NO more the Dazzler then. Darren Gough, England's lone world-class strike bowler, has hobbled out of the Ashes series, the World Cup too next spring, and now faces the anguish of fading from top-class cricket for good.

If indeed it is over and out for the broad-shouldered Barnsley-born warrior it will be a sad dismissal.

Never one to shirk a confrontation, Gough is now fighting his biggest battle - keeping alive a career, whose sublime highs have been matched by injury-ravaged depths of the past year.

At 32 years old his physical conditioning is not going to attune too easily to too long an absence from play. Wasim Akram, the Pakistan and Lancashire legend, and one of Gough's contemporaries among the most daredevil of deliverers, succinctly declared: "At that age the body takes a lot longer to recover from a long injury."

The feeling in cricket is that Gough may never play again, let alone rediscover the heights of his pomp. That will be as severe a jolt as any administered by the Dazzler to a flurry of the world's batsmen since he first burst on to the scene.

If ever there was evidence as to how high Gough was rated in the game it stems from Australia. There, among the old enemy Gough is regarded as England's most potent weapon. At his best there was something of the abrasive, all-action Aussie about him.

Strange then, that back in the Broad Acres of his home county, Gough's stock is not uniformly Pennine-high. It's bizarre too that when Gough came over as the dyed-in-the-white-wool Yorkshireman he was never accorded anywhere near the same reverence as Freddie Trueman, who has hewn out a second career of being a professional Tyke.

Accusations of Gough being too big for his sponsored boots have surfaced. Jibes of not being the force he was wearing the white rose as when on national service flared, especially when his outings for the Tykes were limited by England call-ups and then injury. So when Gough perhaps needed support the most he came under the greatest flak from within his own county.

Yet it has to be remembered that he did not come up with the idea of central contracts, which served to effectively take Gough and the rest of the England elite out of bounds for lengthy county duty.

And it should not be forgotten that few bowlers have excited the cricketing publics of Yorkshire, England and the rest of the white-flannelled fraternity as the Dazzler when he bulldozed in from the bowler's end. If this is the end then Gough deserves acclaim not approbation.

WHAT would Darren Gough give for a clean bill of health to resume battle with the Aussies, now they are 1-0 up in the Ashes series after England's latest Down Under debacle?

The current parlous position after being humiliated in the first test at the Gabba - skittled for a second innings total of 79 all out - reminds me of the late, great Eric Morecambe.

In one of his routines he would place a hand across the throat of his comedy partner Ernie Wise and bellow "get out of that without moving".

Such an intractable position is now occupied by England, who have been assailed by another Morecambe phrase. "What do you think of it so far? Rubbish."

THE balance of power between Britain and their Antipodean adversaries was somewhat restored in rugby union, if not in rugby league. But the imbalance in the television coverage of the two oval codes still rankles.

England's slender win over New Zealand harnessed to Ireland's thrilling triumph over world champions Australia initiated a major fillip to the spirit, even if that was muted by the rugby league loss by Great Britain to New Zealand in the first Test.

Admittedly, RL fans did not muster in the same healthy numbers as their union counterparts to support their games. But for the terrestrial armchair viewer - some of us still refuse to give even a shilling to Rupert Murdoch's Sky gravy-train - there was contemporaneous coverage of union and contemptible treatment for league.

PERFORMER of the week? Not Jonah Lomu, Brian O'Driscoll, Matthew Hayden or Glenn McGrath.

It's Shaun Goater, Manchester City's talismanic striker.

The cult hero, once infamously stamped upon by ex-York City defender Steve Tutill in an Autoglass Windscreens Shield tie, bagged a brace to down Manchester United and rattle up 100 goals as a Maine Road man. Thought by many, including yours truly, to be jettisoned this term by Man City, no-one more deserves to be over a blue moon.

Updated: 11:57 Tuesday, November 12, 2002