Banning scrums

Looks like the RFU will recommend uncontested scrums in al rugby. What is the point of removing a key part of rugby just so it can be a faster game. Rugby is traditionally a game for all shapes and sizes, with different skills needed as each position. Remove scrummaging skills and there may as well be 8 wings in the forwards for open play as no-one will need to push, wheel, twist the scrum, pick up at No. 8, etc.

Ludicrous.

England vs Pakistan vs Umpires

An awful lot has been said and written about the whole sorry affair at The Oval last week. There is no doubt that this was a low point in cricket's public image, but my views of each of the parties has been going up and down over time.

Darrell Hair

He is either:

• a bigotted closet racist who has everything against the Asian bloc sides and has been waiting for an opportunity to trap the Pakistan team with the taint of ball tampering; or
  
• a self-important insensitive buffoon who handled a delicate situation very badly, then refused to come to any political settlement and come out for the post-tea session; or
  
• someone with his own agenda and massive ego, or
  
• the last great defender of the spirit of the game and of the upholding of the laws of cricket, who is prepared to make himself unpopular for the sake of a principle.
  

I'm actually veering towards the latter view at the moment.

The ICC

They are either:

• Strong arbiters of justice and complete supporters of their umpires, or
  
• are about to bow to the pressure of the Asian bloc and hang Hair out to dry, or
  
• are about to show their strength and risk schism by punishing Inzamam and his team to the max, or
  
• have no sensitivity to world politics and the state of the game at the moment and will be shown to be similar to Rugby's 57 old farts...
  

Inzaam-ul-Haq

He is either:

• a weak captain who didn't do enough in the way of protest (e.g., leading his team off the field) at the time that the 5-run penalty was given (and was then led by the team), or
  
• a national hero standing up for the reputation of his team and country, or
  
• an opportunistic man who turned his being villified as a losing captain to England into a hero at home for his stance, or
  
• a stubborn fool and bad poker player who greatly over-played his hand and didn't read Darrell Hair's intent correctly.
  

Billy Doctrove

He is either:

• a weak man of no influence whatsoever who is very easily led by his fellow (and far more experienced) colleague; or
  
• in complete agreement with Hair and deserves the same amount of stick or praise
  

Mind you, Doctrove was once a 3rd unpire who refused to give a TV decision in a match between India and the West Indies, and caused major confusion for 15 minutes when refusing to rule whether a batsman was in or out. He also left the field during another one day between the same countries and the match carried on as no-one realised he'd gone (until there was a run out decision where everyone looked to the empty space for a decision)! See Cricinfo for more details.

The ECB

They are either:

• the ultimate peacemakers in helping to persuade the Pakistan side to get back on the pitch, or
  
• very bad an public relations and communications in not letting anyone at the ground know what was going on
  

Mike Proctor

He is either:

• a very easy going bloke who was trying to let things run their course, not get things inflamed, and sort it all out at the end of the day, or
  
• a weak individual who backed away from any conversations with the captains to sort things out, or
  
• someone who dropped Darrell Hair in the thick of it by not immediately supporting him and endorsing the decision (as the ICC representative) that Pakistan had forfeited the game.
  

Mind you, with Hair, Haq, Proctor, the PCB, the ECB, the ICC, General Musharaf and some of the media commentators (Imran, Botham, Wasim, etc.), there are some planet-sized egos out there.

Losing it

I wrote a long list of things that I need to do today.

One of them was "dog both sides". I have no idea what this means. I can remember writing it and it made sense at the time. Its definitely in my handwriting.

If anyone can help me work out what is going on in my head, please respond...

The Hamiltons Return

In a seemingly bizarre move, Christine Hamilton is now doing a live stage chat show at the Edinburgh fringe festival. When interviewed about it on the radio yesterday, she said it was "edgy" and mumbled some other incoherences about her being hip, cool and happening.

Do we really have so little talent in the country that the Hamilton bankruptcy freak show carries on to pollute our cultural life?

Sorry, was that a bit harsh?

Lost - the great questions

Shamelessly stolen because they are phenomenally good questions...! See the link above.

Where is Claire? Does Emilie de Ravin have a different contract than everyone else?

Did Kate and Claire ever tell the rest of the group about the medical hatch? Did Kate tell anyone about the theatrical makeup and fake beards?

What's up with the map? How much did Locke memorize? Does Dharma subscribe to "Entertainment Weekly"?

Where the hell are Michael and Walt ... and Desmond?

What's going on with the Other army?

Will we ever learn anything more about the Black Rock? Or the black and white stones? Or Adam and Eve (yeah, remember them?!)?

And a few of my own:

What are the links with the book "Bad Twin" (are we going to find out more about the manuscript that Charlie found) and the Hano foundation? Just how are the survivors still finding stuff from the (burnt) plane wreckage, like a very combustible manuscript?

How come nobody heard a plane going overhead?

Why has no-one apart from Sayid tried to walk around the island?

What happened to Cindy the air stewardess afte the long walk from the other side of the island? Is she the girlfriend of Gary Troup, the author of the Bad Twin manuscript - see the jacket notes of that book? Did Gary Troup die in the crash or is he still one of the unnamed survivors? Why is Gary Troup's name an anagram of "purgatory"?

If Charlie, Sayid and Kate were looking for a balloon in the trees, how come they only noticed it (very very large and bright orange) when they noticed it had stopped raining...!)

How come we've seen the following locations around the edge of the island:

• main camp
  
• tailies camp
  
• peninsula that the tailies walked around
  
• place with the fire started by Rousseau when she stole Aaron
  
• the flat cliffs that they walked past on the way to the Black Rock
  
• the location of the big submarine power cable
  
• the cliff that Dave commits suicide from
  
• the romantic spot where Sayid seduced Shannon

and yet we haven't found the others yet.

Has everone else forgotten Boone yet? Or is it just me?

Lost - needs explaining

In the episode "Dave" (on E4 first look this week), Hurley heads off to the caves as they are deserted.

The following is stolen from the website linked above:

When -- and why -- did the castaways leave the cave camp? Last time I checked, the primary water supply was near the caves. The hatch provides shelter, but only Locke and Jack (and Henry) have been living there for the last week or so. I don't understand why the caves would be abandoned in favor of the beach. Did I miss something?

Mind you, then very last image in the programme was absolutely superb. Lots more questions!

On the same theme, what the hell happened to Jack's father's body?

And why have we not heard anything more about the two 40-year old corpses (i.e., have been dead for 40 years not dies aged 40) in the cave??

Is that just for series 5 or 6!!

Let's hope Lost doesn't go the same way as the X-Files or Sliders, because at the moment it is superb and very very addictive.

The Yellow Brick Road

Why do estate builders insist on building footpaths (and extended driveways serving several houses) out of colourful bricks (block paving) rather than Tarmac. I know that it looks better for a short period of time, but then it breaks up and grows weeds at an alarming rate of knots.

Ladygrove has seveal paths made of block paving. Almost without exception, these have grass or weeds growing between the bricks at least 4 courses in from either side, reducing the width of the path. In several places there are big holes where one or more of the blocks has worked loose (or been vandalised). These are either left as a serious trip hazard for weeks on end, or are repaired using tarmac. It is obviously too expensive to maintain them properly...

There are areas of the estate, for example behind the shops, where over half the blocks have been removed and there is now just an expanse of sand 6 inches lower down. The blocks have been used for target practice at someone's windows.

Also, the estate suffers from serious problems of subsidence, especially in the summer, due to the atrocious drainage on clay with no topsoil whatsoever. This means that the blocks move around and become more easy to be lost of have large gaps between them.

If the council were going to allow the developers to use block pavia, surely they should have made sure they had enough respurce to properly maintain them all.

They are now a serious trip hazard over large stretches, look awful due to the weeds and have lost any colour as the paint has long since worn off.

Here ends the lesson.

Buddy

What a mess...

Picture of Rafferty

Rafferty is now 9 and a half months old.

Rafferty on the Naughty Step

Rafferty's first visit to the naughty step. He appears to be enjoying it too much!

People's Republic of West Hendred

Shamelessly stolen from Dan's blog, because its such a superb idea.

See Dan's blog for the background... Dan, Tom and various other drunkards were in the Green Dragon debating the setting up of the Independent People's Republic of West Hendred.

To expand the idea and to steal from Danny Wallace's "How to start your own country": Danny declared his flat independent and started appointing people to be foreign minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer (they had a calculator watch), etc.

How would this work for West Hendred:

• Minister for Agriculature - God
  
• Minister for Culture - Tom
  
• Customs and Excise? - Dan (can guess the rates on cider)
  
• Defence Secretary - Scamp
  
• Minister for Heritage - Dan
  
• Ambassador to Didcot - me
  
• Ambassador to the West Midlands - Marv
  

So who else do we need:

• Life President and Supreme Ruler
  
• Minister for Ginge and the Outlying Lands
  
• Minister for Energy (especially if we plan on building wind turbines)
  
• Minister with special responsibilities for takign on Thames Water over their reservoir
  
• Minister for boundary disputes with the neighbouring metropolis (East) and the feudal systems (Ardington)
  

Bad Twin

I've just finished reading "Bad Twin" by Gary Troup. Very interesting book. Highly confusing as to what it all means, but there woudl seem to be a lot of clues to the bigger picture.

You will either know what I'm talking about, or you won't. I can't get any clearer than that.

Memory

In a somewhat ironic twist, I saw the BBC's programme on how to improve your memory on Wednesday. I saw the advert for it on Tuesday and asked Sam to remind me it was on. Needless to say, we both forgot until we were flicking between channels...

Sajid Mahmood and Amir Khan

Useless fact of the day: I may have missed anyone talking about it, but... Sajid Mahmood has been in the England Test and one-day side for a few months now, but its the first time I've heard that he is Amir Khan's cousin. Sajid's uncle, Amir's father, was in the crowd at Headingly to see that superb 4 for 22 in the final innings of the third test on Tuesday.

Rafferty is spotty

Rafferty is very spotty at the moment, but well with it. He now has 7 teeth, is trying to crawl, waves, claps, shakes his head and is very good at giving the cat evil looks... He definitely knows the meaning of "no".

Grey hair

I pulled the first grey (more or less pure white) hair out of my beard this week. Age creeps ever on.

Harrods

In 1900, Harrods had two branches, London and Buenos Aires.

Very interesting piece on the BBC website about Argentine history.

England's bowling line up

If everyone was fit, then England's fast bowling line-up would very much pick itself:
Andrew Flintoff, Mathew Hoggard, Steve Harmison and Simon Jones. If they are all firing on all cylinders, then that is as good a quartet of fast bowlers who complement each other as has been seen in world cricket since the West Indies in the 1980s. There is not a weak link in sight.

However, when one (or more) is injured or otherwise avaiable, we have an embarassment of riches in the back-up department. Or do we? Basically, take one of the top 4 out and you replace him with one from the following list, each of whom would be the weak link. Each of these has been picked or discussed recently:

• Sajid Mahmood
  
• Jimmy Anderson
  
• Liam Plunkett
  
• Jon Lewis
  
• Kabir Ali
  
• Tim Bresnan
  
• Chris Silverwood
  
• Ryan Sidebottom
  
• Stuart Broad
  
• Glen Chapple
  
• Chris Tremlett

Interestingly, at least 3 of those had fathers with long and distinguished careers in first class cricket (Chris Broad and Arnie Sidebottom played Tests for England as well).

However, what can be done to bring one of those bowlers on to really challenge the top 4 for a place in the side?

Obviously, I'm ignoring spinners at the moment (its what England's selectors have done for a long time...). At the moment, Monty picks himself. His batting and fielding are improving, I just hope he doesn't end up being treated in the same way as Tufnell was by England, and that they don't waste his enormous talent.

Clement Atlee on Europe

A quote from Atlee in the late 1940s when discussing setting up of the EEC:

I don't want to go crawling to a group of 6 nations after we had to rescue 4 of them from the other 2.

I think that sums up the British attitude to Europe...

Paul Collingwood

Yesterday, Paul Collingwood got Faisal Iqbal out for a duck. A bit harsh on Iqbal who had been waiting in the dressing room while well over 400 runs were scored. Even more so when you consider this was Paul Collingwood's firts test wicket in 14 matches, 66 overs and having conceded 216 runs.

He could be an all rounder, honestly.