Bolton 1-0 Ars*n@l & 4th Test Update

This softens the blow a little!

Chelski are now 10 points clear of the gooners and 11 points above manyoo. It's still too early to say the championship is theirs, but they'll need to lose 4 games to give anyone else a chance and I can't see it happening. My beloved Spurs are 8th, 1 point behind Charlton though their g/d is -6 and ours is +6 so a draw next week could see us go back to 7th. In the great scheme of things, there's no shame in 8th, especially as we're only 3 point behind Liverpool.

Not great news from Johannesburg either, where after batting for 2 days to score 411-8 dec, England bowled like a bunch of girls and South Africa ended the third day on 306-6. It was a brave declaration from Vaughan, especially as he was only 18 runs short of a much needed century. It looked a bit damp this morning and he must have felt the ball would swing about a bit. Maybe if the bowling had been any good it would have done. I can't help thinking some of the blame must lie with the people at Lords who scheduled the tour. There simply were not enough 3 or 4 day games before the start of the test series. Robert Key hadn't batted in anger for 24 days before Thursday, and did well to score 83 after a shaky start. It was even worse for James Anderson who hadn't bowled for 48 days before today. His figures of 1-84 off 21 overs tell the tale. Steve Harmison, the world's best bowler in 2004 looked well out of sorts and ended the day with 0-25 off 12.5 overs, and only Matty Hoggard looked in the least bit threatening, but his 4 wickets cost him 101. Herschelle Gibbs did the work for SA ending the day on 136 n/o. There is and old, old cricket saying that 'catches win watches' and Gibbs was dropped off the penultimate ball of the day. He could make us pay for that tomorrow.

Batsmen tend to get the glory in Test cricket, with great knocks like Mike Atherton's 185 at this ground in 1996, being remembered over the feats of bowlers. Headingley 1981 will always be remembered for Botham's 149 and it was a splendid innings, but if Bob Willis hadn't taken 8-43 off only 15.1 overs in the 4th innings we would have lost the match. And despite the 411 runs scored on Thursday and Friday, unless the English bowlers can take 14 wickets in the next 2 days, we'll not win here.