occasionally acerbic, cultural and political comment “People who are wise, good, smart, skillful, or hardworking don't need politics, they have jobs.”
~ P.J.

O'Rourke (NB. )
Notts captain Stephen Fleming secured a against Bangladesh with a stonking century off 92-balls.
*tyger is not a Kiwi, in fact if anything he should support Australia (his mother grew up there and he still has family in Adelaide), but when it comes to cricket he hates them soooo much.

So, in the absence of a competitive English side, he ll plump for the Kiwis led by Notts-based Fleming.
Seriously, what the hell happened?
Joyce.

Duck! (god I hate )
Flintoff. Golden Duck!

(those effin )
Well the weighted seeding system should ensure we ll get through to the next round, but the Kiwi s are bobbins. Bond is an excellent bowler and Scott Styris is your stereotypical Kiwi all-rounder, but if we can t beat New Zealand then we really don t have a chance.
I don t have Sky TV.

So I can t watch the Aussies take the Scots apart. I have to make do with the Guardian s
I used to have Sky, but I found spending every evening watching and re-runs wasn t good for me. So I cancelled my subscription and now I have to make excuses to go to my brother-in-law s to watch the cricket (I also enjoy immensely the pleasure in not putting money into the pockets of one Rupert Murdoch, but that s probably because I m a rather petty and disagreeable person).

I asked Mrs. tyger if I could go over tomorrow to watch Ireland v Zimbabwe (yes, I m that desperate). She said this was fine as she has friends coming over; one of which, I am informed, is stunning 24-year-old Polish girl.

Mrs. tyger thinks that the combination of my dribbling and our polished wooden floors could be lethal. She does have a point, but I rather wish I d kept my mouth shut.

You, dear reader, will get used to my screwing things up. I m not as sharp as I sometimes think I am.
So what does a guy do?

There is nothing on the box. Mrs. tyger is out.

The boy is sound asleep. I have the house to myself. I had a wander over to some other blogs - but I just can t find the energy to engage.

If I drink anymore tea I ll be getting up for a piss all night long - I don t need that. I m thinking about an early night. Radio Four on the bedside radio and just fall asleep.

I have been reading for most of the evening (now the boy is back, loud music is out of the question, so we re reduced to played low). I have a biog of and the latest issue of the brilliant , but now my eyes are getting tired and my brain is fried. A scotch would be nice.

A fine single-malt. But alas, I have run out. Donations greatly appreciated and all that.

Maybe I could review whisky in return for samples? They may be rubbish at cricket, but the Scots do know their whisky. Jesus dude, what the hell are you twittering on about?

Shut the fuck up and go to bed.
I m having an early night. Good night.

As one commenter has to the Big Brother , I’ll throw in my comments. This is the very first series of Big Brother I have watched more than 10-minutes of. I probably catch about half-an-hour a week, but I see enough to know what the hell is going on (yes, it’s that primitive).

The controversy, of course, is that some viewers have made accusations that several of the contestants have been racist towards Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. Not Dirk Benedict I may add, who like this blogger, is rather spell-bound by the sultry Bollywood star.
I’m not sure it’s overtly racist, just that a trio of chavvish troglodytes (Jade Goody, Teddy Sheringham’s WAG Danielle, and the blond bit who used to front S Club 7) have basically ganged up on Shilpa because, unlike them, she’s a gold-platted A-Lister.

Indeed Shilpa has starred in over fifty films; unlike Jade, who we all know, is just a “minger.”
The only thing in my opinion the other girls have shown is that women can be bitches and that each one of them is a moron. Novelist Hari Kunzru , he thinks that there were indeed classic instances of racism - and I respect Kunzru, so maybe I’m wrong.

I just can’t help but think that the dynamic of an Indian film star cooped up with the likes of Goody, was always going to go tits-up.
Received this joke circular at work, thought I’d share it with you…
Billy was at school this morning and the teacher asked all the children what their fathers did for a living. All the typical answers came: fireman, policeman, salesman, chippy, captain of industry etc, but Billy was being uncharacteristically quiet and so the teacher asked him about his father.

My father is an exotic dancer in a gay club and takes off all his clothes in front of other men. Sometimes if the offer is really good, he ll go out with a man, rent a cheap hotel room and let the man sleep with him. The teacher quickly set the other children some work and took little Billy aside to ask him if that was really true.

No said Billy, He plays cricket for England but I was just too embarrassed to say.
I’m utterly shattered after yesterday’s travels and staying up until gone three to watch England’s batting crumple in the third test. Actually, I missed the collapse by about 10-minutes, as when I finally went to bed (knowing I have work at nine), Flintoff was on 48, and both he and Pietersen were motoring along quite nicely.

However as my climbed between my sheets Flintoff got himself clean bowled by Shane Warne on 51, and the English tail, for now surely Geraint Jones is part of the tail, was killed off for five runs. Of course the run-chase was always futile, but England’s top order looked like giving the Aussies a bit of a fright and that’s always nice.
I’m not sure if I should have stayed up for those extra ten minutes.

Yes I could have seen the wickets; but surely, going to bed on that threadbare dream of a fight back, was better than watching a sting of English batsmen trundling back to a pavilion they have only just vacated.
Normal tygerland service will resume tomorrow.
No one would argue against the obvious fact that it was the bowlers who won the Ashes in the summer of 05.

Yes, of course we had to put runs on the board, and Pietersen and Tresco both did brilliantly with the bat, but it is was our ability to bowl out the best batting side in the world that triumphed. Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Martyn, and Gilchrist have utterly dominated the contemporary game, and it was the ability of the English bowlers to capture the dark arts of reverse swing, which ensured that we had the capacity to cut down Australia s batsmen.
How things have been different this winter?

First we lost the Welsh dragon Simon Jones. Jones, who had to change his action after numerous injuries, tore apart the Aussie batting line-up last time. Aggressive batsmen will always struggles against swing bowling.

If you move forward to attack the ball, you reduce the available reaction time and can leave yourself unable to pick up the balls trajectory. Hayden and Gilchrist, Australia s two most aggressive batsmen, were particularly vulnerable.
Andrew Flintoff, the talisman of 05, has been similarly struck with injuries.

Add to the list captain Michael Vaughn and finger-spinner Ashley Giles, and England s victorious side looks rather frayed. Giles, often nicknamed wheelie-bin after his charismatic action, has not been the same player, yet has been selected because he strengthens England s long tail immeasurably (for the none cricket lovers, the tail are batsmen at the end of the order - the non-specialist batsmen).
Yet Giles has been unable to take the wickets and bowl as well defensively as last time.

The fans, and the media, have demanded that England s other finger-spinner, Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, or as he is now invariably known: Monty , be selected. Finally in the crucial third test, Monty along with quickie , were selected, and what an impact Monty has made?
The cry for Monty has been deafening.

English spinners with real turn are few and far between, and his brilliant summer form meant, to many at least, that Panesar s inclusion from the off would be a formality, but the England management, somewhat understandably, wanted to stick with the side that had been victorious 18-months ago. However, with England s abject inability to bowl out the Aussies in the first two tests, Monty s return was inevitable. And overnight he collected a hand-full of wickets.

is spectacular bowling, and Panesar inspired the English attack to clean up the Aussie s for a mere 244 runs, putting England firmly in the driving seat.
Panesar s influence should not be underestimated; attacking batsmen love to take on finger-spinners. Indeed, the Aussie s consider orthodox finger-spin with some disdain and were looking forward to taking on the young Panesar.

But Monty devastated them; and finally, the English bowlers are competing again. And not a moment too soon.
This blog, without any hesitation, salutes Monty Panesar.

All Hail Monty.