St Landrew

Yeah, I thought about popping in on that, but then it suddenly dawned on me that a motorbike might not be the right thing to turn up on. Hoping to go to Sammy Miller's Motorbike Museum today. In all the years it has been in the New Forest, and I've been aware of it, I've never been. £5.90 for adults, Kids £3.00, open until 4.30pm, before you ask. http://www.sammymiller.co.uk/default.asp BTW, I wasn't meaning to hi-jack.

Oh no, there is a difference, Sidney. You think it didn't happen. We know it did. Get the idea..?

Don't know whether it was expected, but Vale just wings on that Yamaha M1, and came in with a stunning Pole position. Dani Pedrosa did well, but Jorge wasn't happy. Neither was Casey Stoner, but that's nothing unusual. He still looks a bit unwell. So, 1. Rossi, 2. Pedrosa, 3. Lorenzo, 4. Stoner. JT came in 9th, and the 3rd row, which isn't anywhere near as bad as it reads. A good start tomorrow into Redgate and he'll be dicing with the leaders. Do I need to put up a Google Earth photo..? No, but here's one anyway. 250ccs up next, but I've got the itch to get the Viffer out. Cheers.

Just been watching the 125cc qualifying. It's just like watching a race, the way they crack round the track in a gaggle of bikes. Bloody hell, they ain't hanging about. And the good news is... is that Bradley Smith got Pole position.

Absolutely. It should be remembered that he has always had good intentions, and has often stepped in to make the difference.

There's a danger of getting a bit too precious about all the takeover happenings and timings. Yes Pinnacle wasted time, but isn't it great Saints are now on a sound footing..? Yes it may well take another season to sort things out, but it may have taken that anyway. The club has been at a very low ebb, and has League One status to illustrate the plight, despite all the Premiership trappings. But it is getting back up on its feet again. Let's celebrate that new scenario; see what the new season holds, and actually place our trust in good management.

He should be, but Cycling, out of an Olympic year, is too minority a sport. Shame, as he deserved an Olympic medal and didn't get one, and he will be deprived of this recognition too. What is it, a GB record 9 Tour De France stage wins now..?

Everybody has seen the Disney adaptation, but a few years back I saw a TV movie version, which incidentally included a lot of CGI so that the tricks of size changes and disproportionate head to body size could be recreated [see sketches of the original Mad Hatter]. Martin Short played the Mad Hatter, and he was generally funny and, quite eccentrically, English, with a touch of unavoidable U.S. accent thrown in. Here's a couple of excerpts of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party: Part 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vwi9Yn2aF4 Part 2.

Which includes finding employment for [yawn] Johnny Depp again. I'm not particularly down on Johnny Depp. It's just that it's so bloody obvious to pick him as the stock US actor who can put on a UK accent which the US cinema going public think is authentic. If Tim Burton wanted to be surprising, then giving someone else a go would make a change. Like an English actor..? No doubt Michael Keaton was his number two choice.

Sorry for picking this up, Hammy, I liked the suing, but I loved the Education. You couldn't have placed the second typo better if you had tried. We all do them occasionally, but that's a beaut.

I'm not sure my fellow mods and admin would accept that. However, if they did take up your suggestion, I have a name for it... Lest We Forget..!

Well I tuned in for 5 minutes, and it was 5 minutes too long. Heartily sick of it. Those that can stomach the station, please will they report back anythng significant..?

In case anybody missed it, I saw a trailer on the BBC about their coverage of the British Grand Prix [as they like to call it] this Sunday. I have to say, most MotoGP fans are beginning to get thoroughly p!ssed off with Auntie's coverage, of late, because this season is bloody exciting, and although the BBC recognise that their audience feedback for MotoGP is the best for all the sports they cover, they are beginning to contract their overall coverage, it seems. They get a third of the size of the F1 audience, and they don't promote it one jot; whereas F1, for example only, is hyped wall-to-wall. Are they taking the hint..? Not yet it seems, because there have been noticable pre and post race cutbacks, despite the excitement during the races. So it appears that MotoGP has to float its popularity by itself, which is a shame, because of all channels, the Beeb have the ability to force a change through if they so desire. They outbid other companies to transmit MotoGP LIVE in GB, and I think it is about time they broadcast with the same committment as others were going to, should they have have won the bidding game. Anyway, rant over. The last Donington Park Motorcycle Grand Prix runs this Sunday afternoon, and interest in James Toseland's personal account will be acute. There's no doubt Messers Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner and probably Pedrosa will start as 1st to 4th favourites. But James is on home territory, and I expect a geat result from him, or a crash, it's that simple. Here are the broadcast times. They have been constantly pushed around this season, so apologies if you are looking at something else, when this guide says MotoGP: DONINGTON - GREAT BRITAIN Saturday 25 July Qualifying 1250-1600, BBC Red Button/online Sunday 26 July 125 and 250cc race 1220-1435, BBC Red Button/online Race 1500-1630, BBC One/online MotoGP Extra 1630-1700, BBC Red Button/online Would have been nice to get tomorrow's [Friday's] free practice, just like F1 gets, but we're not bitter. :mad: In qualifying and the race proper on Sunday, also look out for the 3 Brits, Bradley Smith, Scott Redding and Danny Webb, in the 125cc class, at 12.20pm. 125cc races are incredibly competitive, and nobody is ever safe of a result. Also look out for Lee Saint's wild carder - Paul Jordan in this class too.

Was thinking about how loosely people are assuming sports to be. We have Darts, Snooker, and Golf. To me, these are not sports, as such, but games. They do not require one to train for long hours to be the best, although practice makes better, there is no doubt. And I suspect I feel that Golf is the game that gets closest to being a sport, while still being just a game. The highest level of sports require that the sportsman be at the peak of their condition, whether they be footballers, rowers, sprinters, riders or drivers. In the last Olympics, the Aussies said that Team GB were good at every sport where the contestants competed on their arses. And that was a very good observation, which might make the average person think that those sports are not as exhausting as others. Well, I can tell you as a dinghy [and keelboat] sailor of many years, that it is bloody exhausting, and you do need to be extremely fit to race an Olympic dinghy class boat. I doubt I could do it. But there are other pastimes which could be classed as sport, if we're going to stretch a point. And here, I'll nominate another candidate as greatest ever - Ellen MacArthur. I have the upmost respect for her as a sportsperson. But stretching that point again, I have to include people who have beaten the trail to the point that the impossible becomes possible, and is now competition. Here I'll include Robin Knox-Johnston, who is an example to everyone that personal and world boundaries can be pushed, in almost any direction. But the personification of my point is Ranulph Fiennes. I have so much utter respect for that bloke and his achievements as a person to be first. His strengths are everything I am not, but strive for, as I get older. To him, limitations are there, not just to be challenged, but completely overrun. If you don't believe me, try running 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 different continents. He did, and only 4 months after a heart bypass operation. People who play sport extremely well aren't driven in the way most people acknowledge the term. That suggests they are doing something against all the odds, and they'd rather be doing something else. Most sportsman love the sport they are involved in. It takes drive to be at the top, but when, like Fiennes, you are actually doing something you don't particularly enjoy, i.e. crossing the polar caps, that takes real drive to be the best. Something that the ordinary star sports person could only dream about.

This new broom is really sweeping clean, All the fans know, and have known for bloody ages, that the squad which, last season was essentially the academy, plus a few faces, is despearately short on experience and leadership. The time-honoured wisdom is, you never put kids into a team unless it is doing excellently well, and can absorb their inexperience. Last season we had a team full of inexperienced kids, with a few players, who had seen better times, around their 30's. That isn't the way to play competitive football, and now the squad is even thinner. Thank goodness AP isn't papering over the cracks, or suggesting Saints have the slimmest chance of doing anything spectacular in League One without a wholesale change. I think it's relatively safe to say that we're practically all with AP on this one. EDIT: Having now read Panda's post, it explains the situation far better than I have. Excellent summation IMO.

We made something like £1500 by doing that. First we changed our money into $NZ then 15 months or so later changed the whole lot back to £GB. The result was our first high powered PC [for those days] and internet connection by 1994-5. As I remember we got 39 dollars for our 10 pounds, then coming back it only took 21 dollars to get 10 pounds. Result. Good old Tory govt boom and busting the economy again. Just for our benefit too.

Saints, no contest. In football, nothing else matters or even exists, as far as I'm concerned.

On a mere detail then - Alan Shepard of Apollo 14 [i will have my little details], the hitter of said golf ball, lifted up his visor, as the ball raced away, and proclaimed that it went... miles and miles and miles. Now whether that qualifies it as the furthest a golf ball has ever been struck, I don't know. It apparently went upto 400 yards, which wasn't at all bad. I remember that it went off at a fantastic rate for a golf ball being struck one handed by a bloke in a cumbersome spacesuit holding a long trowel with the head removed and a 6 iron club head attached instead. Of course, it wouldn't have had anything to do with there being one sixth the gravity. He just must have got a fantastic shot off and at the third attempt, if I'm not mistaken. The first attempt was a mis-hit, which, IIRC elicited a very American... got more dirt than ball..! The second one went fairly straight. EDIT: Little Realplayer clip here: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a14/a14v.1350811.rm

You'd think so, but apprently not - as mentioned by the NZ news media.

Hey, S-i-P, I understand that the quake brought the South Island 12 inches closer to Australia. So there was no upside in that event then.

Got a sneaky feeling it's a timing chain, so the usual 60,000 miles doesn't apply. Probably 120,000 miles, but that's just a guess. Wait for more informed opinion.

Irony. And I thought only Americans didn't get it. Perhaps we've a few people instilled with a little too much of the U.S. culture and not enough of the old UK stuff.

I don't believe it, you're kidding me Baj. If I yawn before pulling away I can get the Viffer to make that time. [only kidding, that's not bad] And then there's all the effort the car guys are making to get within... what 4-5 seconds at best of your time..? Get a Yaris, Polo or some Honda car thingy that I can't remember but is reliable.

To us he will always remain priceless. In the open market his sublime skills would be overshadowed by lesser skilled by far, but greater ambitious players, just like they were when he was playing. Ambition gets you a long way if you want to be recognised. If you want to be loved in football, then loyalty goes the furthest. Add that quality to the fact that the man was a total and utter genius with a football at his feet, and you have the perfect combination for Saints fans. For everybody else I'd say £40M. Priceless with no MacDonalds gut and good training regime.

Do you people not get small or something..? Everything you recommend is either 2.0 or extremely ballsy smaller engined. The man has a motorcycle to get his kicks on. It'll outperform anything you suggest by a mile.