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Hello Elle

I am impressed with your cricket knowledge! An innings is sometimes called a knock, either an individual or a team's. The word "dig" is also used for a team's innings, but not an individual one.

The word innings has always puzzled me as it can mean the singular or plural. The Americans, in Baseball, get round this by referring to the singular as "inning", which sounds strange to a cricketer.

I play a lot of cricket, for my club team and County Seniors .

Hello Pigale

Yes you are right. It is Back Pain. I said earlier that I was "Back Painting", so drop the "tin" (can) and the g (good) - gives your problem.

Actually I was getting back pain from painting the skirting borders - nothing like as bad as yours, and it has gone now. Hope you are feeling a bit better

Hello, Elle!
Well done on the cricket terminology!
It will come in useful!
It is not a sport that I watch, but to do crossword puzzles, you need to know a bit!
They were good clues.
I am going to watch the last few miles of the New York Marathon on Sunday.
It's on EuroSport.
The weather forecast is good for it.



Hello, Jigjag!
Glad you enjoyed the film!
I looked at a list of Merseyside rail stations and found Maghull that way.
It is a new name to me!
I was surprised at the amount of stations and lines in Merseyside.
I think The Times setters should get around the country a bit more!

Yes Rusty - the Times Setters should get around more. There is scope for some tricky clues as many Liverpool street names and districts are the same as London ones e.g. Pall Mall, Whitechapel, Kensington and Islington. I dont know the reason for this. I assume London copied Liverpool!

I may do something on this theme in the future.

Hi, Rusty!
Well done to you, too, with getting "Maghull"!
I toyed with fitting together combinations of Mr/ Ma / rind/ peel and g......
But got nowhere!
But apart from the Beatles and the Liver Birds (the sculptures and the sitcom ) I know nothing about Liverpool!
I am beginning to appreciate more your point of view over 'Londonisms'!
Ah yes, I think the New York Marathon is always the first Sunday of November?
I doubt that the BBC or ITV will show any coverage?
I do not have next week's TV guide yet, so cannot check.
I still haven't "pored over" Amazon to see what else Bill Bryson has to offer!
I don't where the time has gone today.....



Hello, Jigjag!
No, there is nothing at all about which to be impressed, regarding my "cricket knowledge"!
Apart from leg , on, bye and extra - and now knock...I know nothing!
I usually just scream loud and long, and wait for Rusty very kindly to rescue me!


Hi, Ros!
Our GP surgery didn't send out any letters, inviting patients along for flu jabs this year.
Maybe cutting costs?
Probably you should go along though and have the vaccination?
(Says she who, of course , doesn't go!)

elle, won't be getting a flu jab this year. Hurt for a week last year and no-one I knew about got flu round here. I prefer to keep out of the GP's way now they get paid bonuses for getting you onto tablets, the thresholds for which keep going down.

Jigjag, the names of streets often have strange origins. There is a Tetbury Street in Birkenhead, and I bet I am about the only person who knows why! Tetbury is a town in Gloucestershire where a John Cook started brewing over 200 years ago. (The brewery (not the original one) is now flats, but ventilation shaft is still there and says "Established 1800". As John was born in 1787, I hae ma doots!) He became very successful, owning many pubs, and had several sons. Two (I think) of them moved up to Birkenhead when it was a boom town and started a brewery there, in the place now called Tetbury St. The brewery was where the Honda garage is, or was when I went to look a few years ago.

Hello, Elle!
I was trying to find "sir", as in "master/teacher," inside a word!
But when I pulled up a list of Merseyside rail stations, Maghull jumped out at me!
I've not been to Liverpool and most of what I know is music linked, or from the great football teams from there, though there was a TV show about a Liverpool family that I liked, called "Bread", I think it was.
"Joey" was a main character, as I remember.
And I read that Dr Crippen landed at Liverpool, after his arrest in Canada.
That's all my Liverpool knowledge!
Now, I remember years ago, Araucaria who set for the Guardian, had in his puzzle, around six names of little places in Britain, that I don't think I had heard of.
It turned out that they were RAF bases (long gone now) that he had served at during the war.
And I got them all and enjoyed his puzzle.
So, why can not The Times setters do things like that!

Hi, Rusty!
I remember "Bread"!
It was written by Carla Lane, who also wrote "The Liver Birds".
I cannot recall much of the story lines though...I think the family was "governed " by the mother, "Nellie"...?
I can picture the actress who played her.....but cannot remember her name?
I always thought it strange that the series, though based in Liverpool, was entitled "Bread", meaning "money", when this was a Cockney term - "bread and honey" - rather than a Scouse one!"
I didn't know about Dr. Crippen!

Hello, Elle!
That's right, "Nellie"!
I can not remember the daughter's name.
I did not know "bread and honey".
Yes, Dr Crippen was arrested by Inspector Dew when his ship arrived in Canada, and he was brought home on the SS Megantic to Liverpool.
I have been tracking a flight from Malaga to Belfast Int.
One of the young ones was at a hockey and netball tournament in Marbella, and Gibraltar.
Her team got beat at hockey but she scored a goal!
I'll see her on Saturday and hear all about it!

Good morning, Rusty!
A cold and drizzly morning here!
The dog doesn't seem to mind!
I think "Aveline "was the Boswell daughter?
I seem to remember her being played by two different actresses?
One of whom I thought played the character much better than the other.
In theory, we should have a quiet day ahead of us.....just as well if it is going to rain all day!
I am about to make a coffee and eat my apple and cheese.....