ecuk268

Good game yesterday at a beautifully warm and sunny Rosebowl. I thought that we were in line for about 220 but McKenzie's knock in the last few overs gave us a good total. We started off well in the field with Jones bowling fast and accurate, Cork getting a wicket with his first ball and with a few early wickets I thought that we had it in the bag, but we let them back in with some sloppy fielding ( 3 dropped catches) and they needed 10 from the last 2 balls with Cork bowling. The first went for a 6 but they couldn't manage a 4 for the second so we scraped home. Not a bad performance against last years winners. Hopefully the fielding was down to early season rustiness, if we tighten up on that we should be a decent side.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is a good read. It's about Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's enforcer. She's supposed to be doing a sequel.

When my nipper was young they had Reserve ganes at The Dell, so we started off there. Maybe try to take in a game at Staplewood, Totton or Eastleigh to see how it goes.

I think that you should seek medical help before you get sacked.

Probably 90% of us would have trouble passing the test again as we all pick up bad habits over the years. As a previous poster has said, statistically, young drivers have the worst accident record, hence the high insurance premiums. What I think is needed is more medical checks on older drivers (eyesight, reaction times etc). An elderly relative of a friend is still driving in her 90's (but not at night because she doesn't see too well). Frightening.

I think that he said "You f*cking beauty". Absolutely disgraceful. You never hear swearing at a football match, do you?

Countless white managers have been rubbish as well. Don't think that colour comes into it. I think that they will become more common - it just takes time. Back in the 70's, coloured players were a rarity, now they're numerous and some of them will move into management. Keith Alexander looked to have the makings of a good manager before his untimely death.

Bunch of Polish guys run one at the Jet garage in Paynes Road. Do a really good job inside and out.

Comet started in East Street. At the time, their prices and range of goods were way better than anyone else.

Remember the Liverpool game well. it was an evening game and The Dell always had a unique atmosphere under lights. 0-3 down with about 15 minutes to go. A bit more extra time and we would have won as Liverpool were really under the cosh.

I didn't want Chris Nicholl to go but the rumour was that he was going to be replaced by Harry Redknapp (who was doing well at Bournemouth) with Jimmy Case as player/assistant manager. Branfoot arrived, released Case (you don't play my style of football), sold Alan Shearer, Barry Horne, Tim Flowers and bought a series of deadbeats (Ken Monkou excluded) and played some awful football (we used to take bets on what time Hurlock would get his yellow card). As for players, Ripley - made it plain it didn't want to be here, Lee Todd - absolutely useless, and Dixon - good player in his day but well past his sell-by date.

Going through a bit of a post-apocalyptic phase. Just finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and now into "The Passage" by Justin Cronin (recommended by a previous Forumee).

What happens if Gadaffi goes? This is a country with no history of democracy. Who takes over? As with Iraq, the dictator imposes order. if you're going to remove him, it helps if you have plans for who replaces him. Democratic Islamic states seem to be a rarity in the Middle East.

If I buy a book in a bookshop, I can pass it on when I've finished it. You can't do this with a Kindle. Has anyone come up with a crack yet?

Still got one up in the loft somewhere. Might get it down and plug it in to my LED flatscreen TV.

They probably thought that it was cheaper to release him "on medical grounds" than to have dodgy evidence come to light in a few years, a re-trial, aquittal and millions in damages. (Again, see Northern Ireland). If you can afford expensive lawyers, "medical grounds" seems a good way of getting released. Remember Ernest Saunders, who was banged up for fraud, released due to Alzheimers and then made a remarkable recovery - the only person ever to do so.

If you read a detailed account of the trial, it's highly unlikely that he was involved. It's not he first time that political pressure for a conviction has led to innocent people being convicted (see Northern Ireland). All governments deal with unsavoury regimes, especially if they've got lots of money (or oil). Look how Thatcher sucked up to that bastion of democracy Saudi Arabia (who recently announced that any form of anti-government protest was banned). That rabid left-winger Prince Andrew was also mates with Gaddafi.

As the lovely Mandy Rice-Davies once said: "He would say that, wouldn't he". Younger listees may need to look her up on Wikipedia. Anyway, isn't Gaddifi in Venezuela (that's what Hague told us).

Made a prat of himself by suggesting a no-fly zone over Libya which we couldn't do without the US and they weren't interested. They said it would need at least 2 aircraft carriers (ours haven't got any aircraft as Dave scrapped the Harriers). Otherwise, much too early to say.

Listening to a report this morning on the proposed buy out of the rest of Bskyb by Mr Murdoch. He's offered to sell off Sky News which has consistently made a loss for 20 years. If Murdoch can't make money from a news channel, I don't see that anyone can.

There are only 2 sports - football and cricket (and maybe women's beach volleyball). The rest are mere games.

Hope the golf went well. What I'm saying is that we all pay for commercial broadcasting through the products we buy. Theoretically, we could avoid those products which advertise on TV but, if I don't watch ITV, how would I know which products to avoid. And, to take it to a somewhat ridiculous level, if I eat in a restaurant, part of my bill may be made up of the advertising costs of the products used in the restaurant, but I can't avoid that. We pay for all types of broadcasting one way or the other. I accept that parts of the BBC would not survive if they had to rely on advertising. They take chances on the programmes that they produce.Sometimes it comes off. sometimes it doesn't. But that's the price you have to pay for creativity. I think that any government that tried to make the BBC dependant on advertising would face the wrath of middle England. Look what happened when they tried to tinker with Radio 4.

So, how's commercial broadcasting funded? If I don't watch ITV can I get my baked beans cheaper because I don't want to pay the bit that Heinz spend on TV advertising? The only way round this would be to make every channel subscription which, I presume with digital broadcasting, would be possible.

Insurance is all based on risk and, statistically, women have less accidents than men and, when they do have accidents, they tend to be less serious. It seems mad to tell insurance companies that they can't use proven statistical methods in their calculations. You can never tell what an insurance company is going to be like. When I had a bump in the car, Churchill were brilliant, everything sorted quickly with no fuss. But when I had a collapsed drain (also had my house insurance with them), they were a real pain, taking ages to process the claim, so I'm now with Swiftcover.

Radio Solent has to bid for the rights to Saints games. The commercial stations can bid if they wish. If your argument about taxpayer subsides was true, BBC would still have the rights to live football and cricket. I'm not saying that all commercially produced programmes are rubbish (I've watched all 86 episodes of The Sopranos) but there needs to be a place where more specialist and minority programmes can be shown. Most European countries have some form of TV licence (we are among the cheapest) so I think that you are in a minority where public broadcasting is concerned. You have yet to say where I can get in-depth radio news coverage apart from Radio 4.