This is a great time of year to try and relax. While it can be financially, emotionally and physically stressful to get through the holiday season, it is important to find time to relax. And there are plenty of free ways to do that, so that if you are financially stressed, you aren’t spending a great deal. (This can actually be tempting in tough times. You figure you are hosed, so you spend more money with abandon.)
Anyway, here is a great break from holiday stress. It’s a fun rendition of “Carol of the Bells” from the Muppets:
Hope you are enjoying …read more

Marcus Trescothick announced today that he won’t take part in any England duty for the timebeing, ruling himself out of the Twenty20 World Cup and the Winter tours to New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Despite being in good form for Somerset, he expressed his concerns at playing for England and wanted to be sure that he was completely over his stress-related illness before playing again.
Quite right too. There’s been so much fuss over the team recently and we’re finally getting some stability. Peter Moores is doing a good job at the top. Micheal Vaughan seems to be over the …read more

After Marcus Trecothick’s epic departure from the Ashes, which was the catalyst for the England top order’s abject failure to score anything like a decent total ever since, he’s put the cat amongst the pigeons once again by showing us exactly what we’re missing in the side at the moment. After surgery for a double-hernia and presumably a recovery from the mystery stress-related illness that kept him out of the Champions Trophy as well as the Ashes, Tresco’s first outing for Somerset wasn’t a gentle run about in the park – it was a brutal annihilation who was foolhardy enough …read more

Wow, we’re flying through them now. First Jones gets the nod over Read behind the stumps, and now we know that Cook, Bell and Collingwood will play in the side, since Marcus Trescothick’s pork pie has rolled off his picnic blanket again and decided to depart early from Australia. Harsh? Maybe.
Trescothick is citing the same reason’s that forced him home early from India and to miss the Champions Trophy – a miscellaneous stress-related illness. At the time I questioned whether he should still be considered for selection for the Ashes, but he assured everyone he was ready to play …read more