Couple of quizzes to keep you entertained. There are no real rules; I will post the answers after a suitable period of time. Discussion is permitted.
Cwiz 1: Prisons
1. In which novel did Edmond Nantes escape from the Chateau d’If?
2. In which prison was the Marquis de Sade incarcerated?
3. Which South African prison was named after the Afrikaans word for seal?
4. Which Cavalier poet wrote, “Stone walls do not a prison make”?
5. Which US prison took its name from pelicans?
6. Who wrote
I never saw a man who looked,
With such a wistful eye,
Upon that little tent of blue,
Which prisoners call the sky.
7. Tartarus was a dungeon in Greek myth; for whom was it built?
8. Frank Darabont directed which prison movie?
9. Which isolated UK prison opened in 1809 to house Napoleonic War prisoners?
10. In 1952, the Kray twins were held in which historic prison?
This cwiz is courtesy of ProfessorPineapple
Cwiz 2: Scrambled Plays
1. Forgoing toadwit
2. Meth cab
3. Née in lewd farmyards
4. Limp agony
5. Anal seas fathomed
6. Sex up or die
7. A Leo knocking bar
8. See earthling games
9. I scorn hero
10. Sole had soul
Ovally Balls 
It’s not a bad case.
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Fuck. Bottled that. To cap it all, can’t remember what I wanted to say.
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CMW, Brigham’s a Saffer. 4 of that Vonohrady are. They all play for the Czech national side. There was one Czexh-born player in that side, Mik Stary. He’s a good lad. Spent a lot of time in Australia. Vinohrady were never my favourite club when I played but they’re the best at getting Czech players playing.
That ground they were playing at is a nice one but things like sight screens are in short supply. Nowhere to store them for a start. Also, the guy who looked after that ground dropped dead a few weeks ago.
I can’t reveal all the details but they got a relatively large sum of money for the rights for an app to show the games on. The stats and graphics were paid for by the European Cricket Network. There’s a director for the coverage as well. It is impressive work given the standard of play.
The youtube comments on it are very very funny. Some people saying it’s shit. Czech cricket people being very defensive.
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There will be some (righteous) smugness in Heidelberg, as Iks’ Brave Wolves are thumping West Ham at the moment.
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BB, the Gooners got stuffed by Brighton this afternoon, right up their holes.
Boo!
Though it’s probably for a best as it means Brighton have a better chance of staying up.
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Ticht, there’s a pub near me called GUNNERS BAR. Big Arsenal flag in the window. Never been in. Heard it was good 15 years ago but the then landlord stayed on too long and since then it’s not been up to much.
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Baddoom, and indeed, tish, TomP.
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Fair play, that is a decent gag
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My loophole is thrumming, BB.
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Thrum away Mr Iks. By all accounts, it was a fairly straightforward win, although West Ham are pretty crap these days.
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@TomP – as I said I thought it was great fun. It’s very hard to tell the actual standard as nothing even vaguely equivalent would normally be on TV and without having seen levels I’m familiar with in that way there’s no way to compare. I suspect that some of those guys are actually very good players, but it’s so hard to say. The only cricket I’ve played outside the UK was one game in Luxembourg in about 2000 against the best team there who at the time were highly competitive in the Belgian league. They were miles too good for us (former Cambridgeshire captain and loads of good Indians/Pakistanis/West Indians etc), but were a good lot and manufactured a game. I would say they were quite a bit better than the Czechs (and I didn’t get to see them really trying), but that might be rose-tinted glasses and/or just the way things come over when filmed as opposed to in the flesh.
For the record I don’t have a thing about sightscreens, I don’t notice if they’re there or not when I’m batting. I don’t notice movement behind the bowler’s arm when I’m batting either though I do when keeping wicket. Not that it distracts me, but I do do something about it as I’m always captain and don’t want anyone feeling put out. I do think whether or not they’re there could be an indication of how better players are going to feel about facing fast bowling (if there was any) on a gloomy day on a tree-ringed ground in the wet and on an artificial pitch though and maybe give a clue to the standard.
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“Czech cricket people being very defensive.”
The Czech national team captain (assuming Wiki is up to date) probably was overly defensive, but got away with it as the other lot didn’t bat too well.
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Proper cricket: https://www.3team.cricket/come-again
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CMW, the Czechs have beaten Luxembourg a couple of times recently. Also, lost to them a couple of times as well. My club used to have some guys who came from the UK (and another from Norway) to do medicine at Prague University. One of them was a very good left-arm spinner from Bridgend who’d played a game or two for Glamorgan Seconds when he was a teenager. He only played for enjoyment here.
Czech cricket’s come on a lot in the last five years because of a change in visa/work permit laws for South Asians but it’s still small beer.
The pitches are really slow and low if there’s a bit of rain around, which can even things up a bit.
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Slow and low sounds like my kind of pitch. Sweep, sweep and sweep again.
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My two shot routine: blocking and cross-bat lungeing one way or another.
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I suppose now is a good time as any. Thauma seems to have succumbed to ennui, or is on a sojourn to follow Sag’s footsteps to who-knows-where.
So this round of Ovally Balls is filling up and up, like a stretchy balloon under a water tap, and ‘matron – the screens!’ has taken on a new meaning as the cricketers pad up for a new day.
So I’m coming out about Cat Stevens. He was my hero when I was under the council-house lash of poverty and puberty in the 70s. Nothing new there I suppose, but a couple of shutdown weeks ago I fell headlong into some official remasters of his albums as uploaded on youtube.
Catch Bull at Four and Foreigner in particular sounded wonderful, and Buddha and the Chocolate Box was far better than I remembered it.
And the bugger is that if I face up to it, it’s because they are really influenced by Prog music.
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They seem to be very quiet conversations. Probably for the best.
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Cat freakin’ Stevens? Aaargh!
Sorry, I have been working the last 3 weekends (and next one too) as well as trying to find a dug….
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Trip to Podebrady went ok-ishly.
We missed the stop on the train and ended going 20 kms down the track. Very kindly, the train crew helped us out. They even called to the next train back to Podebrady to look after us. Didn;t even charge us a fare for the extra travel.
The town of Podebrady is charming for the most part. It sits on the Labe, which is the Elbe but in Czech, and is a spa town. The gardens are beautifully laid out. There’s a castle. There are ice-cream parlours. Trouble was it rained all the time.
Around town there are taps that bring the health-giving spring water to your cup or bottle. Our research pointed us to the “smell of eggs and the taste of blood” and there was a certain wariness as the bottle was brought to the lips for a taste. There was a distinct unwariness as the bottle was hurled away on first contact with truly awful smell of the water.
But that railway station is really lovely, Stained glass windows in the ticket hall that let a lot of light in. Splendid.
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Might have to give that cricket a go, have to say I have found the super rugby hugely unsatisfying. Far more interested in the NRL, tbh, even enoyed the Raiders Sea Eagles game live, which was a real chess match of a league game. Seems to be a spate of disallowed tries because of leading runners obstructing defenders, unusual for league. Seems to be far more of a problem in union. In prehistoric times, passing a ball behind a player was instantly called for offside and or obstruction, as I recall.
Even enjoyed MOTD more the the union .
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Interesting interview with Will Carling ( hero of mine):
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jun/22/will-carling-i-didnt-open-the-curtains-for-a-year-i-was-so-battered
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The Super Rugby matches haven’t been great. Very much pre-season feel to the skills, even if the intensity and fitness levels seem decent enough. Very similar to Liverpool last night, although they were wobbly before the break. Still, lots of final touches and passes going astray, much like the rugby.
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All I want is for Anfield’s finest to get the points and win the bloody thing officially. Is that too much to ask?
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Liverpool didn’t have Super Andy Robertson playing for them last night, DeeBee. See what happens when you don’t have a Scot in your team?
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NZ rugby? Too many drop goals, innit.
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BB, I remember the great Liverpool sides of yore had quite a few Scots. Alan Hansen reckoned that at training they used to play 5 or 6 a side, with England vs Scotland a regular feature and the Scots usually winning because they had more drive and fight than the English players. And after that ramble, a couple of scrappy 1-0 wins would do it for me. Then rebuild for next season.
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TomP, now they’ve got rid of the one-dimensional Dan Carter playbook, Kiwi 10s can express themselves more fully. Embracing the total rugby of Morne Steyn.
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Fuck me. Read the Carling interview that Slade posted and for the most part it’s fascinating and quite brilliant in it’s deconstruction of rugby then and now, but his claim that “Argentina might not be a traditional rugby country but their team’s done bloody well.” just floored me. What qualifies you as a ‘traditional rugby country ‘? Do you have to have been part of the empire and/or European? Carling spends a fair part of the article talking about being an outsider and victimized and casually dismisses 100 years of Argentine rugby because it took them years to break through? Not much self awareness.
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Hope the dug Thauma is looking for is a new one, not an old one gone missing.
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This may appeal to those of us that are a certain age……
(So not you, Craigs)
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his claim that “Argentina might not be a traditional rugby country but their team’s done bloody well.” just floored me. What qualifies you as a ‘traditional rugby country ‘? Do you have to have been part of the empire and/or European?
In short, yes. The International Rugby Board slowly expanded from the Home Unions to the “White Dominions” in the later 1940s. France only got a place on the board in the late 1970s. Argentina not until 1991.
I suppose they were part of the informal British empire in the late 19th and very early 20th Centuries.
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Did someone just talk about Will Carling and self awareness?
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BB – is it punk rock? If its not I’m never gonna like it.
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Punk’s not dead. Just the blog.
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“In short, yes. The International Rugby Board slowly expanded from the Home Unions to the “White Dominions” in the later 1940s. France only got a place on the board in the late 1970s. Argentina not until 1991.”
So in that case, traditional rugby countries are the home unions? Having a seat at the IRB seems to be the single worst criterion for being considered a traditional rugby country. He’s a twat.
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Kicked it back to life Craigs. It’s popping!
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Deebs – that’s a skill. Normally I kick things to death, not the other way round.
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The traditional rugby countries I’d say are viewed as the Home Unions + France (annual fixtures very early) = SA, NZ and Australia. Maybe it’s better to say traditional rugby powers.
For geographical and political reasons Argentina never quite made it. There were British and Irish Lionz touring sides there before World War II but those tours aren’t considered canon. unlike the Lionz tours of SA and Australasia. As late as 1976 Wales didn’t play as Wales v Argentina but as a Welsh XV,
A major part of those early tours to or from SA and Australasia were to strengthen ties of Empire and nation-building exercises.
I don’t think Carling was dismissing the tradition of rugby in Argentina but making the point that Beaumont can be seeen as the “traditional” conservative candidate while Pichot comes from outside that old guys in the clubhouse talking about heritage stereotype.
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Been on the hunt for Marmite in the last couple of days. Nothing doing in the three stores I’ve been into. I’d heard about the shortage but never thought it would happen to me, here, now.
What they did have was Marmite Peanut Butter. I’m not a great fan of peanut butter. How Marmitey is it?
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Marmite peanut butter is marvelous. Fantastic. A culinary triumph.
My missus loves it – her yoga teacher introduced it to her.
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The horror. Ruining harmless peanut butter with that ghastly brown muck
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It’s like something that Ashton chap would do
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Very true Chimpie, very true. Why would you want to eat marmite, never mind destroy peanut butter with it. Ashton levels of evil and Carling levels of arrogance.
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Tomp, I usually adorn my marmite with peanut butter, so its probably acceptable in a premix. Kind of nice with chease melted on top too.
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Shit, I agree with Chimpie on a culinary matter.
Maybe it’s the lockdown. Yes, I’ll blame that.
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kicks peanut butter and marmite sandwich to death
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Tomp – I always felt a bit stung about your comment that the food chat on here is largely showing off.
But I completely understand now. We’re on the same page.
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@craigs
It’s true. People talking about food on here are just signalling to others exactly how they want to appear
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