Gloucester Saint

Tom Prest is an interesting case. He’s a bit loose outside 5th stump at times, as Vince and Zak Crawley were at test level. But his technique overall is quite compact and he has the shots as he showed when he first broke into the One Day Cup side a few years ago with aplomb. I can only comment on what I see, someone at the club must know why he’s plateaued then gone backwards. Early season in red ball the start 30s and 40s were there, then he’d find a really daft way to get out. Few of the dismissals were genuinely good balls unlike some of the ones Gubbins and Dawson got. Now he’s not even getting those in T20 and it’s a cruel format if he gets stuck in a rut. Sports psychologist may be another option 1-1. Rod said in pre-season that the club felt he was on the ‘Bethell fast track’ a couple of years ago and they were hoping Domingo might understand better how to get him out of a stagnation and signs of what indeed have proved to be a decline. I wouldn’t release him but offer a contract with a few levels/markers within it to help get the momentum back.

On justice, the Manchester airport jury case I’ll give you, that made me angry. Two tier overall? Nah. People got banged up for encouraging the 2011 rioters and not a peep about that. I’ve no time for Palestinian Action but they’re banned and proscribed so they could make the same argument the far right did yesterday and this morning. If someone incites a violent angry mob to burn a hotel down, they deserve every single day of a custodial sentence and should have had longer. Inspector Frost nailed it last night - the police have become too politicised and it’s probably gone slightly too much the other way in the courts as well since the Stephen Lawrence murder and corrupt investigation (Daniel Morgan and white victims suffered from it as well). But we are talking debate and adjustments to policy, not mindlessly smashing up towns like Pompey fans did in 2004 after their home win v Saints.

They could actually show the parents some fucking respect though. But that was too much to ask for the mobs last night and at Southport (a lot of the same faces involved yet again). But when the organisers are of this calibre, what else is to be expected? https://metro.co.uk/2026/05/28/raise-colours-founder-billy-allison-charged-murder-bar-owner-28555599/

When they started chucking statues into the harbour at Bristol, yes, I did.

Even for a weak GOP, the prospect of MAGA yobs who attack police officers being rewarded was a step too far.

Albert is a talent worth persevering with. Tom Prest is incredibly frustrating - at least was getting starts earlier in this season but not even getting those in white ball. Had plenty of opportunities too. Might get one year on squad wages which might be the kick up the backside he needs. Or start again at one of the smaller East Midlands counties.

Fair point, we’ve seen a bit more trouble in Springbank when heading through to Swindon Village for shopping but purely anecdotal. None of it is exactly South Bristol, Patchway, St Paul’s or parts of Brum. Cinderford in the Forest is probably the most deprived in Gloucestershire I’ve seen on a smaller scale.

Agree with you on your longer post about the politicisation of the police in all directions. Left, right, Zion/Arab - none of it good. Stephen Lawrence was a watershed, and Henry Nowak should be one as well. No excuse for Robinson and Fox though. Arrest them and throw the book at them.

Should be ok from here, Wood decent, Manny slightly short, Currie and Fuller crap, Dawse very good, on for MOTM with his 50.

Actually, where is Soggy? Haven’t seen him for a few days. Not going to pop up on ITV News lobbing a wheely bin at Laurence Fox is he?

Tabloids have never forgiven him for prosecuting the hacking and Milly Dowler scandals, Coulson going to jail and Mail losing tens of millions defending court cases for its criminal behaviour. He’s clearly crap as PM but the reactions from the newspapers is shite.

Bet a certain poster is having a right old series of wanks at the presence of Tommy in Southampton. Kleenex supplies are low. Robinson and Laurence Fox are revolting cunts though tbf, especially after Mr Nowak asked for his son’s memory not be to used to stir up further hatred and violence. Says everything that a minute’s silence couldn’t even be observed before trouble erupted. Hants Police have shat the bed, and seriously fucked up. But Robinson and Fox don’t give a shit about the murdered young man. It’s all about their sick agenda.

Lowe lives in Withington, circa 20 minutes from here, Radley College educated. Barton, Tredworth, Westgate or Springbank (worse than anything in Gloucester) it is not. Like Farage, has also made a lot of money at the elite banks and hedge funds. Nothing wrong with that but men of the working class they are certainly not.

They’re doing it at an underlying level because their real incomes haven’t gone up since the 2008 crisis, and their high streets are going to rats (literally in parts of the Midlands) because of online shopping and loss of key public services with austerity. They’re getting stirred up in the foreground by culture war rhetoric on social media but the level of unrest around is only seen (Toxteth, Broadwater Farm, Blackbird Leyes) when the economy is in the crapper. They bought a load of BS about Sunlit Uplands and fictional red buses in 2016 when illegal immigration then soared and the boats are a lot more visible than refugees suffocating in lorries (which took off during the pandemic). They weren’t doing it mid-late 80s and pre-2008 because the standard of living was rising. But the examples above and the recent examples are during sharp recessions or times of low/no growth.

Trouble is though, if you are say a Chief Inspector in the Bradford area and you’ve got murders/sexual assaults to solve, being able to have a dialogue with different communities is more likely to solve those serious offences and get more co-operation with people who look like them. And it’s not that long since BBC were undercover in Hendon with trainees making Hitler salutes. Let alone the Stephen Lawrence debacle. We can debate the volume and necessity of the posts (I think it’s slightly too many which could be put into the frontline) but the police racism and corruption of the 1970s, 80s and 90s led to this point. Sadly it’s still going on today https://news.sky.com/story/two-metropolitan-police-officers-guilty-of-gross-misconduct-over-stop-and-search-of-team-gb-athlete-and-her-partner-12992204