Cricket (again!) and The new Harry Potter film

Firstly, the second test at Lord's - what a great performance, especially by Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff. Five wickets in his final Test at Lord's getting his name on the Honours board. Leading 1-0 after the second test is an achievement in itself, even though the Australian team were predicting a 5-0 whitewash (although they did the same in 2005). Comprehensive victory -'nuff said.

Saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the weekend, was actually pleasantly surprised, heard so much about the focus on romance that I was surprised to find it wasn't that prominent. Was also surprised at the "intermission" haven't had an interval at a cinema since I was little. Only scene I disliked was the wheat field and destruction of The Burrow, totally unnecessary especially as it's not in the book , could have been better spent using a scene actually in the book like Voldemort/Riddle's application to work as a teacher (featured twice in the book not even once in the film) or any other memory mentioned in the book but not used in the film.

Cricket

What a great display by the England Team yesterday. First test ever played in Wales and therefore at this venue (ECB is actually the England and Wales Cricket Board).

Loving Ponting's criticism his comment "They can play whatever way they want to play. We have come to play by the rules and the spirit of the game and it is up to them to do what they want to do." is rich coming from a man whose team regularly used sledging to put off opposing batsmen.