Derek Collett

After two recent CC defeats in which a visiting team's spinner has taken 5+ wickets in our second innings to bowl them to victory, can we please start playing our spinner @WorcsCCC?

Upcoming World Cup fixtures: Uzbekistan v Colombia Lesotho v Andorra Falkland Islands v Isle of Man Easter Island v Christmas Island Asgard v Ultima Thule Canvey Island v Kirrin Island Rockall v Sealand Narnia v Atlantis Never Never Land v Cloud Cuckoo Land Cont. ad nauseum

Jeremy Clarkson has invited 30,000 Land Rover-owning middle-aged men in green wellies and gilets to tramp around a muddy field on his Diddly Squat farm 5 miles from my house. Result? I have had no mobile signal for two days. Thanks Jezza!

When I republished this Nigel Balchin novel in 2023 it bombed. I’m pleased to say it has sold better since and you can boost sales still further by buying a copy! Available from Amazon and elsewhere. I highly recommend this book: it’s definitely one of my top five Balchin novels.

It's been a tough few years with the bat for Worcestershire wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick but he came good with a flourish today with a magnificent 164 n.o. against Northants at Wantage Road. Well played sir!

Delighted that Worcestershire beat Middlesex today. Thoroughly enjoyed an absorbing day's play at Lord's on Friday. Hope it's the first of many wins this season! MoM? Dan Lategan!

Next time Michael Vaughan has a "funny feeling" that England are going to beat India at cricket I'll thank him to keep that knowledge to himself.

So, after three 6N games in three weekends (which I absolutely bloody hate in case anyone cares) we now don't have a game for another two weeks. Logic? Commonsense? Consideration for the spectator? Nope, all qualities the schedulers don't possess.

Harry Brook must not play Test cricket again until he has visited a neurosurgeon for that long-overdue brain implant operation.

Get rid of Key, McCullum, Duckett, Crawley, Pope, Brook and Smith. Bring in new batsmen with good county records who are tough, prepared to work hard and willing to graft for runs when batting is difficult. Ban all mention of the word 'Bazball'.

My plan to save the Ashes: England MUST NEVER tour Australia again until the ACB promise us at least three state games before the First Test. No discussion. End of.

England and Australia should sign an agreement not to refer anything for the rest of this series. Just rely on the umpires, which is what they're supposed to be there for after all. That would kill the controversy stone-dead wouldn't it?

Fackham Hall is crude, uneven and very silly but it has some great visual gags and is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny in places. Made for a pleasant retreat from the pre-Christmas melee at the always luxurious Living Room Cinema in Chipping Norton this afternoon.

Do watch it if you've never seen it before: a fine adaptation of the multi-talented Nigel Balchin's greatest novel.

After 2 years of struggle, this novel I republished in 2023 has suddenly started to sell quite well. Find out what all the fuss is about by buying your own copy. Buy from Amazon, other online retailers or by ordering a copy from a UK bookshop and enjoy in time for Christmas!

A swift switches off half its brain in order to sleep whilst flying. Harry Brook, the miracle of the age, switches off almost all his brain every time he bats for England in a Test match!

RIP Robin Smith. As a student at Southampton University in the mid-1980s I had the great good fortune to watch him play for Hampshire a number of times. Best square cut I ever saw, with the possible exception of his Hants teammate Gordon Greenidge.

Having just watched it, I have to say that Wake Up Dead Man is tremendously good fun. A bit too long and convoluted perhaps but infinitely superior to Glass Onion and possibly better even than Knives Out. I warmly recommend it.