Carl Sagan

Great effort from Georgia Taylor-Brown in the triathlon just now. Conditions were awful with the dregs of a typhoon going through early on, meaning the course was treacherous and five of them got away on the bikes. Because of the difficulty, the bigger chasing pack had no chance of catching them so the medals were likely going to be between these five including two Brits, Taylor-Brown and Jess Learmonth. 
Then disaster! Taylor-Brown got a flat back tyre and had to ride the final 2km on that in the terrible conditions, so expended huge extra energy to only lose half a minute on the leading four. She was brilliant and hauled herself back through them on the run, getting second place comfortably but had started out too far behind the excellent Bermudan Flora Duffy who struck gold.
Apparently there's a mixed triathlon relay later in the week and given our strength in men's and women's, I'd expect us to win gold in that.

Enjoying the action (it's basically T20 afterall) on terrestrial. 
The format, undermining of the Counties and scoring graphics are the negatives.
But it's designed to get the kids involved and the crowds so far seem to have lots of kids in attendance so I guess it's working from that perspective. 
Feels like T20 could do this itself without any of the negatives but hey, more cricket.

The graphics are terrible.
The 'cricket' is no different to T20, so hard to see the point. 
Nasser climbing up it's arse is quite nauseating, Ebony is ok though.
 

Strikes me that everything they have done for the Hundred they could have just done with the T20, if absolutely necessary they could rebrand the county teams to city teams and give them fancy kits but I’m not sure I really see the point. Enforce rules on teams to stop them playing slowly, pump some money in on ticket subsidies and to allow bigger squads with more overseas to increase the overall quality. Play all the games in a 3 or so week window where it isn’t interfering with the 4 day or 50 over stuff then put it on terrestrial TV as well.
Weirdly I tend to follow Leicestershire rather than Derbyshire when it comes to cricket, why would I have any interest in “Trent Rockets” when they have basically just drafted Nottinghamshire players?
At the end of the day I may still watch it. It is still cricket and I still find that entertaining, but I just don’t see the point. 

I hate everything about it. The marketing is cringe inducing. They have team DJs. If the ECB are correct and this is what cricket needs to become to avoid dying, I'd prefer if we just suffocated it with a pillow.

The lad from Uttoxeter is simply the best 
 
Well done Adam on your Gold Medal. 

Has this guy actually got anything right yet?

The one thing we do not have, at the moment, is a wage burden. Not only do we have very few senior players but most of our largest earners have left. We have an income burden, but then so does every other club in all 4 leagues.
This is the best opportunity we’ve had for several years to control our wages for the foreseeable future even if we take on 4/5 senior players.  

The Tomorrow War (Amazon Prime)
4* review on Amazon... Personally I'd give it 1*. 
It was acted well enough and had a decent pace to it but the plot was tedious and didn't seem to grasp the effects of time travel.  The ending was entirely predictable and a rip off of other films.  It was also the worst possible way the film could have ended - there must have been a million and one other ways to prevent 'The Tomorrow War' but they went with the most inefficient/costly one imaginable. 
Save yourself a couple of hours and start watching Clarksons Farm on Amazon instead ?

Yes it's pre-season. I get that many will say results don't matter and it's about fitness. 
But this is wrong. As a club we're in a terrible position. The players need to believe they can score goals. We need to get into the habit of winning, and grab the confidence that brings. 
There was only one player on the pitch who looked like he really cared about winning, who was desperate to win his own battles, whose every thought was forward. 
If Rooney seriously can't see Louie Sibley is our only hope to get something out of this season, then we are already relegated. 

Nice of you to say, but it was an incredible contrast to see Sibley on the field compared with all the other players. The only one who got stuck in. Who wanted to drag our team forward by whatever means that worked. Who looked much more powerful than last season (he's been working hard on his physique) and wasn't prepared to accept meek defeat. 
I have to call what I see, when Rooney gives pitch time to Ravel Morrison who has shown for the last decade at every club he's been that he cannot do a job, sidelining the most gifted player we've had since Giles Barnes.
I want playing for Derby to matter to our players, but last season they were largely happy to pass the ball backwards and sideways, lose the ball, concede a goal and lose 1-0. Supine defeat, week after week after week. There's little more depressing in football than never looking as if you're going to score a goal. That was the situation all last season when the only possibility was CKR making something happen out of nothing.
It has to change, but as we approach the start of the season, I see no evidence that Rooney is going to change anything. Of course he has been dealt a miserable hand but when he discards his high value cards, he has only himself to blame.
 

Nice of you to say, but it was an incredible contrast to see Sibley on the field compared with all the other players. The only one who got stuck in. Who wanted to drag our team forward by whatever means that worked. Who looked much more powerful than last season (he's been working hard on his physique) and wasn't prepared to accept meek defeat. 
I have to call what I see, when Rooney gives pitch time to Ravel Morrison who has shown for the last decade at every club he's been that he cannot do a job, sidelining the most gifted player we've had since Giles Barnes.
I want playing for Derby to matter to our players, but last season they were largely happy to pass the ball backwards and sideways, lose the ball, concede a goal and lose 1-0. Supine defeat, week after week after week. There's little more depressing in football than never looking as if you're going to score a goal. That was the situation all last season when the only possibility was CKR making something happen out of nothing.
It has to change, but as we approach the start of the season, I see no evidence that Rooney is going to change anything. Of course he has been dealt a miserable hand but when he discards his high value cards, he has only himself to blame.
 

Yes it's pre-season. I get that many will say results don't matter and it's about fitness. 
But this is wrong. As a club we're in a terrible position. The players need to believe they can score goals. We need to get into the habit of winning, and grab the confidence that brings. 
There was only one player on the pitch who looked like he really cared about winning, who was desperate to win his own battles, whose every thought was forward. 
If Rooney seriously can't see Louie Sibley is our only hope to get something out of this season, then we are already relegated. 

I’m still can’t get my head round the fact that he played Morrison instead of Sibley and then said he can’t sign Morrison anyway!
 

Yes it's pre-season. I get that many will say results don't matter and it's about fitness. 
But this is wrong. As a club we're in a terrible position. The players need to believe they can score goals. We need to get into the habit of winning, and grab the confidence that brings. 
There was only one player on the pitch who looked like he really cared about winning, who was desperate to win his own battles, whose every thought was forward. 
If Rooney seriously can't see Louie Sibley is our only hope to get something out of this season, then we are already relegated. 

Yes it's pre-season. I get that many will say results don't matter and it's about fitness. 
But this is wrong. As a club we're in a terrible position. The players need to believe they can score goals. We need to get into the habit of winning, and grab the confidence that brings. 
There was only one player on the pitch who looked like he really cared about winning, who was desperate to win his own battles, whose every thought was forward. 
If Rooney seriously can't see Louie Sibley is our only hope to get something out of this season, then we are already relegated. 

And why are we giving a trial to Allsop? If we only have 4 spaces available for new signings then a GK is not going to be one of them when we already have two experiences keepers. 

Posted this in another thread but more  relevant here.
If none of the trialists are signing why on earth are we giving Morrison game time ahead of Sibley?
Either this isn’t true, or we are screwing over one of youngsters!

He probably took one look at the mess we're in and got into his space suit to get as far away as possible ? 

There's a lot here that doesn't add up;
Percy tweeted on Weds we were set to offer contracts to Davies, Wisdom & Morrison
Rooney is playing a number of trialists 2 weeks out from the opening game with seemingly no certainty they can play in League games
Tom Carroll is training here whilst apparently having a contract offer on the table from QPR
Like the tweet Alan Nixon has just put out suggests, think there's a bit of politics going on & probably some media pressure being applied by Rooney, knowing the fans will direct heat at Mel & Pearce. My wild guess is that the takeover is close (some suggestion on twitter this might be the 'other reason' for not being to sign players) but wonder if some dispute over price/debts to resolve.

So if he can't sign anyone, why is he picking trialists in preseason friendlies and using up valuable match time with players he can't pick for proper games?

Going to be a long old season at this rate! 
 
if we can’t sign these trialists bin them off and play the kids who will be thrown to the lions. At least give them a half fighting chance rather than chucking them in first game of the season with no minutes!