FIXTURES.

They’ve moved the fixtures for the television. 

And it’s gone alright, I’d say. One absolute stinker

 Will somebody just bowl Agar out? This is utterly –

Which is Swansea away on a Monday night, but possibly early enough in the year to make a weekend of it around the glorious Gower Peninsula

 It’s doing my head in. Another tailender knocking 50 against England. What is the –

For those that fancy it, the Gower Peninsula is an area of immense natural beauty. Its beaches are second to none worldwide. Without a European tour this could be the best opportunity to cut loose. There is an alternative even to that. Do Festival No 6 over the weekend in Portmeirion and then mooch on down to watch the Reds face Laudrup’s marvellous men. Obviously doing our best to ignore the Manic Street Preachers and Jonjo Shelvey. If you tolerate this…

He’s still in. Agar is still in. And Phil Hughes. How has this happened? The Number 11 looks like getting a hundred.

Arsenal looks a pain for there and back in a day but in the absence of any cup finals…

That’s just mean that isn’t it? You never know. That’s the marvellous thing about a good fixture list. You never know. You have a look and you go…

Ruining my summer this. I’m going to have to go and look a lot of Australians in the eye soon and what are they going to say?

Anything’s possible. In the spirit of which, let’s have a big argument. 12-0 league home win or league cup final appearance? Which would you prefer? I’m firmly on the side of 12-0. I look at that fixture list and I see three strong opportunities for the 12-0 in the first half of the season – Palace at home, Fulham at home (. Saturday 3pm, 12-0 win. Great band. Perfect), and Norwich at home if Suarez stays. We still need a wide player who looks like he has a four goal game in him to bring this 12-0 about but it is my top priority going into the new campaign. Strømsgodset have been too complacent for too long. What have they done for me lately? Fulham want to curry some favour here. The Tricky Reds 12 (TWELVE) Fulham 0. Much better than facing Bradford in a soulless bowl that snacks on atmosphere, playing the fourth most important game of the weekend.

What else? Stoke’s gone early meaning BT Sport will be starting things with a bang. A crash. A wallop. A yellow card tackle or eight unpunished. And an unedifying amount of Charlie Adam. Oodles of Adam. Chunks of Adam. Man United has inevitably shifted. But beyond that our home games remain unsullied. Anfield Saturday 3s as pure as the driven snow through to December. Great news for tradition and terrible news for the collective liver.

He’d best go first over after lunch. Just bowl him. Bowl him.

Speaking of which, I’ve just noticed that for some reason Olympiakos kicks off at 12:45 limiting pre-match drinking opportunities required in order to make a pre-season game bearable. Give that a miss then.

I can make an argument that Saturday 3s should be abolished. That there should be no Saturday afternoon kick offs at all. Friday night or Saturday night or Sunday. Roll with it, big teams. You don’t get your tradition. It is part of the trade off. But I’m not going to make that argument because it is sunny outside and still there are only 9 wickets down and these two have got right into my head and I can’t think of anything else.

Last night supposed Liverpool target Bernard scored for Maxi had a penalty saved in the shootout. I like the sound of this Bernard. He might bang four in against Palace. A player called Bernard makes you think of Fowler. I love thinking of Fowler. Think about this.

Presumably loads of clubs including Liverpool are gritting their teeth and trying dead hard to make signings that will make a difference. Or everyone’s just swerved it to sit in the sun and listen to the cricket. If Ayre came out and said that in tomorrow’s Echo, I’d think, yeah, alright E. Everyone needs a day off.

Everyone needs a day off. This is the written equivalent of that day off.

And what?

ANNE WATT