing morning for England, you might want to remind yourself that Flintoff does actually average 48.57 with the ball so far, which doesn’t strike me as particularly “talismanic”. Australia have their own dilemmas, and I’m hearing Stuart Clark might have earned a recall…1011: This Prior thing has really rubbered England - he’s played pretty well so far, with gloves and bat, but they’ve now got to dig up a replacement from somewhere. Or do they News reaches me that it was actually a back spasm rather than a knee and he’s now having treatment… 1011: This Prior thing has really rubbered England - he’s played pretty well so far, with gloves and bat, but they’ve now got to dig up a replacement from somewhere. Or do they News reaches me that it was actually a back spasm rather than a knee and he’s now having treatment… 1008: Oh my giddy aunt, the thing that’s happened that everyone thought was going to happen at some point - Matt Prior has apparently done a knee playing football during the warm-up and it looks like Paul Collingwood is going to keep wicket, at least until another gloveman can arrive. Playing football on a wet outfield before an Ashes Test is as nonsensical as a bride doing a full workout down the gym in her dress an hour before she’s due in church. 1004: Morning all. As you’ve probably already heard, Andrew Flintoff has been ruled out of the fourth Test in Leeds, but we’re yet to discover who will be stepping into his very large boots. An Ashes Test without Flintoff is like Newsnight without Paxman. I like Wark, but she’s far less likely to get Harman or Blears quaking than Paxo in full attack dog modeThis article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.