England Ashes Teams

 The selection picture down under seems to change by the day, for both teams. Assuming no injuries, here's my completely amateur pick for the 5 tests

Perth (rapid, bouncy)

Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes, Smith, Atkinson, Carse, Wood, Archer, 

Or pick Jacks for Carse - on a quick bowlers wicket, what will 5 quicks do that 4 can't? And with the Aus attack depleted, it would be a good tactic to stack our batting order and keep the Aussies in the field for as long as possible. 

Brisbane (day-night, pink ball, swingy)

Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes, Smith, Atkinson, Wood, Archer, Bashir

I'd love to be convinced by Bashir so lets give him a spin, but Jacks would be just as good an option - he can take wickets, and would give us massive batting depth, especially if Cummins and Hazelwood are back in the attack for this test. 

Adelaide (hot, flat)

Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes, Smith, Atkinson, Archer, Tongue, Bashir

Tongue is expensive but gets wickets, even if it costs a few runs its better to spend as little time in the field as possible. Wood will need a rest by now, 

MCG (big boundaries, not much spin)

Crawley, Duckett, Bethell, Root, Brook, Stokes, Pope, Atkinson, Archer, Wood, Bashir

Smith flagged in his last 5 test series, give him a break and give Pope the gloves and Bethell a taste of Ashes cricket. Root and Brook are key here: in their mammoth 454 run stand last year in Pakistan, one striking feature was how much of this was run in 1s, 2s and 3s.  Brook ran 183 of his 317 runs, Root 194 of his 262. If the Aussies are really going to show their age, this is the moment for it. 

Sydney (could be spin, pace, or batsman friendly)

Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes, Smith, Atkinson, Carse, Archer, Bashir

If Stokes makes it through all 5 tests uninjured it will be a miracle. If Atkinson is starting to flag, swap him out for Tongue. 

Injuries will probably wreck all of this. Worst case scenario is Wood, Stokes and Archer all crocked after the first test and Root breaking a finger. If we don't win the first test, in the absence of Cummins and Hazelwood, and with all our players fit, it will be a long tour. 

In my dreams: 3-1 to England. In reality, if the England squad stay fit 2-2. If we lose Stokes, Root or Archer in the first 3 tests 3-1 Australia. 

Johns Gospel, Jamaican Style

Whilst looking for some visuals for Sundays bible reading, I stumbled across this. This seems an ideal way to recognise the two most important events of the last 2 weeks: the resurrection from the dead of Jesus of Nazareth, and the victory of the West Indies in the Twenty20 World Cup.



And in case you're wondering, this is no trendy modern innovation. The first mention of cricket in history is the day of Pentecost, when "Peter stood up with the 11 and boldly declared..." (Acts 2:14)

The Invention of Cricket - new evidence

I'm not a great expert on ancient art, but saw this one in a newspaper the other day and was struck, as any cricketer would be, by the central figure. It's Titians 'Bacchus and Ariadne', but chap in the middle is clearly a right-handed Ryan Sidebottom. The ball and batsman are out of shot but the umpire (on the left, facing the wrong way) is already signalling 4. This may be a sign of early match fixing, especially as the figure behind the bowler seems to be waving a bag of money at the umpire. Or she might be an IPL cheerleader with a wardrobe malfunction.

The crowd, as is normal at cricket matches, are a mixed bag - some are watching the play, some are asleep, one is struggling with the flex on their radio headphones (at least, I assume that's what the guy with the beard is doing). It's clearly a hot day, late afternoon, as shown by the absence of clothes, and the figure entering the picture on the right is just about to streak across the pitch, reviving one of the ancient and noble traditions of cricket.

With the umpire wearing blue and the player red, it's probably a one day match, and the floodlights are just coming on (top left). Though what those animals are doing on the pitch is anybody's guess.

I suspect that the original name of the picture was 'Batters and Arnie', having mistaken Ryan Sidebottom for his father.

Bent out of shape

Sad to hear that Jonathan Trott is having another break from cricket, after a recurrence of his stress illness:

Stress and anxiety do not discriminate, however, and Trott appears to have decided that the man bent of out shape by cricket is not the man he wants to be. With a young family to consider, he seems to have come to the conclusion that on-field success in no longer worth the sacrifices required.

It's hard enough to come back from a public collapse, without having a running commentary in the media and paparazzi hiding in your bushes. 

The phrase 'bent out of shape' struck me. Public roles do that to people, sometimes your mental or physical health gets bent, sometimes it's your moral compass (politicians?), sometimes it's your judgement under pressure, sometimes it's not you but your family and the shape of their lives. I'm not sure if Trott's 'come to the conclusion that on-field success is no longer worth the sacrifices', or just found that he is no longer personally capable of making them at the moment. 

It sounds all too similar to what's happening to clergy - 
My husband is becoming bitter and demoralised. He is an incredibly gifted, spiritual man, but the reason he joined the church is becoming less and less clear, to him and to me

It wouldn't take long to name you a reasonable list of clergy (notably, mostly in their 40s and early 50s) who have burnt out, dropped out, been found out, or otherwise found the relentless pressure too much. I heard of a hard working vicar, younger than me, who was recently hospitalised with a suspected heart problem. In recent years a couple of local clergy have dropped out of active parish ministry (getting an undeserved scourging in the tabloids was a major factor in one case). I was in a meeting a few weeks ago, all dog collars, where I was the only one not on anti-depressants: an odd thing to hold against the fact that we have higher rates of job satisfaction than anyone else. 

Elsewhere in the diocese and the CofE some clergy have had to stand down after falling into sin. That's another way that people can respond to pressure. An 'Adam. and Ellie' moment perhaps isn't that far away for some of us. 

This shouldn't be a surprise, Christian faith is about carrying a cross, the world bends Jesus out of shape and it will do the same to us. But we can't simply shove this all in the box of 'suffering with Christ' - Trott has been bent out of shape by a combination of public pressure, his own high standards, and the relentless demands put upon him by international cricket. (Vicars: insert 'parish' for 'cricket') There's a sense that he has lost the joy of the game. It's 'for the joy set before him' that Jesus endures the cross. We need the joy to get through the Good Fridays. But scanning the battlefield around me, I'm now seriously asking the question of how I'll manage another 20 years of this without joining the casualty list at some stage. 

Taking too long to tell people what they already know

A chilly day at the list rites of an Ashes summer yesterday, the car said 9.5 degrees as we drove away from Southampton. Bit of a disappointment, though the Australians were very good.

The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for a sign. Crickets 'decision review system', like almost everything else in sport these days, has a sponsor. So whilst the crowd are waiting for a decision, Natwest flash up their subliminal advertising on the big screen, until 'Out' or 'Not Out' appears. One decision yesterday was reviewed, overturned by the umpire almost immediately, and the players were all ready to resume but the big screen was still ticking through it's pre-programmed message. It then went into a countdown, intended to raise the sense of drama (#fail), and then seemed to get stuck, and went round the loop a couple of times before flashing up Not Out, to a loud and ironic cheer.

Natwest probably lost a few customers in the process.

If you take a long time to tell people what they already know, when they'd rather be getting on with something else, it doesn't tend to go down very well. Which makes me wonder how many Natwest moments we have. Sticking to a pre-programmed liturgy, regardless of context, can be deadly. Stop me if you catch me doing it.

How to Stay No.1 Cricket Team: my top 5.

It's been fantastic to watch England steamrollering every team before them over the last 12 months. Bedtime stories with the kids have been replaced by an hour in front of the cricket highlights, and even as I write they are leafing through my old copies of Wisden looking up cricketing records. Result.

So a big well done to this England side, who have already more than surpassed the 2005 Ashes heroes by taking victory over Australia in their stride, and then doing even better in the months following.

Strauss is already talking about the winter tests against Sri Lanka and Pakistan; this England succeed consistently because they can give a series their all, whilst keeping their eye on the longer term.

Thankfully for everyone, I'm not an England selector, but here's a few thoughts on what we need to stay on top of:

1. Find a good opening batsman. Strauss totally deserves the 4 months break he's now going to get before the winter. He has presided over a dramatic rise in Englands fortunes, and deserves every minute of celebration, and of rest. But Strauss has started shelling catches at an alarming rate, and age is not on his side - he'll be 35 by the start of next summer. He'll retire a hero in the next couple of years, and Cook will need a new partner.

Longer term, Bell, Trott and Pietersen are 29, 30 and 31 respectively, and all at the top of their game. Fast forward 3-4 years and they will be an ageing unit, and England will need to find a way to blood quality middle-order players. Some will slot in straight away - Trott has been a phenomenal example -  but if others, like Bell (e.g Bopara?), need a few years to really hit their stride, it could be difficult.

2. Beat South Africa. India came to England off the back of a tour to the West Indies, with several players not match fit, and didn't have enough games to prepare themselves. Having said all that, to roll over the Indian batting line-up 7 times out of 8 for less than 300 was phenomenal. South Africa remain as the only proper contender for the top spot in Test cricket. Smith, Kallis, Amla and DeVilliers are all quality batsmen, Steyn and Morkel are top-ranked bowlers. The tragedy is that, thanks to ICC scheduling, the SA tour of England in 2012 has only 3 tests. With 5 ODI's and 3 2020s, there is scope for some meaningless 1 day cricket to be scrapped and replaced by what people really want to see, a 5 test series between two well-matched teams. I hope negotiations have already started.

3. Bowlers who can bat. India collapsed in spectacular fashion to lose the final test - you can't imagine this England batting line-up doing that. Who would you rather see coming out to bat at 300-6, RP Singh or Tim Bresnan? The current England numbers 8-11 average a combined total of 109.87 between them. The second choice 8-11 (Tremlett, Finn, Onions, Panesar) average around 40 combined. Injuries to bowlers are as regular as Boycott's opinions, so the likes of Woakes, Patel, Rashid, etc. are vital. England have replaced a bowling all-rounder (Flintoff) with a bowling unit who can all bat. Having raised the bar on the fielding skills of bowlers (step forward Jimmy Anderson), can England maintain the batting strength too?

4. Injury: the perpetual problem. All of the current England bowling attack have been out of the game injured in the last 12 months. The sheer quantity and remorselessness of the international calender guarantees that there will be more injuries, or people who cannot take the grinding mental strain of performing at peak level every month of the year. There will be more Trescothicks and Yardys. England's selectors need the equivalent of a replacement 11 on standby, and more due care and attention to scheduling and workload. I still don't think we've paid attention to the alarm bells. International cricket is consistently losing talent to injury (wouldn't the winter Ashes have been more of a contest with Shaun Tait in the mix?), and Englands team will do the same unless things change.

5. Keeping 2020 in perspective. There's no doubt that England have benefited this summer from the IPL, in both series. Malingas withdrawal from Test cricket to follow the money, and the jaded Indians are both traceable to the dollars now available for whiz-bang cricket. Nobody remembers who was the best one day team in the 1980s, but they do remember the West Indian test team. Nobody will remember who was the best 2020 team in 2011-15, but they will remember if England consistently dominate Test cricket. Yes it's good to have a successful one day side, but to really succeed England need to keep this in perspective. We will be kicking ourselves if Broad breaks down in a meaningless 2020 series and isn't available against South Africa next year.

And Finally
6. Stay out of Boycotts way. 3 England batsmen are closing in on Boycotts record of the most Test centuries scored by an England batsman. Pietersen, Cook and Strauss all stand on 19, Boycott is on 22, and Bell is closing fast on 16. By this time next year, Boycott will no longer be top of the charts. I'm sure he'll have something to say about that, and if not, Aggers will. Repeatedly.

WooHoo!

Just to register the fact that England have just beaten Australia to win the 20/20 World Cup, fantastic effort by an excellent side. I'm very very chuffed. I think this is our first win in a world 1-day competition for 35 years or so, so it's some achievement. I just wish we could watch it on terrestrial - move over moneymen and let the plebs have a look.

Ashes Back on Free TV? Yet Another Campaigning Triumph

Great news today that the Ashes may be returning to free-to-air TV. I'm sure all the credit for this must fall to the 27 members of 'Lets Have the 2013 Ashes on Free TV' Facebook group, so thankyou to all of you. It's amazing what you can accomplish with a small band of dedicated followers.

At this stage it's only a recommendation that the Ashes be restored to the 'Crown Jewels' list of sports. However, the Telegraph are pretty confident that it will happen, as the government seems sympathetic. A senior government source told the Sunday Telegraph: "It's a no-brainer. This is one thing we can do that chimes in with the wishes of millions of voters."

It would be an interesting call if it came down to a Cameron goverment to make the final decision. Wonder if the Sun might get a little bit more hostile if the Tories take away some of Mr Murdochs toys? However, I'm sure Gordon Brown will be delighted to make the decision himself, should be a much easier call than deciding whether to have an election.

Provisional score: General Public 1 Murdoch Empire 0

Sometimes Losing is Good

No, that's not a line from Simon Cowell. I'm just thankful that England got knocked out of the one-day competition yesterday. They'll get more from the extra rest than from the extra cricket.

Several players have recently had a boost in form following a break, including Paul Collingwood, and Ricky Ponting. At the same time the relentless cricket schedule is continuing to mow down the England squad - Collingwood was pretty wrecked before his break a few weeks ago, Broad is now down, Flintoff and Pieterson are more long term casualties.

Andrew Strauss only came into the running for cricketer of the year after being dropped 12 months ago. Either the cricketing schedules need to change (and there's no immediate chance of that), or selectors need to start working on a squad rotation system, resting players before they go down with injuries, rather than being forced to do so once they're crocked.

The other odd result of the last couple of weeks is that the derided 50-over formula has produced some absolutely cracking cricket. In a sense that's a shame: cancelling all 50-over games might be a way of creating some space in the calendar. Meanwhile England have a month until they are back in South Africa for the tour proper, where we play the Springboks 12 times in 3 different formats. Time to overkill that fatted calf again.

Your humble blogger sets the 5live agenda.

This morning Simon Mayo used Twitter to ask for questions for the new BBC head of sport, Barbara Slater. I sent in the following:

question for Barbara Slater "will the BBC try to get the Ashes coverage back in time for the next series, and if not why not?"

It was the first up on the programme, and got a 2 1/2 minute answer: the section starts about 1:39:45 in on this link. Mayo himself followed it up with several supplementaries. The answer is going in the right direction, but I wasn't happy with the fact she wouldn't commit herself to securing the Ashes for free TV. Anyway, it set the agenda for the first 6 minutes or so of the interview, so three cheers for Twitter.

She agreed with the point I've made elsewhere that the viewing figures for the ashes were dismal, compared to when it was free to air. But kept couching it in terms of choices between competing sports. I guess that's fair enough, but it's also a choice between sports and other stuff.

(...and if it wasn't for Iplayer, I wouldn't know any of this, having missed the programme! )

It sets me wondering about using Twitter though: it'd be an interesting way to organise our preaching. More people listen to phone-ins and live interviews than straight lectures, so if our teaching/reflection was more this style, would more people engage with (and contribute to) it?

Meanwhile Lets have the next Ashes on free TV!

Message to the Beeb: We'd Rather Have Freddie than Wossy

The new BBC head of sport was being interviewed by Simon Mayo today, but I missed the interview. Gutted, as I'd sent in a question about when the BBC was going to restore cricket to free TV on behalf of the nation. The nearest I can find to a report on her views is this, from Twitter...

JTLovell1979: @AlisonMitchell Don't think she's a cricket fan by the sound of it. Not v enthusiastic about the Ashes being on BBC

There is a Facebook group calling for the next Ashes (2013 - should give the Beeb long enough to save some cash from Jonathan Ross's salary) to be free on live TV. Please join it.

You and Whose (Barmy) Army?

Think of the top users of new media, and cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew wouldn't automatically spring to mind. However, with the aid of 22000 followers on Twitter, 'Aggers' succeeded in extracting an apology from an Observer journalist who made some off-colour remarks about Agnews' interview with Lily Allen at the weekend.

Article here with more details.

After spending just over a month on Twitter, Aggers now has an army of 22,000 followers, many of whom will, as it were, go into bat for him.

Clearly, Twitter is now the shot heard around the world, whether it's Lance Armstrong commenting on his team mate or Jordan venting. And such is its power to make mass contacts, magnetise crowds and apply lobby pressure that any fuss can be over inside 24 hours without a physical blow being struck.

My own attempt at use of new media to apply pressure to the media is (so far) less succesful. A few more members for 'Lets have the 2013 Ashes on Free TV' would be lovely.

Flintoff: I'd rather be Super Dad than Super Fred

Nice interview with Andrew Flintoff over at Cricinfo, talking about how he views his retirement from Test cricket. What comes over is that he sees it as a positive step - a deliberate choice to focus more on his family - rather than a step backwards.

Nevertheless, there was a flip side to Flintoff's emotion, and that came when the players' families - including his wife, Rachael, and their three children, Holly, Corey and Rocky - joined in the celebrations. "I was looking at the lads and how happy they were which was one thing, but then I looked at my wife and kids and I thought 'I've made the right decision here'.

"I'm probably not going to get 25,000 people in my house chanting my name," he joked. "Or people shouting 'Super Fred' when I am doing the school run. However, you know, for me, spending time with my family and having the opportunity to do that is far more important and something I'm really looking forward to doing."

Holly, the eldest, turns five in September, and Flintoff admitted that the days of long overseas tours was something he was happy to put behind him. "It is quite a nice time for me to finish," he said. "The kids are coming to an age where they need their Dad around, and I am going to be there for them. Bittersweet as it is, having to finish Test cricket through injury, the one thing I am excited about is being at home. That is far more important than pinging a few down in a Test match."

Good man.

How to Ensure the Death of Cricket

Update: 'Lets have the 2013 Ashes on Free TV' Facebook group just launched.

Make sure people have to pay to watch it. The following from the Guardian:

The climax of England's 2-1 series win over Australia at the Oval in south London was watched by 1.92 million viewers on Sky Sports 1, a 14% share of the multichannel audience, between 5.45pm and 6pm.

It was also a good day for Channel Five, whose highlights show, Cricket on Five, was watched by a record 2 million viewers, 10% of the audience, between 7.15pm and 8pm, the channel's highest-rating show of the night.

At its peak, Sky Sports 1's live Ashes coverage had more viewers than Gardeners' World on BBC2, which had 1.1 million viewers between 5.45pm and 6pm, and was neck and neck with a repeat of Agatha Christie's Poirot on ITV1, which had 1.9 million viewers. But it could not better the 2.3 million viewers watching Songs of Praise on BBC1.

However, Sky's audience was inevitably a fraction of the peak of 7.4 million viewers who saw England's last Ashes triumph in 2005, which was available free-to-air on Channel 4.
On the final afternoon of the 2005 Ashes, an average of 4.7 million viewers were watching Channel 4's live coverage between 1.15pm and 7pm.

More than Gardeners World eh? Those boys at Sky must be really cock-a-hoop with that.

So the ECB have managed to cut the number of people following cricket live on TV by over 70% following Englands last Ashes triumph in 2005. Well done. Can't have the plebs enjoying it now can we? Next time, please can we have our cricket back?

At least that's the end of any debate about the future of Songs of Praise. If it can pull a bigger audience than a national sporting triumph on a sunny afternoon in August, then there's clearly nothing much wrong there.

Any sarcasm detected in this article is deliberate.

PS: Phil Ritchie has pointed out on Twitter that the 2005 Ashes was won on a weekday, so a weekend audience would have been much higher than the 7.4m watching then.

England 2 Australia 1

Fantastic result , kept switching off the radio as all the wickets seemed to be falling when I wasn't listening, the first one I caught live was Siddle, the 8th wicket to fall.

Twitter seems to be in meltdown, favourite one so far:
@dotterel: Rolf Harris, Edna Everidge, Barry Humphries, Clive James. Are you listening Germaine Greer? Your boys took a hell of a beating.

The stats themselves seem to show that Australia were the better team - 8 centuries to Englands 2, the 3 top wicket-takers in the series, better averages all round. But England seem to have managed to rise to it when it mattered - the 10th wicket stand at Cardiff, and a couple of game-changing bowling spells which Australia weren't able to replicate.

The only shame is that we couldn't follow it live on telly. Are you listening Gordon Brown? Can the next Ashes be one of the 'crown jewels' events which are protected as free on mainstream channels, rather than stuff we have to pay for.

Strauss man of the series, Broad man of the match, Michael Clarke the Aussie man of the series, no surprises.

Splendid. Beer time.

Can England Do It?

Amazing day of cricket yesterday, but no chicken counting just yet. Meanwhile, a quick update on my pre-series predictions, which are holding up rather well:

1. Series:
my first stab at predicting failed to factor in a drawn Cardiff test, the revised one was a 2-1 victory to whoever won at Lords. Which was England.
1/1 (hopefully)

2. Top run scorer:
England - Cook. Whoops. Strauss has run away with this, but everyone else in the top 5 has been a bit of a letdown. No. 6 Matt Prior is 2nd to Strauss, both on runs scored and batting average. Cook's place may now look shaky - time to give Denly a go?

Australia - Michael Clarke. Barring a traditional Oval match-saving 158 from another Aussie, Clarke is the top scorer by a mile. The new Ponting.
1/2

3. Top wicket taker:
England: Jimmy Anderson - this was looking fine until 2 innings ago, since when Broad has taken 11 scalps and suddenly it's young Stuart ahead of Anderson 17-12.

Australia: Mitchell Johnson, who somehow, despite bowling like Boycotts grandmother for most of the series, is on 20 wickets, level with Siddle and 1 behind Hilfenhaus. Could go to any of them. (update: it's Hilfenhaus by 2 wickets, 22 to 20, despite a late surge by Marcus North)
?/2

A note in passing: Broad is the only England bowler averaging under 40 for the series, whilst if you include Hauritz, the Aussies have 4 bowlers averaging under 33.

4. Crocks: Lee and Flintoff, which was 2/2 almost a month ago.

The temptation to take my Inbox of 101 emails (that's after deleting about 500 from Freecycle) down to the pub is almost overwhelming.

It's also hard not to think about the future, with Flintoff's farewell, and to wonder whether a bad series for Cook & Collingwood is just the fatigue of being ever-present, or the sign of something worse. Strauss's form has improved dramatically after he was dropped in early '08, and maybe every England player needs a 2-3 month sabbatical on rotation to keep them fresh and to stop them losing either form or fitness.

If England do win, it will be pretty amazing. Not least because, if you were picking your 11 of the series, only 3 England players (Strauss, Prior and Broad) would be in it. The Aussies have, overall, outbatted and outbowled England, but that's not reflected in the results. Instead the series has turned on particular sessions: the Cardiff rearguard, Anderson's Lords burst, Englands collapse at Headingley, and yesterday afternoon.

But let's see what happens today.....

Blast from the Past: Knowing When to Stop

For August I'm reposting a few of the earliest items on this blog, from the days when nobody read it (no change there then - ed), this one's from December '06

3 cricketers are in the news for retiring today: the great Shane Warne, the almost equally great Glenn McGrath, and the fairly good Steve Harmison (only retiring from one-day cricket so he can focus on tests).

Warne has retired because Australia have won back the Ashes - he admitted in interview that if they'd lost again, he would have carried on playing until the next series. Warne seems to have recognised that without the Ashes to win back, his zeal for the game would have waned, so now is the right time to stop. Harmison has recognised that it's better to be very good at 1 thing than ok at 2.

Robert Warren, writing about healthy churches, says that a healthy church is something that 'does a few things well', and Harmison seems to be following that kind of path.

Knowing when to stop, or when to prune back our activities so that we can do what we do well, rather than skimping on it, or losing focus because we have so much else do to, is quite an art. Jesus knew when to stop preaching in villages by going off to pray. In conversation with his Father, he reminds himself that success is not the only goal, and that he cannot be a slave to it. The biggest factor for Jesus was a clear sense of what he was here for. As one writer (I think it was Bill Hybels) put it: what enables us to say no is that we have a bigger 'yes' burning inside of us. In other words, we're able to stop things, prune back, or resist the urge to take on more, by being clear in our own hearts and minds about what is important and what isn't.

This is a challenge at a personal and a corporate level. There are lots of things running in churches which were once very good, and are still very good. There are other things which were once very good, and are now struggling on in the vain hope that God will wave a magic wand and former glories will be restored. The days when the Sunday school was bursting at the seams, or when we had a great choir, or when the worship was really inspiring etc. etc. So the Sunday school ploughs on with 2 members, the choir dotted around the choirstalls are drowned out by the congregation, and the music group sings the same songs in the same way as they did 10 years ago because that was what worked then.

The church, in one respect, is still living in fairy land. Somewhere in our psyche is the belief that if we just do what we normally do in church, but do it really well, or with a bit more prayer, or with a bit more commitment, that that will push a magic button and people will flock from all over.

There are 2 fundamental problems with this
a) Many people, even if we were the best church ever at everything, still wouldn't come. 7m are working on a Sunday, others are having their access times to their children, others are in bed after the night shift. Loads more just don't like the music, or find church buildings scary, or aren't interested in what we have to do and say.

b) This goes completely against the grain of the way Jesus and the apostles operated. Jesus went from place to place preaching. It was because he had gone out of his way to be with people where they are, that they then went out of their way to be with him. Fishing is a good illustration: you catch fish by bringing the fish into the boat with the net, but before you bring the fish in, you have to go to where the fish are. Some churches are like fishing boats on a hillside, throwing their nets onto the grass and praying 'bring them in Lord'.

Yes, people do come to us, and Christmas is the main time of year that this happens. Lets admit it, we rely on the season to do some recruiting for us: we're running an Alpha course in the New Year and have got invitations to give out to folk who come to our Christmas services. But once the nativity set is back in its box, we will go back to doing on a Sunday the same things we were doing in November, and 95% of the population will not come.

Back to Shane Warne. Do we know why we are doing what we are doing? Is the fire still burning? Is there a 'yes' burning inside us, a passion to worship, witness, comfort and heal? Or are we repeatedly photocopying an ancient glory, hoping that by magic it will come out in 3D colour instead of the usual black and white? Do we need a New Year resolution as churches to stop things, and do less? Like Harmison, do we need to divert our resources into what we're good at, and stop using them on what we're average at?

Jesus stopped residing in heaven to be born on earth. He stopped being a carpenter to preach the good news. He stopped preaching and healing in Carpernaum to minister somewhere else. The disciples stopped fishing to follow Jesus. Jesus stopped preaching and teaching in order to give himself to death on the cross for us. Maybe the starting point of mission and ministry is to stop.

Ashes predictions revisited: 2

Around this time yesterday, I had the mad thought of whizzing up to Birmingham for the day. So glad I didn't act on it!!!

Series:
my latest prophecy was 2-1 to whoever wins Lords. That would be England then. We need less rain and spicier pitches for the last 2 tests, or it could even be 1-0.

Addition of Lee and/or Clark will make Australian bowling more potent, but Harmy has to come in for Broad - you don't pick a fast bowler for his batting, and Strauss has clearly lost confidence in Broad. He'll be back, but needs something extra to make him a threat at this level. But, Harmison's feet are currently 'a bit of a mess', covered in blisters and pretty painful.

If Flintoff has to drop out, then it gets tricky: it's a long tail starting with Swann at 7, but I'd go with Sidebottom to replace Freddie.

top run scorer: Predicted - Cook & Michael Clarke
Cook now a long way behind Strauss, who is running away with it on the England side. Time for a big hundred lad. Clarke is the top Aussie batsman so far, shaping up well to be the next Ponting.

top wicket taker: Predicted - Anderson & Johnson
Not bad: Anderson is on top for Ingerlund with 12 wickets, and if Johnson can avoid getting dropped then he's still in with a shout, all 4 Aussie bowlers are in the 10-12 wickets range. That's until Siddle gets dropped for Stuart Clark and he rips through England in the remaining 2 tests. All depends on whether the Aussies want to bring both Clark and Lee in, or just 1 of them.

Crocks: Predicted - Lee or Stuart Clarke/Flintoff.
Lee may be back for Headlingly, and Freddie literally on his knees today after going over on his ankle. Great batting from the big man yesterday. Hadn't predicted the loss of Brad Haddin, or KP, and to be honest England didn't miss him a great deal, though a 2nd spinning option might have been handy. The rest will do him good.

Cricketing Graces

Test Match Special supremo Jonathan Agnew has put out a plea on Twitter:

To brum for start of fortnight that could decide ashes. Strauss at 12. MC lords taverners dinner tonight. Never said grace before. Ideas?

Woohoo!

Brilliant performance by England to win the Lords test.
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Liturgy for the defeat of the Aussies:
The Gathering
Archdruid: Haddin may last for the night
All: But Freddie striketh in the morning.

My predictions are looking ok: Clarke emerging as top Oz batsman, Cook starting to bat like a left-handed Vaughan but still plenty of work to do. I'd be surprised if Freddie lasts the series, but what a way to go. 2 main worries from Lords: if either Mitchell Johnson had bowled well, or the umpires had got the decisions right in the Aussie 2nd innings, we could well have lost.