A brief look at the first semi-final of the T20 Blast, a reminder of ;ast year’s big blogging project, which started OTD in 2022, and a photo gallery.
Today is T20 Blast Finals Day – two semi-finals and a final all in one day. There has been some rain about but the first match has just ended in a victory for Essex. The second semi-final features Somerset and bookies favourites Surrey.
THE HAMPSHIRE INNINGS
Hampshire did some good things, but were never in compete control. They eventually mustered 170-7 from their 20n overs, a respectable but not necessarily winning total.
THE ESSEX INNINGS
The rain came after 2.5 overs of the Essex innings, and took enough time out of proceedings that Essex’s target was reduced to 115 off 12 overs. Both sides had periods when they looked in control, but ultimately it was Essex who prevailed, a six off the third last possible delivery getting them over the line. This win for Essex preserves a remarkable record – in the 20 year history of this competition no side has ever successfully defended the trophy.
LINK AND PHOTOGRAPHS
One year ago today I launched the most ambitious blogging project I have undertaken to date, a project that ended up spanning 92 posts. It all started with this selected all time XI of players whose surname begins with the letter A, a selection that still holds one year on: All Time XIs: The Letter A.
A quirky all time XI – an England XI picked to play in the style of the current one.
It is ‘all time XI’ time again. The brief for this one is to pick an all-attacking all time England XI which is as perfectly balance as I can make it. This is a team that would score its runs quickly and have no problem taking 20 wickets in a test match. Also, no two successive batters in the envisaged order bat with the same hand.
THE XI IN BATTING ORDER
Ben Duckett (left handed opening batter, occasional wicket keeper). He has been doing splendidly since his recall under Stokes’ captaincy.
*WG Grace (right handed opening batter, right arm bowler of various styles, captain). The only conceivable choice as right handed opener for this XI, someone who was always looking to score runs.
Frank Woolley (left handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner). A stroke making batter, a fine bowler and the only non-keeper to have taken over 1,000 first class catches.
Denis Compton (right handed batter, occasional left arm wrist spinner). A natural born entertainer if ever there was one, holder of the fastest ever first class triple century (got to that mark in 181 minutes in a tour match at Benoni, South Africa).
David Gower (left handed batter). Ideally suited to a side of this nature.
+Les Ames (right handed batter, wicket keeper). Averaged 40 with the bat at test level, scored over 100 FC hundreds, twice won the Lawrence trophy for the fastest first class hundred of the season. Over 1,100 first class dismissals including an all time record 418 stumpings.
Ben Stokes (left handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler, vice captain and talisman). Had to be included in this side, and a nod had to be given to his leadership, hence the award of the vice captaincy.
Billy Bates (off spinner, right handed batter). A great all rounder whose career was ended prematurely by the loss of an eye in a freak accident. His test career was brief, but his first class career averages of 21.57 with the bat and 17.13 with the ball – both figures would be higher today (probably 32 with the bat and 25 with the ball) – illustrate his credentials.
Tom Emmett (left arm fast bowler, left handed batter). A great fast bowler and a good enough batter to have scored a first class hundred at a time when that was not particularly easy to do.
Syd Barnes (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). 189 test wickets at 16.43 a piece in just 27 test matches.
James Anderson (right arm fast medium bowler, left handed batter). England’s all time leading test wicket taker, and though his position in this batting order is unarguable, he would probably get off the mark with a reverse sweep.
This side has great batting depth, and with Stokes, Woolley, Grace and at a push Compton all capable of backing up the front four there is a wealth of bowling as well. This side would win a lot of matches, lose a few and probably not draw any unless epic quantities of rain fell.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
I will go through these in batting order. Bob Barber was a contender for the left handed opener’s slot I gave to Duckett, but his top level career was much briefer. Had I not wanted Grace as captain Charlie Barnett and Colin Milburn would both have merited attention for the right handed openers slot. Woolley’s role as second spinner meant that the number three slot was nailed down. I might have named several at number four: Hammond, Dexter, May, Cowdrey, Pietersen and Root were all in the mix. Gower at number five had few challengers – the two left handed middle order players with really substantial test records, Phil Mead and Graham Thorpe were both more sedate in approach, while Percy Chapman, undoubtedly aggressive in nature, was never really worth his England place as a player. Ames at six and with the gloves had few challengers – Jonny Bairstow is not good enough with the gloves for the dual role, though I might have considered Matt Prior. Stokes really had to get the number seven slot. I regretted not being to accommodate Gilbert Jessop, though he can be designated fielding sub. There were two challengers for the number eight slot: Graeme Swann and Greville Stevens (with Woolley inked in I wanted a second spinner who was not an SLA). With Barnes indispensable I had no way to accommodate Trueman.
PHOTOGRAPHS
A couple of links before my usual sign off:
A Guardian article about a site that is due to be used as the marker for the dawn of the anthropocene.
A look at a remarkable few days for the England men’s and women’s cricket teams, and two photo galleries.
The last few days have been excellent for both the England Men’s team and the England Women’s team. This post looks back at what both teams have done in that time.
THE MEN’S ASHES
England arrived at Headingley 0-2 down after two test matches, and with the Ashes currently in Australian hands that meant they needed to win all three remaining matches to take back the urn. England were ultimately set 251 to win in the final innings. They went into yesterday needing 224 with all ten wickets in hand. At various times it looked like Australia could do it, especially at 171-6, but then the largest England partnership of the match, between Brook and Woakes left England needing 21 with three wickets left, Brook falling for a splendid 75. That brought Mark Wood to the crease. With seven runs needed Carey dropped a chance offered by Wood, and that was the last sight Australia had of victory. At 3:45PM a boundary took England over the winning line with three wickets to spare. Wood, with seven wickets in the match and 40 runs in the two England innings was named Player of the Match.
Although England kept the series alive with this victory, all is not rosy in their garden. The number three position needs filling as a matter of urgency – England tried Brook in the first innings, and Ali in the second after Brook had looked like a cat on a hot tin roof batting there, and both failed. Also, Bairstow as keeper/ batter is proving disastrous – he has missed a load of chances and he has not been scoring runs since taking the gauntlets. Also Crawley twice tossed away promising starts with appalling choices of shot. Finally, Ali is not up to the task with either bat or ball. If England are to complete the miracle comeback all these issues need addressing. I would personally call up Dominic Sibley to open with Duckett (otherwise there would be two debutants in the top three, since I cannot countenance Crawley), select one of Bohannon or Abell to fill the number three shot (Bohannon has the better batting record, but Abell offers a back up seam option, which with Stokes unable to bowl could proved very useful). With Root and Stokes certain picks barring injury I would drop Bairstow to bring back Foakes as keeper, while the number eight slot either goes to Woakes if it looks like no spinner is needed or is a toss up between Rehan Ahmed and Liam Dawson if a spinner is deemed necessary. The 9,10 and 11 slots should go to Wood, Tongue and whichever of the two veterans Broad and Anderson is in better shape at the time.
PHOTOGRAPHS 1
THE WOMEN’S ASHES
The Women’s Ashes is played these days as a multi-format series, with the test match being worth four points and each other match being worth two points. England Women were in a similar position to the men’s team, having lost the test match and the first T20 match, which with Australia holding the urn meant that they also effectively needed to win every remaining game. They won both the second and third T20Is, the former being Australia’s first non-super over loss in the format since March 2021 and the latter being the first time Australia had lost two successive matches in any format since 2017 (also at England’s hands). This keeps England hopes alive going into the ODI element of the series.
The first of the two T20I victories was by only three runs, but it only became that close because with the match already settled Ellyse Perry hit the last two balls for sixes. The second was a more comfortable win for England.
Continuing my account of my long weekend in Cornwall with a look at my parents allotment.
Welcome to the next post in my mini-series about my long weekend in Cornwall. This post is devoted to my parent’s allotment, which I saw twice, for an extended period on the Saturday and very briefly on the Sunday morning.
THE ALLOTMENT’S CONTRIBUTION TO MEALS
Save for the Sunday lunch, which was a large meal out, virtually every meal of the weekend featured something that had been grown in my parent’s allotment.
ACHIEVING A BALANCE
Although as already noted the allotment provides my parents with a lot of food it is not all food plants – wildflowers are also allowed to grow there, which means that bees and butterflies can make use of it, and the grass is not cut short, which is important as a number of butterflies rely on long grass for their caterpillars.
A BUTTERFLY RESCUE
There was a butterfly in the shed when I was there on Saturday, and it failed to realize that there was no way out through the windows (they don’t open). My mother attempted to escort it to the open door but failed to do so. I eventually captured it in a flowerpot and managed to keep control of it just long enough to get it close enough to the open door of the shed that it flew away to freedom.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
The last 12 photographs are of the butterfly that had to be rescued. Not strictly allotment related – one of a number of attempts to capture the view from Maker Heights.This picture and the next show the two plants that we returned to the allotment on the Sunday to put in.At the edge of the allotments on the way back to the car.The last three pics are of views spotted between the allotment and Looe.
Starting a mini-series about a long weekend in Cornwall with an account of the journey there.
I last posted on Wednesday and this post explains why. Thursday was a work day, and then Friday was pretty much entirely given over to travel, as I was going to Cornwall for a long weekend with various relatives, while yesterday was also very busy, as today will be. However, I have time to do a blog post now, the start of a mini-series.
MY BASE FOR THE WEEKEND AND TRAVEL PLANS
My parents live in Fort Picklecombe just on the Cornish side of the Tamar and about a mile from the village of Cawsand. I would be staying with them for the weekend so my task travel wise was to get from King’s Lynn to Plymouth from where they could pick me up. This journey is accomplished in three parts – King’s Lynn to Kings Cross, Hammersmith & City line to Paddington (NOT the Circle line – the Paddington served by that line should revert to its original name of Praed Street – it is significantly removed from the main line station, whereas the Hammersmith & City line platforms are structurally part of the main station), Paddington to Plymouth. I arranged to leave Lynn on the 09:42, connecting to the 13:03 from Paddington, which would arrive in Plymouth at 16:12.
KING’S LYNN TO LONDON
I reckoned on leaving my flat at 9AM so that I had plenty of time for the walk to the station, and I actually got away by 8:55. The train to London was a little late leaving and lost further time along the way, but with an hour and half between scheduled arrival at Kings Cross and scheduled departure from Paddington my cross London connection was never close to being in jeopardy. I arrived at Paddington with over 40 minutes to spare, and spent half of that time waiting to find out which platform I needed to get to. Then, since my designated seat was in coach A I had to walk the whole length of the platform before boarding and finding my seat.
Setting off early meant that I could pause to take photographs while walking to the station.Ely CathedralEly Cathedral’s unique feature, the octagonal tower designed by a 14th century prior known to posterity only as Alan of Norwich.
PADDINGTON TO PLYMOUTH
Great Western don’t have the worlds greatest reputation for punctuality, but this time the service set off precisely as scheduled, and ran pretty much exactly as per schedule all the way. This service stops at Reading, then has a long fast run to Taunton before making additional stops at Tiverton, Exeter St Davids, Newton Abbot and Totnes en route to Plymouth. There is one stunningly scenic section on this route, between Exeter and Newton Abbot, where the railway is literally right alongside the sea for most of the way.
PLYMOUTH TO FORT PICKLECOMBE
The last part of the journey was in my parents car, and included making use of the Torpoint car ferry. Although my parents car is small and not well suited to photography I did my best even on this leg of the journey.
A look at recent developments in the men’s and women’s Ashes and a substantial photo gallery.
It has been a few days since my last post, and a lot has happened in both the men’s and women’s ashes. This post looks at these various developments.
THE WOMEN’S ASHES
The brilliance of Tammy Beaumont (a new England women’s record score of 208 in their first innings) and Sophie Ecclestone (five wickets in each Australian innings) proved to be of no avail. England were bowled out for 178 in the final innings to lose by 89 runs, off spinner Ash Gardner taking 8-66. This is the first time in any test match, men’s or women’s that a losing side has featured both a double centurion and a taker of a 10 wicket match haul. The men’s game has provided three honourable mentions – in the tied test match between India and Australia at Chennai in 1986 Dean Jones had a double century and Greg Matthews took 10 wickets, while in England’s bottle-job at Adelaide in 2006 Collingwood scored 206 and Matthew Hoggard claimed eight wickets in the match, and finally, at the SCG in 1894 Syd Gregory scored 201 in the first innings, George Giffen had a match aggregate of over 200 runs AND claimed eight wickets in the match, and their side, Australia, lost by 10 runs.
THE MEN’S ASHES
Rehan Ahmed was added to the men’s squad in the run up to the second match of their series, which got underway at Lord’s today. In the event Ahmed was not picked, England going for an all seam attack. As was virtually dictated by this selection England put Australia in to bat, a decision that is not working out well. As I type this Australia are 181-2 with Smith and Labuschagne going well, the first named having gone past 9,000 runs in test cricket in the course of this innings. Both wickets have fallen to Josh Tongue. Broad and Anderson have had good moments but as yet no wickets, while Robinson has looked innocuous. Rehan Ahmed is on the field at present, as a substitute fielder.
A look at developments in the women’s test match at Trent Bridge and a photo gallery.
The Women’s Ashes test match at Trent Bridge is hotting up, as England bowlers get in among the wickets. This post looks at developments since yesterday.
THE REST OF YESTERDAY
During yesterday’s post I noted that Tammy Beaumont was hunting down records. She did break the Betty Snowball England record score that had stood since 1935, and she did complete her double century. She was finally last out for 208, the fifth highest score ever by a women’s test cricketer. England had tallied 463, a deficit of 10 on first innings. By the close Australia were 82-0 and it looked like they were in a very strong position.
TODAY
England bowled much better today, but Mooney and Litchfield pushed their opening stand up to 99 before the breakthrough occurred. Australia still looked in a very strong position at 178-3, but England have claimed four wickets in very quick time, and Australia are 198-7 with Alyssa Healy and Alana King batting together. For England Ecclestone has three wickets so far, giving her eight in the match, with veteran seamer Cross and young speedster Filer each claiming two scalps.
A look at developments in the Women’s Ashes test match and a large photo gallery.
Battle continues to rage in the Women’s Ashes test at Trent Bridge. This time yesterday I wrote about had happened up to that time (here), and now I continue the story.
THE REST OF YESTERDAY
England reached the close of yesterday on 218-2, Beaumont completing her century just before the close of play. It was a wonderful innings, and it was also historic: she became only the fourth English batter ever to score centuries in all three international formats, joining Heather Knight, Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan in this club.
TODAY SO FAR
Natalie Sciver-Brunt was England’s only casualty of the morning session, falling for 78. By lunch England were 308-3 with Beaumont 144 not out. Dunkley fell not long after the resumption, which brought Danni Wyatt to the crease for her test debut, 13 years after her white ball debut. On 152 Beaumont was given LBW, but a review showed the ball pitching outside leg stump. She is now on 164, with England 344-4. The next landmark is 168, her highest score in any form of international cricket, then Betty Snowball’s 189, the all time England record individual score, then the 201 she scored in the warm up match, then Perry’s 213* and finally if she can get there Amelia Kerr’s 232* for New Zealand v Ireland, the highest score in any form of women’s international cricket (and I think even Ms Kerr might concede that the Aussie bowling attack is a trifle more formidable than that of the emerald isle).
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have a splendid gallery for you…
A comma, the first example of this type of butterfly I have seen this year.A pink and purple flower with two contrasting visitors
While I have been preparing this post for publication England have moved past 350, and Beaumont on to 169.
A look at developments so far in the women’s Ashes and a substantial photo gallery.
Yesterday morning the Women’s Ashes got underway with day one of a five day test match (this move being not before time – see here). This post looks at the action so far.
THE PRELIMINARIES
The warm up matches (England v Australia A and England A v Australia) both went better for England than Australia. England’s chosen XI included an international debutant in Lauren Filer and a test debutant in Danni Wyatt. Filer was part of seam/ pace trio alongside veteran Kate Cross and the tall swing bowler Lauren Bell, while the front line spinner was inevitably Sophie Ecclestone. In addition to these Natalie Sciver-Brunt’s medium pace, Sophia Dunkley’s leg spin and Heather Knight’s off spin were also available as back up options. Australia’s side included Ellyse Perry, adding to her many entries in the record books by taking part in a tenth Women’s Ashes series. They opted for two front line spinner, Ashleigh Gardner and Alana King. They also had such strength in the batting department that Annabel Sutherland, a regular number three in Australian domestic cricket and coming off the back of a century in her warm up game was at number eight (she is a seam bowling all rounder, and has a better record at the age of 21 than Perry did when she was that age. Australia won the toss and chose to bat.
DAY ONE
Yesterday was a work day for me, so I missed a lot of the action, but tuned in just in time to catch Sophie Ecclestone’s second wicket. Two balls later Aussie skipper Alyssa Healy was out for duck and it was 226-5. That was as good as it got for England, and by the end of the day Australia were 328-7, with Sutherland going well.
DAY TWO
The second morning definitely belonged to Australia. Bell claimed the wicket of Alana King, but Kim Garth has providing staunch support for the brilliant Sutherland since then. Australia have just reached 450, with Sutherland now on 121. Ecclestone has been by far the best of the England bowlers, and now has figures of 44-9-115-3, with the rest of the attack going at closer to five an over than four – rather a contrast to the men’s test, when England’s supposed front line spinner was the one getting smacked around while the seamers were significantly more economical (on a side note, the England men’s selectors seem to have realized that persisting with Ali is not on – Rehan Ahmed has just been added to their squad). Although Australia are in a very strong position England are themselves a powerful batting side, with an opener, Beaumont, coming off a double century in her warm up match and a few others in good form. As I type this Garth has just been given LBW to Ecclestone, though she has reviewed it, it has been confirmed as out and Australia are 457-9, Ecclestone has 4-120 in her 45th over of the innings. Darcie Brown, the sole member of this Aussie XI with no batting pedigree has joined Sutherland at the crease.
PHOTOGRAPHS
The first four pictures in today’s gallery were taken a few days earlier than any of the others, which all date from the last couple of days. To view a photo at full size just click on it.
A look at the amazing test match the ended at 7:20PM yesterday and a substantial photo gallery.
This post looks back at a test match that had everything. From the moment Zak Crawley creamed the first ball of the match for four through to 7:20PM yesterday when Pat Cummins struck a four to third man to settle things the fortunes of war swayed hither and thither. I will be producing a detailed set of player ratings and a look at who England might pick to deal with obvious problems revealed in this match.
THE CLOSING STAGES
I was at work yesterday, but a rain delay at Edgbaston meant that I got to witness the closing stages of the match by way of Test Match Special and cricinfo. On a last day pitch definitely favouring spinners supposed front line spinner Moeen Ali had the indignity of being outbowled by part timer Joe Root. Stokes, injured knee and all, bowled with great determination. Broad and Robinson were both excellent, though Anderson did little. Stokes declined to take the new ball when it first became available, and when Root got Carey to make it 227-8, 54 still needed, it looked like the move had paid off. However Stokes persisted with the old ball, and Cummins and Lyon gradually settled in. Finally, with the deficit halved England took the new ball, but although Broad and Robinson bowled well they simply could not break through. In truth I had been rooting for what would have been only test cricket’s third ever tie, because each side had at least one player who did not deserve a loss – Khawaja for Australia and Root for England being the standouts. A tie clearly outranks a draw, as it is a result in keeping with the Stokes ethos. However, I have no complaints about the end result, and certainly none whatsoever about the final stages of the match.
ENGLAND’S MAIN PROBLEMS
I am going to start this post by stating firmly one thing that did not cause England to lose: Stokes’ declaration on the first evening has been the subject of much comment, a good deal of it hostile. The truth is the problems lay elsewhere than that decision:
‘samey’ main bowlers: as splendid as they all are at what they do Anderson, Broad and Robinson are too similar as bowlers for England to accommodate all three of them in the XI.
Wrong choice of main spinner: it should not have surprised anyone that an ageing player who has not played red ball for a couple of years struggled with the extra workload entailed in bowling in the long form of the game, nor that someone coming into the match with a bowling average against Australia of 65 did not pose very much of a threat.
Wrong choice of wicket keeper: for my money Bairstow’s three definite missed chances (two catches and one stumping), plus the potential chance he didn’t go for, leaving the ball to pass between him and Root for four more than neutralized his contribution with the bat. Last summer Bairstow played as a specialist batter, with Foakes behind the stumps, and if Bairstow has a role in the side it is as a batter, not a keeper/batter.
Players getting in and getting themselves out. : in the second England innings three players got to 40, and not one of them went on to 50. At least one of those three should have gone on to a genuinely major innings.
PLAYER RATINGS
I will be going through each team in official batting order, using a scale of 0 (did nothing of value at all) through to 10 (perfection). Please note that when using such scales I use the whole scale – no courtesy marks just for turning up.
ENGLAND
Zak Crawley: 5. A dead average performance from someone who is in truth a dead average player – 61 in the first innings and a failure in the second is nothing special for an opener.
Ben Duckett: 2. Two failures with the bat this time, but he surely has credit in the bank from Pakistan and New Zealand to retain his slot.
Ollie Pope: 3. A promising start in the first innings, and his dismissal was somewhat unfortunate, but a skittish performance in the second in which he never looked like getting settled. Not one of the vice-captain’s finest outings.
Joe Root: 9.5. A glorious hundred in the first innings, joint top scorer in the second and out-bowled the ‘front line spinner’. Although this was a performance that underlined his status as one of the greatest cricketers his country has ever produced I dock him half a point for getting out on 46 in the second innings.
Harry Brook: 6. He was joint top scorer in the second innings, and bowled some tidy medium pace along the way.
Ben Stokes: 8. An overly frenetic batting performance in the first innings, but a much better effort second time round, and a determined bowling performance in spite of having knee trouble.
Jonny Bairstow: 4. The most controversial mark I am giving, but as I stated earlier in this piece I reckon that the chances he either missed or simply didn’t go for cost more runs (remember as well as the extra runs scored by the reprieved batters you have to factor in extra runs scored at the opposite end in the same period) than he contributed with the bat, and his second innings demonstrated another point about Bairstow the keeper/batter – he rarely scores well after a keeping performance. Since I have have him in net debit for the match I have to give him a below average score to reflect what was overall a below average performance, and on a scale of 0-10, 5 is average.
Moeen Ali: 3. Did not do a lot with the bat, and had a poor game with the ball, to the extent that on a final day pitch which was helping spinners he had the indignity of being out-bowled by part time Joe Root.
Stuart Broad: 8. A wholehearted bowling effort on a pitch that offered him absolutely nothing.
Ollie Robinson: 7. A solid bowling effort in unfavourable conditions, and some lower order runs in the second innings. His reaction to dismissing Khawaja in the first Australian innings attracted a lot of condemnation, but frankly given the way their bowlers have been known to treat opposition batters Aussies are the last to have any right to complain about this kind of thing
James Anderson: 4. Did little in the match, and I for one would not be terribly surprised if he missed Lord’s.
AUSTRALIA
Usman Khawaja: 9.5. A marathon effort with the bat in both innings. The only blot on his copybook is that he did not quite see the job through in the final innings.
David Warner: 4. Not absolute failure, but two moderate scores.
Marnus Labuschagne: 3. Failed twice with the bat.
Steve Smith: 3. The best current test batter in the world suffered a rare double failure in that department.
Travis Head: 5. Could not duplicate his brilliance against India in the WTC final, but not an outright poor performance.
Cameron Green: 7. Impressive with the bat, albeit assisted by Bairstow in the first innings, respectable with the ball, and fielded superbly.
Alex Carey: 8. Clearly the superior of the two keepers on show, and batted well, albeit with two assists from his opposite number in the first innings.
Pat Cummins: 9. His usual formidable self with the ball and batted well in both innings, getting Australia over the line in the second.
Nathan Lyon: 7. He took wickets in both innings, but also took some punishment. He was batting with Cummins when the winning runs were scored.
Scott Boland: 5. A poor match with the ball, but given how close it was his 20 as nightwatch in the fourth innings redeemed him somewhat.
Josh Hazlewood: 8. Bowled well on his return to the side from injury.
Foakes has to return to the side as keeper. I would personally achieve this by dropping Crawley, and having someone else open the innings. Ali cannot be retained, and I would say genuine possibilities are: Rehan Ahmed, Liam Dawson, Dan Moriarty (not a Surrey regular alas, but always bowls well when given the opportunity, as an FC bowling average of 27 suggests), Jack Carson, or the ultra-radical option of asking Sophie Ecclestone if she is up for playing alongside the men. Also, I would rest Anderson and bring in Wood to give the seam attack a point of difference. Chris Woakes has a splendid record at Lord’s, and playing him at number eight and relying on Root for spin is another option.
PHOTOGRAPHS
This has been a long post, but for those of you who made it to the finish this is my usual sign off…
aspiblog 