Turn off the phones, lock the kids in the soundproof basement, prepare your food and drink and turn on the telly, ‘cos it’s time for the European cups again.
Prognostication is not my forté, but I’ll give it a bash for the Big Cup matches.
Northampton v Racing 92
I was surprised to discover that Racing 92 are only in 8th position in the Top 14, whereas the Saints are sitting pretty in third place in the English Premiership. However, Racing know how to bring their best game to an important match, so I’m going for les Parisiens by 7.
Cardiff v Toulouse
Can’t see anything other than a Toulousain trouncing of the hosts by about 15 points.
Leinster v Bath
With Bath languishing at the bottom of the Premiership, this can only go one way. Blue Meanies by 40.
Bordeaux v Leicester
The two top teams in their respective leagues, again to my surprise. I’ll raise a glass of Haut-Médoc to the home side by 3.
Clermont Auvergne v Ulster
Having attended this fixture in a previous competition, ordinarily I’d say a safe win for the home side. However, TomPirracas’ sleuthing informs us that Clermont is a Covid-ravaged camp, so that and downright foolish optimism leads me to predict Ulster by a point.
Exeter v Montpellier
Another tough one to predict, so home advantage to provide a narrow win.
Ospreys v Sale
Ospreys must be exhausted after last week, but Sale are not doing very well this year. Ospreys by 7.
Connacht v Stade Français
Connacht are on good form, and have been unlucky to narrowly lose a couple of their matches so far. I have no similar insights on SF, but they are towards the bottom of the table. Connacht by 4.
La Rochelle v Glasgow
Two fifth-place sides competing. Hmm. Chez nous by 3.
Wasps v Munster
Given Munster’s very depleted squad, Wasps by 15. At least.
Onna telly this week
Friday 10th December
| Northampton v Racing 92 | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Lyon v Gloucester | 20:00 | BT Sport 3 |
Saturday 11th December
| Cardiff v Toulouse | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Leinster v Bath | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bordeaux v Leicester | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
| Clermont v Ulster | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| USAP v Dragons | 17:30 | S4C |
| Exeter v Montpellier | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 12th December
| Ospreys v Sale | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Connacht v Stade Français | 13:00 | BT Sport 3 | ||
| La Rochelle v Glasgow | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 | ||
| Wasps v Munster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Cary Grant was a Bristol lad, he didn’t pull down any statues as far as I’m aware, though
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He has his own statue there, quite near the Arnolfini. A gorgeous man.
His relationship to Bristol is complex cos of his mum.
I read a piece about how he used to go to the pantomime in the city every year and one year George Formby was starring in it. Supposedly, they got on and Cary had been a fan of George Formby Sr in his Archie Leach days.
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Which reminds me of the line from “His Girl Friday” – “the last man who said that to me was Archie Leach – just before he cut his throat!”
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He does climb all over the heads of some not exactly statues in NbyNW
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Just seen North by Northwest for the first time over the holidays. It was enjoyable in a cheesy sort of way.
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trisk, maybe my favourite line in the movies.
(It was “just a week” before” not “just before”. Otherwise Walter would have written a long piece about how he saw the blood spurting from the neck etc)
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@thauma
Reminds me of this that I saw earlier this week. A Dusty Springfield cover backed by Bruce Forsyth’s daughter, David Van Day and Thereza Bazar from Dollar, and fronted by Bruce Forsyth’s son-in-law’s hairy chest:
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thaum, There’s a lot going on in the film. And it looks beautiful. A lot got stolen for Bond and for other stuff as well. Lehman, the screenwriter, said he wanted to make the Hitchcock film of Hitchcock films and he succeeded I think.
I saw it on the big screen at the BFI after watching it loads of times on TV and DVD. The UN murder scene is incredible.
And the credit sequence is gorgeous. God love Saul Bass
Plus Mason is brilliant. Eva Marie Saint never more lovely or cool. Martin Landau menacing. Jesse Royce Landis, delightful. I also love the CIA meeting – “so horribly sad so how is it I feel like laughing?” I also love the line “Emile!”, which on the few occasions I’ve met an Emile I’ve always said.
It’s one of my favourites, as you might be able to tell.
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@thaum
Ah, NbyNW is great fun – especially the auction room scene….
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Agree with Tomp. North by Northwest has been plagiarised so often newer audiences miss its originality, the endless twists, the terror in open daylight and open space, the great script, the tongue in cheek acting etc…
As a foot note, when I was still working in the film and tv industry, and I had worked on terrible films or on shows I didn’t like , I asked the producers to use a pseudo and call me George Kaplan on the credit list.
I felt doubly vindicated when I discovered so few of them knew who he was.
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SA beat India in Johannesburg for the first time ever in a Test. Good to have some competitive cricket to watch,
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I missed the beginning of it….
The auction room was indeed great fun.
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I thought they were supposed to use the name Alan Smithee?
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Trisk, I used half a dozen of them, you can choose what you want. We always tried to make private jokes about it, using each others girl friends’ names, barely hidden names of famous characters from books or cartoons. Some producers smelled a rat and they weren’t always wrong! But by law, they have to write our names on the credit list, whichever we chose.
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I see Djokovic is being detained by Australian immigration (in a quarantine hotel) due to his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid.
They’re calling him Novax Djokovic.
It’s not the best joke ever, but it’s so obvious I’m annoyed it didn’t occur to me.
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“when I was still working in the film and tv industry, and I had worked on terrible films or on shows I didn’t like , I asked the producers to use a pseudo and call me George Kaplan on the credit list.”
I like that.
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Awrabest Clyde.
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flair, there’s a fair few similarities between NbyNW and Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, which I also love.
Among the many things I like in the latter is the brief glimpse of an autogyro when the police are chasing Hannay in the Scottish Highlands. I was reading a book about Spanish history and it mentioned that the guy who invented the aircraft was a big Spanish nationalist and helped get the plane that flew Franco from the Canaries to Morocco to kick off the war.
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Speaking of air transport, I was talking to my mum earlier in the week and she reminded that when she was a kid she and her family travelled to France with these lads:
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Further riff on that was Novax Djokovid
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Great photo Tomp.
Agree about The 39 steps.
Hitchcock may have been a questionable individual but he made some great films (and his fair share of turkeys too). I really like his second version of The man who knew too much.
You must’ve read his conversations with the young François Truffaut. One of the very best books about filmmaking from the point of view of those who make the movies vs those, like critics, who just watch them.
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flair, yes, I read it but a long time ago. Bogdanovich died yesterday and he did an interview with him in the early 60s that’s quite good. At the end of last year I read Hitchcock and the Spy Film by James Chapman, which is quite a nice run through the many spy films by the big man.
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Best review of a film I’ve seen recently is for the Czechoslovak classic The Incredibly Sad Princess starring Helena Vondrackova and Vaclav Neckar. The wikipedia entry runs to this:
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It good to be doing this again, even if the game will be behind closed doors
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A new kind of ‘three-in-a-row’ – Exeter team to face Quins:
Hogg, Nowell, Slade, Whitten, Cordero
Simmonds, Maunder (major)
Hepburn, Yeandle, I-Scott
Gray, Hill
Ewers, Kirsten, Simmonds
Innard, Moon, Schickerling, Skinner, Armand, Maunder(minor) Skinner, Hendrickson
……still a few key injuries
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Former Australia rugby league international Blake Ferguson has been fired by his Japanese club without playing a game after being arrested in Tokyo on drug charges, the team said.
Hadn’t played a game of union yet before getting sacked. Anyone know if he was any good? Apparently released by his Aussie club in September.
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Saffer sides for this weekend’s URC fixtures:
–
And next weekend (assuming no injuries):
–
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Holy shit
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I’m too scared to watch that.
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At the risk of sounding the Beadleklaxon, what a loon.
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The Serbian Gwyneth Paltrow?
The worse though about Djokovic is not so much his snake oil concept of science, it’s his constant support for war criminals, the Mladic, Milosevic etc…
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Flair – I’m not sure Gwynnie is quite that insane. (But possibly I have just memory-holed it.) I did not know about his support for war criminals.
If I were the Aussies, I’d just deport him now.
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Sidney Poitier, actor, trailblazer, RIP
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And, er, Jack Dromey.
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I’m actually gonna put up a new post shortly.
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It’s here.
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