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Brentford welcome back midfielder Michael Leary after a ban, but Thomas Pinault is suspended for five bookings.

Stuart Nelson (ankle), Matt Heywood and Lloyd Owusu (both groin) are injured and Dave Partridge’s loan has ended.

Brighton must wait another week to welcome back Dean Bowditch as he still has a groin injury, but midfielder Tommy Fraser can play after illness.

Long-term absentees Adam Hinshelwood (knee), Charlie Oatway (ankle) and Paul Reid (knee) remain on the sidelines.

We shall see…..

Certainly feels like it currently. Great sun and warmth for three days, with two trips to the beach, a trip to the open air pool in Khandallah, and a bit of One Love.
Beautiful clear blue skies, with minimal wind-ah the life. About time too.
Things must have changed for the better as I finally ventured into the pool, very refreshing, as I had spent the day in the garden working under a hot sun, cutting, and chopping and clearing. However, I have yet to break my duck at the beach, much to the annoyance of everyone else.
A real feel of summer has arrived just in time for the children to go back to school; the boys tomorrow, and EQ on Friday!
All for now.

Well, the Botanical gardens actually.
We went to a free open-air concert “en famille” to see Little Bushman a new but already well known group, as one of their members was apparently one of the bods who set up Fat Freddys Drop (You must of heard of them-they have one the Mercury music prize!), and was in Trinity Roots.
It was billed as Jazz Rock, a interesting combination, and certainly there was some recognisable flavours of both but really came over as psych rock with strands of The Who, The Doors, Pink Floyd-all up MM’s street. I quite enjoyed it-a bit different.
Anyway, it was packed, aren’t all free things ?
The people watching was interesting; those “obliviousites”, who are unaware of the crowds of people trying to get past them, where they have blocked the path. The students who turn up half an hour after the start and expect to find a cool spot with their ten mates and all their picnicking, come camping gear. Everyone else with a brain came an hour before the start. And these are the future!
Anyway, good fun and nice to do something different.

Last night saw Mc Naught’s comet, by having trip to south coast. I had not seen it before and was good view, though not as good as the photo!
Last night a good night for the stars-clear sky, warm and no wind. So much so I was outdoors at 11pm in my t-shirt-wow, what a change.

So, we have returned from our cricketing extravaganza to Hastings in the Hawkes Bay. “Cricket Tour” is over for another year.
This was the first time that Joe had gone to cricket camp. It tends to be the better and more interested who want to go so it was a combined team from Onslow, made up from the kids of the four age group teams. Twelve went in all. It lasted for 4 days, game 1 on Sunday afternoon, game 6 on Wednesday morning, and 2 games on each of the other 2 days. The team lost the first game by six runs, but one the next five, one against a local unbeaten against visiting teams for a few years.
Joe had one go to keep wicket, and was mainly given chance as a bowler. A little erratic but did have one good game-3 for 8 off 2. The first 2 wickets well deserved as batsmen were unsure how to play slow bowling and gave catches to midwicket and mid-on. The third was more fortunate; as caught at square leg off a full toss-hey, but look in the score book! After the first two wickets Joe was on a hat-trick! To his credit, the hat-trick ball had to be played by the batsmen. He was player of game for that, and made it onto the “honours ” board for 3 wicket haul, and as a result made it into the local paper! Fame!
Other games not as good, but enjoyed his chance.
Good fun for parents and other kids tolerated being at cricket games well. This was helped by the fact the weather was good, in the 30C zone, and clear skies, with gentle warm wind. Also pool at the motel went down a treat.
Dad did some scoring and umpired a game. Mum did helpful things on the sidelines, and managed a day trip to Wellington on a turboprop because of work. A not fun experience with the wind that day in Wellington, after a 5am start.
Since returning on Wednesday, Joe has been down the nets practicing with one of his mates each day. Keen as mustard, that’s for sure.

As the sun had been out for three days on the bounce we decided to enjoy it on Sunday. A trip to Owhiro Bay, one that we usually visit in winter for its wild seas and views. A long good walk, but no seals at the seal colony-maybe next time if we go a the right time.
Sun is out, summer has arrived?

So, we arrived in Sydney and stayed in one of the YHA hostels. This is a book in itself. It was a useful time to observe human nature and cultural differences. The basis of youth hostels is that it is not a hotel, and much care and cleaning is the responsibility of one’s self. This basic tennant had not filtered through to a significant proportion of the incumbents. The kitchen was dirty, with dirty dishes and the like, and when washing up was done, the idea of putting scraps in the bin was a thought too far. The place was very busy given the time of year, and full of lots young people, again no surprise. I assume young means not yet expected to look after self independantly, and still expecting mum to do the washing up. Am I just a MG? Lots of Brits around, young and older, some for the cricket. Easy to spot-sat in corner of lounge with box of wine. Italians came out top of the mini-poll. Ate communially, proper meals-yes pasta, cleaned up and drank soft drinks with dinner. Germans and the like-lots of hard stares, little alcohol, but when did Bacardi and rum at rate of knots. I will leave description of other facilities to Sara.
Barmy Army HQ ws just around the corner, which S & I did the once. It was a bar,quite empty and expensive, but a least a different venue, with a few people dressed up as Monty P, all the rage.
The rest of the Sydney sights are as they have been for a long time and worth the effort. We went to the early version of the New Year’s Eve fireworks. We did not have the best viewing point, as that would have meant sitting out from about 11am to bagsy your spot. We had a reasonable spot and enjoyed the bangs and whizzs. The opera house looked impressive, just a shame everything was booked up. The trip to Manly on the ferry was great, and as was a fun family trip to the zoo. We went to the Observatory and they had a telescope even bigger than MM’s. We got to look at Venus and direct views of the sun-cool man. Unfortunately, the night view tours were booked up.
A trip to Bondi and Coggee beaches was like a trip to a nightmare Spanish resort. This time of year what do you expect?
We watched cricket on TV and moaned. Joe and I did go to the SCG hoping to get a ticket, but too many buyers and sky high prices. Anyway, crap cricket. So dad and son off to the pub. Anyway, I have now been to the SCG-sort of.
So for a holiday based around the cricket-it lacked a certain amount of cricket. Oh well. Still got sunburned.