All tied up

England's cricket today was how WACA president Dennis Lillee (right) views the tie policy on its club's members: lose it if you want.

The relaxed, former Aussie paceman would have been content with his side's tight bowling, but the tourists simply gave their wickets away - 10 caught dismissals on the scorecard told the story. And if Kevin Pietersen had merely stroked Brett Lee for a fifth ball single rather than get you-know-how'd at long-off then we wouldn't have had to witness another of England's classic last-wicket partnerships to squeeze them past 200.

As it is, Freddie Flintoff's grasp on the urn is sliding quicker than the grease on my +30 factor legs after a day in the Perth sun.

On a brighter note, the expats in the Netherlands seem to be enjoying themselves as this amusing news feature on YouTube clip shows. Not sure about the film thriller background music though. Anyway, as a Dutch-sledging cricketer might say... mind the windowssh Tino!

Podcast: Beefy v Lillee

A great cricketing duel on the pitch, for one evening only it actually continued off it - in front of 20-odd thousand punters at Adelaide Globe Derby Raceway, 23 years ago.

Someone told me about a Botham v Lillee Trotting Challenge in 1983 and it sounded like a good story to pursue. It appears that cricketers always did these kind of things back then to pull in the crowds, so I went along to the track to find out more; and although the atmosphere seemed a touch backward at first, I couldn't get enough by the end. I first spoke to 80-year-old Jack, a former pro-Harness Racing trainer, who then told me to go to the bistro where there was a guy called Barry Norman "whose lived behind the track for 30 years, so if anyone should know it's him."

With some okay stuff in the bag, it was time to leave. "Oi, are you the Pom wanting to know about this Lillee thing?" Jackpot. I was taken to see Pete, president of South Australian Harness Racing who gave me the lowdown on how Beefy "was shitting it". Anyway, listen to the podcast I did for Nobok Sports here. Scroll down to 'Beefy gets the trots'.

*I was phoned up by a local Adelaide station today to speak about my plight on finding racegoers from that night. Low and behold, somone got in touch to say they had a signed programme from that night. I'll do anything to see Botham in jockey silks.