Macca

1st Innings Watson Cowan Khawaja Clarke Hughes Haddin Faulkner 2nd Innings Cowan Khawaja Hughes Clarke Haddin Faulkner None of the bowlers got a hit (apart from Faulkner) but all the batsmen spent good time at the crease.

Rory versus the Robot ...

There's a bus stuck at the finishing line under the banner. Hard to believe something like this could happen. They've moved the bus. Is Reg Varney at the wheel? Chaos!

We ended up winning by 6 wickets (after declaring at 5 down in our 1st innings) Haddin and Hughes posted half centuries whilst Khawaja got 73 and Cowan 46. Quite a good hit out really and the team would have achieved a number of goals ... scorecard The next 4 day warm up game starts in a couple of days so we could expect Rogers, Wade, Smith, Bird and Harris to all get a run. Hard to know who may be rested but possibly Pattinson, Siddle and Starc could sit things out if it's been decided that they'll be the starting trio of quicks in the 1st Test.

6 - Watts (the difference between the 2 sides) 5 - Terlich (Mr Consistency) 4 - N Jones (14 contested possessions) 3 - Rodan (a live wire all night) 2 - Frawley (rediscovered his dash) 1 - Dawes (presented well all night) Other players who had good games ... Nicholson, Howe, Clisby and McDonald. All our players made contributions.

Our backing up and 2nd and 3rd efforts were excellent. We look like a team that is sick of losing. If we were a bit sharper with our skills, we would have been a lot further in front at 3/4 time. The thing that stood out was our teamwork and how we shared the ball. We switched the play a lot. Only real knock was that we went long to a contest a few times when we didn't need to. We need to use the hit up mark a fair bit more. We also need to get better at hanging on to the ball but last week and tonight was a vast improvement. The players seemed to position themselves well and we ran hard to position on many occasions. Our overall skills were much better and we looked a lot more confident as well. We just ran out of legs - not surprised really (when considering how hard we ran in the first 3 quarters) We played for each other and there looked to be some great camaraderie out on the field.

We ran out of legs but it was a terrific effort for the majority of the game. Before the bounce we would have taken any sort of win. We played like a team .... at last.

Winners are grinners!

Playing like winners

The 2nd Weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun) will be tough as well. Stages 7, 8 and 9 are very tough. I like the way they've set up the tour this time - especially the last 8 or 9 days. Even the last time trial involves 2 medium level climbs. These first 2 days in Corsica will be fascinating. Tomorrow's stage involves a few reasonably hard climbs. Hopefully the footy team gets up for a win tonight for a nice lead in!

Rogers has been playing county cricket prior to joining the squad and he has a couple of big scores to his name this season. There's 2 schools of thought - they've put him in the squad to play him immediately to shore up the top order ... or as a back-up if our top order doesn't measure up. He's made a lot of 1st class runs in his career. It's looking more likely that Clarke will bat at no.4 with Hughes to possibly bat in the late middle order (no.5?) I edited my previous post mentioning this. I agree with you re the no.3 spot. Traditionally it's the most vital spot in the order and often the best batsmen bat in that spot. Khawaja has spent a large part of his cricket batting there so he's the more logical choice however, Rogers or Cowan could bat there at a pinch. Much will depend on what happens in the current warm up game and the next one. In the past, these games were used as practice for our 'established' batting order. Right now it's more about who can do well enough to get a game in the Tests. Pattinson and Starc look like they've done enough to get into the team for the 1st Test. Match totals of 7 wickets for Patto and 6 for Starc.

Hughes did make 76 batting at 5 in this game so maybe the decision has been made with that effort. Clarke batted at no.4 so it looks like he'll bat at that spot in the Test matches. Khawaja has a chance tonight to get himself a good score - he opened the batting in the 2nd innings (of this warm up game) and is 18 not out. Cowan is 14 not out. It could be that both these batsmen are fighting for the one spot. (that's if Rogers is pencilled in) The positive is that Hughes and Watson have both spent good time at the crease in the current game. Clarke batted for nearly 2 hours in the 1st innings as well (he made 45) Regardless, we could expect Swann to be brought into the attack very early on in the Test matches. They've got a very good bowling attack but Swann could be our biggest worry - especially if the wickets presented are dry and take spin. It would be preferable that whoever bats at no.6 can play spin well. If it was out of Warner, Wade or Khawaja, I'd go for Usman. Brad Haddin should bat at no.7 in an ideal batting line-up. Edit: ... McDermott warms to an Ashes return ... Warnie could be helping out as well. Billy worked well with the bowlers in his previous stint.

Stage 1 Jean Francois Pescheux's view ... Magnificent countryside

From Iceland ... 'Of Monsters and Men' with a couple ... Macca 13.4

When too much sport is never enough ... CFL opening match highlights ... Montreal Alouettes @ Winnepeg Blue Bombers ... Not a bad standard and the big crowd got right into it! Those 'Tiger-Cats' take on Toronto's Argonauts tomorrow (I checked Toronto's roster and they've got a couple of players called Jason) 'My' Saskatchewan Roughriders take on the Eskimos on Sunday. Need a win - any sort of win.

Hughes ended up getting 76 not out and batted for over 2 and a half hours. If he gets amongst it again in the 2nd dig he may have played himself into the 1st Test. Both these warm up games are 4 day games. ... Scorecard

Maybe it's not a fait accompli just yet ... Familiar faces to help Cadel Evans regain Tour de France title Froome will be hard to beat but he hasn't been to the top of the mountain. I expect him to win but wouldn't be surprised if he has some problems in the last few days of the tour. It's a tough, tough finish in the last 3 days, prior to the finishing day. Stage 18, 19 and 20 ...

I reckon if Faulkner plays, he'll be one of the 3 quicks. Can't see it now after Starc's 4 wickets. Reckon Clarke will bat 5 so if we assume Watson, Rogers and Cowan fill the top 3 spots then that leaves no.4 and no.6 to be filled. Khawaja or Hughes could bat at 4 and Wade, Warner or Smith could bat at 6. If Clarke bats at no.4 then Hughes or Khawaja can bat at no.5. Watson did bowl a bit in the Champions Trophy so we've probably got the 5th bowler covered. But who would know with the way they've picked sides of late? Nothing would surprise me ...

Here we go again! Figure we can just use the same thread started by 'dee-luded'. Maybe a name change? Anyway, here's an excellent BBC audio documentary ... 100 years of the Tour De France Goes for nearly 2 hours but well worth a listen. It can be downloaded here on the BBC podcast page. You will need to scroll down on the 'linked' page for the podcast. Had a quick look at the stages and out of the 21 of them, 6 would be regarded as having 'medium to hard' level climbs and a further 6 would be regarded as having very tough and/or extremely difficult climbs. The last 7 stages leading up to the final stage all involve mountain stages (4 of them extremely tough) Here's a quick run down of the stages with a brief description ... Stage 1 - Sat 29th - Flat Stage 2 - Sun 30th - 3 x medium, 1 x hard (climbs) Stage 3 - Mon 1st - 2 x medium, 1 x hard Stage 4 - Tues 2nd - Time trial (flat) Stage 5 - Wed 3rd - 1 x medium Stage 6 - Thurs 4th - Flat Stage 7 - Fri 5th - 2 x medium, 1 x hard Stage 8 - Sat 6th - 1 x very difficult, I x extremely tough Stage 9 - Sun 7th - 1 x hard, 4 x very difficult Rest day - Mon 8th Stage 10 - Tues 9th - Flat Stage 11 - Wed 10th - Time trial (flat) Stage 12 - Thurs 11th - Flat Stage 13 - Fri 12th - Flat Stage 14 - Sat 13th - 7 x medium Stage 15 - Sun 14th - 1 x extremely tough Rest day - Mon 15th Stage 16 - Tues 16th - 1 x medium, 2 x hard Stage 17 - Wed 17th - Time trial (involving 2 x medium/hard climbs!) Stage 18 - Thurs 18th - 1 x medium, 2 x hard, 2 x extremely tough Stage 19 - Fri 19th - 1 x hard, 2 x very difficult, 2 x extremely tough Stage 20 - Sat 20th - 3 x medium, 1 x hard, 1 x very difficult, 1 x extremely tough Stage 21 - Sun 21st - flat (starting at the 'Palace of Versailles' and ending at the 'Arc de Triomphe' - finishing at 5.45am our time - 9.45pm in France) Legend (climbs) Category 3 or 4 - medium level Category 2 - hard Category 1 - very difficult Category 'HC' - extremely tough This link takes you to the official site.

Tony Kornheiser seems convinced that Tim Tebow will be used by the Patriots as a tight end. Given the events of the last few weeks, they might have to!

Geelong's score included 11 rushed behinds. Apart from that, the Cats kicked 11.12. The Hawks were the better team on the day but it could be argued that it was their accurate kicking for goal that won them the game. They kicked 18.7 which didn't include a rushed behind. From memory, Mooney missed a couple of easy shots but that wasn't unusual for him.

Hayes and Spargo were on the Gardner Board.

Yeah, was a beauty! Unwritten rule is that only those who have won the Stanley cup can touch the Stanley cup. This is an iconic moment in sport ...

Blackhawks score twice in the last moments of game 6 to take the Stanley cup! The Bruins crowd must have been thinking about game 7 - what a terrible way to lose. Chicago's been the best performed team this season so it's a richly deserved victory ... game 6 highlights

Certainly an interesting development. For this to happen on the eve of the tour is a little startling. The press conference will be fascinating (has that happened yet?) Regardless, I don't reckon we're going to hear the full story. Anyway, here is an excerpt from this story in today's Age ... Arthur made scapegoat as CA bid to stop the rot Lehmann might prove a good choice as his replacement. It's all happened rather quickly though. Adding Smith* to the squad is intriguing. He batted ok a couple of times in India but his inclusion might have a lot to do with the real absence of some middle order players. Effectively having 5 openers as part of your 7 specialist batsmen was a bit of a baffling decision to start off with. And Khawaja is best suited as a no.3. At least that's where he's batted most of the time in his first class career. Not sure what to make of the Ahmed/Agar decisions. Reading between the lines, it still looks like either may be called upon to join the squad. *Just read that Smith is on standby for Clarke until the start of the 2nd Test. He then flies to South Africa as captain of the Australia A team. He might find himself getting a game in the early Tests anyway - especially if he makes runs in the warm up games.