Well done Andrew Strauss and team!

Many congratulations to the England cricket team on winning back the Ashes! I can hardly believe it! I had to ignore this particular match because I was afraid of disappointment. Special mention must go to Andrew Strauss who has proved himself as a superb captain. Also well done Monty Panesaar for his last stand at Cardiff which was perhaps the most crucial point of the series.

Dickie Bird gives Barnsley the finger

No offence intended. ;-) ...and many apologies to Lord Bonkers for doing a post about cricket without any mention of the .....-..... method.

Many congratulations to Dickie Bird, who's just unveiled a statue of himself where he was born in Barnsley (it was erected by benefactors in the town). There's not many people who have a statue raised to themselves while they are still alive. Indeed, Sir Michael Parkinson and Geoffrey Boycott have not been afforded this honour and they are both, by strange coincidence, Barnsley contemporaries of Bird.

There's a great video of the occasion here from the Yorkshire Post. It looks like a truly great occasion. Well done Barnsley! Well done Dickie Bird!

I didn't realise that Dickie used to put his finger up like that (i.e. palm turned towards himself as in the statue). See also above. Indeed, in this classic photo with Dickie doing his hilarious laugh-a-minute "two hat" routine and adjudging someone as "out", he didn't.

Sun: Woolmer was poisoned

The BBC reports that "The inquest into the death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer has been postponed because of "significant developments" in the case."

The "significant developments" are not explained officially. However, the Sun quotes a "senior police source" as saying:

The toxicology tests show that he had significant traces of aconite. We are now entirely convinced he was poisoned. The fact that aconite has also previously been used in Pakistan may also be highly relevant.

Bob Woolmer - was it death by natural causes after all?

It seems that the whole Bob Woolmer murder investigation hangs on the laboriously long wait for the toxicology and blood tests.

Rory Carroll's report in the Guardian yesterday raised some interesting points. Chief amongst them was the fact that Woolmer was found slumped up against the bathroom door in his hotel room, so that the chambermaid, who discovered him, had to push the door open. When asked how the killer could have left the bathroom, the detective leading the investigation, Mike Shields said only: "good question".

There is the possibility the broken bone in Woolmer's neck (which triggered the murder investigation) was caused by efforts to resuscitate him.