The end of the football season and, oh joy, the start of Test cricket. Bangladesh are currently letting us run all over them as a warm-up for the Ashes, but more importantly, I can get the true sound of England beamed to Alabama through Test Match Special. Joy. For all you Americans who don't understand us Brits, just listen to Test Match Special for the next few months and maybe, just maybe, you may get an insight into the English psyche that will explain everything...

I'd been missing the smack of leather on willow, to use the time-honoured cliche. Over at the Guardian over-by-over commentary, the readership are delightedly reacquainting themselves with each other and looking forward to a summer of pretending to work while really just clicking 'refresh' and sending in silly emails. I've got a lot of work to do so I'm banning myself from the Guardian site but one can, I think, listen to TMS while working...