Voll Blau

Harriet's now making more out of book sales than she could have done from the prize pot. Smart move.

Yes, I've asked them all. And they all agreed with me. I said it's not uncommon across UEFA competitions, which it isn't. Authorities in Naples banned Eintracht Frankfurt not long ago, for example. And, let's have it right, Maccabi's hools would have been thrilled to death at the prospect of a scrap with locals of any creed or colour in Birmingham. And yes, I asked them all. And they all agreed with me.

Yep. People falling over themselves to get upset on behalf of people who they'd be applauding the police for banning from a football match if they were Polish, Italian, German or (especially) English. This isn't exactly a rare occurrence in UEFA competitions. Plenty of away fans get banned by local authorities.

They tend to put aside their differences on the single issue of Palestine. That's about it. And, let's face it, the level we're really talking about here is largely people who occupy lecture theatres, not anyone ever likely to get close to influence or power.

Wout Faes loaned to Monaco. Our inept PM doesn't say a word as per usual.

The proof will be in whether he can do it consistently. The signs from how he played in Sydney are good but he needs to be playing for Warwickshire a lot more than he has been in order for that to happen. It's only a few months ago he played that horror shot at The Oval, so he's still very much learning his trade. Time in the county game will help him to do that.

Way to build brand loyalty, lads! If only that could have been honest at the time that thos was their end game. The made-up reasons when they came up with it were so lacking in logic to anyone with a half a brain.

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In such a dreary league season too. Trying to get a buzz on for cups is all we have.

Only bit of fun we might get this season, so enjoy it while it lasts. Swear most football fans (not just Leicester) would be a lot happier if they let themselves enjoy the Cup for what it is.

It was on our national broadcaster's main channel. Any press I've seen have been absolutely loving it. Erm, Man United in 2000? At least Palace actually entered the tournament.

I do hope the club do something to honour him.

"Set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care." Pretty clear to me. Cerainly more than a "nasty tweet", as we're being falsely told on this thread you can get three years in the slamner for. As I say, a newspaper editor would go to jail for publishing that to an audience of the size her post reached.

Things people online do have an impact though. We live in a world where people will believe any old nonsense they read on social media - and then act upon it. Publishing to a six-figure audience that refugees should be burned in their hotels is a dangerous act. A newspaper editor would rightly be jailed for it.

But who's done three years for just a "nasty tweet", as you claim, rather than something that was actually more than that? I'm all for nonces getting what they deserve but this anodyne idea that "paedo gets off but you get jailed just for nasty tweets" is debasing our justice system to the level of poorly constructed Facebook memes. Ultimately, it's the kind of unfounded claim that's dangerous to our democracy because people assume the likes of what you've claimed to be true, despite not bothering to look up the facts of cases for themselves. Would welcome any examples you can find of someone being jailed for three years for a "nasty tweet".

Which "nasty tweet" are you referring to then?

Urging people to burn refugees alive is more than a "nasty tweet", isn't it?

Absolutely wild, that. Can only imagine the voting system was deeply flawed and you were given "either or" for every single position in the batting order. Root and Archer get in a combined XI if you're talking about the whole series. Annoyingly, there's probably just about a case for Crawley over Weatherald. Head Crawley Labuschagne S. Smith Root Carey Starc Archer Neser Boland Lyon (Because the XI needs a spinner)

Anything that requires people to buy a specific product is never going to get as much traction as it could do, sadly. It's not a bad idea, but an all-black protest would be easier for more people to join in with - and give people the option of wearing the 1884 colours as part of it.

Right or wrongly seen as Cov colours, sadly, unless it's specifically as a sash on a black background. Black an easy colour to sort people wearing en masse. Insisting the sky blue is part of it makes it more complicated.

What does my head in time and again is the "we've seen it all so it doesn't matter now" attitude and the farcical insistence that younger fans are spoilt twats who constantly expect success. Don't you want your children and grandchildren to enjoy similar memories in future?

Hatch had also played club cricket. He's been awful but was also sold short by his bosses. Sat in a cold studio in London at 3am, watching a sport that's not his speciality, with only a foreign feed he has no idea about, is about as horrendous as it could get for a sports commentator. In short, it's TNT's laziness amd unwillingness to invest in one of sport's most historic events that's to blame, not the people they put up as front men. The parallels with how the ECB approached this tour are quite something...

Typical BBC, only going for diversity hires of celtic heritage!

Agree. I reckon Farhan plays for England while still a teenager, if he carries on as he is. I've never seen a young spinner so confident, even if he's getting slogged.

He will at Derbyshire. One of the few counties where he gets in as first choice spinner, which says it all about where his career is actually at compared to where the people who run the national team thought it was.