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Has been a great summer of cricket, and great to see that we're still performing well even in the random WI matches
Champagne moment for me is actually just the second test - England's strength of character and depth to come back twice from being up against it and win so convincingly - I think that is when we confirmed as the best test team in the world (albeit not officially just yet!)

Champagne (extra large) moment for me was today when Windies crushed England on home soil, packing them off for a measly 88 !!! England have not won a single 50 overs match against THE world champions this british summer (or monsoon?) anyway - I mean a match where both sides play the FULL 50 ;-), so we wait for October. Bring it on!!!!!

The Champagne for Number 2 must have been corked after sitting on the sideboard for 3 months! Anyway I'll vote for the Prior/Broad partnership in the first test, just about the best I've seen England play.

For me, the champagne moment has to be Broad's hat trick - all the press pack had written him off, as had a lot of England supporters. Then......BAM.....wonderful!

Thanks for all the TMS broadcasts this year, it's been great - but 2011 isn't over and I'm looking forward to hearing TMS from India :o)

@hudger... how many decades did it take for you?!! LOL!

billion_plus, let it go. Time to move on

For me, it has to be the triumpant return of Michael Carberry after illness. It's just a shame it didn't come a bit sooner for Hampshire.

@billionplus. Really??? 9 matches to nil over the summer and it's because of a bit of rain? England were better in every area in every format. Just as India deserved to be world champs, England deserve to be no 1. Accept it my friend!

5.
At 06:40 26th Sep 2011, billion_plus wrote:

@hudger... how many decades did it take for you?!! LOL!



T20 world champions, not that long back.

I'd be keeping my head down after the way tour team 'performed', (and I use that word very loosely) this summer.

Be it rain,sun and light.
God must be a cricketer to give a wonderful cricketing year.
To make sure there were no refunds and filled the coffers of the ECB for the newer generation to discover this wonderful game.

For me, the Flat Asti moment goes to Aggers for doubting, ahead of the series, that a four-man English attack could take 20 Indian wickets. Doh!

No mention of the moment Sir Geoffrey was informed of his anagram, "Grotty coffee boy"? TMS comedy gold!

@billion_plus - do yourself a favour mate, the windies winning a pointless T20 match against a weakened England side goes to show how utterly awful it's been for your lot this summer and how slim the pickings have been for India!

Champagne moment is just Tim Bresnan - that is all...

Anything but the Vaughan / Aggers giggles. We've had that piece of "legover" juvenilia repeated endlessly over the last 25 years and now this. What is it with the TMS crowd ? - they seem to have the sense of humour of the average 13 schoolboy...spare us and get on with the Cricket.

Mathna, you sound like a hoot. The Vaughan/Aggers moment was priceless - there wasn't actually any cricket being played at the time, so far better than them sitting in silence while nothing much was happening. There's nothing wrong with a bit of purility from time to time, and a large part of TMS's appeal is that it conveys a sense of being with friends and being a part of whatever discussion happens to be taking place. Lighten up man!

All worthy contenders no doubt, but the champagne moment for me came when one of the team (and I forget who) suggested that Jade Dernbach could be a future test player. The last time I laughed so much was back in the 70s when Dennis Amiss, having had enough of Sir Geoffrey's calling, called him for a quick single and then stayed rooted in his crease.

Champagne moment? - Being able to listen to TMS.
Vinegar moment? When it won't be available to listeners in Europe, come October.

@yorkiebarkid1985 - "against a weakened England side"... and India were full strength? when we say that then those are "excuses", but for you its a "reason".. talk about double standards.... nothing new there! :-)

@Andyboo - "England deserve to be no 1"... er... no they are not #1... they are just "#1 Test team"... the rankings change all the time, the World cup stays in the cabinet and history books.. how many times did England win the World Cup? yep... "ZERO"... go and weep now :-))

@billion_plus - well we were T20 champions, or is it only fifty overs that count. Any test playing nation can win a limited overs match on it's day so in my opinion getting to the number one ranking for a length of time in the full format is more of a testament to a team.

As for your "weakened" argument- I seem to recall your vaunted batting lineup misfiring a bit, and if you've only got one decent bowler then you really are introuble. As @yorkiebarkid1985 said it's a bit sad if the best bit of the summer involved two teams you don't even support.

By the way we won the world cup in 1966. In the record books but IN THE PAST




By the way we won the world cup

Maybe it's a different priority for England and India in terms of format. An Ashes win will always be first choice for England fans, ahead of winning a 50 over world cup.
People tend to remember great test teams for longer than 50 over world cup winners , eg Bradman's 48 team, West Indies 80s, or Steve Waugh's Australia.

Its been a great summer of coverage on TMS, well done to Adam, Aggers and all the commentary team. I really enjoyed the highlights clips that were played in the interval yesterday.

For me my top 2 Champagne moments of the summer were Blowers hat-trick and the bat snapping in the India Twenty20 match, I've loved Michael Vaughan's reaction.

Geoffrey's anagram and apology were classics as well.

It was nice to hear Alastair Bruce-Ball and Russell J Fuller involved in the Twenty20's at the end of the season.

They mentioned that Ed Smith would be part of the one-tour tour to India coverage, any other news of the winter commentary teams Adam?

Champagne moment is england losing to west indies in a t-20 game. How low can you fall?

The Broad Hat-Trick - if there has to be a moment that summed up just how ruthless England have been this summer it is that moment. I really believe that Broad is a class act and demonstrates a passion and pomp of a fast bowler that we rarely see from an England player, who clearly has the talent to back it up. Nothing wrong with the ocassional spit and venom he tosses up at the opposition either - makes for dramatic cricket.

@saipan11 above - get some perspective. At the end of a season that has seen our first XI destroy India (and Sri Lanka) in all formats of the game, I think a defeat in a largely insignificant match featuring a junior side that was verging on a lions team, is hardly worth mentioning and reeks of sour grapes.

Even Somerset are giving the Indians the run-around in their own back yard. Did India even win any tour games? 1 maybe 2! Awful, awful tour. Put it down to luck if you want, but at least the result can't be any worse next time India visit here. Only equally as bad

Has to be the moment England became the No. 1 Test side never thought it would happen in my youth.

Kapnag remember Somerset have only played the 4th ranked Indian side who shouldn't even be there in my opinion. We'll see how we do against Bangalore (their runners-up) before we unfurl the fun. Somerset did give the India side a good kicking in the tour match though and it's only thanks to us letting Strauss bat twice that we didn't have a chance of winning. I'm still sitting in utter shock to CLT20 commentators though do any of them follow county cricket at all? "Somerset do well in a one day competition what a shock! They've only made it to 5 finals in the past three years."

I don't use a weakened England side as an excuse a down and out WIndies side produced some decent balls and some exceptional fielding to get under the skin of an England side to cause a collapse. Very good job they did in causing England to do that, rather a shame India never could produce that kind of performance in the field.

It was certainly a joy to see England go top in the world, especially as the cricket team is the only national team I support! However, after 77 years and much heartbreak, bad Manc weather and getting pipped-at-the-post, Lancs victory in the Championship, after a truly amazing season full of nail-biting finales, rounding off ding-dong battles, has to be THE champagne moment. I only missed Hove and the Rose Bowl, despite not working and managed this by hook, or by crook as well as the kindness of fellow supporters who gave me lifts. The scenes at the County Ground and the amount of Lancs fans there (despite the fact that Warks looked well in the driving seat at Southampton-where were their fans, by the way?) was testament to how much it meant. They say we've no stars, no household names, but to us, they're ALL stars and after being at the soul-destroying spectacle at the Oval, when we failed at the very last hurdle, despite a fantastic effort, this means all the more to both the team and us, the loyal supporters of this great County. What a way for Chili to bow out. You can dry those Oval tears now mate!

@17, FleetJackHobbs.

Sorry to be nuisance. I'm assuming you live in Europe outside the UK.

Do you know if there will be any means of following TMS after Oct? If so could you advise. Live in France, middle of nowhere. My choice but miss cricket (and Marmite).

Occasionally I get to see Cricket on Sky in my 'local' cafe.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Just for @billion_plus mine is Sachin NOT getting his hundreth international 100. It meant people like you were not able to go onto every cricket related article and pollute it with comments like 'Sachin is God.' Even when you have been smashed off this face of the planet this summer you still can't say fair play England are actually a decent side at the moment. You say bring on October, I say bring on in 2 years time when Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Zaheer Khan are too old!