Memories of Dickie Bird from @davidkhopps.bsky.social

🏏 New County Cricket Newsletter. Pls share & enjoy 🟣 The Championship deciders - previews 🍐 Emotional Pears lift Metro Bank Cup 🟠 Surrey's record Champ crowds 🔴 Schedule set for confirmation? 🔵 Cricket is UK most elitist sport 🟡 Dickie Bird RIP

I still claim this as an unheralded classic for videos costing under 20p RIP Dickie www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp6I...

This has been going on for a generation. It is pathetic and the crooks need to be exposed (by younger people with more ambition than me) Media Release "ICC suspends USA Cricket’s membership; builds safeguards to protect athletes and Olympic aspiration... repeated breaches of its obligations"

Privileged to have written Dickie Bird’s obituary for The Guardian. An eccentric innocent treasured by so many. Every time I met him it was an invitation to rediscover my inner child. www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/s...

I ran out of characters on the last post. And now the world has lost another character. Dickie was an eccentric and one of life's true innocents. Everytime I met him it was if my childhood had returned. Universally treasured in Yorkshire where we do not always agree on everything. RIP old mate.

The last time I met Dickie Bird 😔: How are you Lad? Very good Dickie Are you still working? A bit. I’ve written your obit for The Guardian. Will I like it? You’ll be dead won’t you? So you'll never know. (To passing strangers, loudly ) I’ll have to trust him won’t I? I’ll have to trust him won’t I?”

I will next listen to Today when Robinson retires. His self-important grandstanding is rude and irritating and he appears to be adept at the sort of bias his superiors might like. The likes of Amol Rajan and Evan Davies (and before that Eddie Mair) are in a different class.

Maybe tell some of your fellow columnists, dear

For 56 minutes Sky News and BBC News interrupted everything else and carried a Reform UK feed live, uninterrupted, unchallenged. The stream spluttered, froze, pixelated - dozens of times - still they stuck with it. FOR ONE HOUR. This is an editorial choice. No other party gets this coverage. ~AA

Across England, young people are being denied the play opportunities they need for healthy physical growth, mental wellbeing, and social development...

I’ve written this for @theobserveruk.bsky.social on how Labour intends to show that loving our country does not - must not - mean hating others.

Or is time BBC news stopped clowning around and covered political party conferences properly? And maybe is it time they stopped clowning around and got on BlueSky properly instead of investing all their efforts on the hate-filled X? The clowning is necessary because of second-rate journalism.

I remember subbing a piece from @georgedobell.bsky.social at Cricinfo in praise of Josh Tongue maybe 8 (?) years or so ago and thinking, mmm not sure. I think he wins this one. Wonder if the Ashes will prove him absolutely correct?

Blast Finals Day is a County highlight. UNDUE pressure to complete it on Saturday, and not use the reserve day, would be a nonsense. The issue is Mon-Thu Championship followed by Metro 50-over final on Saturday. A fixture list that should never have been agreed www.thecricketer.com/Topics/count...

"Commentary *like this* about a deputy Prime Minister felt politically unsurvivable" - Chris Mason, BBC ten o'cıock news. This script over these pictures treats vandalism & criminal damage as a legitimate form of democratic voice. The BBC should avoid doing that, esp in broader current climate

@danwaddell.bsky.social Because decency and intelligence is often subservient to argument and controversy. And because X is still dominant and this site has stopped growing and is rarely, if ever, part of the National conversation. An illustration of who is winning and why. (And I’ve not gone back).

This is vile. Local guy speaks to Sky News about the impact of asylum seekers protests. Watch what happens and share widely

On the same day in the Telegraph:

England’s Talent ID theory of selection going well again, I see.

Can't wait for some self-righteous, shit-stirring Tory to suggest that we should all use senior barristers at £600 an hour to do our house conveyancing.

I’ve rarely heard such self righteous bollocks than the condemnation of Angela Rayner. People who know that when they have bought houses they have signed and paid whatever their conveyancing solicitor advises. And in far less complex circumstances. Respect to Ed Davey for not joining the howling.

Half of me is pissed off that Chelsea do this, the other half thinks it serves the dickhead right. What did he think was going to happen? #lufc

Not convinced the Talent ID theory of selection went overly well at Headingley.

This has been a transfer window of the elite flexing their financial muscle... jonawils.substack.com/p/the-empire...

Celebration of the trend towards free hotel cancellation might be great for consumers who are place holding, rethinking, changing, cancelling and forgetting hotel bookings, but at its worst it can be an indulgence and self-regard that will kill small boutique hotels. @simoncalder.bsky.social

Meslier-Perri✅ Schmidt-Justin✅Firpo-Gudmundson✅Wober-Bijol✅Debayu-Bournauw✅Rothwell-Longstaff✅ Guilavogui-Stach✅ Ramazani-Harrison (defensively)✅Bamford(now)-Calvert-Lewin✅ Joseph-Nmecha✅ Solomon-Okafur❓Aaronson-NOBODY 😡😡😡A well-planned window condemned as betrayal because of one bad failure. #lufc

It’s intriguing how so many Leeds fans warmed to Patrick Bamford. So many good wishes to a decent guy who gave it his best shot. Yet it was not always like that. There were times when the terraces howled with frustration and despair. It just shows it’s always possible to win over a fan base. #lufc

Very clever of Leeds to take the heat off Dominic Calvert-Lewin with a little rumour that they are vaguely interested in Timo Werner, whose finishing is even worse #lufc

"The amount of dark days I've had in the last two years, to have a couple of good days, I cannot put it into words." Piece from Hove, where Matt Milnes - who's spent the last three years with stress fractures - took 7 for 38 for Yorkshire.

Ralphie Albert, the England Under-19 all rounder and grandson to snooker star Jimmy White, fell four runs short of a rapid century in his first innings for Surrey.

Just challenged a friend to find the worst toby jug. My entry is ‘Diana on the toilet’

Lucas Perri will be fine. His distribution is a bit hit and miss and, no, he doesn't come off his line enough for my tastes either, but he is hardly alone in that, and coming off your line against Arsenal really is getting into "why didn't he run through a brick wall?" territory. #lufc

There are few things more hypocritical than journalists telling celebrities in sport and the arts to shut up.

Alternative angle: Well-regarded young man with no first-class hundred, and no runs all season, mystifyingly misses three Championship matches to find some form ahead of likely selection for Ashes tour: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...

I appear to disagree with the majority of #lufc fans. i think Calvert-Lewin is a class act if he stays fit (well, apart from a tendency to miss great chances 🤔) and he'll have people purring with appreciation in no time. And if he doesn't stay fit then, hey, it's just a waste of wages.

An owl with some attitude.

Hartlepool, 1960s, photo by John Bulmer.

Add Archie Bailey and possibly Josh Shaw and that would be SIX pace bowlers leaving Gloucestershire at the end of the season. I’m no cricket historian but I’d wager that is unprecedented. www.espncricinfo.com/story/glouce...

BREAKING: One of the most important and prominent reporters on the ground in Gaza has been Anas Al Sharif. He - and several other Al Jazeera journalists - have just been assassinated by Israelis forces whilst in their press tent in central Gaza. Speechless.

I'm now so anxious for Leeds to sign a striker I'm reading crap clickbait sites that talk about the need for "a Shrude signing". It appears we now want to sign a Pokengine.org gaming character who can squeeze through holes the size of a pencil and unlock doors with their key-shaped tail. Nice. #lufc

Any county cricket club with such a lack of professional standards in its broadcasting does not deserve to be on air and drags down the standing of the county game as a consequence.

Smart cities know that, as hot as they already are, they’re just going to keep getting hotter. Greening the city not only cools it down, it cleans the air, quiets the noise, improves mental health & happiness, saves public money, & more. Strand Aldwych, London. 2021 vs. 2025. Via @modacitylife.com

What a series! If India win this, I hope Siraj wins it. He has been immense all summer.

This has been a great batting day for a great batting side, in a wonderful series. But if England don't win this then please get angry over the arrogant belief that fringe players can get into nick by sitting in the England dressing room all summer. It's desperately unfair on them and misconceived.

Shoutout to @jamesrball.com whose excellent Prospect essay on the Dead Internet Theory I referenced: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...

⚪️🔵🟡 Leeds face Spanish opposition tomorrow! In 1975 they faced Cruyff's Barcelona with a score to settle at Elland Road, and things got FEISTY! footballbobbles.com/product/cham... Get a bucket hat for the start of the season! #MOT #LUFC

A superb thread on the many problems with the Online Safety Act. (I've linked to Nitter so you don't have to view it on Twitter.) nitter.space/adamscochran...