Kmflett's Blog

So, Farewell then Bazball

With the unexpected resignation of Ben Stokes as England cricket captain on 28^th June the future not only of Coach Brendan McCullum but also his method of playing, known as Bazball is under question.

Marx, who was not as far as is known a cricket fan, saw a declining rate of profit as being one of the key issues with a capitalist market economy. One way of looking at this is, that while an innovative company can make good profits initially, competition develops. With this more investment is needed to keep up develop, and more capital investment starts to impact on the initial profit rate, as technological advance decreases the amount of workers needed, from profit is derived. It is however a tendency not an absolute.

There is a sporting analogy. In football from time to time a manager introduces a new way of playing which brings initial success. However over time opposing sides work out what the new way is, and find effective ways to counter it.

The same appears to be true of Bazball. It first operated in the summer of 2022 when England won a series against, er, New Zealand. For an extended initial period the success of the England’s Men’s team in Tests with McCullum as Coach and Stokes as captain was very high. From 2024 into 2025 the success began to drop, so that before the 2025/6 Ashes series which England lost 4-1 it was still just under 60%.

The reality was that opposing teams were able to work out what Bazball was and how to counter it. Over time the initial advantage declined, even allowing for occasional tweaks in the method.

The departure of Ben Stokes is likely linked to the dysfunctional nature of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) although it’s a struggle to find a sports administration at the top level of sports that does work particularly well. But underlining this is the reality that the Bazball system, which can provide exciting cricket at best, is no longer one that delivers sustained success.

Stokes departure should provoke the end for McCullum and Bazball and perhaps (less likely) changes at higher levels in the ECB. The next Home Test series against Pakistan starts on August 19^th…..

As Gramsci (someone else who was not a cricket fan) noted in his Prison Notebooks, ‘the old is dying, but the new cannot be born..’

Beard Liberation Front

28th June

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has paid tribute to Ben Stokes who has announced his retirement as England Men’s Test cricket captain and from international cricket.

The campaigners say that Ben Stokes has the most impactful England cricket beard since W G Grace.

His Beard Power has been a distinctive and lasting presence not just with bat and ball but also as captain

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we hope Ben Stokes and his Beard Power has a continuing role in cricket, and we can only hope that he and his follicles continue to flourish

The Ambridge Socialist

28^th June

Ruth puts Brian on the spot: ‘what is it you really, really want?’

The attempt by Ruth to mediate between Adam and Brian predictably failed at least in part because it was not a proper mediation. Before Adam and Brian were let loose on each other in the same room, Ruth should have explored their respective positions with them separately and then determined if there was a way forward in a joint meeting. Any way that is probably rather boring even for the Archers so Home Farm going into administration remains the most likely option.

The Ambridge Socialist at the Borchester Show

We’ll have a presence at the Borchester Show handing out our specially produced flyer ‘down with big farming’

Work Experience..

Keira is doing work experience at the Rewilding project. Good news for Ed Miliband if we have read the runes correctly. Meanwhile George & Keira are clearing the barn which was something Eddie Grundy should have done…

Anne-Marie

Amber’s mother is still promoting her RP pronunciation

The new milking parlour

Helen is planning an expansion having acquired some new cows. Tom is grumpy about it, because he wants new polytunnels. Another band of warring relations

An England sporting side are in a World Cup semi-final on Thursday in London. Its obviously not the men’s football side (yet) and its certainly not the men’s cricket team. Rather England women face South Africa’s women at Lords..

The Men’s Football World Cup kicked off in Mexico City on 11th June. Mexico beat South Africa. The game was unremarkable aside from three red cards but the atmosphere was fitting for such an occasion. It was however, as not reported on ITV, for the few not the many. Standard tickets cost £750 which is the average monthly wage in Mexico.

The tournament might well be a lot better if it had been played in Mexico and Canada only but as it is the majority of the 104 games will be played in the US. Since Trump has never heard of sports washing who knows if it will manage to get to the Final.

As the Round of 32 has been reached its become clear that there are two World Cups. Trump has stayed away so far. Harassment of players and officials, Iran being a prime example, has been a deplorable feature. On the other hand as Simon Kuper argues in the Financial Times (27^th June) there is also a fan led World Cup, with supporters of teams in the stadiums- Scotland being an obvious UK focused example- but also with watch parties and big screens.

The Men’s Football World Cup is of course a global event with a global audience and wall to wall media coverage.

Meanwhile another World Cup is reaching its concllusion as England Women beat the current holders New Zealand at The Oval on 27^th June as part of the T20 series that will end with a Final at Lords on July 5th. There was a capacity 21,018 crowd despite the fact that England Men were playing in the football World Cup on the same evening.

Media coverage is of course minimal. The Times manages a column by Elizabeth Ammon.

Yet the tournament has a global reach with India playing Pakistan a game which usually attracts the biggest screen based global audience of any sport.

The whole thing is screened on Sky and on ICC.TV and radio commentary is on Radio 5 via Test Match Special.

A World Cup without the machismo

Beard Liberation Front

28th June

England football manager Thomas Tuchel has finally grasped that Beard Power wins matches as England beat Panama in New Jersey on Saturday night.

Tuchel was clean shaven for England’s first match against Croatia which England shaved. For the goal less draw against Ghana Tuchel doubled down on his follicle failure with the barest hint of facial hair.

However for the victory against Panama Tuchel finally appeared with a finally crafted beard. He will need to grow it further for England to progress in the Group of 32

National Beard Week: Guardian ramps up the beard hatred

It might be thought that The Guardian is the natural home of beard wearers. Certainly the great C P Scott had a formidable beard. However during National Beard Week (22-27^th June) the paper ran two features both of which raised the spectre of a fifth column of beard haters at work.

One feature focused on an old story about whether beards are unhygienic. After much deliberation it was determined they were not. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/22/is-it-true-that-beards-are-unhygienic?CMP=share_btn_url

Later in the week a feature pondered what should be done if a man had food remains in his beard. As the piece admitted this was simply an echo of Roald Dahl’s The Twits. An amusing book but not reflective of reality https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/25/you-be-the-judge-partner-food-beard?CMP=share_btn_url

National Beard Week 2026

Monday 22nd June: Hirsute Personality of the Year: the beard wearer who has made the positive public impact during the year. 2026 winner- Zohran Mamdani

Tuesday 23rd June: Beard Friendly Sandwich of the Year: the sandwich that goes in the mouth not the beard. 2026: Chip Butty

Wednesday 24th June: Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year: the broadcaster whose beard has had the most public impact. 2026 James O’Brien

Thursday 25th June: Pogonophobe of the Year: the most notorious beard hater of the year; 2026 Nigel Farage

Friday 26th June: Beard Friendly Employer of the Year: not awarded in 2026

Saturday 27th June: Beard of Summer 2026: the third of the four quarterly seasonal Awards 2026 New Zealand cricketer Kane Williamson

US company Tilray acquired most of Brewdog out of administration in March 2026.

In a branch of Home Bargains (to get the cat more biscuits) I checked the beer shelves. The owner of Home Bargains also owns Liverpool brewery Love Lane, whose beers always feature for usually between £1.29 and £1.69 a can. The beers themselves are fine but the price point underlines that is the slop trade in beer. Again that’s not about the quality of the beer but ‘slop’ is a Victorian term for undercutters.

Looking at the beer selection I noted a selection of well known Brewdog beers for £1.08 a can. Checking the Brewdog website the same beers are on sale for £1.35 a can (plus delivery).

One wonders of Tilray are wondering what they have got themselves into…

Beard Liberation Front

27^th June

Contact: BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

New Zealand cricketer Kane Williamson voted Beard of Summer 2026

As part of National Beard Week, the result of the vote for Beard of Summer 2026 has been released.

New Zealand cricketer Kane Williamson, who retired from international cricket earlier in June, has been voted Beard of Summer 2026 in an on-line poll which ran across Bluesky and Twitter.

Williamson, who has one of the most distinctive beards in cricket, shaved Graham Norton and Bob Harris for the accolade.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Kane Williamson’s victory despite both Harry Kane and Steve Clarke being on the shortlist shows that cricket beards still cut through.

The Shortlist

Harry Kane, England football captain

Ben Stokes, England cricket captain

Graham Norton, broadcaster

Roy Keane, football pundit

Kane Williamson, New Zealand cricketer

Bob Harris, broadcaster

Steve Clarke, Scotland football manager

Harry Styles, musician

Farage makes fun of the heatwave

Nigel Farage was one of a number of speakers at the far right ARC conference held in London in late June.

It took place as temperatures in London reached 35C but the audience of climate change deniers, fossil fuel lobbyists and anti-abortionists did not seem to mind the reality that they were swelterint.

Farage’s intervention is below (only for those with robust perspectives). He started his remarks by joking about the Met Office’s red alert for temperature impact and claiming that most people were not at work (although unless Farage beamed himself into the event, transport workers clearly were.

Guardian report

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/23/populist-and-rightwing-figures-take-aim-at-ed-miliband-and-uk-net-zero-policies-at-anti-woke-davos?CMP=share_btn_url

The return of the M&S Dessert sandwich

Depending on interest you may have seen publicity for M&S’s latest culinary adventure the whipped creme and strawberry sandwich. Based on 2025 its Wimbledon related.

It is not compulsory to try one but as a relatively rare example of a dessert sandwich I’ve tried the 2026 iteration. The whipped crème fraiche and soft cheese are slightly sweet but balanced by the tangy strawberries. The slices of white bread are now labelled as brioche an improvement on last year.

There was ample stock in the M&S in central Cardiff but given the hot weather that’s probably no surprise. Customer numbers were low.

The sandwich is both niche and on trend. I can confirm that it is also beard friendly.

I did make my own version in 2025. I used Sainsbury’s strawberries. M&S Red Diamond strawberries which are advertised on TV by Tom Kerridge are not when I’ve tried them particularly good. I replaced the creme with Sinodun Hill goats cheese, a mature example of the genre. I’m not sure it was any cheaper than the M&S sandwich (£2.80)to put together- the goats cheese is expensive- but it shifted it from sweet towards savoury.