Cerberus

The death rate in the US is starting to drop, but I'd expect it to hit 300,000 before this is over - regardless of the Big Orange's words about the vaccine. He wanted one ready by the end of May, you may recall.

On a more sober note, 300 dead in France in the last four days. Second lockdown on the cards?

"Do you remember Dick and Dom? I wonder what they're up to now, I'll just google them." "No Mum, I beg you not to do that."

I was only watching her yesterday in the 1979 remake of 'The Lady Vanishes' - funny that she was getting 'old lady' parts more than 40 years ago, though she was almost 20 years younger than May Whitty was when she played Miss Froy in the original, and only 13 years older than male lead Elliott Gould. Incidentally, I guess everyone has gone from the '38 film, now? There were no children in it as I recall.

Yeah, the infection rate has been going up for a while but we've been told it's mostly young people, as long as they don't infect older family members it should be OK. Well we're starting to see the second spike bite in western Europe now. 32 dead in Britain, 78 in Spain and 38 in France. Only Germany, as ever, seems immune.

Try reading the first line of my last post again ... that's exactly what I said I wouldn't be doing. Still think she'll be voted off early doors though.

I will still watch, and I'm not so furious about this that I will switch over as soon as she appears. Good luck to her, I guess ... but plenty of gay contestants - male and female - have appeared on the show in the past and had no problem with dancing with someone of the opposite sex. Like I said, a precedent is being set here, and I don't see it going down well with the show's largely middle-aged and 'small c' conservative fanbase.

Not really DL-related but the chance for a quick rant. Former boxer Nicola Adams is on the show, having specified that she will only dance with another woman. I'm not homophobic in the slightest, I'm really not, but is it right for the 'stars' to hold the BBC to ransom like this? Presumably she will be dressed as a man for the whole series - or as long as she's in it (I don't see the Strictly demographic voting for her en masse somehow) and leading. Two women in big frocks dancing a waltz is going to look ridiculous after all. She will effectively be a male contestant. Not sure this sets a great precedent, but hey, maybe I'm just an old reactionary.

Any thoughts as to when we might reach a million deaths? At the current rate it seems we might get there in around three weeks or so. Then again, we've almost certainly had it already, but that's another story. The 'official' figures for countries like Yemen and Sudan are absurdly low. Testing is pretty much non-existent in that part of the world. I saw a news report from Yemen a few weeks ago; they were digging mass graves then.

One that went unnoticed at the time, even by the usually excellent Cricketer magazine: NZ keeper-batsman Graham 'Jock' Edwards, on 6 April. Big Jock played two Tests in England in 1978 but in a wet summer his agricultural approach was ineffective and he was replaced behind the sticks by opening batsman Bruce Edgar for the last Test.

One place to keep an eye on: South Africa has doubled its cases since the end of May. Not yet reflected in deaths but we know it takes a while to catch up. Fat lot of good that alcohol/tobacco ban did, then. Also Chile, into the Top 20 almost out of nowhere. Could be that Latin America and southern Africa are the areas to keep an eye on.

Not many people seem to have noticed, I guess over the years he's slipped off the radar.

Good result for Spain today, if that's the final figure.

Those who used to tune into BBC2's coverage of the John Player League in the 1970s and 80s will remember Peter Walker, the former Glamorgan all-rounder who played three Tests for England in 1960. He's died at the age of 84.

Yeah, I've been wondering about that too. Likewise the Netherlands has been stuck on 250 for a while. A number of other countries - Portugal, Norway, Ireland and Australia for instance, have ridiculously low 'recovered' figures, which in turn has skewed the supposed death rate up to an artificial 21%.