YESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a day! It's been so exciting - I don't know what I'm going to do with myself tomorrow. Like a good book, you want to get to the end but then you wish it could go on forever!

After Mass this morning, the Pater Familias gave me an update on the score via the car radio as I was busy serving coffees in the church hall - two wickets had fallen - cautious optism.

We went straight out for a pub lunch afterwards - checked the score on my phone whilst waiting for food to arrive - no more wickets - getting a bit wobbly now.

Settled in front of the PC with TMS and live scorecard on, made sure radios were switched on in other rooms so not a ball was missed if I needed to move.

Fantastic spell with two wickets in quick succession - looking good.

Another wobbly patch as Hussey dug in.

Than a change of pace as the final wickets began to fall and it was all over. Fantastic!

Apart from going to Mass, what else have a I done today? . . . errrm . . .

Have you seen this?

I'm not usually a great one for stirring patriotic hymns/songs. I'm always slightly worried about the jingoistic overtones but couldn't resist posting this.

Come on England!

Who'd have thought it? . . .

It's been a great few days for sport recently.

I'm definitely in the category of 'armchair sports fan'. The Pater Familias, when describing his attitude to sport says, 'I'm a doer not a watcher' - I, on the other hand have to admit to being very much a 'watcher not a doer' but I'm still enthusiastic about many sports.

It was exciting listening to Usain Bolt's amazing 100 metre run in Berlin recently and then again this evening when he broke another world record. We've had Andy Murray doing well in the tennis and the football team Number Two Son (both a 'doer' and a 'watcher') supports winning 5-1 last night plus newly promoted Burnley beating the Champions Man U!

Today saw the beginning of the final Ashes Test at The Oval. I'm always surprised when I hear of certain people being cricket fans - no reason to be, I know - I'm probably a very unlikely looking fan to anybody who knows me! Stephen Fry being keen on cricket seems quite natural - but Lily Allen? (pictured above at The Oval, courtesy of BBC Sport's website).

That's one of the things I like about cricket - it appeals to all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons.

Missed it again . . .

As I got into the car to drive home, I switched the radio on to see how we were doing in the cricket as the 'near certainty' talked about yesterday morning seemed to be less certain by close of play yesterday.

I couldn't understand why it wasn't on Radio 4 or Five Live but realisation slowly dawned that it must be all over. Fearing the worst, I switched on the PC when I got home and got the good news - Oh, how could I have doubted!

I've been enjoying reading Mac's blog recently on the subject of her education into the Laws of Cricket. Sounds like she's had some expert teachers!