stevegrant

I'd like to think there are services that are similar to SportsMania that provide streams for other types of channels, e.g. movies, US network stations like HBO, CBS, NBC, etc.

Copenhagen Airport is closer than Central, so no surprise it's a bit cheaper. I booked mine two weeks ago, so not particularly bothered about a slightly quicker train, quite happy with my reserved table seat

Worth noting they don't say how many of those subscribers are on any of the premium packages, and as far as I'm aware they've never released the number of Sky Sports subscribers publicly. Certainly their viewing figures aren't generally anything to write home about - I think their record rated audience for a Premier League game is about 1.1m.

Copenhagen train is unaffected by the engineering works. Changing at Skandersborg to a regional train, which also seems to be unaffected.

IE is never the solution to any problem.

Thing is, for every ****ed-off subscriber, they're recruiting more to replace them. According to their latest figures (released last month for the year to the end of June), they added a net 973,000 subscribers, 45% more than the previous year. They still pulled in more than £11bn in revenue and £1.4bn operating profit. The fact that they've got themselves heavily invested in the "triple play" market (i.e. phone, broadband and TV) before BT decided TV was a good thing to get into means they're still going to be making more than enough money to cover the cost of the new eye-watering Premier League deal.

It won't be. It's only because of a combination of the particularly small allocation and the blatant abuse of the loyalty system for the Vitesse game. If we get through, most potential opponents will have much bigger grounds and therefore bigger away allocations.

I've been on the top package with Sky for at least a decade, but it's now getting to the stage where I'm genuinely questioning whether it's worth the hassle any more. I've got a 100MB fibre connection, so streaming isn't a problem, and a Sportsmania subscription costs less than a fiver a month for six months, while Sky charge £75.75 for the "Variety with Sport and Movies" package and BT have whacked their non-BT-TV rate for BT Sport with HD up to £23.99 since the start of this season. £100 a month, and I reckon I watch about 10-12 channels. **** that.

We've got a team, just would prefer a few subs as well.

Could still do with a couple of additional players for this, if anyone's around. 11am kickoff at Parmiters School (WD25 0UU).

Already signed for Yorkshire, as if they actually needed him.

Not when half the tickets (conservative estimate) ended up in the hands of others, with those whose customer numbers were used being unable/unwilling to travel to Arnhem, thereby ruling them out of Midtjylland because of the "collection with ID" thing.

Trent Bridge does seem to be a bit of a road at the moment, Kent chased down 340 to win there on Monday.

Surely just a one-off due to the size of the allocation, pretty unlikely we'll have similar problems again. I would assume it'll be set up in a hotel in the town centre so it's easy for everyone to find - the stadium's a fair walk from the town centre with not a great deal around it, by the look of it.

Spurs' tickets were £20 in most areas for their group games, which rose for the knockout stage. No idea about Everton's. I'd expect ours to remain at £15 if we get through, with the possible exception of the "pot 1" team if it's a real big one like Dortmund.

Haven't we said that for each of the last three seasons, resulting them ending up in a relegation battle and sacking club legends in the process?

The attendance for the Vitesse game was 30,850. Midtjylland will only be bringing around 300 or so over, so that's around 1100 fewer, so already pushes the comparable attendance down below your "what it should be" level.

The game's next week.

Not especially. A win would guarantee progress, but we've got another game to come yet, and we could conceivably lose both and still qualify.

The scheduling is ridiculous, and the ECB never even come close to getting it right. I'd go along with your idea of three divisions for the County Championship with two-up, two-down through the three divisions, but I'd go one step further and make them 5-day games of 90 overs per day, replicating Test match conditions. That would mean a possible 450 overs in a game compared to 384, which would obviously give greater opportunity for positive results in games affected by bad weather. Bring the T20 competition back to a 6-week block in the middle of June and July - this will ensure the players aren't chopping and changing playing formats every few days, we've had situations this year where teams have actually played all three formats in the space of a week, FFS Having the T20 group stage in a block also ensures that any overseas players recruited are generally available for the whole competition, rather than popping in for 3 or 4 games then buggering off, forcing the county to sign another player for the rest of the competition. The 50-over competition is probably fine in terms of the format, but perhaps have half of the group stage before the T20 kicks off, with the rest afterwards, so there's only one limited-overs format in play at any one time.

Worked so well against this lot last time Think we've got full-backs, just need another centre-back.

Venue confirmed as Parmiters School. Could do with at least one more defender if anyone fancies a game...

Impossible to think we could travel up on the Friday, obviously... Basically, they've decided that because Warwickshire (not going to call them Birmingham, **** off franchising) are in one of the semi-finals, they'll try to string it out as long as possible for the local interest, to keep anyone who's local in the ground from start to finish. They'll be ****ed if Warwickshire get smashed in the semi-final, though.

I've been very impressed with Sportsmania so far - the communal dish at home is playing up a bit so a few of my Sky Sports HD channels aren't available through the dish, so having that as a backup solution is ideal. Worth bearing in mind, though, that you probably won't be streaming Sky Sports in full 1080p because I'm pretty sure they don't actually broadcast at that frame rate - it's 1080i (still!).