A nice thing to witness was the reaction of the crowd when Josh Da Silva came on as a late replacement. He has been at the club for 7 or 8 years? He has been severely affected by injuries. Initially his hip and then knee. This was his first appearance in two years. It was great to see his welcome from the crowd. They were calling for him to come on with 15 minutes to go. His touches were cheered and after the final whistle he was serenaded.

He is a good player who could have done a lot in the premier league. Hopefully he will stay fit now and have the chance to prove himself.

PS. Back in 6th and ‘European football’ back on!?

After a great 3-0 win the table shows an amazing position. Other games still going on so change possible. But all the same-WOW!

On a chilly morning she ran the line distance in the beautiful surroundings of Florence.

Mum and dad went from one part of the course to another in order to offer cheer and encouragement. Shaz almost lost her voice from all the encouragement of the runners, while both of us had sore hands from clapping!

The atmosphere was great and the city is a fine backdrop to an event.

French tv.

Sent by Virginie

A tour of the headquarters of cricket. So a chance to go in the pavilion, see the changing rooms and admire the collection of players’ pictures. Also to see the successful Kiwis.

So better late than never.

The village was, of course,busy. A good atmosphere and great to see so much going on. We decided to find ourselves a spot on the vallée road in order to give ourselves a long view of the lads as they came through. We arrived in good time and prepared:

Even the ‘gina’ is branded with the Tour:

The more entertaining aspect was the arrival of the caravan- that is the promotional floats that threw out merchandise to spectators. We were avid collectors.

And then the race came through:

So we saw the racers. Others came through in bunches and slowly. We did not appreciate until we watched the tv highlights that there had been a crash just up the road, out of our view, on exiting the village.

We collected our goodies and walked home and watched the rest of the race on the highlights. The finish up the hill just outside Mûr de Bretagne looked impressive. Maybe next time we will go there. See you in three years?

An it was a big win and other results mean the Bees remain in the reckoning for that place eight slot.

Another win against a so-called big club.

The reports of the match are all about Liverpool and how good they are, same for MotD. I feel more credit should be given to a good performance by Brentford. They competed well, looked relatively good on the ball and were certainly playing football rather than hooving it up the pitch. So close to an excellent point.