Wrap - Cricket Ashes Hashes

1. Blake Shinn, the jockey extraordinaire of Moonee Valley on Saturday.  He won on Blondie ($21), Lubiton ($6.50), Who Shot The Barman ($8.50) and Lucky Hussler ($9.00). A genuis in getting his horse to the right spots on the track. A third with 'A Touch of Mink' and a near miss to Winx on Humidor in the Cox Plate makes him a special option in the next week. An outstanding effort - and great if you had a few dollars on his horses! If not, remember the name next year at Moonee Valley! A course that looks like a badly designed oval.

2. Shield Cricket. So what did we learn? Why the hell are we playng pink ball cricket when full day cricket is ahead of us in Brisbane? That would have to be that very successful High Performance group at Australian Cricket weaving their special brand of brilliance. We are also going to struggle at night facing Anderson and Broad.

Steve Smith is still in terrible form. Warner hit 83 and turned the game as usual, Starc got 8/73 in the SA second inns and Coulter-Nile got 3/18. Cummins quiet. Smith's mate Daniel Hughes got 50+, but Kurtis Patterson got nothing and fades out...with him goes Lehmann too. Nevill 20 and one catch. Ho hum. Carey 12 & 4 with the bat. Nothing special to see there...keep walking.

Tassie cricket is still a trainwreck (all out for 63 in the second innings and Wade 1 and 6 just about ends him - 4 byes in the whole game). No Marsh impressed too much (Shaun 60 odd), but the Hilton Hotel lovers may get excited about his 61 and 38...no bowling. Stoinis did nothing too 9 & 32 and no wickets.

Khawaja hit a ton and returns to the team of course. Siddle is done. Tremain is getting wickets, but not important ones.

Generally our batting is appalling with one ton from six two innings games. Sadly, no surprise there.

3. Rugby League World Cup. Hard to get excited about it all with half filled stadiums (a universal reality these days with live sport and Foxtel in lazy Australia who also won't cop a stupid $10 pie and a $10 half beer). Good to see Lebanon get a win. They have some handy players. Not sure if many of these players for the international teams actually live in or have ever lived in this 'adopted' country they now represent. No matter.

A bit of entertainment at a dreadful time of year (think NBA, motor sport, A Minus League)....but no fun for rugby league clubs picking up injuries. Kane Evans (eg. ex Roosters and Parramatta bound) has a broken wrist. Great for that club coach. Trent Barrett now has Dylan Walker and Jake Trobjevic on the long term medical disabled list. Ouch.

Can't blame the Roosters for seeking to sign Cronk. Pearce needs to go. Simple. They need a fresh start.

4. World Series Baseball. The fancied LA Dodgers are down 1-2 v the Houston Astros, so with two games in Houston early this week, it could get messy for the Dodgers. Lots of home runs, questioning the integrity of the actual baseball itself, with many thinking a new World Series quality ball (by stealth) is providing for more action and excitement as a result.

5. Barbarians v Wallabies. Easier to move a cemetery than get a smile out of the coach, Alan Jones. Entertaining, but Alan Jones is a wet blanket. He'd be the first to denigrate another sporting coach for having a shot at a referee. Rugby referees are terrible - penalty hopers - maybe Alan has just realised how they are single handedly killing the game.

6. EPL. Man City still carving out a nice lead, but ManU are within striking distance. The gap between the top teams and the rest is ridiculous. Crystal Palace are as good as gone already..but will scrap and fight it out until the end! Newcastle and Huddersfield are doing well early. A long journey ahead...