Ian Sea

I'd like to see Liam Livingstone in the team sooner rather than later, and I hope Sam Northeast finally gets a chance too in summer. I can see Foakes getting a game at the MCG with Bairstow not keeping and moving up to 3 in place of Vince.

It's still a film though and fundamentally it should make sense. I think Star Wars tries to be too clever for its own good at times, it would be better off keeping things simple.

Oh, and not showing Rey escape after her confrontation with Kylo is just stupid. It felt like it had been missed out by mistake.

Pretty much agree with all of that. I liked TFA to a point but always said the follow up would make or break it. Unfortunately for me it has broken it. The 2 main aspects of TFA were finding Luke and the First Order usurping the New Republic. The Last Jedi made no reference to the map to Luke or why he hid it. This is particularly strange when he refuses to leave Ahch-To; why did he leave a map in the first place if he has no intention of coming back?! It's also ridiculous that Luke hides on Ahch-To if he's renounced the Jedi religion, surely this is the last place he'd be. They should have had him on Tatooine. Neither of the new films make me care about the New Republic as all we saw of it was a shot of some people we didn't know on a balcony in TFA. Now we don't see the First Order ruling or taking over planets, they're too arsed chasing a few hundred rebels. Sure, show that but we need to see the bigger picture too. All the stuff about Jedi texts is nonsense too. You can't introduce that 8 films into a series and expect people to care. Especially when we've seen the Jedi Archives already. This is up there with midichlorians for me. Unnecessary bullshit and completely not what the force is about. Luke thinking about killing his nephew doesn't sit well, given what he goes through in the original films this is the last thing he'd do. Finn (who I think is a great character played by a superb actor) is wasted as well and it feels like he has nothing to do. His little trip to find the code breaker is massively forced. The DJ character has promise but I don't like how he was played. Overall massively disappointing despite Rey, Kylo and Rose being great.

Finished this a while ago, definitely one of the best books I've ever read. Currently reading a book about Saddam Hussain by the CIA analyst who debriefed him. As you can imagine it's pretty interesting.

It looked a penalty on first viewing at full speed. I think Lovren pushed him in the back with his left hand.

Cook Atherton Vaughan © Root Pietersen Stewart Flintoff Swann Broad Gough Anderson

Ball is quicker than Overton apparently. Not that you could tell from the pitch at the Gabba.

And there was rain around first thing so as close to English conditions as you could get in Australia. Bowling made complete sense and we've done ok, a bit more luck and they'd be 7 or 8 down. We beat the bat quite a few times early on.

You can't win a Test on the first day but you can certainly lose one. We haven't so it's game on, hopefully we can get up towards 350 tomorrow. I'm watching on Bein Sports this year who are using the Channel 9 commentators. I don't mind that, they're all pretty decent - or at least, they don't annoy me. That BT Sport line up is a bit grim but I am a big fan of Ponting. Glad I don't have to listen to David Lloyd this series, he's just a cringeworthy pain in the arse these days.

Finally got round to reading I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes after having it on my kindle for over 2 years. It's great, I'm loving it. Best thing I've read in ages.

Must be boring writing the same match report every week Dave. Just copy and paste in future.

Eubank Jr to win then.

Noel has surpassed himself in the plagiarism stakes with his new single; it sounds like Bryan Ferry, the Steroephonics and Ricky Martin all within the first minute.

I hope Bayliss goes but not before the selectors who have been very poor for a long time.

Urban Hymns was a superb album. Space and Time, Velvet Morning, Catching the Butterfly, Come On, Rolling People and One Day are all brilliant, not to mention the singles. Northern Soul was great too, the first album by The Verve that I heard. Lord I Guess I'll Never Know and This Could Be My Moment are 2 of my favourite Verve tunes and neither were on an album.

Any Enid Blyton for me; Famous Five, Secret Seven, the Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair etc.

Same thing.

Pop music played by British bands. There was nothing pop about The Verve. Even Urban Hymns, their most commercial record, isn't Britpop. I've seen it written that Urban Hymns was actually the fail nail in Britpop's coffin. My personal favourites were Shed Seven, Cast, OCS and Suede. Besides Oasis of course.

The Verve weren't Britpop.

I met him a few years ago and he was a horrible bastard. Rude as fuck.

I went to Riviera Maya a few years ago and it was superb. It's further south than Cancun and more chilled out. I'd highly recommend it.

Yeah, I had an implant for one of my front teeth a few years ago. Took a few visits to do but it was fine; uncomfortable but not particularly painful. It felt similar to having root canal work done. The results have been great too, looks spot on and no problems with it whatsoever.

The line up is shit but Glasto isn't about who is playing, it's about being off your barnet at 3am watching some fella licking mud. Gutted I'm not going.

I stopped in August after a bout of bronchitis. No messing, just stopped, haven't touched one since and have no inclination to do so again.