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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 00:31 29 Jan 2025

Kaliningrad was one of the host cities in the 2018 World Cup Finals in Russia. It staged 4 games, incl England 0 v 1 Belgium, in a brand new 34.5k capacity stadium built specially for the tournament:



(I strongly suspect Putin was making a political statement by having them included as a host.)

After the Finals, the stadium became the home of the region's main club Baltika FC, who eventually gained promotion to Russia's top tier last season, after 25 years in the second.

Every away game involves a long flight, as much as 12 hours duration if playing in the East - don't know the Russian for "Is that all you take away?"
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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 00:07 29 Jan 2025

A footballing equivalent?

[Meanwhile] another largely forgotten national team emerged on what is now German territory. In July 1948, the Saarland FA (SFB) was formed in Sulzbach, near Saarbrucken. The Saarland is the relatively small area in southwestern Germany surrounded by Rhineland-Palatinate, Luxembourg and the French region Lorraine.

After the Second World War, the Saarland became an autonomous French protectorate. During the SFB's AGM in 1949, a vote was held over whether or not the association should join the French Football Federation. Although the Saar's government was in favour of the move, the members of the SFB voted to stay independent by a large majority.

And so, under president Hermann Neuberger and as an "association based in a country which is recognised by the United Nations as an independent state," the Saarland FA applied for FIFA membership in 1950. On June 22, the world governing body accepted this application, which means that the SFB became a proper FIFA member three months before the DFB did.

On Nov. 22, 1950, the country of 950,000 inhabitants played its first official international. Seven of the 11 starting players came from the Saarland's biggest club, Saarbrucken FC, three from Borussia Neunkirchen (a club that would spend three seasons in the Bundesliga in the 1960s), one from Ensdorf FC. They defeated Switzerland reserves 5-3. The Saarland's national manager was Auguste Jordan, an Austrian-born naturalised Frenchman who also coached Saarbrucken FC.

Jordan soon went back to France, to manage Racing Club, and so Neuberger needed a new coach who would guide the team through the qualifying games for the 1954 World Cup. He found his man in Wiesbaden, a city some 100 miles north-east of Saarbrucken. SV Wiesbaden, a club then in the second tier of German football, were coached by the former international and Dresden club legend Helmut Schon. When Neuberger offered Schon the job as national coach, the latter accepted.

When Schon's team travelled to Oslo to play Norway in the World Cup qualifiers, it was the first time they met not a reserve side but a proper national team. Neunkirchen forward Gerhard Siedl scored the winner as the Saarland came away with a 3-2 victory. The return match, watched by 40,000 in Saarbrucken, finished scoreless. Yet the Saarland didn't make it to the World Cup, because there was another team in this group -- none other than West Germany.

Who knows what would have happened if Siedl had scored in the first meeting, staged in Stuttgart. But Jupp Posipal cleared Siedl's ninth-minute effort off the line and the West Germans went on to win 3-0. (The return match in Saarbrucken was another close affair, but West Germany won again, 3-1, and travelled to the World Cup in Switzerland to make history and lift the trophy.)

After those qualifiers, the Saarland went on to play another nine internationals. The low point, in terms of naked results, was a 7-1 mauling at the hands of Uruguay in June 1954, the high point a creditable 1-1 in May 1956 against Switzerland's first team, which had held Brazil to a draw three weeks earlier.

The Saarland's final game was a 3-2 defeat in Amsterdam against the Netherlands on June 6, 1956. About eight months before this match, a referendum had been held in the Saarland [where[ the majority of Saar people said no -- in this case to plans of making the Saarland neither French nor German but an independent state under the auspices of the Council of Europe. The referendum was, in effect, a vote pro-Germany. On Jan. 1, 1957, the Saarland joined the Federal Republic of Germany. The SFB left FIFA with immediate effect and became a regional member association of the DFB.
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37403049/saarland-forgotten-internati
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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 23:52 28 Jan 2025

He was genuinely heroic with his wartime service, for despite the trauma and injury he suffered in the first War, he volunteered for the second at the age of 43 - easily old enough to avoid Conscription.

Was also a very prolific playwright, including most famously 'The Ghost Train', regularly restaged since; also made into a film, as were numerous others of his plays.

After WWII he was a theatre director, but a business partner diddled him out of his money, meaning he had to return to acting in his 50's, to scrape a living.

And apparently it was only getting the role in Dad's Army at the age of 72 which got him back on his feet financially, saving him from destitution in his final years.

And here's a photo of the great man, aged 25:



Might I be excused now?
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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 17:11 28 Jan 2025

Wonder what the cow was thinking.

"Oi! You could at least have warmed your hands first!"
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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 12:30 28 Jan 2025

Maybe it's just me, but I didn't realise just how bloody heavy Gold is until I visited the Museum in the Bank of England where they have a machine which allows you to lift an ingot. Strewth!

Googling reveals that at 19.3g/cc, it is nearly twice as heavy as Lead (11.4g/cc), and if you've ever had to shift even a small sheet of Lead you'll know how heavy that stuff is.

While Platinum at 21.45g/cc is heavier than both, making it the heaviest metal.
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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 12:11 28 Jan 2025

And the lead singer of The Clash wasn't born Joe Strummer, either.

His real name was Harry Strummer.
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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 12:01 28 Jan 2025

True, but isn't it possible that George V (1910-1936) liked the term when he saw it at a later performance and popularised it i.e. before Elizabeth II?
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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 11:57 28 Jan 2025

Whereas at Bank Station on the Central Line Underground, the platforms are notably curved, rather than straight.

This is because the Bank of England insisted that the line/station (built 1900?) must avoid being tunnelled directly under the BofE's vaults i.e. where they keep the gold.

I also read somewhere (I think) that when the underground lines were first being built, the locomotives were causing so much vibration and noise etc, that the potential damage to buildings above was so great that the whole concept was in danger of being stopped.

So the engineers then replaced the locomotive engines at the front and back of the trains with smaller ones spaced along the trains' length, thereby spreading the load and reducing the vibration etc.
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Abuse in modern football
at 23:00 27 Jan 2025

This thread reminds me of this story about Dixie Dean:

After a game at Spurs, Dixie was the last to walk off and a fan shouted to him "We'll get you yet, you black bastard!" A policeman overheard this but was pushed aside by Dixie saying "It's alright officer, I'll handle this" Dixie jumped over to the fan and punched him, sending him flying. The policeman who saw the incident winked at Dixie and said "That was a beauty but I never saw it officially."
https://www.toffeeweb.com/players/profiles/DeanWR.php

As a sign how things have changed, Dean got congratulated for his initiative, some decades later Cantona got severely punished for something similar.

(Btw, Dean was so abused because he had an unusually dark complexion, and tight, curly hair)
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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 22:38 27 Jan 2025

Debateable.

As the link below demonstrates, the term "monkey" had a number of different applications at sea.

But this source also has the following:
"The first recorded use of the term 'brass monkey' appears to dates to 1857 when it was used in an apparently vulgar context by C.A. Abbey in his book Before the Mast, where on page 108 it says "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey."

However it goes on to say:
"It has often been claimed that the 'brass monkey' was a holder or storage rack in which cannon balls (or shot) were stacked on a ship. Supposedly when the "monkey" with its stack of cannon ball became cold, the contraction of iron cannon balls led to the balls falling through or off of the 'monkey.' This explanation appears to be a legend of the sea without historical justification. In actuality, ready service shot was kept on the gun or spar decks in shot racks (also known as shot garlands in the Royal Navy) which consisted of longitudinal wooden planks with holes bored into them, into which round shot (cannon balls) were inserted for ready use by the gun crew. These shot racks or garlands are discussed in: Longridge, C. Nepean. The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships. (Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1981): 64."
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alp

Sorry - yours is a much better story!
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Bus stop
at 22:19 27 Jan 2025

May I assume that that is a parody?

"Frank Sibley was the youngest player to play for QPR, his debut was at the age 15 on 3rd September 1963, away to Aldershot in a League Cup tie. On that day ’Hey Frank’ was coined in honour of his achievement ."

The Beatles released 'Hey Jude' in 1968.

Anyhow, I was wrong when I ventured the 1980's, it was over a decade earlier and here is the full story, straight from every QPR fans favourite Bee, Peter Gilham:

“Hey Jude came out in 1968,” says the 74-year-old known as Mister Brentford. “In 1969, it was my first year on radio and I’ve been on it for 52 years now. In those days, I would sit in a box at the back of the stand (at Griffin Park), make an announcement and put the music on as well.
“During the 1970s, there was a group of us who would socialise and go to home and away games. One of them was a girl called Judy Kaufman. Judy was known as Jude and therefore I used to play the song for her.
“It [was] adopted by Brentford fans listening to it and it evolved pretty quickly. It was an innocent start — it wasn’t launched to become a Brentford anthem!”

Fascinating stuff, isn't it?
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Bus stop
at 16:25 27 Jan 2025

This.

Though it is documented fact that Bees fans sang "Hey Jude" decades before it caught on at other grounds following, I assume, Brentford's climb to the Premier League and getting featured on Sky etc.

(For anyone who's interested - and I won't be disappointed or surprised if no-one is - this originated at Griffin Park back in the 1980's. The woman who used to organise supporters' buses to away games was called Judith, and at one match at Griffin Park which coincided with her birthday, the matchday announcer played it for her. The crowd joined in, it stuck and the rest, as they say, is footballing history.)
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How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 23:59 26 Jan 2025

While "Go to Work on an Egg" is attributed to Fay "Life and Loves of a She-Devil" Weldon.

Meanwhile, I heard the other day that India has 100,000 different varieties of rice.

And it was on Radio 4, so it must be true.
[Post edited 27 Jan 0:00]
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Tamworth
at 10:57 23 Jan 2025

On this question of the FA abolishing Cup replays and denying little clubs of a money-spinner/day out at a big club etc, they're now considering scrapping extra time, so that matches drawn after 90 mins go straight to penalties.

This would give part-timers like Tamworth, or even lower league EFL teams, more of a chance against f-t/fitter/PL opponents.

Meanwhile, on a vaguely-related topic, who here remembers the FA Cup 3rd/4th placed matches between the losing semi-finalists they staged for five years between 1970 and 1974?

This was to replace the traditional pre-FA Cup game between England vs Young England (remember those?). Predictably, perhaps, they never took off, reaching their nadir in 1971 when 5,031 spectators watched Stoke beat Everton 3-2 at Selhurst Park:
[url] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FA_Cup_semi-finals[/url]
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Eze Transfer Deal
at 21:42 22 Jan 2025

"What is the obsession (for anyone) to constantly open new threads when one, or more, already exist?"

Er, because it's Eze?

(I'll get my coat)
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If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:47 20 Jan 2025

Regarding Luton and the best stadium in L1 etc, it's not that long since they were non-league, and in the shittiest stadium South of the Arctic Circle.

The point surely being that the new stadium can give them financial security for the next 50 years i.e. plenty of time for them to climb back up to the PL again, even if after a spell in L1 or below.

(Agree with all the rest of your post)
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If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:41 20 Jan 2025

I suspect 90%+ of Bees fans would far rather "make up the numbers" in the PL, than go back to the Championship. While I am sure the owner and execs at the club are determined to try to progress to beyond that status, even if it must seem long odds-against to neutral outsiders.

As for Fulham fans, I'd guess it's the same, at least if their owners weren't gouging them shame-facedly over ticket prices.
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If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:32 20 Jan 2025

Take it from an ex-bookie, that's not the way to do it. If you must have a punt, decide which is the more likely, no matter how marginally, then put ALL your stake money on that.

Otherwise you're absolutely guaranteed that one bet/half your dosh will be a loser.

Of course you may decide that the other bet has so little chance that it's not worth backing either, in which case save your money for The Derby in June.
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If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:22 20 Jan 2025

Isn't the point about Luton that they're using their unexpected one season windfall to help pay for their new stadium?

Which over the long term, will do far more for them than spunking it on players transfers and wages, in a hardly-guaranteed attempt to bounce straight back up again.
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If a miracle happened and we went up via the playoffs
at 19:17 20 Jan 2025

A good point (imo).

When Bees got promoted from League One in 2013/14, under a certain Mark Warburton(!), they made a very good attempt at gaining an immediate second promotion (tailed off to finish 5th and flunked the p/o's).

Had we gone up to the PL that time it would have been a disaster, since our players simply weren't good enough eg our leading striker was Andre Gray.

Then after five seasons consolidating and building in the Championship, in 2019/20 we got to the P/O Final and were beaten by Fulham, before winning the P/O's the following season (vs Swansea). Most Bees fans agree that the first time probably would have been too soon, so we'd have struggled to survive. But by the second season, we were so much better prepared eg signing Ivan Toney as our main striker, hence our staying up.

All that said, we'd still all have taken it in the Fulham defeat season, if only because the parachute money would still have given a massive boost to our chances of bouncing straight back up following a one season relegation. As eg Fulham did after they had gone up before us.

So if you get the chance, go for it!
[Post edited 20 Jan 19:34]
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