The Cricket Yes/ No Game…

I now have seven entries into the competition. We have just two questions on which there is unanimity, and plenty of suckers people who believe England will regain the Ashes…

Get your answers in – see the post below…..

Last Day In The Office….

And a couple of observations for those mad enough to still be with me…

I’m all for this global warming lark. We’ve had a couple of crap summers, so some nice hot weather would do very nicely. Good to see the USA is having a very mild winter as evidenced by this.

And the Bears had to overcome the elements, too, as did the Packers.

The temperature at Soldier Field was announced at 2 degrees, making it the coldest home game in Bears’ history since records started being kept in 1963. The wind chill was 13 below, the second-lowest in recorded team annals, so the longtime rivals known for their ability to play in cold weather were tested by the elements.

You’d think a planet warming like it is wouldn’t be setting record low temperatures. Oh well. I suppose this year is a one-off. No record cold weather last year…

The projected high of 6 degrees for Green Bay, Wis., earlier in the week would feel almost balmy.

At 3:30 p.m. — 2:30 at Lambeau Field — the temperature was 0 degrees, with wind gusts of 12 miles an hour making it feel like it’s 17 below.

Meantime, the Patriots and Chargers began their game in Foxborough, Mass., in windy conditions with a temperature of 23 degrees, the lowest of the three AFC championship games played in Foxborough.

The previous low there for a title game was 27 degrees on Jan. 12, 1997 when New England beat Jacksonville 20-6 to advance to the Super Bowl where it lost to Green Bay 35-21 in New Orleans.

The lowest temperature for any Patriots game at Foxborough was 4 degrees in a 17-14 win over Tennessee on Jan. 10, 2004 in the first round of the playoffs.

Hurry up with this warm weather…mild winters….

Caught the overtime of the Chicago Bears v Green Bay game last night, and apart from looking utterly bone chilling, the Bears appeared to have all the luck in keeping their faint play-off hope alive (I think the Vikings will beat the Giants on Sunday as the reigning champs have less than zero to play for). According to the Mrs Dmitri, last night’s result eliminated the Philadelphia Eagles – and I know that she is utterly devastated about that…

Good to see Ian Bell stating his case to stay at number 3 in the batting line-up. What a fighting knock to make sure we get a draw. Also hilarious to see Yuvraj Singh taking the p*ss out of KP this morning. First he acted as if he got injured picking up the ball, then mimicked a pie-thrower. Nice one Yuvraj… When you get your test batting average up 15 clicks, then maybe you can talk to KP about your play as equals. As KP said “you are not a god, you are just a cricketer. And I’m a better one.” That said, I like the needle, and I must say, Yuvraj did bring a chuckle this morning. Better characters than automatons, and both Yuvraj and KP (although he takes himself far too seriously) are definitely not robots.

Posting may be sparse in the next few days, but those of my readers, old and on the off-chance new, should put their entries into the cricket game below. Come on, give it a go… even my american friends, who can guess and will probably do better than us who think we know!!!

If I don’t post, Merry Christmas. If I do post Season’s Greetings!

2009 – Your Guesses – Yes / No – Part 1 – CRICKET

Easy game this….

20 statements – you answer yes/no to each of them. End of next year, we’ll see who gets the most right….

1. West Indies to regain the Wisden Trophy against England?

2. South Africa to beat Australia in the series in South Africa?

3. An England batsman to make a double century in tests in 2009?

4. Freddie Flintoff to score a test century?

5. Surrey to be promoted from Division 2 of the County Championship?

6. Ricky Ponting to be Australian captain at the 2009 Boxing Day test?

7. England to regain the Ashes?

8. Steve Harmison to be playing in the first Ashes test match?

9. A county batsman scoring 300+ in a championship fixture?

10. A batsman to make a century on 20/20 Finals Day?

11. An Indian to make the highest individual score in the World 20/20 competition?

12. An Englishman to make more than 130 in a ODI innings in 2009?

13. Michael Vaughan to make a test appearance in 2009?

14. An England bowler to take a hat-trick in any form of international cricket?

15. Mitchell Johnson to be Australia’s leading wicket-taker in the Ashes series?

16. A wicket-keeper to score a ton in the Ashes?

17. England to introduce no more than three debutants in test cricket in 2009?

18. England’s leading run-scorer in the Ashes series being born outside of England?

19. Jacques Kallis to score his first test 200 in 2009?

20. Matthew Hayden to make an Ashes century?

Cut and paste the questions and stick them in the comments with your yes and no.

In the event of a tie-breaker – put down the score of Australia’s 1st innings at Cardiff in the Ashes opener. Yes. Random as hell….

Musical Connections….

What sporting link is there between these four musical clips….

Post the answer……