Bulletproof Fred

November 23 can't be too far off for Andrew Flintoff who is training with Dave Roberts, the former England physio, in the West Pennine Moors in Lancashire. Simon Hughes caught up with Flintoff and they talked of the year gone by.

This is sporting life in the raw, a newly shaven-headed Freddie and Rooster ready to plough the shale-strewn, mud-spattered tracks.

We stop at the foot of a steep incline and Flintoff and Wyatt race each other up it three times. The lack of an obvious spring in his step belies Flintoff's power: he wins each time.