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July 2005

William Westmoreland 1914-2005

One of the names I remember hearing in the news often in my pre-teens was that of General William Westmoreland. He was the commander of US forces in Vietnam while Lyndon Johnson was President.

Westmoreland died on Monday at the age of 91. Clearly a major figure in one of the nastier of America's many incursions into foreign affairs.

Reminder: Ashes and More tipping competition

Just a reminder that my Test match tipping competition for the Ashes, and all other Test cricket over the next two months, is open for business.

Selections for the First Test will close at the end of the lunch break on the first day (that's 1.10pm BST on Thursday), so time is running short. However, if you happen to miss the deadline for the First Test, you can still join in later and pick your winners (or drawers) for the remaining eleven Test matches in the competition.

Dee-fence Surrey, dee-fence!

I haven't ranted much about Surrey on these pages for a while. Their performances in their last seven days - played over ever-decreasing durations - do not leave me with any great feelings of joy.

In the past week, Surrey has:

  • drawn a Championship game with Gloucestershire after scoring 603 and enforcing the follow-on;
  • beaten Yorkshire in a day-night National Leaguer by three runs;
  • failed to defend a fifty-over total of 358 to lose to Hamphire in the C and G Trophy quarter-final;

BBC World Service World Cricket 15 July

With the July 8 program apparently pre-empted by a combination of the G8 and the bombs in London, "World Cricket" is back on the BBC World Service this week.

There's reaction to the depleted West Indian side currently touring Sri Lanka, a look at Bermuda's qualification for the 2007 World Cup, an interview with Shep on the occasion of his final international, and Neil Manthorp's view on the coming Asia v Africa series.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/meta/tx/nb/world_cricket_au_nb.ram

Leicestershire v Australia

Leicestershire are batting first against Australia, and finally it's starting to feel like an Ashes tour. It seems utterly mad that we are this far into the English summer, and not only has the England-Australia series not yet begun, but we're only getting the first three-day tour match today.

Some site changes

In preparation for the start of the Ashes, I am doing some tweaking of the website, intended mainly to improve navigation and increase the interactivity with other members of the online cricketing community.

Changes so far:

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