Ready, Freddie go!

By Derek "Robbo" Robson
The Tees Mouth

Ready Freddie

Yabadabadooooooooooooooooo! Freddie Flintoff is Robbo's man of the summer.

His bowling's been troublesome and he's been a terrier in the field too - well more of a wolfhound, I suppose - but it's his batting that has emptied the beer tents.

I haven't seen anything rush to the boundary that quick since I was out in the middle last summer after a particularly lively prawn madras.

And what's more he's the first to get a beer in his hand after the match. Marvellous!

And what a cracking summer of cricket it's been!

All right, that's partly because our boys were so rank in the first two Tests, but you can't complain about the entertainment since.

Freddie and Stewie had plenty to celebrate

My favourite moment so far was the Oval wags cheering Boucher every time he held on to the ball behind the stumps. Quite right too. The lad's got hands like two wet herrings and it's a miracle he held every nick going.

I'm looking forward to our visits to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Windies. Don't see any problems meself if they bloody well concentrate!

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Spit but no Polish

Well somehow we keep stumbling through these Euro qualifiers and getting results.

The 2-1 in Macedonia was a right messy affair. And Hansen got it right.

The way our defence creaks like a bus full of pensioners every time the ball gets knocked into our box guarantees that some day soon, against a good attack, we are going to get a right drubbing. I just hope it's not in Istanbul.

And by the way, fair play to the English lads - after you've been booed and spat at for 90 minutes, it's understandable that you might want to share the joy with some people in the stadium who were probably enduring the same experience.

Let's not be too high and mighty, though. Be nice if we could scrape off the scum from our football supporters too before we start slagging off others.

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Ra-Ra! Zara!

That Zara Phillips, eh? She's a bit of a looker if you ask me. And the omens aren't good when you look at mater and pater.

Zara eyes Olympic spot

Still, old Robbo's always had a bit of a thing for the posh totty. I'm the stable lad, they've come in from a hot gallop across the fields, the horses are panting hard... I think I've gone too far.

Any road, it's nice to see a royal doing something useful for a change even if it has to be equestrianism.

Personally I can't wait for Her Fineness to get caught out in the water jump.

My missus is telling me to stop writing such filth. If she could keep her eyes off Freddie Flintoff's backside I might agree.

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The Catt Came Back

Well I can't say I've watched a hell of a lot of rugger, but I used to reckon that Catt was a Catt-astrophe.

But frankly I'm glad he's in and Healey's had to sit on the sidelines.

Any sportsman who has a new topweave has got his priorities wrong and besides, Austin has been a liability to Woodward more than a few times before.

I'm sure Clive knows what he's doing. I can't believe people are asking him whether he's worried about the favourites tag.

What's he going to say? "Yes, it is a concern - we'd rather we'd played cack for the last five years like Wales and Scotland then we'd feel much better."

They're favourites cos they are the best team going at the moment. And they are going to win it.

Have Your Say: Do you agree with Robbo?