Deano6

I'm still fiercely proud to be English, but I do support Saints more these days now that I've given up my British citizenship to become American.

Ummm...I'm pretty sure everyone's aware they are insolvent. That's why they're in administration!

It is flawed, I'm afraid, and your recollection of more simple arithmetic is also a little off: Probability The equation you have quoted is for the 3 promoted teams to ALL be drawn against a top 3 team. Also as Ludwig points out you have also ignored the fact that knowing the result of the first draw affects the result of the second draw (since there are now only 18 teams left to select from, and only 2 left to be paired with), so what you have described is "All three promoted teams get drawn against sides from the top three where the top side selected each time is replaced back into the pot so that a top side can be selected more than once". To be fair it's probably a reasonable simplification to make and won't make a huge difference, so I won't mark you down for that though you have missed out on bonus points. Arithmetic Very wrong I'm afraid. If this were true and I tossed a fair coin 3 times, the probability of it giving heads all 3 times would be 1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2 = 3/2 or 150% and all mathematics would instantly break down! The result you would be looking for (bear in mind that the question this actually answering is not the one you intended) is 27/6859 or 0.39% (ie 0.0039). As an aside, the answer you got to satisfies the equation (3/19 + 3/19 + 3/19) = 9/19. This would answer the question "What is the probability of Southampton (only) being drawn against a team in the top 3 or a team in the next 3 (ie 4 to 6) or a team in the next 3 (ie 7 to 9)?" which simplifies to "What is the probability of Southampton (only) being drawn against a team in the top 9?" - hence the 9 out of 19 equation. Wrong also, young whippersnapper, back to Kumbakonam for you! Your flaw is here: It should of course be 3/19 * 2/18 * 16/17 = 16/969 3/19 * 16/18 * 2/17 = 16/969 16/19 * 3/18 * 2/17 = 16/969 Or you can more simply note that there are 3 ways to get 2 from 3 (since the one that isn't successful can come first, second or third only), and so multiply any one of them by 3 (you should note from the numerators and denominators that they are entirely commutative). Further, you have made a rather inexcusable arithmetic error in Of course it should equal 1/969. So correcting your formula the probability of at least one promoted team playing a top 3 team is: 1/969 + 3 * (16/969) + 3 * (40/323) = 409/969 Which equals 42.2% (or 0.422). Now I know that this is virtually the same number you quoted (and not even too far away from The9's answer, however arrived at), but I'm sure that one of the unwritten rules of the internet is that if you correct someone you have to be 100% correct yourself (the reason I will get very nervous once I submit this post )! ...of course what you should all have done is simply find out the probability of none of the promoted sides plays a top 3 side (16/19 * 15/18 * 14/17 = 560/969) and then subtracted this from 1 to get the probability of this NOT happening. So (1 - 560/969) = 409/969 as per the result above.

I heard he regularly takes her up the Arse...nal.

Could he do it against Wigan on a wet Tuesday night in January though?

Won a Tony last night for his performances in One Man Two Gov'nors on Broadway. Thoroughly deserved, he is quite brilliant in that role which is perfect for him. The American audiences have really taken to him. I went to see it a few weeks ago and they have largely left it untouched in the move across the pond - plenty of 'Britishisms' that would have passed many of the locals by. Great to see him giving a heartfelt acceptance speech rather than seeing him act the clown - he was truly humbled. Well played that man!

$5.17m, according to official UK CPI figures. Some people have some quite wild ideas about how inflation works. This isn't Germany in 1930!

Tell her to get over to the BBQ festival in Madison Square Park. I'll be heading over there shortly - would be happy to 'hit her up'.

I live here. It's great. I work in Times Square - worth a visit once to pass through, as Piccadilly Circus is, but real New Yorkers wouldn't be seen dead there. That said its where all the hotels are and is where everyone ends up staying, is centrally located and very near all the theatres. Just don't fall into believing the restaurants around there are worth eating at.

You are too good for this place!

I am blind and I am appalled at some of the comments I've been reading on this thread. First of all, we are not all needy, helpless shells of people some of you are making out, and while we have been enjoying the perk of free tickets the club have given out, we did not ask for them to be free. That said it was a very nice gesture while it lasted. When you get one of your vision impaired tickets you get to bring a "sight enabler" with you, also free of charge, so you do get to invite your mates along for a freebie too. Only trouble is they often complain that the seats are all behind the pillars that hold up the roof, but I say to them welcome to my world lol (at least they did at the Dell, they have moved us so we are not behind pillars at SMS). I guess the club have cottoned on to this scam and are now making one of us pay. Personally I have been expecting this for a time as all fans will have to pay more now we are in the Prem, so I wasn't surprised to read that on the OS.

Girllookatthatbody

Richard Dawson, who made it big in the states hosting such shows as Family Feud (Family Fortunes) and regular panelist on The Match Game (Blankety Blank), as well as playing Corporal Newkirk in Hogan's Heroes, died today aged 79. Born Colin Lionel Emm in Gosport on 20 November 1932, he ran away to join the Merchant Marines aged 14. He was married to Diana Dors for 7 years. While hosting Family Feud he had a very wierd, creepy habit of kissing all the female guests on the lips. He once proposed to a 21 year old contestant on set (for real) - she turned him down but he did end up marrying another contestant a few years later.

It's comments like this that occasionally make me wish we had the "LIKE" button.

Why do memberships distinguish between those going to 10 games and those going to 1? Surely the database does that. I always found it to be a complete waste of money myself (saying that was only 10 quid so I didn't much care). Got absolutely no value from it whatsoever.

Being realistic, this kid must know he has a VERY bright future if he's going to the Euros as a keeper as a teenager. If we remove our biased specs we are just another team that got promoted to the Prem and will be bookies', and everyone else's, favourites to be relegation fodder. I struggle to see why he'd commit to a long term contract with us when he knows he could be back in the Championship next year (sorry, but its a distinct possibility). I know recently quite a lot of very promising keepers have played for struggling premiership sides but it has almost always been on loan, and usually from one of the top sides. I'd LOVE him to come, but can't really see why he'd pick us as a long term option. Maybe if we got a couple of years' Premier league pedigree under our belts. He'd be better off going to Fulham - Schwarzer is 40 now!

Am I right in thinking this is the second year of the ML Memorial Cup? 2 Cups, 1 Bear.

Why would they do that? They only need to do it once. There's no requirement to offer 20p in the pound the first time, they could do 2p (Plymouth) or even less (Palace did 0.77p). I'm actually surprised Pompey offered as much as they did that first CVA, although obviously they haven't honoured it.

Or just link to this...

No its not. It's little over 5.5 times. Which spread over 25 years is a smidge over 7% per year. Not that shocking at all.

Of course the difference was down to the illegal abortions that were happening!

Maybe it's true and he's distraut and he doesn't want it being discussed all over the internet...like on here.

134. I missed Le Tiss

It seems that quite a lot of you are following my suggestion and backing the two Manchester to be at the top next year. I hope you're not all just going on my recommendation and will come after me if they don't lol - it's just my opinion! Also people are following my lead of picking Chelsea & Arsenal followed by Spurs, Liverpool and Newcastle. While it's nice to have people back you up, I was kinda hoping for a bit more variety on the thread rather than everyone just copying the OP (me)'s picks and then filling in the rest willy-nilly. How about other people that know something about football/this league having a stab and coming up with their own choices for who might win this year, not just blindly following the rest. Just looking for an interesting debate here people!

Seriously, and I mean be absolutely serious, when have you ever seen a top flight player - an England international no less - on a pay as you play deal? They simply don't exist.