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FPL managers face problems as a midweek round of games approaches Christmas.

Important players’ rotation, such as Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr, and a lack of information from managers, with many news conferences occurring after Tuesday’s 18:00 GMT deadline.

The remedy? Trust players who have the most productive games while avoiding costly errors.

It might be simpler to say than to do.

As if you were playing a Free Hit, the team of the week is chosen based on the current FPL prices to fit within a £100m budget.

After being found riding e-scooters without helmets in Brisbane, Ollie Pope has instructed his England team-mates to “put on a helmet.”

In addition to Ben Stokes, the fast bowlers, Jamie Smith, and Mark Wood, the captain, were spotted by local media preparing for the second Ashes Test against Australia, riding public scooters without protective headgear.

The Queensland government mandates that “you must wear an approved helmet when you ride a personal mobility device.” Failure to comply with this sentence may result in an A of $1 166 (£82).

Simply put, apply a helmet the next time. Rules are the same as rules. No other observation from me,” said batter Pope.

The England team’s latest episode is the most recent in a line of local media coverage of their Australian tour.

Players were filmed at the airport in Perth, with special attention paid to Stokes and Joe Root, who were battered.

When the visitors played golf, drones followed them, and some players even took pictures of themselves at a Perth aquarium.

Their performance and attitude were subject to intense scrutiny following a crushing defeat in the first Test. Mitchell Johnson, a former Australia pace bowler, described the England “arrogant.”

Regardless of the outcome, England are 1-0 in the series and are planning a trip to Noosa, north of Brisbane, on the Sunshine Coast, following the second Test.

Pope argued that England should be able to avoid playing cricket but that they are “very aware” of the media attention.

The Surrey batter said, “It’s important for us as cricketers and as people to try to switch off and be yourself.”

Pope, 27, made a point during his second Ashes tour by highlighting the difference from his previous outing to Australia four years ago, when strict Covid restrictions were placed on the England squad.

According to Pope, “Locking your doors and staying out of your room is the unhealthy thing to do,”

Whatever you do in your free time, whether it’s just taking your mind off of cricket for a day or two, is really important.

“So be it if they want to catch us doing that,” they say. On a long tour like this, maintaining that balance is crucial.

Will Jacks’ first Test match in three years will be against Australia in Brisbane, which England included a spin option for.

The only change to the side that was severely defeated in the first Test in Perth is the off-spinner, who replaces Mark Wood who was injured in the pace bowling match.

The 27-year-old was chosen for the day-night game at the Gabba ahead of Shoaib Bashir, partly because of how much England has more starting batting at No. 8 in his batting lineup.

Usman Khawaja, an opener for Australia, has been declared unable to play in the pink-ball Test at the Gabba because of the back spasms he experienced in Perth.

Travis Head will continue opening the batting after posting his match-winning century in the first Test despite the 38-year-old’s absence.

In the absence of a replacement, Australia will have Josh Inglis or Beau Webster, who were both born in Leeds.

Despite focusing a lot on white-ball cricket in recent years, Jacks was a left-field selection in England’s Ashes squad and has the chance to win a third Test cap.

This year, the Surrey man took five wickets in 74.1% overs, winning only three first-class matches.

England’s and Jacks’ Surrey team-mate Ollie Pope said, “Everyone knows what a brilliant cricketer he is.”

We’ve seen his white-ball game really advance thanks to his growth over the past few years. His red-ball has a fantastic opportunity, too.

Everyone has seen the skills he has in the white-ball format because he obviously has that style of spin bowling where he can get some bounce and turn off the pitch. He can withstand a strong attack.

Jacks, who has 60 white ball caps, is primarily a batting all-rounder, but he only took six wickets in his Test debut against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in 2022.

Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon has a better average, economy rate, and strike-rate bowling with a pink ball than a red one, despite the perception that day-night tests are best for fast bowlers.

England captain Ben Stokes cited how Australia uses Lyon in relation to the “tactical element” of day-night Tests.

Stokes remarked, “They play a lot of day-night cricket here.”

There are both those factors to take into account when using their spinner as an attacking option or more to pass the overs more quickly and have more time with the new ball under lights.

Wood’s first competitive game since February, when he had knee surgery, ended up playing the Perth Test, and the Durham fast bowler has since experienced soreness in his left knee.

In the two-day Test, Wood only bowled 11 overs, so Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse, Gus Atkinson, and Stokes have four options if England must still rely on seam.

England can point to Jacks’ all-round versatility in the distinctive day-night setting, but Bashir’s absence is still a blow.

Since being promoted to England’s first-choice spinner at the start of the 2024 home summer, the 22-year-old has never been excluded when he is in good form.

Since breaking his finger in the third Test against India in July, Bashir has not played competitive cricket. In that moment, he took the winning wicket for England at Lord’s.

In England’s only Ashes warm-up match against the England Lions, he struggled, returning 2-145 from 24 overs.

Before the first Test, England’s 12-man squad named Bashir, and coach Brendon McCullum said he anticipated the Somerset international to play a significant part in the series.

Jacks now has a chance to cement his place in the lineup, especially if England can bring the series to an end with a victory at the Gabba for the first time since 1986.

England has lost three day-night matches against Australia, including three victories in their previous 16 Test matches.

Australia’s only defeat in 14 floodlit Tests, including a shocking 2024 defeat to the West Indies, occurred at the Gabba.

We know they have a strong record here, but Pope said, “We know they haven’t been unbeatable.”

We’ll use the crowd, are familiar with the pitch conditions, and have also played a few pink-ball games.

“It’s just trying to keep our skills at the forefront while not thinking too much about the history of it in terms of this place and this terrain.”

When does a 147 become a 180?

When Ronnie O’Sullivan is creating more history. When did that happen?

O’Sullivan was hired to demonstrate that no one else’s snooker game could have done it better, in a year when the game’s maximum break, once regarded as being as suprising as the Himalayan Yeti, has been shown for the cameras on numerous occasions.

O’Sullivan won a record £180, 333 in bonuses when he sank his second maximum at the Saudi Arabia Masters in August, scoring just two hours after.

O’Sullivan maintains an audacious streak that sets him apart as his 50th birthday approaches in December. He maintains his pure box office despite almost three decades since his famous five-minute 147 at the Crucible.

O’Sullivan, who begins his quest for a ninth title with a record-extending debut on Tuesday, is not the only one to know the best way to go. The calendar year-best of 14-2024’s tally has been wiped out by the 25 already on the professional tour in 2025.

In a Wigan qualifier for the UK Championship, Chang Bingyu scored 147 in November. The tour’s 2025-26 season total, which started in June and continues until May, reached a record 16th.

Shaun Murphy, the 2005 world champion and the Masters winner of this year, has made two maximums in 2025.

If you’re wondering “who’s Aaron Hill”?, you’re probably not the only one who has two 147s in 2025. Ireland’s Aaron Hill has also had two of those.

Although he is the 43th overall, he has triumphed over O’Sullivan and Judd Trump. Keep in mind the name.

Murphy and Hill have been in touch with BBC Sport regarding this maximum-rush.

What’s going on, then, given the recipe, which calls for 15 reds and blacks followed by the colors in order, is left unaltered?

“You can picture Moira Stuart telling the nation Cliff Thorburn’s had a 147 at the Crucible in 1983,” Moira Stuart said. Because it’s just like, “Oh, there’s been another 147,” it would now be missed.

That is Murphy’s opinion, which sits fourth with ten maximums among all time.

He is correct in every way. Thorburn’s maximum, along with Daley Thompson and Steve Cram, won gold at the 1983 World Athletics Championship in Helsinki, was a defining moment for the armchair sports fan of that year.

Steve Davis set the record-breaking previous highest at the Lada Classic in Oldham 15 months later, but this was only the second official maximum. Davis’ reward One of the vehicles of the sponsor.

In the 1980s, a decade full of soap opera drama and powerful characters, there were only eight 147s.

Nothing compares to the present era in terms of quality.

One long-time Crucible fan who also attended the early 1980s World Championship qualifiers in Stockport once once said, “You were lucky if you saw a fifty break all day. Although some people believe it to be the past, the standards are still poor.

Jackson Page of Wales became the first player to score two 147s in a single tour match during the World Championship qualifiers this year.

Page did not win the Crucible, but she did so with £167, 000 in bonuses and £15,000 in prize money for making it to the final qualifying round, which is only £18, 000 short of Mark Williams’ prize as the tournament’s runner-up.

The tour is providing incentives for players who are pursuing their career records, according to Murphy.

“These challenges are more widely known. They are getting ready for them.

On tour, Alex Higgins never had more than one break. Ray Reardon, Terry Griffiths, Dennis Taylor, Joe Johnson, John Spencer, and other world champions didn’t do it.

Davis was out of one.

Hill managed to score two in four weeks. The Cork resident’s 23-year-old cannot believe Higgins never had a maximum.

However, Hill claims that “many players will have never had one.” My name should always be visible on the board of those who have. Great buzz there.

“Everyone on the tour could now arrange one.” One in every tournament is almost always what we anticipate. Everyone is making an egg on each other.

Does Hill now appear to be wealthy? Not entirely.

His highests were at the English Open in September and the Xi’an Grand Prix in October, both events with no bonuses and high-break prizes in the sum of £5,000. The money was split three ways in China after being racked in and there were additional maximums, so Ali Carter had to share it with him at the English Open.

Is a 147 society on tour? A WhatsApp group’s first maximum unlocking rate?

If there is a knack to it, it’s seeing it early, like when you score a 59 on the first few holes and think, “I’m on for something good here,” in golf.

We all think, “Hold on, there’s a 147 on here,” if you arrive early and take a few reds and a few blacks and find that the reds are in both pockets and aren’t on the cushions.

I tried to make it from the very beginning, so I’ve always been happy with the one I made in the Shoot Out a few seasons ago.

It was pretty unique to have the personal challenge of “let’s see how far down the 147 journey you can get” before being given the opportunity to do so in the Shoot Out’s cauldron.

I believe I had three or four double gin and tonics as a result of it. The hospitality was being effectively used, and it wasn’t quite as serious as some events.

Everyone in the room is aware of it when you’re on a maximum, which increases their concentration.

Everyone’s attention is on you in a jumble. The entire Ally Pally room went silent when I made one at the Masters this year.

Murphy suggests that explanations for the maximum surge are straightforward.

He says, “I just think everyone is getting better.” Some of the players in the bottom of the rankings can defeat anyone on their day.

The World Snooker Tour credits table-fitting teams and suppliers with improving “quality and consistency of playing conditions.”

However, the players are the ones who sink the balls.

Hill has two maximums. O’Sullivan currently has 17 records.

Ronnie, be prepared for you.

Hill enjoys the jest when it is said in jest.

I believe I’ll have the best breaks possible at the end of my career, he says.

Hill will at least think that the next frame has a lot of promise while going about his daily business, which Murphy does exactly.