Author: Jack Oastler

England’s Shoaib Bashir experiment has been brought to a halt, with the spinner losing his spot to Nottinghamshire all-rounder Liam Patterson-White for this winter’s Test tour to South Africa. This has been coming since last year’s disastrous Ashes, where England consistently chose to go without a spinner rather than picking Bashir. Despite featuring twice against New Zealand this summer, he wasn’t needed for the Pakistan series and was always likely to find opportunities more scarce with the retirement of Ben Stokes, the captain who thrust him somewhat randomly into the team two years ago. 71 wickets at an average of…

Sometimes you don’t know how much a band means to you until you’re finally seeing them live, dancing with them like you dreamed of when you stumbled across them at 15. It’s not a lie to say I chose Loughborough University because Against The Current played Nottingham Rock City on their last trip across the pond in 2023. So obviously there wasn’t a minute’s hesitation when tickets went on sale for the Till Death & Back tour in May. My hesitation came a bit later. Initially when I realised that booking a hotel in Leeds on Halloween night was going…

Doomsday is close at hand, and the crashout has already begun. The fifth Avengers film is heavily rumoured to feature its fair share of, well, doom – prompting fans across the internet to catastrophise over the potential brutal deaths of their favourite characters. I’m riding into battle for Yelena Belova, played by Florence Pugh: not only do I not want her to die, I also think it would be a really bad idea. Hopefully Kevin Feige sees this and, if needed, makes a few last-minute tweaks before the film hits UK cinemas on December 16th. In an era defined by…

It’s here. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping has its first single, and Noah Kahan’s Draw You Out is as depressingly beautiful as this story deserves. Kahan has been the fan favourite to lead the soundtrack since this film was announced two years ago, and as with the impeccable casting, they’ve given us exactly what we want. Nobody does soulful yearning like him, except Haymitch Abernathy. The sad singing man is singing in the sad man movie; this is the best news ever. The album will be released on November 13th, a week before the movie hits cinemas worldwide. We now have titles for all…

I came to Loughborough for the first time two years ago, and fell in love for a very specific reason. The mound in front of Haslegrave cricket pitch. That day, my local team Sunrisers were playing a friendly against The Blaze, and I saw my future – sat underneath the flag poles, with a picnic and friends, watching professional sport like I belonged. About six months ago, they put a picket fence at the bottom of that mound. Hardly insurmountable – I think I could jump over it, and I’ve seen several people do exactly that this year – but…

Watching sport, as a neutral, you tend to sway towards the underdog. The rookie. The ones with an air of I’m-not-supposed-to-be-here. Sometimes, cricket is different. If you were offered the chance to see Sir Jimmy Anderson, all of 43 years old, square up some poor 19-year-old debutant and send his stumps cartwheeling – you’d take it any day. There’s something special about turning up on a sunny Saturday morning, amongst a swathe of empty seats, to watch England’s best try their luck against some guy named Tom. Even better, then, is Goliath v Goliath. Notts hosting Surrey – the reigning…

We are SO back. When I say “we”, I mean that weird little group of us who like to spend our summer days falling asleep in the sun, while someone repeatedly hits a ball with a stick. Cricket is back in Nottingham. Much of the focus going into the game was around the County Championship return of England opener Ben Duckett, batting at number 3. The left-hander was comfortably one of the best in the world 12 months ago, but courtesy of some well-documented struggles on and off the pitch in Australia, enters 2026 with a huge point to prove. …

Seven years ago, Iron Man clicked his fingers, bringing the Infinity Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a close. Marvel has had lows since – but some highs too. As the studio races towards its next era-defining film in December’s Avengers: Doomsday, optimism is in the air. The intrigue began building since last year’s ‘Chair Day’. Across a six-hour livestream, Marvel revealed the film’s cast of twenty-seven names written on chairs in an empty soundstage. 275 million views.  Another stunt followed last month: the release of four teaser trailers. ‘Steve Rogers will return’ The first of those confirmed that…

On day five in Adelaide, England fans let out their biggest cheer of this Ashes series. The Barmy Army sang; a man in a Watford shirt danced. Rain had stopped play. The irony was, on the last day of this match, Ben Stokes’ side actually finally put in a performance worth commending. But the first four days were so abysmal – following England capitulations in each of the first two Tests – that fans who had paid thousands to be there would rather sit inside and watch the rain fall.  It couldn’t last forever, and the half-hour delay couldn’t keep…

At least the first game was kind of funny. England’s eight-wicket defeat in the pink-ball Ashes Test in Brisbane was as disappointing as it was emphatic, as boring as it was inevitable. While they pushed it to the final session of day four, rather than crumbling into pieces in two days like in Perth, England looked dead and buried for the last five or six sessions of the match. As with Perth, England actually had the better of day one. Joe Root finally scored his first Test century in Australia and thanks to an entertaining knock from Jofra Archer, the…