James Maddocks

Used to play cricket 🏏. Now struggling with a poorly leg

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[steve @bagshaw2112]

Very funny . Have to love the Hot 🔥 weather . #heatwave 🔥🔥🥵🥵☀️☀️🍺🍺🍹🍹

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[ßen @BCAFCBH]

Rashford's idea of dribbling is just running as fast as he can at a defender in a straight line and hoping he keeps the ball.

Drives me absolutely nuts. 🙄

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Forestmad 🔴⚪️ @forestmad80]

Let’s not beat around the bush here.

Ghana are 73rd in the world.

Panama are fucking wank!

We don’t need to dress this up as anything other than Tuchel getting it completely wrong from the very moment he announced the squad. Yes, we will scummy a win here but we will lose against the first decent side we come up against due to lack of leadership, poor management and utterly abhorrent balance of squad.

Another waste and shouldn’t have been this way! #england

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Rodney Marsh💙™️ @RodneyMarsh10]

>Where's the parade?

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Alan @A1an_M]

There's been a lot of discussion about the UK 1976 summer this week, quite a lot of it from people who weren't alive at the time and are unwilling to believe the history books or "boomers" and Gen Xers who were alive and lived through it.

Yes, it was a hot summer, but different from 2026 in that it was consistently hot, with 15 consecutive days of +32 degrees somewhere in the UK.

But perhaps more importantly, it was extremely dry, 45 days without rain, with no clouds seen in the sky for weeks and this followed a very dry summer in 1975, leaving people reliant on getting water from standpipes in the street and carrying it home in buckets.

One of the best ways to help people appreciate quite how hot and dry it was, are pictures of the England vs West Indies test match at The Oval that year (when WI crushed England, with Viv Richards scoring 291 and Michael Holding taking 14 wickets).

Just look how parched the outfield was, as Viv Richards clouted Derek Underwood iver his head for anithe boundary!

The already economically beleagured Labour government, a few months away from having to borrow from the IMF to stop a run on Sterling, in desparation, appointed a "Minister for Drought" to deal with water rationing etc.

Luckily for them, and us, this did the trick, and almost immediately the heavens opened.

I see in the present day, Starmer has convened a COBRA meeting to deal with the 2026 "heatwave", so no doubt we can expect the rain to start falling immediately, and the heatwave to end and the weather to revert to cool and miserable again.

I see Starmer's working on ensuring 1976 history repeats itself in other ways, by ensuring we'll soon need another loan from the IMF...
🙄

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Alan @A1an_M]

So...

We're not allowed to buy air conditioners for our houses to cool them in hot summer weather, because we don't have enough electricity to power them, because the solar panels and wind turbines we installed to stop the planet getting hot in summer, don't work when it's hot and windless in summer, so we'd need to burn gas, oil and coal instead to power the AC to cool our houses, but we blew up the oil, gas and coal power stations to stop the planet getting hot in summer, but it's still hot in summer.

But it's still ok to install heat pumps in winter, heat pumps which are also air conditioners and use the same amount of electricity or more, but we still won't have enough electricity to power them on cold, dark, windless winter evenings, because solar panels and wind turbines don't work then either, and we blew up the gas, oil and coal fired power stations because they were making the planet too hot in winter as well as summer.

Have I missed anything?

🙄���🌍

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Dev Bajwa @ammandev]

I’m still VERY surprised that Kobbie Mainoo hasn’t seen a minute at this World Cup so far.

Especially last night against a low block with Elliot Anderson offering nothing, that would’ve been a great place to get him started.

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Cllr Lucy Trimnell 🫖 @LucyTrims]

I’m thinking of Boris Johnson today, for whom zero sympathy was extended in similar circumstances.

I think it was Peter Kyle earlier who said something about Starmer having faced some exceptional circumstances during his tenure and my eyebrows had no further to travel if they were to stay attached to my face… 🤨

Boris Johnson had the misfortune to take office just months before an exceptional, once in a century pandemic struck. This took place under the glare of 24 hour media and social media and Keir Starmer milked the pandemic for all that it was worth in political capital.

I imagine Boris isn’t vengeful person but I hope he’ll allow himself a smile as the holier-than-thou Starmer takes his place as a defenestrated PM who served less time than Boris, the man he worked so hard to bring down.

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Neil @njhcricket]

An absolute trouncing.
A week of nevers.

Never pick this bowling attack again.
Never bowl 1st at the oval
Never let Root captain again.
Never play a specialist bat at 7
And Never go in without a spinner on bright sunny days on the flattest deck in the countryside

Shambles

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul can't disagree with that

[John Duffield @jfwduffield]

The Ashes & this series have proven that Key & McCullum's selection regime is fundamentally unsound. Picking batsmen with no first class records, wicketkeepers who aren't keepers, not picking stock bowlers, picking players who prioritise the IPL, spinners picked on a hunch etc.

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[#Marcher @MarcherReborn]

Under 40s: stay at home and wait for impending death whilst bleating online about ‘the climate’

Over 40s: see you down the beer garden 👍🍺🍺

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Sam @SamCKx]

If Keir Starmer does resign, history will look back on his reign and scratch its head as to why the hell he was so hated.

On paper, he's probably delivered more to working British people in such a short time than any PM for decades.

After inheriting an absolute mess: NHS waiting lists fallen. Worker's rights improved. Rail operators nationalised. Improved relations with EU and improved UK's global reputation. Removed non-dom tax status. Halved childcare costs. Boosted state pensions. Lowest homicide rate in 50 years. Lifted 550k children out of poverty. Immigration vastly reduced.

We are in the age of billionaire funded misinformation, whose sole purpose is to topple democratically elected leaders, and insert leadership that favours the wealthy elites over the working people. Looks like the game plan is working...

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Emma @MrsEmmaWebber]

Barnaby Philip John Webber
11/01/2004-13/06/2023 💔

If you can, share these images of the beautiful soul stolen from us by the worst of humanity.

Let his face today burn bright.
Barney, I promise you there will be accountability 💛💚

For You. For Grace. For Ian.

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[OldMonkofCricket @OldMonkOfCric]

Two of the worst umpiring decisions in a single match 😭

Even commentators couldn’t believe it😭

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Derek Pringle @derekpringle]

Like King Henry VIII it’s the media’s wont to demand heads roll at every wrong turn. I’d need all facts before rushing to judgment. So far the only known is the pair were breaking midnight curfew - these are grown men & the match over, hardly a sacking offence even with previous

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Made In England @BuyEnglishMade]

99% of the wine consumed in England is imported.

Yet there are now over 1,000 vineyards producing award-winning wine on home soil, with sales growing year on year.

If just 5% of the market shifted to local producers, that's around £750 million a year staying here.

Supporting jobs, businesses and investment across the country.

That's exactly why we're building https://t.co/eWD8weWXHH.

Follow us as we uncover the people, products and businesses that make England special.

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

A farmer dies in April 2026.

His son inherits the farm. The farm has been in the family since 1847.

The farm consists of: 300 acres of grazing pasture, a farmhouse built in 1892, a barn, a milking parlour, two tractors of varying ages, a Land Rover that runs about 70% of the time, and a herd of 180 Hereford-cross cattle.

On paper, the farm is worth approximately £3.2 million. This is because land near him has been bought recently by a London hedge fund looking for carbon credits, which has dragged the comparable value of every field within forty miles upward to a number nobody local can justify.

In cash, the farm produces a profit of about £28,000 a year in a good year. In a bad year it loses money. The son also works as a fencing contractor three days a week to keep the operation viable.

The inheritance tax bill on a £3.2 million estate, even at the reduced 20% rate, comes to approximately £140,000 after the increased threshold is applied. The son does not have £140,000. The son has never had £140,000. The son has £4,200 in his current account and an overdraft.

The son sells 60 acres to a developer to pay the tax. The developer puts solar panels on the 60 acres. The remaining herd cannot be sustained on the reduced land. The herd is sold. The barn becomes a holiday let.

A different family eats Brazilian beef this Christmas without knowing why the price went up.

The Treasury collects £140,000.

The land never produces British food again.

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Kieran Maguire @KieranMaguire]

Bloody hell, you’ll need binoculars to see the pitch to see from there. Southampton FC may have a spare pair they could lend you perhaps?

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Match of the Day @BBCMOTD]

This is the England squad BBC Sport expects to be named 📋

The final place in the 26-man squad is expected to go to Myles Lewis-Skelly, Trent Alexander-Arnold or James Garner.

[James Maddocks @Madbolas]

@FurnissPaul

[Dale Johnson @DaleJohnsonBBC]

CONFIRMED!

European allocation if Villa finish 5th in Premier League.

1. UCL
2. UCL
3. UCL
4. UCL
5. UCL (Villa as UEL titleholders)
6. UCL (EPS place)
7. UEL
8. UCoL

Six teams in the UCL, one club in the UEL.

Needs Villa to lose at Man City, and Liverpool to beat Brentford.