Freddie's fairytale finish

The stage is all set for Andrew Flintoff to bow out of Test cricket as an Ashes hero in the fifth and final Test. Can he bow out with a fairytale finish, unlike many before him, asks Vic Marks in the Observer. He also writes that Flintoff's career has been the reverse of Botham's.

The old country is in disarray in pursuit of those coveted Ashes. Their hero is injured but he is going to play anyway. The team are falling apart and our man has just one last game against the dastardly Australians, who have finally found their form. Limping from the physio's couch comes our beloved gentle giant from Preston, the one who likes nothing more than to "share a few pints with me mates". You know the rest: a century, five wickets, Ashes won, hobbling hero carried from Oval outfield by his team-mates. Tears all round. Beers all round. Knighthood.

This Ashes duel has lacked the melodrama and individual star quality of 2005. Its motif has been a kind of grim intensity, writes Paul Weaver in the same paper.

It has been a trial of who might dissolve first. And in that respect it has cast a light on one of the funniest myths in team sports, which is that intimidation is achieved by flexing one's pecs, squeezing the enemy's airspace and boring into his eyes with a gaze that says: "You are entering a world of pain." "Not tonight, my man," says a character in Richard Price's Lush Life as a New York mugger instructs him to hand it over. Bam goes the gun, down goes our hero. This is what Stuart Broad was saying to Johnson, and others, as Australia's superiority with ball and bat at Leeds began to hurt. Not tonight, my man. But England, and Broad, will have to do a lot better than that, because this is not a staring competition. It is one in which five Australia batsmen have struck seven hundreds compared with England's one.

In the Sunday Telegraph Stephen Brenkley writes that there will doubtless be a guard of honour for Flintoff’s departure, deserved ovations, appreciative waves and even some tears. It will be emotional. But, on the flip side, the truth is that Flintoff and his concomitant cacophony are often a distraction, and have been for some time.

In the Sunday Times Martin Johnson interviews Merv Hughes, who led the earborne assault troops during his playing career but now supports Cricket Australia's 'tone down the verbals' instructions to its current players.

There was a time when Matt Prior could not stay out of the headlines. But now he is the England sleeper. The player nobody notices. And he loves it. The Telegraph's Nick Hoult interviews him.

"It is quite funny, because when you first break into international cricket you think it is all quite sexy and nice being in the papers," Prior said. "But you very quickly realise you are playing your best cricket when no-one mentions you. My goal is to be not spoken about. That shows I am playing my best. Hopefully that will continue for a while."