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Reply | Utterly Sick of It
at 11:46 20 Sep 2024
Re your point about data etc, after he took over at Brentford, Matthew Benham crunched the data on cup games etc (not just Bees, but all teams I expect), and this told him that cup games were invariably an unhelpful distraction from progress in the league.
As a result, Bees have never fielded their strongest team in cup games, whether as a League One, Championship or Prem team, except for the very rare occasion when they've managed to go deep in a cup.
Make of that what you will. |
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Reply | Loftus Road renovation/revamp
at 16:07 17 Sep 2024
Though I'm (cautiously) optimistic for another few seasons in the PL for Bees, it's obvious that one bad/unlucky season could see us relegated at any time.
But if we were, I'd be very confident that we could get back up again pretty damned quickly, since it is FAR easier to sign Championship-winning players to gain promotion, than it is to sign PL-standard players to keep you up, never mind progress, once you get there.
And that's before you factor in the huge advantage parachute payments give in the Championship. |
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Reply | Linford
at 17:15 5 Aug 2024
June Olympic Trials was it?
President Carter had given the USSR a deadline to pull out of Afghanistan by end February, after which the USA was going to boycott.
There was never a lot of money in US Track & Field back then, and without the incentive of the Olympics, it's hard to see how their athletes could have been motivated.
Nor did they have the benefit of the usual pre-games training camp to fine tune their preparation. [Post edited 5 Aug 17:18]
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Reply | Linford
at 12:36 5 Aug 2024
Wells' winning time in 1980 was 10.25 secs - the slowest Gold Medal time since the 1960 Olympics. In fact Jesse Owens was recorded at 10.3 secs in Berlin in 1936 (Obviously the timings weren't so reliable back then, but still).
While every winning time since then has been sub-10.
And I think you underestimate the effect of the absence of the Americans in Moscow. Yes, he did beat them subsequently, but they hadn't had the opportunity to "peak" for the summer of 1980 - who knows what times they might have achieved if they had?
While more generally, the USA has won a total of 40 Olympic medals (all colours) in Mens' 100 metres history - not far short of the rest of the world put together (49). |
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Reply | Linford
at 00:27 5 Aug 2024
Late developer?
A BBC investigation has uncovered claims of drug taking by British 100m Olympic gold medallist Allan Wells.
Wells, who won the 100m in the Olympics in Moscow in 1980, is one of only three British athletes to win the elite race.
The allegations against him include the sworn testimony of three men who knew him well and secretly recorded exchanges with former Great Britain team doctor Jimmy Ledingham.
[Ledingham said] "He [Wells] was taking stuff from all over the place, not just from me … Everybody knew Wells took drugs."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-32883944 |
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Reply | LU Question
at 00:18 5 Aug 2024
Not the answer to the crossword clue (wrong number of letters and the Tube is named after the district), but it brought this to mind:
"According to the Dictionary of London Place Names (2001), Swiss Cottage is named after an inn called The Swiss Tavern that was built in 1804 in the style of a Swiss chalet on the site of a former tollgate keeper's cottage, and later renamed Swiss Inn and in the early 20th century Swiss Cottage." |
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Reply | Orange wine
at 13:59 31 Jul 2024
Check out the bottle top!
With that and the litre bottle, I imagined it might be cheap, but no, £20+ a bottle. |
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Reply | Orange wine
at 13:06 31 Jul 2024
Yes, it's quite distinctive, often very dry with a slight yeasty(?) taste. If you like dry sherry, you'll probably like vin jaune, but if not...
(Should add that I don't know that particular label, just had some general local stuff on holiday in the region) [Post edited 31 Jul 13:09]
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Reply | Orange wine
at 13:03 31 Jul 2024
Many years ago I was on holiday in Morocco. Wasn't a wine drinker back then, but one evening when a few of us were having a party on the beach, and we'd run out of everything else, we started on the local Moroccan
Red (wine, not hash).
It was awful, so bad that eventually someone added some orange juice to it: a big improvement! |
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Reply | Orange wine
at 22:12 30 Jul 2024
Out of curiosity, I had some a couple of years ago i.e. before the current trend. (Iirc, the first bottle was from ASDA, of all places)
Can't say it was notably good or notably bad, and certainly not especially different from regular white wine. (At least no more than Rose)
So I'd say ignore the hype, try it for yourself and if you find some you like, at a price you're happy to pay, then fire away. |
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Reply | UK Beer. Shift to Lower ABV% .
at 00:54 30 Jul 2024
People have been complaining about beers having a low ABV (to keep prices down/profits up due to duty etc).
But I really used to love a pint of Chiswick, not just for its taste (strong on hops), but also for the fact that with an ABV of 3.5%, it was the perfect session beer.
In fact, even if only having a swift pint, I preferred it over London Pride.
Afaik, they withdrew it from general sale about a decade ago, promising that it would still come back as an occasional "seasonal" ale, but I've never seen it.
Grrrrr. [Post edited 30 Jul 0:57]
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Reply | UK Beer. Shift to Lower ABV% .
at 14:04 29 Jul 2024
More Club Orange myself, but I know what you mean.
And as for Lucozade, formerly my go-to hangover life saver, the sugar-free version is beyond foul. |
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Reply | UK Beer. Shift to Lower ABV% .
at 12:22 29 Jul 2024
Another thing which makes me laugh is that I occasionally go to my local if there's a match on TV (avoid it otherwise, since it's a bit too "hipster" for this old git).
Anyhow, if I'm going to be driving or whatever, I'll sometimes just have a pint or two of shandy. Everytime the barmaid will ask: "Which lager would you like?" and I'll reply: "Whatever's cheapest...".
I guess she's being polite just in case I somehow had a preference etc, but she might know, as I usually add: "... since it all tastes of the lemonade anyhow."
P.S. I don't mind which lager, but don't EVER accept diet/sugar-free lemonade in a shandy, since some of them really foul the taste somehow. |
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Reply | UK Beer. Shift to Lower ABV% .
at 11:58 29 Jul 2024
Though I v.rarely drink lager myself, I've nothing against it. But what I don't understand is the current popularity of Spanish and Italian lagers - see them everywhere these days.
Czech or German lagers I could understand, French even if from Alsace Lorraine etc, since these obviously have a lager-brewing heritage, but Spain and Italy? I'm sure they're ok, but people seeking them out specifically? And it's not as if they're selling because they're noticeably cheaper.
On another tack, if you go to Spain or Italy, you wouldn't expect to see English wine; in fact you really don't see much from other traditional wine producing countries like France either, just the local stuff.
Or is it just a fashion/marketing thing? That is, we had a phase when American lagers were everywhere, then Australian, the French had a go, Japanese and Indian even for a bit, so what next?
Mongolian? Ecuadorian? Lunar lager? |
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Reply | Bordeaux go bust
at 22:39 28 Jul 2024
Everyone remembers that, but not so many remember what came soon after:
"Jimmy Hill, the manager that took the club into the top flight and later became chairman, made history at Highfield Road in 1981 when he made it the country's first all-seater stadium.
However, the plan went horribly wrong when fans stayed away from the stadium and hooligans even ripped up the seats to use as missiles.
The standing areas were later restored and Hill left just two years after he introduced the terrace revolution."
While I suspect that other than new seating following the Taylor Report, there wasn't a great deal spent on it in the following 20 years, when they moved out, with the capacity having fallen to 23k (record crowd 51k). |
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Reply | Bordeaux go bust
at 18:38 28 Jul 2024
You're quite correct about the timing of Wasps and Coventry City FC - it was indeed late in the whole, sorry saga.
However, the departure from Highfield Road was more a symptom of, rather than the cause of, CCFC's problems, which was down to (the usual) financial mismanagement by the club's owners.
That is, despite being a reasonably stable, sustainable PL club up until the mid-1990's, by the end of the decade they had incurred big debts in trying to keep up.
And while Highfield Road was "adequate" in terms of capacity, it was increasingly outdated, lacking modern facilities and also experiencing traffic and parking problems in that location.
Therefore it was decided that they should sell the ground to Tesco and build a modern, revenue-generating 40k stadium, fit for the PL in the 21st century instead (the Ricoh). However, they wasted the Tesco money and with the debt having reached £60m - a huge sum for the period - when they got relegated in 2001, the writing was on the wall.
Meaning they were unable to fund the new stadium, leaving the Council to pick up the £113m tab and build it. Worse still, the club wasn't putting up any money towards it (four directors claim they contributed £2m between them personally), meaning that as "beggars", they were in no position to be "choosers" when accepting the Council's rent demands.
All of which became worse when SISU took over CCFC - their motives were always suspect, while they never had a good relationship with the Council, leading to CCFC moving out etc.
Even worse was to follow when Wasps moved into the Ricoh in 2014 - the Council seems to have been dazzled by their big talk etc, meaning they were ever more scornful of the football club, not helped by the fact that the indoor section of the stadium (Conference, Hotel, casino?) was doing ok financially, meaning the Council felt they could do without the football club entirely, unless on their (Council) terms.
So all-in-all, a sorry tale of incompetence and mismanagement over a long period, but sadly not an unfamiliar one in English football. Still, they survived somehow, unlike some of their continental counterparts such as Bordeaux. |
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Reply | Bordeaux go bust
at 22:31 26 Jul 2024
What "sunk" Coventry - and they're hardly dead yet - wasn't the move to the Ricoh per se.
Rather it was a combination of Wasps shafting them, along with with the local Council colluding in the process.
Meanwhile CCFC have not only survived, but show signs of thriving again. While those entitled arseholes at Wasps, well, we all know what has happened to them.
As someone once said: Oh Dear. How Sad. Never Mind.
As for Bordeaux, really don't know enough to comment, but it's curious that well-known teams like them, Schalke 04 and Vitesse Arnhem have all gone under/come close very recently, while English teams somehow manage to cling on, even while people have been predicting for decades now that "the bubble is about to burst" over here. [Post edited 26 Jul 22:33]
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