England v Zimbabwe, 2nd Test, Friday 6 June 2003 Riverside, Chester-le-Street

Anderson gets the lbw ball rolling

As the day came to a close there was a tale of two moods in the commentary box.

While Henry Olonga hung his head in his hands as a sad procession of Zimbabweans trudged back to the pavillion one after the other, there was great excitement at the other end of the desk.

The Bearded Wonder was pouring through his books and papers as a number of records came under threat.

Slowly but surely the tourists amassed enough runs to escape a few ignominious landmarks.

From their nadir of 35-7, Zimbabwe recovered to make 94, but one notable record did fall.

Bill was on tenterhooks to the last, waiting for what would have been an unprecendented seventh lbw dismissal in a Test innings.

Local boy Steve Harmison duly delivered, much to the Bearded Wonder's delight.

However, his joy was not shared by all the members of the team, who were more impressed by the fact that all the wicket-takers had names ending in "-son" - surely some sort of record itself!

Gatt gets in the birthday mood

The majority of the team were on hand to witness Mike Gatting receive a vast birthday cake and a bottle of champagne during the lunch break.

Rumours are rife at the Riverside that the former England captain ate it in one.

That is something we are not able to confirm or deny at the moment, although there are sweepstakes running as to both his age and how many mouthfuls he needed to eat the cake.

The latter is favourite to be lower than the former!

What is certain is that if Gatt downs the champagne in one there is a fair chance that later in the day he will be following a strange trend on show at the ground.

Chaps in dresses is nothing new in cricket crowds, but in these parts there seem to be a higher proportion than usual.

The locals of Chester-le-Street have been warned!

Other birthday wishes go out to Frank 'Typhoon' Tyson and Jonathan Agnew's mother-in-law.

Henry Blofeld may be in absentia for the second Test, but his spirit - it's that ghostly theme again - lives on.

The next time international cricket heads to the north-east it is fair to assume Blowers will get his name on the commentary rota as early as possible.

Blowers wouldn't have been able to restrain himself Christopher Martin-Jenkins

Why? Well it's possible to see buses from the commentary box - one of Henry's favourite talking points when the cricket goes quiet.

The picturesque surroundings of the Riverside, as the name suggests, include the River Wear, which is crossed by Ropery Lane allowing all buses on the route to be seen in isolated splendour as they pass over the bridge.

And to add to Henry's excitement the buses in Chester-le-Street are multi-coloured.

We can almost hear him beating a path north as we speak.

Taxi for Blofeld... or should that be bus?

There is a growing army of people out there spotting lookalikes.

Richard Stilgoe started the ball rolling by describing former England batsman and sometime TMS summariser Graeme Fowler as becoming more and more like Danny Kaye with each passing day.

On the pitch Zimbabwe's Ray Price seems to have "one of those faces".

The spinner has been likened to all sorts of people, from the Vicar of Dibley choirmaster through to former New Zealand twirler Hedley Howarth - although the Bearded Wonder assures us Hedley was taller!

Riverside webcam: Inside the TMS box

But disturbingly, it seems that there may be something in the rarified atmosphere of the TMS box that promotes progeria.

Viewers of the webcam have suggested that Aggers is beginning to resemble his old colleague (or was that partner in crime?), Brian Johnston.

More disturbingly it has been suggested that Aggers is a soundalike for Big Brother contestant Jon Tickle - he of the monotonous tone and dull ramblings.

We can assure you that any similarities are purely coincidental, although we'll let you know should the BBC cricket correspondent be evicted from the Riverside commentary box on Friday night!