stoneman is earlier in his career and he might get on the plane perhaps. but who else is there? made a very encouraging innings for lancashire in the county championship this week. maybe even that might be enough if he makes a couple more decent innings before the championship finishes. maybe he will get on the plane. but they are running out of options. they have been giving opportunities to players who have done well in the championship, maybe they will have to think about putting in guys who just have the temperament and the big match experience comma maybe hails comes in in the middle order, i think that is looking increasingly likely. a major change in the way the domestic summer transfer window operates has been passed by premier league clubs today. from nextjune, clubs will only be able to sign players until the thursday before the season starts. the vote wasn't unanimous and clubs will still be able to sell players until the end of the normal window. we wa nt we want to get ourselves prepared, ready for the start of the season, all ready to go, match one, that's oui’ all

but for mark stoneman, who left his native durham last season tojoin surrey, there's every chance heibly the greatest batsman the north east of england has ever produced. jeff brown reports. it's almost 50 years since colin milburn played in the 1968 ashes series in england. he was known as the basher. how fitting now that the first north—east batsmen to make it into the test team played for the same county durham club. it is a nice time. it is a great sense of achievement. . that is what you dream of as a kid playing the game. it gives you a flashback of all the memories of when you played in the backstreet, and starting off as a junior, and all the journeys backstreet, and starting off as a junior, and all thejourneys in my car with my mum and dad in the car, representing teams in durham. born in newcastle, the man they call rocky spent ten terrific years with durham's senior side. he scored the i’u ns durham's senior side. he scored the runs that clinched their last title in 2013. a year later, he captained them to victory in the final at lord's, leaving tojoin them to victory in

we think mark stoneman will open the batting with alastair cook, who comes on in the middle order is james vince's name gets mentioned, gary ballance, can england return to players to have tried and failed in both of those cases? i spoke tojoe root and i think he accepts he might have to move to number three. the namei have to move to number three. the name i am most interested in is marc woods, he's a potential matchwinner especially in australia. can england gamble on his acute lack of fitness? thank you so much forjoining us. the lancashire spinner sophie ecclestone has been named in the england women's squad for their ashes, starting next month. she replaces beth langston in the only change to the 15 that won the world cup this summer. it'll be the first time that captain heather knight has led her side into an ashes series. australia are a brilliant side, they will be gutted with how their world cup finished and are hungry to have a little bit of success. the ashes series, they hold it at the moment, they are a world—class team and one of the hardest things we have talked about

winning runs came from mark stoneman, another aspiring batsman.s may well expose any england weaknesses, butjoe root has already won his first two series as england captain, and many of his predecessors had to wait a long time to do that. it was a fantastic week with the lads at the back end showing great composure to get across the line and played with great temple. it is a great sign leading to the winter. i still cannot quite get my head around it. a lot of emotions throughout the week, some relief just getting it out of the way and concentrating on the game. i am sure i will step down over the next few weeks with some time off before going to australia and everything will start sinking in and what it actually means. there is that beautiful autumnal glow over lords behind you. we have a flight—mac coming up but i guess they will now take stock of the summer they will now take stock of the summerand they will now take stock of the summer and work out how to put together the best bets for what they hope will be a decent defence of that ashes. the

winning runs came from mark stoneman, another aspiring batsman.inter ashes may well expose any england weaknesses, butjoe root has already won his first two series as england captain, and many of his predecessors had to wait a long time to do that. lovely to see him bow out was that england when ann bingen go into the ashes on the back of a win but how battle hardened will they be? it was not quite as one—sided as many feared but they could have done with slightly stiffer opposition? let's think back to the summer as a whole and we cannot forget the series against a sponsored e dean we re series against a sponsored e dean were england bounced back to win that series —— a strong south african team. we were surprised and impressed by how the west indies performed in headingley. joe good after that game and admitted he got something wrong but he was attacking an aggressive and he will take confidence. i saw him on his own half an hour ago, walking across the outfield and i think he can finish this series and this summer with something of a warm glow.

mark stoneman, three tests, only 150 this summer, i could go on.if they lose ben stokes for matters away from cricket, that looks like a thin england squad heading to australia at the end of next month for the start of that series in november and the australians will be loving this. i'm sure they're watching right now 0lly, more investigations to continue internally as well. thanks, 0lly. football and tottenham manager mauricio pochettino has labelled harry kane as one of the best strikers in the world following his hat trick in the champions league last night. mauricio pochettino labelled harry kane one of the best in the world. spurs beat the cypriot side 3—0. kane has more than made up for not scoring in august, netting 11 goals so far, five for spurs in europe. jurgen klopp said his side needed to be more clinical. they were the better side but went behind before coutinho equalised. two draws from their first two games. de bruyne scored a terrific goal for manchester city in their 2—0 win at home. chelsea manchester united and celtic are all in

winning runs came from mark stoneman, another aspiring batsman.ose any england weaknesses, butjoe root has already won his first two series as england captain, and many of his predecessors had to wait a long time to do that. england also be the weather, winning just before the rain arrived, joe root reckons england have played brilliant cricket this summer. if they as a group can take confidence to australia, that is the precious commodity down there. in today's premier league matches, there were wins for arsenal, brighton, tottenham, chelsea and watford. but manchester city are top of their table, after beating ten—man liverpool 5—0. it wasjurgen klopp's heaviest defeat since taking over at liverpool, and city's biggest win against them in 80 years. adam wild reports. the season may only be a few weeks old, but already a match two teams quick to catch the eye, so far attractive and entertaining. that was the promise. the reality was a little more complex. liverpool beginning the brighter, but it was city who got things started. given an opportuni

the winning runs came from mark stoneman, and other aspiring batsman.oot has already won two series as england captain and confidence is the most precious commodity. to take to australia. joe wilson, bbc news, at lord's. chris froome says that winning the tour de france and the vuelta a espana, the tour of spain, will be his greatest achievement. he will complete the double tomorrow after safely navigating the penultimate stage. a tricky mountain finish gave froome's rivals some hope of catching him but he finished third to extend his lead to over two minutes ahead of tomorrow's largely processional stage into madrid. it's almost a0 years since anyone managed to win the vuelta and tour de france in the same year. froome will become only the third man to do it. it wasjurgen it was jurgen klopp's it wasjurgen klopp's heaviest defeat since taking over at liverpool and city's biggest wind against them in 80 years. in the day's other games, manchester united were held by stoke city. tottenham won 3—0 at everton, champions chelsea defeated leicester 2—1, arse

started their innings in the last half hour or so, and it‘s not been a great start for opener mark stonemanable to buy players from june until 5pm on the thursday before the start of the season. they will, however, be able to sell players up until the standard deadline. the decision sets the premier league apart from other leagues around europe, who will still be able to operate in the transfer market until the end of august. we wa nt we want to get ourselves prepared, ready for the start of the season, all ready to go, that is our squad — that‘s where people came from, and they don‘t want the risk of players moving within the league, actually, was the biggest reason for doing it. clearly, you still might be able to lose a player going abroad but they do not want the teams to be able to trade between each other after the season has started. everton manager ronald koeman says he‘s "very disappointed" at wayne rooney‘s drink—driving charge. rooney is currently out on bail ahead of a hearing on september 18th. koeman has, though, confirmed that rooney will play for everton against tottenham on