Cerberus

Interesting ... 183,000 new cases in the UK today (not unexpected) but just 57 deaths - that coming after a four day weekend with Xmas Day falling on a Saturday. I must admit I had no idea what the deaths total would be today but given the time lag I was expecting something between 200 and 300 ... the very small total recorded seems to back up what we've been told about Omicron. What's going on in Russia and eastern Europe though, I have no idea.

Don't remember hearing him at all in the last series, rather worryingly, but Barry Cryer was on last night's show, and sounded in pretty good voice - well, for someone who had to sing 'There's No-one Quite Like Grandma' to the tune of 'Theme from New York, New York.' A very Deathlisty name though, and probably worth considering for 2022.

Hopefully, he isn't going to take it lying down.

Does anyone know where Eileen is in terms of Britain's oldest women? Must be in the top five, surely.

The point is well made though - Harvey in 1950s Australia was at least as famous a sportsman as George Best, say, in 1970s Britain. Definitely 2022-worthy.

So the Everly Mother is still around then? She was only 17 when Don was born, though I guess that was nothing unusual in 1930s Kentucky. Going to play a few EB tunes tonight though .. 'Let It Be Me' a particular favourite.

Former NZ all-rounder Chris Cairns in a bad way in Australia: https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/new-zealand-cricket-chris-cairns-suffers-major-heart-problem-reports-1272781

One of his predecessors at Derby, Brian Jackson, used to bowl what John Arlott called a 'grudging length' - which I take to mean one that hit high up the pad, and meant that the batsman was likely to get the benefit of the doubt on an lbw shout. I imagine that's what Benaud meant, and he may well have been right.

After Woolmer, Dilley and Willis, fourth of the Class of '81 to go, though he didn't play in any of that season's classic games, being involved only in the less memorable first and last Tests - his last for England, as it turned out. As mentioned above all of the Aussies are still going - and with no health issues that I know of.

Well what constitutes a 'hit' is largely a matter of opinion I suppose. COWS was played a lot in the summer of '78 though, I'm surprised it didn't go higher. Young Willz could have said 'their only UK chart entry.' A couple of months earlier it wouldn't even have been that because the official chart was increased from 50 to 75 then.

Cases are not soaring here quite as much as the doom-mongers said, though - 36,000 today, compared to 54,000 a week ago. Deaths higher than they were but comfortably under 100 a day, notwithstanding the Tuesday spike. The worst-case scenario I heard - from a Government source - suggested 200,000 new cases and up to 200 deaths a day. Still might come to that of course, the football won't have helped, but could it be that we've already peaked?

If you read the piece it's clear that bowler Mike Hendrick will be the next to go. He's not expected to see out the year, apparently. As he put it "I'm in the departure lounge but the plane hasn't quite left yet" Not sure he's sufficiently well-known enough for the Fifty but a name many of the committee would recognise, I'm sure. Cricket star's cancer message after the most important catch of his life - Derbyshire Live (derbytelegraph.co.uk)

'Tactical, yet somehow pointless, edit.'

You're right it was originally published under that title, then updated with additional entries a few years later - still before Roebuck's demise though, I think.

Unless there's another book I'm unaware of, I think you may be thinking of David Frith there - Silence of the Heart is a tremendous and very moving work. Foot often wrote on troubled individuals though - some of whom, such as Harold Gimblett, did go on to take their own lives.