…and we lose. Troopers go down in the 3rd grade final.

This weekend, the Cammeray took on West Pymble in the NSCA A grade grand final. Batting on the first day, Cammeray, after being 6/53 went on to make 186. With the rain looming, West Pymble had 45 minutes to bat before stumps, however the rain interrupted, leaving West Pymble in dire straits at 5/4 off 7.1 overs. No more play was possible on day one, and stumps were called as the electrical storm buzzed across Sydney.

With heavy rain overnight, the question of how much play was going to be possible was the question on everybody’s mind. With play starting at around half past three, West Pymble needed more rain to save the game. And rain they received, but not before losing another wicket with the first of only three balls bowled in the day’s play.

West Pymble win due to superior ladder position at the end of the minor round, and would certainly be considering themselves extremely lucky to do so. The Cammeray winning streak is broken and it’s time to look ahead to the 2007/08 season.

View the full photo set.

Watch the big man Leverock from Bermuda move, watch him celebrate! Watch Malachi Jones do a lap of the oval after taking his first wicket with his first delivery in World Cup cricket.

Australian fast bowler Brett Lee shows us that his talents go beyond the green fields and picket fences.

In the song - ‘Your The One For Me’, Lee plays the part of a blond Westerner trying to win the heart of a Hindi-speaking young woman by singing and playing guitar. Bhosle translates for him, teaches him to speak and sing Hindi himself. Check the video for yourself and make your own judgement on this quality piece of music.

The finest leg-spinner the world has ever seen, Shane Warne, at the age of 37, with 699 Test wickets from 143 matches, with the prospect of two more games to come - has announced his retirement from international cricket, Australian domestic cricket and club cricket for his local St Kilda team. He will, however, continue to honour his contract with Hampshire for the next two years.

“I sit here today with every single trophy in the Cricket Australia cabinet,” says Warne. “I retire a very happy man. My life has been unbelievable. I’m going out on top, and on my terms. It’s a day of celebration.”

Cricinfo timeline: 2000s, 1990s.

We salute a champion cricketer on the field, we just wont mention what happens off it!

More flash gaming tieing in with the cricket season, here’s Classic Ashes Catches. Try key combos for extra points.

Up to the challenge? Why not Tonk A Pom.

For me, summer officially starts when the first ball of the First Test is sent down. It’s been 400 odd days since Australia lost The Ashes to English and it’s going to be a long time before they get them back again.

Dad’s Army are doing nicely at lunch on 109/1, but have England shown their hand early by selecting Jones as their keeper and leaving out Monty - who was only termed by Coach Fletcher as the best finger spinner in world. Apparently that’s not the case, and by that reckoning, Ashley Giles is now the best. Now, try and tell that to anyone who knows a thing or two about cricket and they’ll call you an idiot.

Speaking of poor selection, does anyone remember how David Gower was left out of the squad in 1993? Can you say the word “oops”?

Langer pulls to leg - Photo: Tom Shaw Getty Images

Anyway, Harmison has opened up his pie factory with Langer eating up every flavour in the first session. It took Freddie Flintoff to take the first wicket and boy did he enjoy it. And rightfully so, it’s going to be a long summer, so it’s important to savour those moments that won’t be overly forthcoming over the months ahead.

Wasim Raja, the swashbuckling former Pakistan batsman who went on to become an ICC match referee, has died while playing for Surrey Over 50s at Marlow in Buckinghamshire. He was 54.

More at Cricinfo from Saad Shafqat.

In the light of the recent on-air gaffe from Dean Jones in calling Hashim Amla “The Terrorist”, Andrew Miller has pieced together some of more intriguing or perplexing comments we’ve heard over the years.

Beyond the odd, there’s the amusing:

The most giggled-about quip in the history of the game, but was it ever really uttered? It is widely believed that, sometime during either the 1976 or 1980 Test series one of the few batsmen to avoid being dismissed by Holding during his 14-wicket rampage in 1976, while four years later Willey himself was named Man of the Match for his unbeaten against West Indies, either Don Mosey or Brian Johnston announced live on air: “We welcome World Service listeners to the Oval, where the bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey.” No recording, however, is believed to exist, so no-one will ever know for sure. Either way, the likely suspect was Johnston, who a decade later was on the receiving end of Jonathan Agnew’s leg-over pronunciation at the same venue. For the record, Willey was second-innings century. So they certainly both played their parts in Oval Test matches. Whether they … ahem … played each other’s parts is another matter entirely.

Here’s Cricinfo’s other occaisions when the off-the-cuff comments have taken on a life of their own.