88th over: England 346-5 (Bell 101, Morgan 58) "Imagine the banjo aficionado then turning up at a Big Ben Banjo Band gig expecting to hear Voodoo Chile and probably being disappointed". Here's the Lulu show just for you, Selve. Justin Horton reckons Easterhouse deserves another spin: "I reckon Contenders is a rather better album than your sole listen allows for (though it's not exactly the St Matthew Passion). It's more than a bit ranty, though, Easterhouse not being the first people to think that a good lyric was one that they hoped their audience would agree with politically. Rarely is this true." Too true, Justin. Sadly I gave it away in 1988. Perera back into the attack and overpitches, wide and at smackable pace. Morgan obliges, whacking it through cover for four.
87th over: England 340-5 (Bell 100, Morgan 54) Morgan's very good at keeping the scoreboard moving with a clipped shot through the offside from balls that are fractionally short of a length. He puts Bell back on strike and he moves to his century by getting over an off-side long hop and pulling it through midwicket for a single. That's his 14th Test century. He takes off his helmet and raises it in one hand, his bat in the other, to salute the dressing room. Michael Slater started that particular mode of celebration, I think. Matthew Cobb's been on: "Dave's transparent album by Faust was called ... Faust. He's quite wrong about the sound though – I have it on CD (not transparent, sadly) and it is still listenable to today. Just like Electric Ladyland and the Big Ben Banjo Band. You can't get it on iTunes, but you can get their latest, 'Something Dirty', plus what appears to be their whole back catalogue. And not a microwaved parrot anywhere." That would be a brilliant recommendation quote to put on the CD "not a microwaved parrot anywhere".
86th over: England 338-5 (Bell 99, Morgan 52) Bell takes a single off the first ball to move on to 99. A light goes on above Selve's head: "Christ, do you think she might have put Electric Ladyland inside the Banjo Party Time cover? I never looked." Imagine if she did and a banjo aficionado picked up your discarded copy. Morgan crashes the ball through the covers to reach his half century, then stands up to clip a shot past point to keep the strike. More CC from Seth Levine: "In memoriam of Clarence Clemons, a wee anecdote. I had the pleasure of seeing him share a stage with Pee Wee Ellis. It was an electric night and, at the end, after more than one glass of confidence-facilitator, I bumped into CC and felt compelled to tell him that I love what he does (did). He replied, without missing a beat, 'and I love what you do'. On this sad occasion, I draw personal solace from how much Clarence must have admired lawyers." What a chap!
85th over: England 333-5 (Bell 98, Morgan 48) Ed Packard has been taken with the Big Ben Banjo Band: "After an initially cautious first listen, I'm going to leave the Big Ben Banjo Band on loop whenever I read the OBO from now on, for it seems to provide a somewhat apt accompaniment for the zany antics of Smyth, Bull, McCourt (he will surely return?) et al." How could he not return after that sparkling debut. It was like watching Ally Brown's first ODI. And here's Chris Taylor on the vexed enthusiasm for science issue: "When I was 14, my physics teacher went to town on a piece of my homework, writing two pages of exercise book paper in red pen, telling me all about myself. He finished up by adding "It's about time you owned up to your parents about what sort of a boy you really are." He also told me I couldn't do practical work, and I couldn't do theory work, so I should just go and work in a shop. My love of science disappeared after that." Speaking of the Abbott textbook, someone in the year above ate his in an act of defiance, ridiculous bet etc. Morgan plays the shot of the over, pivoting on to his back foot in a flash and pulling four behind square.
84th over: England 327-5 (Bell 97, Morgan 43) Another regular enters the confessional box: "The most recent rubbish album I bought was Ultimate Eurovision Party! 2008, because it contains Hard Rock Halleluja by Lordi and Severine's Un Banc, Un Abre, Une Rue. I've got a lot of this sort of thing, my excuse being that I'm one of those people who still do mixtapes (or their CD equivalent) especially for people reaching significant birthdays - 40th, 50th - or wedding anniversaries. They get all the UK number ones from me on the date, 1953 onwards. This is very sad, of course, but it creates its own tension as lots of stuff gets deleted pretty quickly, especially charity records." Play three decent tunes, John Starbuck, and we shall absolve you. Morgan's playing well when they bowl within a foot of off-stump. Actually he's playing well to leave the stuff outside off-stump." Here's Dave on the youthful Selve: "Selve's sending his elderly aunt to buy Electric Ladyland is a bit naughty. Have you seen the cover? Of course, the PC brigade have probably had that changed. It had pride of place in my LP collection. The most embarrassing LP was probably one by Faust, the name of which escapes me. I bought it because it was on see-though vinyl in a see-through sleeve. It sounded like how I imagine parrots being microwaved sounds."
83rd over: England 323-5 (Bell 96, Morgan 40) More on the Boss's hornmeister, this from Gary Naylor: "As it's Fathers Day and we're saluting Clarence Clemons, I can recommend a triple CD live set from Brooooce and the E-Street Band which includes a version of The River starting with Bruce telling a five minute story about himself, the Vietnam draft and his father. Tear, well tears, in the eye every time I listen to it." Mr Barnsgrove himself disrupts the over by standing up while Lakmal runs in. His ground, his rules, I suppose. Bell bottom edges a catches himself, as Jim Laker used to say, "amidships" or "in the bread basket". It was actually his testicles, I think, but I didn't do much science at school so I could be wrong. In a story I might have told before I was put off the whole discipline by a Westcountry physics teacher who pointed to a table and said "what is it?" as I obviously hadn't been paying attention. When I answered "a table" he went berserk and clouted me with an Abbot textbook. Apparently it was "matter".
82nd over: England 321-5 (Bell 95, Morgan 39) Welegedara on, round the wicket to Morgan. "You can tell I'm killing time before a declaration. Better if they are all out in my view to hurry the game along," writes Selve. "Anyway, the worst album I have ever owned, although not for long, was given to me for Christmas by an elderly aunt. It was called Banjo Partytime by The Big Ben Banjo Band. I'd asked her for Electric Ladyland." This is for you, Mike. Happy days?! Two corking cuts from Bell, one behind, one in front of point, take him to 95. They're bowling badly at him but he is in sparkling touch.
81st over: England 310-5 (Bell 87, Morgan 36) Sri Lanka take the new ball and lob it to Lakmal and he starts at about half ratpower, teasing Morgan outside off-stump with a couple of pitched up teasers. Strauss in his diary of the Ashes tour refers to England bowling "fourth or fifth stump" and Nasser Hussain has just used that very phrase and that's Lakmal's "good areas" for Morgan. The batsman takes a single from the fifth ball, the first of the over not too wide to have a safe dart at. Here's Tom van de Gucht with his musical confessions: "Although not an album, I do remember wasting an Ourprice gift certificate buying a selection of singles from the bargain basket in an attempt to increase the number of records I owned (at that point it consisted of two now albums and Bad by Michael Jackson) and therefore make me look cooler at school. Sadly coming home with Slam Jam by the WWF Superstars, All that She wants by Ace of Base and Sweat (a la la la la long) by Inner Circle surprisingly did little to enhance my coolness factor. Although by the early noughties, when retro irony was in fashion, the shoe was on the other foot and I briefly flirted with something that could almost be categorised as cool." Really? I must have missed that revisionist period.
80th over: England 309-5 (Bell 87, Morgan 35) Lord Selve is in mischievous mode: "Re over 74, for the benefit of my wife and others who may not know, would you explain what a MILF is,please. She thinks it is a Member of an Institute of something or other." That piece was included by Alan Gardner, perhaps I'll leave it to him to elucidate in exact terms but I can exclusively reveal, in an image not condoned by the Guardian, that the young people use it to refer to a person of an older generation they'd like to become physically familiar with. Afternoon to Peter Lovell, who asks: "My son and I were wondering if he has just become the youngest person to carry out a caught and bowled in cricket. Noah Lovell is three years and 9 months old although strictly speaking it was caught and thrown!" It is, Peter, a record. Unless the community knows better
79th over: England 305-5 (Bell 85, Morgan 33) Perera continues, slinging them down outside off stump and Bell opens the face Hussain-style to drive through point for two more. William Symonds tries to Jonah Bell: "Could this be the innings when Bell (a very fine batsmen who surely no longer worries about such things) finally sheds the tag of never being the first batsman to score a century, except against Bangladesh?" Nothing could possibly go wrong now, William, though Perera just hurries him up on the drive do he gets through his on-drive too early and slices it back to the bowler but he farms the bowling off the last ball with a deft cut for a single
78th over: England 300-5 (Bell 81, Morgan 32) Bell milks Herath for two first ball. Clarence Clemons must rank as one of the most loved of all musicians, given your tributes. Here's Phil Smith: "I love this story, about when Clarence Clemens and Springsteen first met (copied and pasted from wikipedia): One night we were playing in Asbury Park. I'd heard The Bruce Springsteen Band was nearby at a club called The Student Prince and on a break between sets I walked over there. On-stage, Bruce used to tell different versions of this story but I'm a Baptist, remember, so this is the truth. A rainy, windy night it was, and when I opened the door the whole thing flew off its hinges and blew away down the street. The band were on-stage, but staring at me framed in the doorway. And maybe that did make Bruce a little nervous because I just said, "I want to play with your band," and he said, "Sure, you do anything you want."' Herath fought back by trying to pin Bell to his crease but he got another two away.
77th over: England 297-5 (Bell 78, Morgan 32) I must have wiped embarrassing albums from my memory banks. I can think of a couple I bought, listened to once, and never again – Easterhouse's Contenders and Revenge's One True Passion. Anyroad, back to the cricket and Morgan gets the scoreboard moving after lunch, rocking back to turn one through midwicket then squirts one through point for two off Perera, helped by some poor fielding. The Sky experts reckon England want a lead of 250. Fifty fewer would do, I think.
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