Andrew Flintoff riles Burnley with Twitter slur

Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff entered a war of words with former England cricket teammate James Anderson this week after calling Burnley residents 'six-finger Dingles' on Twitter. 

Famous for his banter, Preston-born Flintoff commented on Prince William's visit to Blackburn by tweeting that the Royal "drew the line at Burnley," adding "no 6 finger handshakes from the Dingles for Wills!"

Inundated with tweets of support for the town, Flintoff responded: "Is the Burnley town crier reading these tweets out to all the Dingles? Not this many can read!"

'Dingles' is a reference to the family in ITV soap Emmerdale who often run into trouble with the authorities. It has become a popular nickname for Burnley residents.  

James Anderson, the 28-year-old England bowler who was born in Burnley, stepped in to counter Flintoff's criticisms. "It always makes me laugh when you talk about Preston this and Preston that," Anderson tweeted to Flintoff. "You live in Surrey and support Man City??"

"Do you have to get special batting gloves made for all your thumbs?" responded Flintoff, before asking his Twitter followers to "spare a thought for those less fortunate than us like @JimmyAnderson9 and tweet him a big high 6!"

Fellow England cricketer Kevin Pietersen, never one to be pushed out of the Twitter limelight for long, started his own exchange of tweets with teenage Arsenal darling Jack Wilshere yesterday – taking umbrage at his skimpy choice of swimwear.

After Wilshere posted a picture of himself in swimming gear, Pietersen quipped "thats not swimming mate... my one yr old can hold onto the side of the pool", before adding "and what on earth are u doing wearing #dickstickers". ·