THE summer's gone. As I sit here at Taunton with the Quantocks barely discernible through the thick drizzle, a glance at even the more reputable national newspapers confirms that the football season is upon us.

We are 1-0 down in the Ashes, so badly beaten at Lord's that where once there was hope now there is despair, merely accelerating the rush to football's overworked turnstiles. Even the Sunday Times chose the supposed row between Fergie and Roy Keane as its lead sports story.

Hopefully it would have been different had England won the first Test, which looked possible when Australia were 87 for five. To lose by 239 runs from that point was shameful and the major reason was dropped catches.

Australians don't drop catches. Throughout Durham's first-class life the quality of the slip catching has improved immeasurably when people like David Boon, Martin Love and Mike Hussey have been standing there.

Paul Collingwood missed a couple one miserable morning at Worcester, but generally he's as safe at first slip as he is at backward point, which is why I expect him to be in the squad for the second Test. The fact that he has scored 190 and 181 in the last two matches helps, but it is his all-round qualities which England find hard to ignore. The problem is that short of dropping Ian Bell, which would be harsh, it's a bowler who will have to stand down. One Australian has offered the opinion that Ashley Giles won't take a wicket in the series, and while he took bucketloads in county cricket at the start of the season, troubling the Aussies is a different matter.

Kevin Pietersen is generally considered a good fielder, so after his good start with the bat his three dropped catches will have to be dismissed as an unusual aberration, as it was for the normally ultra-safe Andrew Flintoff to miss one at slip. Wicketkeeper Geraint Jones's dreadful misses have provoked a debate in which he has been defended by the likes of the yapping Jack Russell and even Jones' indefensible stroke on the final day was not condemned by Alec Stewart.

"Jones is in the team as a stroke-player, so I have no argument with that," opined Stewart. What a load of Quantocks!

Given England's desperate situation, and the prospect of more rain, quite what was the purpose of slogging recklessly is beyond me. But as Jones's obvious replacement, Chris Read, is injured there is unlikely to be a change. The only decision to be made is how to get Collingwood into the team.

IT MAY have been very satisfying for Newcastle shareholders to see the value of their holding increase this week, but I see little for the average fan to get excited about when they are still relying on Lee Bowyer to keep them afloat in the Intertoto Cup.

Many Magpies fans are, however, apparently quite happy for the short-fused Bowyer to stay and would probably be happier to see the back of deputy chairman Douglas Hall. But even if Sir John sells his 28.5 per cent shareholding does that necessarily mean that Douglas will also go? He holds 13 per cent of shares with his father through another company and may not wish to abandon his ego trip unless he receives an offer too good to refuse.

It's a shame that leading racehorse owner Graham Wylie has denied being the man making the offer, although it always seemed unlikely as he prefers to invest his money in thoroughbreds. He has also bought the golf course at Close House in the Tyne valley and is threatening to turn it in into something better than Slaley Hall, from whom he has enticed greenkeeping and catering staff.

He strikes me as a man of too much taste to get involved in sorting out the mess at St James' Park, where another season of mediocrity is in the offing unless a new chairman of huge wealth and wisdom miraculously appears.

THE Tour de France is "a daily festival of human suffering" according to Lance Armstrong, who has retired after winning the event for a record seventh time. Those who are confident the former cancer sufferer has been free of drugs will remember him as one of the most valiant sportsmen of all time because of his astonishing capacity to defy pain.

Another who has climbed off his sickbed to defy expectations is the Welsh 400-metre runner Tim Benjamin, who four months ago was said to have suffered a stroke at 22 and would never run again.

It was not a stroke, but a leak of spinal fluid and last Friday Benjamin beat Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner at Crystal Palace to emerge as a medal hope for the World Championships. Starting in Helsinki next Saturday, these are the World Championships which should have been held at Picket's Lock in London had we been able to build a stadium. We should not let that, or football, detract from our interest in one of the biggest events of what's left of the summer.

Published: 29/07/2005