THE IMPORTANT STUFF

The Palestinians are revolting (pun intended), the Israelis are still building their wall (quite right too in my view - the wall may be illegal but so is suicide bombing and I haven't heard much from the UN or EU on that!), the Sudanese are murdering each other, Taiwan is preparing for a Chinese invasion and the Iraqis have found the headless body of a westerner, but it's time to focus on the important stuff...

SPORT

CRICKET
A magnificent day yesterday for England at Lords. Listened to a fair bit last night thanks to the miracle of the web - Test Match Special was still as good as ever, with Aggers, Blowers and CMJ waffling on like a bunch of old farts and the cricket being purely incicental to the entire event. Magnificent. I think the only times I have ever actually missed Mud Island is when I Listen to the England cricket team playing at Lords or watch the  rugby team are playing at Twickenham. Many a happy beer has been sunk at both venues....
But I digress.  England finished day 1 at 391-2 (or 2-391 if you're Australian). What a performance. Centuries for Robert Key and Andrew Strauss, who shared a stand of 291, have put England in an unassailable position. From here the West Indies can only pray for rain (which will probably work knowing the English climate).

RUGBY
Tri-Nations time again - with NZ v South Africa kicking off at 3.30pm HK time. Having a South African wife, and therefore a half South African son, I suppose I should be supporting the Bokke, but secretly I'll be hoping for Kiwi win. They are an awesome side at present, clearly the best in the world, and besides my early experiences of meeting South Africans at sporting events just after the end of apartheid has left me bitter and twisted at what a buch of arrogant wankers they were and I'm finding it hard to shake that off, even though things have improved immeasurably since. Whatever happens though it should be a great game - one thing i have to give the Bokke is they don't give up so while they may not have the talent of the Kiwis they are very long on sheer guts which will get them a long way.

Have fun all. See you on Monday.