A New Dimension to Cricket Sledging: The Moon

From the desk of admin ·July 13, 2008 at 4:10 pm · Filed under All WW, Cricket, Humour, Miscellaneous, Not Cricket, Politics

I’ve just heard - in a “between the overs spot” on Test Match Special - that a listener’s son has been put in detention for taking “sledging” to a new level - mooning at the batsman from the field.

Jonathan Agnew reports that the young man got away with it initially, but was turned in later by a now ex-friend.

I didn’t have the “catch all” recorder running, and the BBC does not make normal commentary available under “Listen Again” - unfortunately.

I do, however, see this transferring to the Australian Test Team, and thence to Australian politics.

Picture credit: Jewlicious.

Tags: cricket sledge, detention, jewlicious, moon, sledging

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December’s Obligatory Football Post …

From the desk of admin ·December 10, 2007 at 9:18 pm · Filed under Humourous, Knockabout, Not Cricket

It is time for December’s obligatory football article.

From Matthew Norman today in the Viewspaper, damning James Harding, the new editor of the Times, with faint praise - as a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur:

As for Mr Harding, I’ve only come across him as part of the same group of Spurs fans that included Daily Telegraph editor Will Lewis, yet another city hack, and Andy Coulson who ironically lost his News of the World berth due to lack of fiscal nous (the poor lamb failed to notice that a chunk of his editorial budget was being paid to someone to bug princely mobiles). Exactly how exposure to the perpetual defeatism that goes with supporting Tottenham hot houses these careers is one for a doctoral thesis. All I can say about Mr Harding is what I said about Mr Lewis – he too, to borrow from the late Larry Grayson, seemed like a nice boy – which isn’t very much at all. No doubt we will come to a more considered view in time.

My prediction?

The Times will now gradually go downhill, and they will continually be blaming the Telegraph next door for embarrassing them by being too successful.

Wrapping-up

Could potentially help with sponsorship (?)

[tags]football, spurs, james harding, matthew norman[/tags]

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Rugby World Cup … Siggghhhh…!

From the desk of admin ·October 21, 2007 at 2:09 pm · Filed under Not Cricket

OK. I’ll front up.

Congratulations to the Springboks for defeating the English Rugby Team in Paris.

However, the Ozzies were still deeply embarrassed - which is a nice compensation.

I’ll be lauching a plan for development aid for Australian Rugby later.

Tags: australia, south africa, springbok, english lions, wallabies, rugby union, rugby world cup

[tags]australia, south africa, springbok, english lions, wallabies, rugby union, rugby world cup[/tags]

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Rugby World Cup - What eat Springboks for lunch? Lions.

From the desk of admin ·October 20, 2007 at 4:30 pm · Filed under Knockabout, Not Cricket, Relaxation

Rrrrrarrrrrrr !!!

Lions Rampant on the Braintree Council Coat of Arms.

Tags: rugby world cup, lion, springbok, lion[tags]rugby world cup, lion, springbok, lion[/tags]

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Dame Edna Everage … Your Boys Took one Hell of a Beating

From the desk of admin ·October 13, 2007 at 5:40 pm · Filed under News - Current Affairs, Not Cricket

Australia has been more thoroughly humiliated on the sports field last weekend than for a long, long, time. Ok - since 2005, when they were booted out of the Rugby World Championship in their own backyard by Jonny Wilkinson.

They showed about as much energy as a team of Koala Bears caught in the midday sun.

Wallabies caught on the Hop

Here is the summary from the Rugby Heaven website:

English send Wallabies home

FOUR years ago it was one drop goal which broke Australian hearts and last night England golden boy Jonny Wilkinson booted four penalty goals to send the Wallabies packing from the World Cup.

While Wallabies winger Lote Tuqiri, who broke his try-scoring drought in the first half, registered the only five-pointer of the first quarter-final, the defending champions punished Australia for an error-riddled game.

And the truth is, England deserved the win and ticket to next week’s semi-final in Paris.

Raking through the pumped-up articles from before the match gives an interesting perspective. Here we have The Australian on October 6th:

Wallabies to lift England burden

THE simple fact is the Wallabies are a better rugby team than England…

There is now just the minor and somewhat inconvenient matter of having to go out tonight in Marseille and prove it.

The poor English, bumblers that they are, have fallen short throughout this tournament on all three criteria: style and humour and most definitely good intent.

The poor Australians - self declared non-chokers that they are - fell short in one key area: the ability to win the match when it mattered.

The Wallabies would gladly take the Webb Ellis Cup off their hands. In truth, it belongs to them, but, good sports that they are, they’ve been willing to share it over the years and didn’t even demand first go.

That’s how New Zealand happened to come by it in 1987, but then in 1991 it was returned to Australia, who allowed South Africa to hold it for a while, took it back again in 1999 before, charitably, giving England a feel. Now, as John Eales points out, it’s Australia’s turn again.

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Webhost removes Bloggerheads and other sites after Legal Threats

From the desk of admin ·September 21, 2007 at 12:05 pm · Filed under Alisher Usmanov, Ethics - Religion, Free Speech Campaign, Hints and Tips, News - Current Affairs, Not Cricket, Political Blogging, Politics

[Update] Tom Watson is asking questions in Westminster. Good.

Who has been closed down and why?

Schillings, a London Law firm, have closed down several prominent political blogs (case study on dealing with the “internet attacker“) by contacting their webhosts, on behalf the new part owner of Arsenal - Alisher Usmanov. Chicken Yoghurt broke the story.

Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads site is currently down after his webhost pulled the plug. You can thank the latest Russian (that should be Uzbek) billionaire to reach the UK. The details will come out in due course…

This also means that the family of websites that Tim and Clive (whose site is also down) look after are also currently AWOL. So if you’re missing the online presences of Craig Murray, Bob Piper or prospective candidate for London mayor Boris Johnson, now you know why they’ve gone.

(Wardman Wire Editorial Note: Clive Summerfield has also lost his site. The last three - Bob, Boris and Clive have lost their sites simply because they were hosted on the same server; they have suffered “collateral damage”, and had not published articles critical of the Russian billionaire Mr Alisher Usmanov.)

Mr Usmanov’s lawyers have also sent “cease and desist” type letters to a number of other blogs that dare to mention the fact that he has been criticised, including Arsenal Fan Blogs.

Does this Matter?

Two questions (at least) are at stake here:

1 - The Freedom to Criticise in the UK

Mr Usmanov has a history of dealing with opposition by “blunt” means. He is a colourful (shall we say) gentleman, who has a questionable reputation.

I’ve said before that the public conversation should be unrestricted and transparent. Mr Eugenides sums it up:

If you can be silenced for calling a businessman a crook, then you can be silenced for calling a politician a crook, too. Then it’s everyone’s problem.

There are something over 1200 political blogs in this country. Do Shillings really want to try and close all of us down? Nice little earner if they do, I suppose.

2 - Taking down Innocent Websites

I’d like to raise the question of how this is done. This looks to be a bit of a dog’s dinner.

There’s something wrong when a claim against a website results in others’ sites being taken down too - especially if they are elected politicians.

However, this point is dependent on the exact way the webhost is set up. The principle should be that the minimal disturbance is made to the offending website. My guess is that the web host in this case rents out a whole (or shared) server, and that was simply turned off.

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Did English Supporters Boo the Russian National Anthem?

From the desk of admin ·September 12, 2007 at 8:38 pm · Filed under News - Current Affairs, Not Cricket, Politics

Am I wrong, or did I just hear England supporters booing during the Russian National Anthem at the start of the England vs Russia football match?

So far I have not heard a peep on the commentary on either Radio 5 or BBC One.

Edit: I have now heard a (truncated) peep:

The BBC text commentary does report however:

1956: The King of Anthems at Wembley, but the majority of the fans in attendance don’t share those sentiments on the Russian national anthem if the booing is anything to go by.

It is not the footballers’ fault that they represent a country where the Government and President - Mr Putin - are apparently willing to procure and sponsor the murder of Mr Putin’s political critics, even in the Capital Cities of other countries:

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The Best Fantasy Football League in the World

From the desk of admin ·July 28, 2007 at 9:28 pm · Filed under Cricket, Knockabout, Not Cricket, Sport

A request comes from Iain Dale …

Join the Iain Dale Fantasy Football League!

No.

However, those of you who believe in venturing outside in summer without your anoraks may like to read a report of the current Trent Bridge Test Match between England and India on a blog about an interesting sport.

Preview here.

Day 1 here.

The blog is from an Indian perspective by Niral Vakil - which is a nice change.

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