Gloucester Saint

Reported that the Samoan second row tried to hit Atkinson, missed but caught ECB security instead causing six stitches. https://www.planetrugby.com/news/saracens-player-named-following-melee-with-ben-stokes-and-gus-atkinson-in-bar-brawl Stokes in hot water though and if there was an alternative who hadn’t been in a fight or pissed to the point of staggering in the last 12 months, he’d probably be replaced. There isn’t an obvious option bar Caretaker Root who didn’t enjoy the role.

Makes a huge difference having an overseas player who isn’t a hologram. Must have been cursing the run out as looked set for a ton. 333 not bad, and forecast tomorrow should see a draw https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/forecast/gcpuvk7px#?date=2026-06-10 Surrey could set a target with T20 scoring but seemingly no opportunity to bowl us out unless the Met Office is wrong.

The practical issue with that beyond legal immigration which all bar the absolute headbangers admit we need, is that we are an ageing population and the balance of those paying in and taking out e.g. triple lock benefits (40% of the welfare bill) for the oldies are a huge cost, it’s not just working age and mental health. Legal migration to prop up our health, social care and clinical sciences/civil Eng will get us so far this decade but the need will probably go beyond that. If people want to only have legal/economic migration to specific roles, then that means UK citizens taking a lot less from welfare especially pensioners. Given the hysteria around winter fuel allowance, I don’t fancy your chances of politicians of any stripe dealing with the practical impact. Our generation won’t get any form of state pension top up without an injection of younger workers paying in. Reform want to push up birth rates but that’s a generation away and more of adjusted property prices, land and much increased job security so people feel secure to begin families.

Disgraceful. It’s great to keep politics off of the main board but Trump won’t keep his out of football so strip them of it unless the referee is let in - Mexico can host lead with Canada. No chance Infantino has the minerals to do that though.

Stupid if they have but also Stokes’s batting has been on thr decline for some time so it may suit the ECB despite Stokes being an England hero. Don’t know who else is skipper though? Brook and Duckett also had nighttime incidents a recently and surely Root doesn’t want it back?

Will Lankshear? Makes me think of this originally being a Woolstoner https://www.facebook.com/groups/SouthamptonSotoniansandFriends/posts/4153587801598967/

Empathise in many ways with the current situation but you’ve also seen your club win in my lifetime the League Cup x2, Premier League and FA Cup. That ain’t too shabby at all for a mid-sized club similar to ours, probably exceptional along with your rivals on the Trent and if KP sell up, the good times will come back. Never know, you might have a promotion campaign next year although Rusty’s idea of football is very, very different to mine! I’d take some seasons in the National League if it meant I actually saw us win 4 major trophies.

Nick Gubbins has a decent record at the Oval and Jake Lehmann isn’t averse to batting for long period so you never know. With Prest a walking wicket, let’s hope they put on a large stand.

421 representing a bit of a collapse from Surrey, Hants 17/0 at the close. The bowling points help! With an unsettled forecast, need to ensure some backbone to get past the follow on target, take a draw out.

I agree with every word and sentence of this post bar the last one hitch is what Hitchens concluded with. Having sat through ACC briefings and date in a non-political/non-public sector civic role, those very senior officers don’t see themselves as social workers, or woke (they play the game) they push constant arrests for KPIs. KPIs = constant rising budgets.

I broadly agree, Will is an established Championship midfielder if used at the head of a central three. However, playing for a favourite manager, favourite position, probably still on Champ wages for their first season back in L1, could be a ‘wouldn’t normally play at that level but club/manager’ like it was Harding and Fonte.

He could join Timbuktu Rovers for all I care, as long as he’s off Saints’s payroll! Peretz, Wright and AN Other.

3 down for just over 100 at lunch. Probably slightly sub-par with how green the pitch was but behaving better with more consistent bounce than the pitch at Lord’s albeit quite a bit of sideways movement on offer.

Hampshire won the toss and bowling at an overcast Oval. The teams https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/scorecard/e-233517 Not too bad a side with Lehmann, Orr back in at 3, Prest at 5 which isn’t so promising but hopefully this is the game he emerges from his slump. Batting fairly deep with Organ at 8 and Fuller at 9. Could find it hard to get 20 wickets but at least England released Baker to play (and Fisher for Surrey).

Plus the GOP finally waking up from their MAGA-induced coma.