Tuesday 30 June 2009

Going, going ......

I keep intending to write an update on the ongoing saga of the takeover/buyout/rescue of Southampton Football Club. But with so many twists and turns a) things keep changing before I get the chance and b) if I did even fans of Dan Brown's novels would describe it as too far-fetched.

Suffice to say that it would appear that apart from our relegation, the rest of my predictions are now looking horribly wrong. Today the two main interested parties pulled out , one putting all the blame on the Football League's intransigence but in reality it looks unlikely that either ever had the necessary backing. Our only hope now is between a Swiss consortium that have been around for a while but managed to keep themselves virtually secret (possibly a good thing, after all the self promoting time wasters have come to no good), and a newly reported "foreign consortium". It would seem that if either are really interested the they'll have to move fast, as it appears that Friday is make or break day for the club. If, with management contracts ending today, and our unpaid players seemingly leaving by the hour , there is even a club left to save.

I'm hoping the Swiss come up with the goods - their very nationality gives an air of professionalism and efficiency - but if not even my usually optimistic self is fearing the weekend papers discussing English football's biggest financial casualty in history.

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Twenty 20 Over & Out

So England bid farewell to the Twenty20 World Cup. To be fair they'd got as far as they deserved to. The selectors still seem unable to grasp that this is virtually a different sport to even 50 over cricket, let alone 5 day tests.

How ironic that it was the english weather that helped contribute to our eventual defeat.

There's one thing I don't understand. The infamous Duckworth/Lewis method takes a lot of criticism but I've yet to see a better method of deciding weather affected games. But why was it even necessary yesterday? England had completed their innings and the game was being played under floodlights. So why couldn't it have continued till it's natural 20 over conclusion? Under lights is under lights even if it's 3 in the morning.

The competition will continue without us, with the cavalier play and (over-) enthusiastic atmospheric crowds its unlikely to diminish in excitement and entertainment .

Wednesday 10 June 2009

There's no "I" in "team"



Some pictures simply don't require a caption. (but then google wouldn't find it)


Cristiano Ronaldo , MUFC, Man Utd, football, funny,

Friday 5 June 2009

So Did You Vote ?

I voted last night. After hearing all the predictions of low turn out I was surprised that the ballot box (one of 3 at my station) was so full that a ruler was needed to poke the slips right through the slot. Yet the official turnout was still only 38.29% against a previous turnout of over 64%.

I really think the time has come that voting became compulsory. What message is being sent by the 60%+ in my neighbourhood that didn't vote. Apathy? Lack of understanding? Feeling no-one represents their views? Simply too busy? Big Brother was starting? No doubt the Labour Party who still seem to be living in Cloud Cuckoo Land will claim it is simply a temporary protest and that their voters will be back when it matters for a General Election. Maybe they'd be right, I doubt it, but whatever our views we can only speculate.

We can read opinion polls untill we are blue in both the face and , hopefully, the government. But the only poll that counts is the one at the ballot box. And the only way that it can be assured that a country is being run according to the wishes of the majority of its populus - and before anyone says it, I know our first past the post system doesn't necessarily mean the majority support the winners - is to ensure that they all vote. Everybody would of course have the right to vote for "none of the above" and/or spoil their paper. Now if 60%+ of the population actually did that, then that would be sending a very strong message to all the parties that they are not listening to the man in the street.

I know that one of the many stay-aways was my 19 year old step daughter who doesn't vote because, as she puts it, "What's it got to do with me". I fear that politicians of all parties seem so alien to vast sections of society that we could have whole generations growing up with the same attitude. In years to come we could end up with our government being elected by as few as 5% or so of the population.


How it could be assured that everybody votes is a practical issue that I have no answer to at the moment but I am sure it is a problem that could be overcome if the will was really there amongst all parties.

Thursday 4 June 2009

Missing - An Appeal


Missing, originally uploaded by tezzer57.

Spotted amongst a fellow Flickr members photos. I hope they find him