ecuk268

All teams prepare the pitch to maximise their strengths but, as you say, despite Charlie going on about our spinners, it was Dimi that got us off to a flying start - 2 wickets for no runs at the beginning.

Have a look at his goalscoring record - it's pretty amazing.

Got a friend who had solar panels for water heating (not electricity generation) installed about 12 years ago. He keeps detailed records and reckons it took about 10 years to recoup the cost. His fuel consumption has dropped by between 20% and 25% so he's been in profit for 2 years. With the recent and future hikes in energy costs he's in a good position.

No, they'd have been in the Daily Mail by now.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Not that bothered about Scotch Eggs but I am partial to a slice of Gala Pie (pork pie with an egg in it).

No, I'm definitely not a teacher but I am married to one. If you think that large classes of bored teenagers are a myth, I suggest you visit some schools in "difficult" areas. Mrs ecuk268 has taught infants for decades in a variety of schools. When you've got a class of 25 -30 it only takes 2 or 3 disruptive ones to ruin it for everyone. Many people think that infants are not a problem but some of the ones coming into reception classes have no social skills, have no experience of books or even of sitting still and listening for 15 minutes. The differences in the home environment can make a huge difference to the progress that children make. There's one school in Southampton that is a national leader in infant education. Where is it? ---- Shirley Warren, but it has very skilled and dedicated staff.

If there's all this jealousy about teacher's holidays, there's nothing stopping the moaners re-training as teachers and then they could sample the delights of facing 30 bored disruptive teenagers who don't want to be there and whose parents don't give a toss about their education. When you take a job, you accept the conditions offered by your employer. As far as training goes, if successive governments stopped buggering about with the education system, there'd be less need for so many training courses.

That would be considered quite smart in P*mpey.

How do you pass the time on those long lonely voyages ???????

Like Southern Cross Care Homes??

Any competent aerial installer will have a signal-strength meter which they can use to get the best alignment and test the signal at each socket.

The previous Lib Dems were just as bad. Every week in the Echo there seemed to be ads for quite highly paid managerial jobs the descriptions of which made little sense to me (perhaps I'm thick). Southampton City Council seem to focus on grandiose projects (few of which come to fruition) rather than providing good basic services.

I see that Royston had some senior managers manning the Itchen Bridge toll booths. Perhaps he should put a few on the bins - probably be the best day's work they'd ever done. Strange that they can find £15m for the Sea Museum (Hannides Folly) and 800k to refurbish Oxford St, but they can't look after their own staff.

Ken Monkou was the only one.

Mrs ecuk268 used the Paynes Road one yesterday. Very nice job for a tenner.

Very true. I'll never forgive Robert Peel for the Corn Law reforms.

I started in 61. We must have been in the same year.

Best job in the world. I loved it. A rollercoaster ride but I glad it happened. To those whose kids are still young - make the most of it. They grow up incredibly fast and I really miss the endless games of footy on the Common (whatever the weather) and the visits to every Fire Station and Police Station open day within 30 miles.

Can't really say what things are like now but I came from a working class home, passed the 11 plus and went to Barton Peveril Grammar (this was in the 60s). I would say that the social mix was pretty varied. I certainly didn't feel out of place, there were plenty of kids with a similar background as well as those from more affluent homes. It didn't really matter to us, we all got along pretty well. What it did give us was self-confidence. I can remember the head telling us that we were the cream of the primary schools and no matter what our background we were as good as anyone else. It certainly wasn't a bastion of middle-class snobs.

I did my O levels in the late 60s and still have my maths papers. As with a previous poster they included calculus and, comparing them with my son's GCSE papers, they are certainly different. Whether they are harder or not, I don't know. You can only be examined on what you are taught and some of the current stuff is unfamiliar to me. Mrs ecuk268 has taught infants and juniors for decades and they do "set theory" which I didn't come across until degree level. The O levels were aimed at the grammar schools and the secondaries had CSEs. The GCSE seems to be a compromise between the two.

Dune is a good laugh with his ridiculous postings. Has anyone ever met him? I reckon he's in his 40's, possibly lives with his mum and has never been near a girl. Claims to be a member of UKIP but supports the Tories even though there's not a hope in hell that they'd withdraw from the EU.

Indeed, a great many things correlate but one rule that was stressed when I did my statistics stuff many years ago was "Correlation does not imply causality".

I've been on Saintslist for 17 years. It's strictly Saints stuff only and the discussion is usually fairly civilised. It led, indirectly, to the first Saints website hosted at the Uni.

Your garage may service your car but if they can't get the spares (from Lockheed) then there's not a lot they can do. The software, the guidance systems the fuses, the triggers all come from Lockheed. Aldermaston are the assemblers. Even Chevaline was developed in conjunction with Lockheed (and many others). Sir Michael Quinian, who was the head of Britains nuclear strategy, was asked what would happen if we attempted to go against the wishes of the US. He said that Lockheed would pack up and go home, taking their essential equipment with them, no spare parts would be available and as he put it: "We would be in shtook." Ex-Foreign Secretary Robon Cook also wrote that our nuclear deterrent was entirely dependant upon the US.