BTW E, I understand that Espana will be completing their unsuccessful Euro 2008 campaign in Las Palmas. Not my fave holiday destination, alas.

Ah, cheers. In fact I don’t have sound where Iam (or at home). I’m sure it’s very easy to set up, but I’ve avoided doing so for reasons which are mostly related to incompetence but also involve the likelihood that if I did have sound, I would spend the next twenty years watching clips on YouTube.

Middlesex have a remarkable batting line-up which with the exception of Owais Shah (west London comprehensive) is almost entirely composed of talented but overrated players from top public schools who tend to choose Middlesex on the grounds that that way they can hang out with their mates from the City while taking a few years out to see if they can get in the England team. Hutton, Dalrymple, Compton, Smith, Joyce (and of course Strauss).

Loved Mascherano’s capoeira challenge on Kaka, which somehow scissored the ball from between his sprinting legs.

In my admittedly hazy recollection, Milan had exactly two shots on goal, both of which went in. Is this correct, or did I miss Reina making some saves?

(Re: Names. One time I went to a Gloucestershire CCC match, and the Very Vocal Supporter spent the whole time shouting “Come on, ‘Shire!”. They were playing Yorkshire at the time. D’oh!)

(Re: Big Cup. The Dutch radio commentary was a delight after the jingoistic but content-free crap served up by Five Live’s Alan Green and his co-perpetrators. The Dutch guy spoke both amazingly fast and amazingly clearly, and covered the action on the pitch rather than his own navel.

Oh and I’m looking forward to a refreshing break from the recently-fashionable “Best League in the World” articles from the English press.)

I can’t believe people are still calling Milan “AC”. It is not their name. It is like saying “FC”. Their name is not AC, nor AC Milan, or Milano – it’s Milan.

Meanwhile, over at the cricket season, what in God’s name was the pitch like at Swansea yesterday?