2020 was a fabulous year. If you’re a highly contagious virus. For the rest of us, it meant lockdowns, Brexit, and – most importantly – severe disruption to the rugby schedule.
The Six Nations finished on Hallowe’en, and we had an odd Autumn Nations Cup, in which one nation never played. Leagues were all over the place. Mostly, fans are still not allowed to attend matches, even when those matches have not been cancelled.
On the up side, the Saracens got relegated.
And there is the sheer beauty of this to end the year (thank you, Beeb):
Meanwhile, the OvallyBalls mascot is on the scent of newsworthy items.
She has been paying attention to recent news items, including this article, which contains the following snippet:
This requires not only forwards tracing (identifying who you might have given the infection to) but also backwards tracing (where you got it from).
Obviously, tracing both backwards and forwards is her forté, but it has caused her to wonder if, in rugby, we should refer to the forwards and the backwardses. Or be like the French, and call them the in-fronts and the behinds. She likes behinds.
But enough of that shite….
A new year has just emerged, squalling and puking in the manner of these things, and we have been finally shat completely out of the EU, but we do have the hope of vaccines (along with the knowledge that the Tories will inevitably fuck up the distribution).
And now Chimpie has a fully erect Melbury (no, me neither) that he is preserving and oiling. So that’s good news for him, even if the rest of us may wonder what the purpose of this ‘Melbury’ is.
I raise a glass to all the contributors and lurkers of OvallyBalls, with best wishes for 2021 for yourselves and those you care about*.
Happy new year!
*Except where that involves teams playing Ulster or Ireland.
Onna telly this week
Friday 1st January
| Bristol v Newcastle | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Scarlets v Dragons | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Cardiff v Ospreys | 19:35 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
Saturday 2nd January
| Pumas v Lions | 12:00 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Treviso v Zebre | 13:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Wasps v Exeter | 14:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Sharks v Griquas | 14:30 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Edinburgh v Glasgow | 15:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Gloucester v Sale | 16:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Cheetahs v Western Province | 17:00 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Ulster v Munster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Leinster v Connacht | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 3rd January
| Leicester v Bath | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Working OK for me Thaum. You sure there aren’t any beavers about, or Trump supporters? Mind you, the former are more intelligent than the latter.
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Ah, I hadn’t considered the possibility of beavers (during the 20 reloads it took to see your comment).
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Well one or two things. That Danish kids show needs to be fired into the sun. I mean, how many ideas do you need to feed to pedofiles to lure kids?
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Pedofiles are the tidy abusers maintaining a filing cabinet of victims in the garden shed.
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Evening CMW. Just wondering what to wear on my lap of honour. ‘Ooh Betty!’
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There are no words
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Palate cleanser:
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I can think of plenty, Refit.
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Refit – refund the police?
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refit, I welcome the fact that Laura K seems to have learnt not to overstate the case.
The fact she’s wrong again is unfortunate but, y’know, Rome wasn’t sacked in a day.
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Matt Hancock finally learns that the biopharmaceutical supply chain is hard
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“After a second outbreak of Covid-19 in Sydney, the match was being played in front of a reduced attendance of around 10,000 fans with the wearing of masks compulsory for fans except when they are eating or drinking.”
Anyone at the SCG need more of an excuse to keep the Tooheys in their hand ?
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Add age to the year you were born and this year everyone is 2020.
Gift that keeps on giving.
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My dug is 2021. (Cos she’s just had her birthday.)
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Thaum – Ah yes. So I’ll correct that to adding your age at the end of 2020 to the year of birth…
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I read that Leave.EU have moved their registered headquarters to Waterford so that they can keep the dotEU suffix.
Oh the ironing etc.
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Ah, the first post is now redundant, soz.
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Ticht – did you see the Graun article on Aretha’s sister? Was really interesting (and informative – I didn’t know she had one sister, never mind two!)
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/07/a-legend-in-her-own-right-carolyn-franklin-arethas-forgotten-sister
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Thanks for that, BB, I know practically nothing about her personal life
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I know she was notorious for not paying tradesmen who did work on her house.
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Did you by chance ever sell her a toothbrush or bag of chips, Thaum ?
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I think it was a fireplace that Thaum installed.
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Marion Ramsey RIP. The squeaky-voiced cop from the Police Academy series. Didn’t know this, but she apparently also starred in a Broadway production of Hello Dolly and an LA stage erosion of Little Shop of Horrors. Nobody has come forward claiming to have sold her a toothbrush yet.
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CMW – how dare you! Are you implying any connection between me and Gavin Williamson?
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Christopher Lee – Iks – Thaum – Aretha
I see no Gav.
But if you mean do I think you keep a pet tarantula and have a whip on your desk then obviously the answer is yes.
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According to Midol, the French government is furious after the ECPR, and blame them for the covid outbreak after the Leicester/Bayonne game. Laxer measures in the UK apparently led to 8 infections within the French club. Bayonne then missed two T14 games and had to shut down completely until Jan 15. But more importantly the UK variant spread quickly in the area.
The outcome being that the next two European cup games should be cancelled. As would the Women 6N and the U20’s as well.
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Wonder what the connection there is ? Cork or Dublin (even Galway) might seem more obvious – this sounds more like those dodgy companies that PE did a report on a few years back – vast numbers of them ‘operating’ out of an office in Roath, Cardiff (IIRC)
Youghal in Co Cork (just beyond Wateford county bound) has a historic connection with Walter Rale(i)gh – you’d think that would be the perfect connection??
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Research suggests that at least one type of plant – the french bean – may be more sentient than we give it credit for: namely, it may possess intent….
… “We see these signatures of complex behaviour, the one and only difference being is that it’s not neural-based, as it is in humans,” Calvo said. “This isn’t just adaptive behaviour, it’s anticipatory, goal-directed, flexible behaviour.”
The moral of this story is that whilst you are chowing down on Veganuary you are really eating Treebeard and his mates. Remember what happens if you fuck with the Ents? Documentary footage below:
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Trisk, according to the Graun
‘Leave.EU has left the UK, as Brexit forced the Eurosceptic campaign group to choose between its name and its country.
According to domain name registration records, the organisation, founded by businessman and activist Arron Banks, picked the former. The website is now registered in the name of Sean Power, the chief executive of the Ireland-based professional services company BSG.
When asked, however, Power, who is based in Waterford, insisted that he had no involvement with the organisation. When informed that his name and contact details were present on the registration, he said he would be “looking into the matter”.’
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/07/leaveeu-leaves-britain-after-brexit
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Ticht – you wrote ‘activist’ . I’m assuming this is a typo and you meant ‘shithead’.
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Craigs, I C&Ped that from the Graun article, I wouldn’t have stopped at “shithead”
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Ticht – ah I see. Well they refer to several of their staff as ‘journalists’ when ‘shithead’ is appropriate as well.
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OT – he’s not Kazakh otherwise he’d start with ‘Jagshemesh!’
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Thaum and for anyone interested in watching:
“Premiership Rugby have this morning confirmed that Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership Round Six clash between Exeter Chiefs and Bristol Bears, set to be played at Sandy Park, will now kick-off at 4:30pm.
Yesterday’s announcement that Northampton’s clash with Leicester Tigers had been cancelled due to an outbreak of Covid within the Saints squad meant there was a vacant TV slot for host broadcasters BT Sport to fill.
In a re-arrangement of their listings, BT Sport will now show the Newcastle Falcons clash at home to Gloucester at 2pm, after which they will switch their attentions to the top-of-the-table, Westcountry derby between the Chiefs and the Bears.
Both games will be shown live on BT Sport 2.”
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@OT – I like the way he just specifies -40 degrees as it’s same in C and F
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@trisk
Correct. It’s an excellent tactic to stop the waters being muddied.
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trisk, professional wanker Paul Staines, who runs the right-wing gossip site Guido Fawkes, is based in Waterford as well. He was in favour of Britain leaving the EU.
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Dublin move update:
We are going to have to rent a flat and somewhere near my missus’s office. There’s one that looks ok that overlooks yer actual RDS – well, you can see about a third of the pitch. Am quite tempted. There was another one with a view of a greyhound track that am not quite so keen on. Also, the rents are fucking massive.
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I don’t know why, but the way this guys speaks and his manner are slightly surprising to me (before OT or CMW says anything, I am referring to the guy with the horns…. No not him the weird twat… The guy with weird tattoos… OK the American who is not Brian Cox). Not the content of what he says though. That’s spot on:
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‘our’ Exeter team to face Bristol
15 Jack Walsh, 14 Olly Woodburn,, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ollie Devoto, 11 Ian Whitten
10 Joe Simmonds MBE (capt), 9 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
1 Alec Hepburn,2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3 Harry Williams
4 Will Witty, 5 Jonny Hill
6 Dave Ewers, 7 Don Armand, 8 Sam Simmonds
16 Jack Yeandle, 17 James Kenny, 18 Tomas Francis, 19 Tom Price, 20 Sam Skinner, 21 Sam Maunder, 22 Corey Baldwin, 23 James Short
A bit Covid and injury ravaged.
I do not like: Jack Walsh
I do like to see some internationals return, incl. the Welsh wizard Tomas Francis!
Plus, someone found James Short in the stock-room.
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‘professional wanker’
All these years and I could have been getting paid????
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Oooh, TomP’s going to be all D4 soon.
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Chimpie – how’s the Melbury?
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@Chimpie – Not that soon, they probably won’t let him infor the time being.
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Chimpie, my grandmother and my great-aunt both lived there in the 40s. It’s sort of a homecoming. Am not nearly posh enough.
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