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oldmanwillow

Listed below are comments made by oldmanwillow between Thursday, 11th September 2008 and Tuesday, 24th November 2009.

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Why El Clasico is the biggest derby of them all 6:00pm on 24 Nov 2009 Some commentators in Spain may refer to the game as a "derby" but it is generally known as the "clàsico", the game everyone looks forward to, and feelings can run very high.
I was living in Barcelona when Franco died and there was jubilation. He was roundly hated for what he tried to do to the Catalan language and culture in general. So I assure you that there is still some political content in the rivalry. If Catalan still has a lot of Castillian words mixed in with it, it is because it was forbidden to speak Catalan in public or to teach it for forty years or so. Hardly anyone I knew then could write it correctly. But that has all changed.
One of the most telling comments is about the Madrid "cantera", the flow of players from the youth teams that was its great pride not so long ago. Right now it is of little significance, whereas Barcelona's has been producing some very fine players.
One of the reasons why Barcelona is in fashion may be its identification with the successful national team: some of Spain's best players are at Barcelona - in fact they are its backbone - but only Casillas is at Madrid.

Roll on Sunday!
The morning after at The Oval 4:04pm on 26 Aug 2009 The dust has settled and the players and "back-room" staff received their plaudits. It has been another exciting series and England should be able to make impressive progress from this point.

Just like to congratulate TMS for securing the services of "Hados", Matthew Haden, whose contribution to our summer listening was enormous. A thoughtful analyst, technical where he needed to be, avoiding unneccesary polemic, and never just filling in time gaps. I really enjoyed listening to him. What a contrast to Geoffrey Boycott who, when he wasn't being boorish, was being boring. He could take a leaf out of Hados' book: Haden was just as great an opening batsman but he doesn't need to constantly remind us of his mum's cricketing skills, what she or he, Boycott would have done with a stick of rhubarb or broom against certain bowling.. It was amusing the first time but we've heard it more times now than he scored first-class centuries.

I hope Hados will not be lost to TMS because he was a breath of fresh air and noone has provided such insights into the batsman's mind for a very long time.
Trott gallops his way into England hearts 01:58am on 23 Aug 2009 Good blog, if a bit heavy.

The important things are that, for once, the selectors deserve credit for the selection of Trott: we seem to have found a genuine test batsman. This cancels out the absurd inclusion of Monty in the squad when there was never the least intention of letting him get his hands on the ball.

Collingwood and Bell are not test batsmen-- this match finally put the final conclusion to any debate on that matter, though we have to find better replacements and that will not be easy. To me the important thing is to have taken the decision that they are living on borrowed time and not to be persuaded to give them another chance by the odd excellent performance.

Thank you Steve Harmison, you have been a faithful servant to English cricket but you no longer have a place in a team with Anderson and Broad. Many of us who watched the 2005 Ashes dreamt of England being the dominant team, on the back of the Famous Four, Harmy, Flintoff, Jones and Hoggard.I suspect that the only one of the four that may appear in an England shirt again is Hoggard.

The reasons for this dramatic change are difficult to tie down: it is impossible that fast bowlers owe their physique and strength again to their time in the mines, as was the case 60 or 70 years ago. So where is the next Larwood or Tyson going to come from?

Right now, England has an impressive battery of fast bowlers, seamers, swingers and a mixture of both. I would go so far as to say that we haven't enjoyed such a variety of top-class fast bowlers for a very long time.

Tomorrow, they come up against the Aussies, fighting for their life as only they know how. The fast bowlers will play their part and take a few wickets, but it will be Swann who determines whether, tomorrow night, we are drinking beer to drown our sorrows or the best French champagne to celebrate an unexpected win.

It will be champagne....

I have forgotten where I started: now I remember... congratulations Jonathan Trott for an innings which, outside the context of a match to decide the Ashes, would have been excellent, but within it, wa simply brilliant.

JHP
Broad's Ashes spot no longer secure 00:50am on 04 Aug 2009 I am not a new member. See your comment to 23.
Broad's Ashes spot no longer secure 00:48am on 04 Aug 2009 It will come as no surprise when, tomorrow, an unchanged squad is announced, nor when the final eleven turns out to be the same. It is not the time to take gambles, such as bringing in Harmison, not at Headingley. If Flintoff is not fit, and I hope he will be because his performances, either with the bat or the ball are capable of inspiring his teammates and the crowd, then Sidebottom should come back.

Whatever happens at Headingley will decide the series - nothing very original about that - and the value of a settled, unchanged team is easy to underestimate.

Any eleven cricketers chosen to represent Australia deserve enormous respect. They will always fight to the death. But England are better than they are just now and we have an opportunity to prove it and bring the Ashes back where they belong.
Did deregulation really cause the crisis? 11:38pm on 07 Oct 2008 The short answer is that deregulation has played its part in this fiasco, how big we may know one day. Whether it has favoured the Democrats or the Republicans, also not clear. Just now it is not doing John McCain any good. It is his party that has been in power during the worst excesses of Wall Street and that is why he is trying to distance himself from GWB. Nice try but it won't work.

His campaign is not being helped by his choice of VP. Seemed brilliant at first, someone to bring in the very right-wing, "religious" female voter and her mate. It's all falling rather flat.

The US electorate is much more intelligent than some of us Europeans sometimes think.
The most divisive and tasteless selection in cricket history 11:42pm on 20 Sep 2008 With international cricket in abeyance for the time being, many of of us are scratching around to find a blog where we can post our opinions.

A few weeks ago, I read a really excellent article by Justin Langer in his occasional column for the BBC. It was about Mark Ramprakash, one of the great "might-have-beens" of English test cricket.

It is a very perceptive article, objective but also very enthusiastic about an extraordinary cricketer who, for some reason, never quite made it at the top level.

If any of you are still reading this blog, I reccommend you read it...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/7566488.stm
The most divisive and tasteless selection in cricket history 03:48am on 13 Sep 2008 To Simonsviews, #154, there is no need for ápologies. The good thing about these blogs is that everyone can have their say and it will, almost immediately, be published. Very few contributions are removed after reactive moderation. Thise that are must be pretty scurrilous, offensive, or whatever.

I think this question has been exhaustively covered and I don't expect anyone to add another contribution.
The most divisive and tasteless selection in cricket history 5:37pm on 12 Sep 2008 Yes, # 151. I got a similar sensation from reading pierrelebruns piece (#145).

He starts off saying he is "ashamed to be British". By the end, I think he should he have added "and that I don't like cricket".
Capello at home in hostile Zagreb 03:15am on 11 Sep 2008 Hi Excumbrian # 385. I agree in principle with what you are saying but we shouldn't tar all the Croatian players with the same brush.

Simunic and Kovac should both have been sent off, not just one of them, but, although the whole Croatian team was demonstrating a lot of arrogant aggression in the first half, that did change in the second half.

The referee did make mistakes. England should probably have had a penalty in the first half for a foul on Heskey. As mentioned before, Simiunic should have been sent off before the whistle at the end of the first half.

Than there is the question of Lampard's disallowed goal. To me it seemed like one of those fouls , tugging shirts etc., that if it had been committed on a rampaging forward, would rarely have led to a penalty. So, ....

Finally, there is the question of Croatia's goal. John Terry was about to head the ball when, suddenly it was whisked away by someone's foot, about six feet from the ground. It didn't malke contact with his head, fortiunately, but it looked suspiciously like dangerous play.

Happily, none of these refereeing shortcomings had any effect on the result. England were very superior to Croatia today, as the result shows.

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