In The Wind in the Willows, Rat tells Mole, “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” As something of an anchor in open water, boats aren’t a favourite. But it’s a phrase that can be translated [...]

Once upon a time cricketers could pretty much do what they liked off the field. Drug testing wasn't so sophisticated, there were no WhatsApp messages, and getting pissed before important games was almost mandatory. Alex Hales would've loved it. Twenty five years ago the public didn't have mobile phone cameras ready to [...]

The Powerspots….The Scoops…..the Dynadrives…The Elites…..Gray-Nicolls bats made everyone at schools across the country drool. They still came from the same willow as their rivals, but they looked a whole lot better. Anyway, so I, Alex Ferguson – who had his best-ever season slogging a GN Elite before it was broken by a [...]

I know what you're thinking. It would be easier for us to simply put the great West Indies team of the 70s and 80s into the best-ever England vs West Indies combined XI. But we’re trying to find some semblance of balance here. Before I get stuck in I should make it [...]

Here's Alex with his best and worst moments of 2018. He was better qualified than me to write this piece as my answers invariably involve the words 'bah' and 'humbug'. Do you agree with his choices? MOMENT OF THE YEAR: Alastair Cook’s Last 100: This writer was at The Oval , joining [...]

At the dawn of this blog, James Morgan wrote about England’s worst XI, a team comprising players who before, during and since their test career confounded expectations by setting low standards and consistently failing to achieve them. There could have been many more on his list: nearly half of those who have [...]

When you’re sent a line-up and your first reaction is “Wow. What an XI”, you know you’re onto a good team. Anyway, Alex Ferguson put together his best-ever Gunn & Moore XI following on from a piece on this ‘ere blog about the All-Time Duncan Fearnley XI. While Duncan Fearnley had its heyday, [...]

Heeding no advantage, asserting no virtue, claiming no righteousness, the August volunteers marched away, the vanguard of a generation doomed to die untimely … There was no estimating the extent to which creative thought was depleted, or the cost to learning, literature and science of the destruction of so many strong and [...]

I've been too busy this week to think about the ODIs. Sorry. With all the rain around they sound like a damp squib anyway - although it was good to see the lads pick up a win in a T21 yesterday. In the meantime Alan Gibbs is back with an article about [...]

Today I'd like to introduce a new TFT guest writer. His name is James Wilson. He's a cricket author and former lawyer. I enjoyed this, and I think you will too ... Peter Jackson Eastwood’s entertaining feature on dibbly dobbler medium pacers is a reminder that cricket fans, especially English ones, have [...]