Down Under thunder and English chunder! I COULD be eating my words by 7pm tonight but, from where I'm sitting, my Aussie boys will still win the Texaco Trophy series.

Thursday's win by England has made the whole summer more interesting.

But I play alonside the likes of the Waugh brothers, Michael Bevan and Michael Slater for New South Wales and I know these guys will bounce back.

One major worry for Australia, though, is the form of skipper Mark Taylor, another New South Wales colleague.

He was under pressure back home before the tour of South Africa and he simply has to start pulling his finger out and start getting some runs.

The Australian batting in general has been surprising and Headingly was the first time they have batted for the full 50 overs.

It is definitely not an attitude thing - perhaps the tour planning has not been ideal.

But us Aussies are nothing if not competetive and you can bet they will be going all out to win today's second game.

England's performance was not surprising as they played a lot of one day cricket in the winter and performed quite well in New Zealand.

Neither was I surprised to see Graham Thorpe making such a vital contribution for England, having played against him a few times for Somerset last season.

He and Alec Stewart are class acts and will hold the key to the Ashes.

Closer to home, I have started hitting the ball quite well and it is also earning me a few bob along the way. No, this is isn't some lucrative performance-related bonus at Enfield - I'm talking golf balls.

Brad McNamara and I have joined Rossendale and, while he is a much better golfer, there has been a couple of pounds changing hands each way.

Things are also looking up on the cricket side.

I am starting to hit that ball quite well as well and I think I am slowly getting used to these tracks.

A few of the Lancashire League characters, though, will take a bit more getting used to...

Some of the Enfield lads met up with the Haslingden guys after last Sunday's games and, having both won, we had a few beers to celebrate.

Haslingden leg-spinner, Barry Knowles, however, had a few too many.

His chicken madras at the Indian restaurant lasted just a few minutes in his stomach and he was promptly asked to leave by the waitress.

Barry's swift if somewhat slurred response, that the food - and not the bucketload of lager - was to blame, was top form.

And I must be on top form tomorrow at Todmorden as we are the feature game in this paper on Monday!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.