 Tu, Oct 30, 2007 |
Fish, elections, blasts from the past
How a fish feels
Went camping on the Yorke Peninsula coast last week, pitching our many
square metres of frame tent and tarp in the dunes overlooking some
spectacular coast. Where it got windy enough on the first night to put
a bend in one of the 25mm double guy-roped poles. Oh well, better than
being nice and calm but surrounded by vans in the local caravan park. I
am definitely no fisherman, but it's apparently a good fishing spot, so
took the kids and the hand reels onto a rocky bit of shoreline.
Ideally, the kids would catch no fish, as they are invariably too small
to eat, and de-hooking them is a butcherous process more often than not
ending in the death of the poor fish.
With a stiff wind coming
in off-shore, the hand reels - designed for dangling off a jetty -
needed some hefty casting. Having successfully launched a couple of
lines for the kids, I swung the lead weight and sent a line sailing out
at speed, the line snaking behind it, until it was stopped dead in the
air by one of the bait lines, which had stuck a hook through the end of
my middle finger. This stung somewhat, and with the barbed hook
embedded pretty much up to the eye-hole wasn't going to slide right on
out either. After conferring with some proper fishermen ("You want to
get yourself a rod, mate" - yes well thanks for that) we decided that a
pair of pliers, in the absence of any anaesthetic except a slab of
beer, were not the way to go.
Incredibly and fortunately,
despite being many miles from any largish town and it being a public
holiday, the local health centre at Minlaton had a nurse on duty. And
being fishing country, she knew the techniques for getting a hook out.
Anaesthetic to the finger was not recommended, being even more painful,
which was difficult to believe but she was the boss. A thread tied
around the entry point and a swift and hefty tug was the thing to do
apparently. Which she tried twice, unsuccessfully, bringing a few tears
to my eyes. One final heave-ho on the thread, more tears to the eyes,
and the hook was not out, but good news! It had hauled the hook through
my finger enough that the barb was poking out. A snip of the medical
pliers and it slid out.
Thanks, Nurse, I could not have done that for myself. Back for a beer and no more fishing.
How to win an election
The general election is on 24th November, so we've got the joy of nearly a month more campaigning to look forward to (after several weeks already). Here's how Australian
electioneering works.
What
the (incumbent) Liberals stand for: Labor are run by the unions and
will destroy the economy. Vote for us because it's been alright the
past 5 years.
What Labor stands for: Liberal industrial laws are unfair. We're against unfair industrial laws that harm working families.
And
that's it. I read Blair, Brown and Cameron speeches and nomatter the
politics or competence, at least there is some sort of vision for the
future there.
Campaigning involves slagging the others off to
the extent that yesterday the Libs TV ad rebutted a negative Labor ad
that was itself rebutting a previous Liberal negative ad. Gah!
Oh,
and naked pork barrel politics involves both sides travelling to
marginal constituencies promising spending that so far totals about
$42bn from the Libs and $39bn from Labor, after 3 years of us scrimping a million here, a million there, on services.
The government going aren't we great, look at the economy, when the whole thing has been driven by China buying coal, iron and copper. The opposition with a 'me too' on every single policy for fear of doing something wrong. Bastards all of them.
You'll never guess who
Adelaide United (top of the table on goal difference after beating Wellington 4-1) lost its keeper to a long term injury on the weekend. Was interested to notice who the media (via his agent I would guess) were touting, and who the Adelaide coach was flatly denying they'd sign as cover: our old friend Mark Bosnich, who has lost 20kg apparently. Didn't see any of his English Championship run, so couldn't comment on his form.
Pomeroos
Yeah, haven't kept the blog up to date (always seems down when I log in, admittedly usually out of hours). We stormed out of our relegation battle to win 6 in a row and finish fourth, including beating the top 4 in successive weeks.
We're now in season 2 of 2007. Might get some match reports up, but tonight we beat long term rivals, nice guys too, Dirty Harries. Season progress at the new Pomeroos web site.
Posted on 30/10/07; 9:58:31 PM from the Breaking Even dept.
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| Mo, Aug 27, 2007 |
Ex-pats, failures and dimwits
Jeremy Clarkson reckons that all ex-pats are failures and dimwits, and whilst maybe I wouldn't generalise as much as someone trying to be controversial, I can't say that I completely disagree. 'in the whole of human history, nobody has ever woken up and thought, “I know. I have a wonderful family, lots of money, a great job and an active social life. I shall therefore move to Australia.” Australia is where you go when you’ve made a mess of everything. That’s why the 1.3m Brits who live there are known as whingeing Poms. Because they’re all failures' Just in time then Australia has a quiz to try and weed a few out. I did it and - failure or no - I'm smarter than most of the locals it seems, getting either 18 or 19 out of 20, depending on whether they'd allow the correct national anthem words in the wrong order.
The football season (A-League soccer that is) started this weekend, with Adelaide United drawing 2-2 in Brisbane. However I absolutely cannot get interested whilst the footy (Aussie Rules) season is still going and the Adelaide Crows are still in with a chance. A chance that is somewhat slimmer than last season, requiring a win in Melbourne next Friday against Collingwood to take the last finals place. It can be the greatest game to watch, with the speed and momentum of a soccer game but done more expansively. We were there on Saturday with over 46,000 others to see the Crows play Brisbane in the latest of their must-win games. Very very noisy, though the crowd suffers from having only the one song Adelaide clap-clap-clap, but a great win.
Mark Ricciuto's last ever home game at Adelaide. Roooooooo!!!!
Posted on 27/8/07; 4:12:09 PM from the Breaking Even dept.
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| Th, Aug 16, 2007 |
Adelaide Junction Etiquette
Last night was a crucial point in the Pomeroos' season. Still in a
relegation scrap, it was deadline day for applications for next season,
and no-one wanted to give up Tuesday nights and $6 a game to play in
the Girls' League. On top of it all, Young Liam - responsible for three
quarters of our goals - had a season ending shoulder injury, and our
final four games were against the top four sides with top of the table
Aberfoyle Strikers first up.
Young
Liam's replacement was Jamie, a red scouser of all things this week.
Insisted at the warm up on practising Gerrard's winning Villa Park free
kick. Ho ho bastard. Didn't have Young Liam's absolute piledriver of a
left foot, but was fast and good on the ball, and after some end to end
stuff and saves by both keepers he put one into the corner to make it
1-0. Aberfoyle Strikers were fast, but were playing a long ball game
and decent covering back from our defence gave them few chances. Still,
the one time they did get clear a shot went right under me to make it
1-1. After that, good defending left them shooting from distance, which
(now that I've got the contacts in) even I could save. And Jamie was
proving to be the new essential forward as he placed another past the
keeper to make it 2-1 just before half time. New Saturday arvo games
must be getting us fitter, because despite having 10 years on some of
us, they were tiring quicker. We had far the better chances, but it
stayed 2-1 until the last couple of minutes when they fell apart and we
scored 3 to make the final score 5-1.
Barring unexpected results
elsewhere - difficult to believe that both Aberfoyle Defenders and
Wanderers would be pulling off successive wins, but who knows - this
must put us 3 points clear of the relegation places. With 2 points for
a win, one more win in the last three is all that's needed.
Driving in Adelaide Lesson 3: Junction Etiquette
Posted on 16/8/07; 4:39:03 PM from the Breaking Even dept.
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| Mo, Jul 16, 2007 |
The Blues
Turned up on Tuesday to find that we were not in fact playing
second-last Wanderers, but in fact fourth placed The Blues. They who,
in our previous two games, started a fight and had a player sent off
for threatening and abusive behaviour. And we needed a win to keep
ourselves clear of the relegation zone, too.
The
games were running late as usual, and the temperature felt colder than
the 4 degrees C outside. The game on before ours reminded us of what
was at stake regarding relegation - there is a huge gulf between the
two divisions. The very brief warm up involved Scott hammering a
swerving shot that hit my misjudged fingers end-on, which are black
today. If it weren't for the Adidas Fingersave Carbons ™ they'd have
snapped right off I'm sure.
We'd re-teamtalked, and it was
definitely going to be three at the back. And sure enough, it not only
makes for better defence, but keeps the ball and gives more attacking
options too. The Blues had only the one serious chance in the first
half, a toe poke from close range that left me stranded and hit the
inside of both posts. We had several, but nothing went that close or
in, and the half finished 0-0.
Our tight formation and passing
had left them chasing the ball, and they were noticeably more knackered
in the second half. We were still patient, and when a backpass to me
coincided with Young Liam having half a yard of space up front, I hit a
fast accurate pass right up the middle (not at all like me, which is
why I'm in goal), and he turned and hit it straight past the keeper to
make it 1-0. In a sense, I made the second goal too, throwing it to
Soton Dave on the halfway line. Although admittedly he had to dribble
past two players and slot it past the keeper, so I guess most of the
credit should go to him. By now The Blues' defence was all over the
place, and we had time for Scott to hit a disallowed goal before Young
Liam hit yet another left footer into the corner.
So it finished
3-0, and particularly satisfying to shake hands with the crazy The
Blues guy having won. And when we paid up we got a note saying that Wanderers had forfeited for next week, which is another 3-0 win for us. All we need now is news of how they and
Aberfoyle Defenders have gotton on the last few weeks. With two wins
and a loss from our last three league games plus a win next week, a few lost games for them
might have put a small amount of daylight between us and the relegation
places.
Steve, I wrote you a note on the 'feedback' form on your blog re my ScribeFire problems, but it declared my carefully crafted letter to be 'spam' and deleted it.
Oh, 2007-08 Premiership odds, from Labrokes.
2.4 Man Utd
2.5 Chelsea
5.5 Liverpool
11 Arsenal
67 Tottenham
151 Newcastle
251 Everton
201 Aston Villa
301 West Ham
301 Portsmouth
401 Blackburn
751 Middlesboro
751 Reading
501 Man City
501 Bolton
501 Sunderland
2001 Wigan
2501 Birmingham
1501 Fulham
3001 Derby
Posted on 16/7/07; 12:21:28 PM from the Breaking Even dept.
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| We, Jul 11, 2007 |
Football coach
Having been knocked out of the Cup competition weeks ago, we had a
friendly against Dirty Harries. It's always a good game against them,
mainly because they're old like we are. No ankle chopping and agro over
referees decisions like the 20-something players, but still good enough
to win last year's league. Not a good start for the bloke between the
sticks (me), as a bobbly old Harries shot made its way towards goal and
in slow motion the keeper stuck out a leg and and arm and fell slower
than gravity onto the spot where the ball was, prior to it having gone
in the net. Oh well, the boys got on with the job and Young Liam scored
a couple of left foot crackers, before Tall Bloke broke through and
equalised towards the end. Two all, which we reckoned was not bad.
Next
up and back into the league and our relegation scrap. We were playing
third placed nemesis Banana Benders, and our new rock like formation
would be essential. Unfortunately our 3-1 formation reverted to 2-2 for
long enough for the Benders to score 3 against our 1. However, one was
a penalty for Jase's unlucky goal area encroachment, and one I maybe
could've stopped, okay maybe should've easily stopped.
Don't
know how Wanderers and Aberfoyle Defenders have done the past 3 weeks
due the slackness of the Rec Centre updating the league table, but this
week and next we play each of them, in what will be vital 4-pointers.
Meanwhile,
I have become a football coach. Well, sort of. Sunday mornings I have
been under-8 Australian Rules second offsider. Assuming that my son
wants to carry it on next season (loves kicking a footy, doesn't like
it cold or wet, or the running), I am likely to get promoted to first
offsider due to my progress and the lack of parents available.
[This blog is not] Powered by ScribeFire... because I can't figure out the blogfootball settings to set it up. It just hangs up at the Logging In stage. Can anyone help? I've successfully set it up on another blog and it makes writing and sticking it up so much easier.
System type MetaWeblog API, URL: http://astonvilla.blogfootball.com/RPC2 What's my username? tried bettingblog plus the email address it was originally registered with.
Posted on 11/7/07; 11:43:53 AM from the Breaking Even dept.
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| Fr, Jun 22, 2007 |
Blackwood Tuesday Night Rebound League Latest
Well the reason for not posting in months is really dodgy access to blogfootball, maybe it's because of the times I log on. Also not having written anything for it.
The Blackwood Tuesday Night Rebound League is about two thirds through the season, and the Pomeroos hit some trouble. Having taken about 7 games to record our first win, we inexplicably got things together and won 4 in a row. This took us into the heady heights of lower-mid table, and we thought that we were unbeatable. As it turns out, no we weren't, because equally inexplicably we started playing completely shit and getting beaten with 5, 6 or 7 scored against us. As good as Young Liam is, scoring the required 6, 7 or 8 goals in reply was beyond him and we dropped right back into the bottom three, with a point keeping us out of the relegation zone.
I should say that there is strong motivation for avoiding relegation. A Blackwood Tuesday Night Rebound League Division 2 game is usually played right before ours, so we get a glimpse of our future should we fail this season. We refer to Division 2 as The Girls' League, as many of the teams have several girls playing for them. Nothing wrong with that and good luck to them, and there is a Div 1 team with a girl who is really quite good. However many of them in Division 2 play like, er, girls, uncompensated by the rest of the team which is often grossly unfit or fat blokes. So we are really motivated to stay up.
Two upcoming games in a row against bottom team Aberfoyle Defenders (who replaced the defunct Bung Fritz) and second-bottom Wanderers (them with the girl) were therefore 4 pointers, and games we should win. So a draw and a poor loss, where we were comprehensively outplayed, was not ideal and plunged us into deep trouble. It has to be said that we were handicapped by Young Liam's declaration that he had to pick his mum up from the airport from an international trip on one of the Tuesday nights. Good grief, what are taxis for! On top of all that, the two next games were against top of the league Aberfolyle Strikers and second placed Banana Benders.
An emergency team meeting was convened at the pub and a strategy developed. We would try (a) more shouting at each other, (b) more pre-match team talks and post-match drinking to develop teamwork, (c) playing a 3-1 formation rather than 2-2, and (d) passing the ball more.
Against Aberfoyle Strikers, we did our usual of conceding a goal in confusion within a minute of play starting, but from that point the plan started working and we did not concede a goal in nearly an hour's play. Young Liam and Soton Dave scored against Aberfoyle Strikers for a 2-1 win, and Young Liam scored another great left footer for a 1-0 win against the Benders. The 3-1 formation gives more attacking options running onto the ball, and our defence was not pulled apart by a quick one-two. Shots on our goal had to be from angles or hurriedly with a looming defender, and that gave me the chance to actually save some, rather than pick them out of the back of the net. A clean sheet for the first time since I do not remember.
So, the Pomeroos are clear third from bottom. Still a third of the season to go, and wins are still needed, but the post-match drinking is certainly more cheery after a win.
Posted on 22/6/07; 3:04:40 PM from the Breaking Even dept.
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| We, Mar 7, 2007 |
Passion and other rubbish
Having shipped 8 goals in 2 games, Bettingblog actively went and sought out some Edgar Davids style sports goggles to try and better pin down a ball that turns into a luminous yellow blur above about 20km/h. £110! Needless to say the Pomeroos were just going to have to rely on scoring more goals to compensate. Last week we played Little Caesars who, like seemingly most of the other teams, have got hold of a couple of quicker and better players, and lost 1-3. About 5 minutes in Nick was on the end of a bad tackle that left him with an ankle that looked like it had another ankle stuck on the side of it, so Nick n Maz is just Maz for the next few weeks.
This week we played The Blues, who are comprised almost entirely of young fast types. Discipline, formation, marking up, keeping goal side, holding up and chasing back. That was the team talk, and for the first time it seemed to be really working. The pressure was on, but the shots were not coming in from unmarked players 3 metres out as previously, and were giving me a chance. Must have been 3 shots clip the posts, but with goals that close to you as a keeper you can tell the difference, and we went in at half time with a deserved 0-0. Blues were a physical team and Soton Dave, whose technique is bursts of speed through the middle, was again floored by a foul tackle from an undone defender and was out of the game for 10 minutes. Second half both sides left it slightly more open as tiredness set in, but we still put pressure on and marked up... until they were through clear on goal and my save off a boot was placed straight back into the corner, 0-1. We stuck to the disciplined approach though, and within 2 minutes a returned Soton Dave undid the defence and fired under the keeper to make it 1-1.
Blues were getting increasingly frustrated, constantly appealing for goal area encroachment penalties and swearing when play or decisions didn't go their way. They were getting tired and undisciplined, and excellent Pomeroo pressure when they had the ball resulted in more and more chances for us. Two quick, smart moves and it was 2-1 and then 3-1 to us. With only seconds on the clock, Young Liam and one of the Blues were doing the 50/50 tussling for a ball thing when they fell onto the floor. OK we thought, foul either way or play on, whatever, but then the Blues player just lost it and had Young Liam in a headlock on the floor. Now Young Liam looks like he should be in year 10 at school (maybe he is) and is by far the lightest person on the pitch, and this big angry bloke has him in a headlock. Shit, so we run over and someone pulls the bloke off and it all goes a bit League Cup minus the punches. Calms down, and then another big bloke runs over and jumps on Young Liam from behind with his hands round his neck, shouting something like 'Can't do that to my brother!' I grab his arms and haul him off, and there's more leaping in and separation just like you see on TV. For fucks sake, it is just a social game. It's all over just as the full time siren sounds and the Blues players involved in the ruck stalk off without handshaking. I give the ref a pat on the back and a rye smile and we find the Blues outside to make sure hands are shaken.
A great win and a great game spoiled at the end by a couple of 20 year old idiots. Pisses me off that Wenger et al can claim that top flight players rucking on TV is no great deal or just showing passion or some such rubbish, because idiocy like that finds it's way all the way down to our local Tuesday Night Rebound League.
Adelaide United play Chinese Super League Champions Shandong Luneng at Hindmarsh tonight in the first ever Asian Champions League game in Australia. Adelaide are 2.35 for the game, with Shandong 2.75 and the draw 3.20. Sydney FC apparently have an easier ride against Shanghai Shenhua, also from China, with FC at 2.1 and Shanghai and the draw both at 3.2. (All odds from Centrebet.) Bit of an unknown, all these Asian Confederation teams, so we'll see how it goes.
Posted on 7/3/07; 2:26:30 PM from the Breaking Even dept.
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| Th, Feb 22, 2007 |
Losing to Victory and the Benders
Football debacles for both Adelaide and the Pomeroos this week. Adelaide United, who were 90 seconds away from hosting the grand final with a week's break, had to beat Newcastle Jets over 120 minutes and then travel to Melbourne to play in 38°C without their key defender and with coach John Kosmina banished to the stands for abusing a referee. Those are the excuses, but 0-6 is still utter humiliation, and 5 goals from Archie Thompson meant that Adelaide's embarrasment got coverage across all the news as well as the sports reports. And in contrast to the previous week's excellent Jets support, Melbourne's graceless supporters rained spit from the Telstra Dome upper tier onto the Adelaide supporters below. Nothing good to take from the game, except that it carried qualification to the 2008 Asian Champions League. Next up for Adelaide is the 2007 ACL campaign, reward for being 2005-06 premiers due to the slightly offset Australian football season.
The Pomeroos are in trouble, and are looking at a long scrap with relegation. We have analysed our performance, tried new formations and we've still been beaten. One positive 4-5 losing performance against Dirty Harries was immediately followed by a poor 1-3 defeat to Aberfoyle Strikers, and it's getting to the point where we can no longer say it's just new player Nick n Maz getting up to speed. So the last thing we needed was a game against the Banana Benders, who we always struggled against even when we were at our third-in-the-league peak. The Benders had a couple of new and even faster and better players, and strung together a great move compounded by me being out of position to go one up. We held out, had a few half chances, admittedly not as good as their chances which included a desperate fingertip push onto the post, to go into half time one down. Then about a minute into the second half a Bender run through the middle was stopped with an illegal sliding tackle and the ref blew for a foul... and then played the advantage as the run continued and the shot went in. Eh? Jeff the ref was having a night off, and his slightly over-officious offsider also wasn't there, so this was a first-timer stand-in, but still. I got an apology after the game, and he looked a bit sheepish, and it was fortunate for him that he did it to us and not one of the younger more 'enthusiastic' teams. Not that it would have affected the result I guess, but after that it was downhill as we failed to track back into defence or put them under enough pressure. I didn't make any saves of significance from that point either, and we finished 0-5 and not sure what to do next. The quality of the competition has definitely increased as ours has fallen, and disturbingly Dirty Harries are third bottom. Not good news if we are in a relegation scrap with last year's champions.
After the tri-nation one day finals, there has been further excellent cricket. Despite my new allegiance (a conscious effort to put Australia second after England), it was impossible not to admire the Kiwis for demolishing Australia by 10 wickets and then chasing down 330 and then 350 to sweep the Chappell Hadlee one day series. Ponting, Symonds and Gilcrist may have been out, but then so were Bond and Vettori. Makes the World Cup more interesting.
ICC WC odds from Stan James:
Australia 12/5
South Africa 9/2
Sri Lanka 13/2
West Indies 13/2
India 13/2
New Zealand 8
England 9
Pakistan 10
Random google searches from the referrers list that ended up at BettingBlog:
Romanian car H&V
What are croweaters sandgropers and banana benders
finish as high as possible david oleary
animal fetish
snow tv
Posted on 22/2/07; 10:55:01 AM from the Breaking Even dept.
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| Fr, Feb 16, 2007 |
Escape To Victory
No Villa until the third of March, what's going on? Meanwhile, Adelaide United beat Newcastle Jets on penalties to go through to the Grand Final on Sunday against Melbourne Victory, locally known as the Tards. Beating the Jets took some heroic saves by United keeper Daniel Beltrame, as the Jets finished strongly, and he then won the game with two penalty saves.
Victory has a nice enough manager Ernie Merrick, but otherwise there is a pretty fierce rivalry between South Australia and Victoria. A couple of years ago, I wrote about the TV ad for South Aussie session beer of choice West End Draft, with the theme of stopping the feral Vics from coming over and drinking our beer. Well, there's a new one out, based on a 'Come To South Australia!' promotional commercial, featuring bleak scenery, decaying buildings and a jaunty theme tune. The camera pulls back to reveal the campaign team.
"Well, that should stop the Vics coming over," says the first. "Yeah, good one Johnno," says the second. "By the way, where'd you get the pictures?" "Victoria," says Johnno, and the camera pulls back further to reveal dozens of South Aussies by a pub on the banks of the beautiful Murray drinking West End Draft.
Posted on 16/2/07; 10:38:45 AM from the SA dept.
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| Th, Feb 8, 2007 |
How to drive in Adelaide
How to drive in Adelaide
Lesson 1: moving traffic
You are the blue car. Traffic is busy on the 4 lane road but moving freely. Someone is turning right and the green car indicates to move into your lane:
Accelerate with the objective of stopping the green car:
If you were not quick enough and the green car manages to force itself in front of you then either flash your lights or do an exaggerated slow shake of the head:
Next week's lesson 2 will be "making them wait until the end of the rush hour before letting them pull out from a side junction".
On Sunday, Adelaide United were drawing 1-1 until the 90th minute, and about to win on away goals and earn the right to host the grand final, when Melbourne scored a second. United had a chance to equalise with just about the last touch of the game but couldn't quite squeeze it under the Tard keeper. Adelaide now play the Newcastle Jets, who beat Sydney.
The Pomeroos drew 1-1 against the fast paced Blues on Tuesday. Bettingblog got a hand to their scoring shot but could only push it into the top corner.
At the Madejski, Sportinglife thinks we'll find it hard:
Villa's season is in danger of fizzling out after such a bright start but the arrival of John Carew and Ashley Young up front could give them some much needed impetus. Both have got off the mark in the last two games, the pair combining well for Carew's winner over West Ham. Martin O'Neill's men could be considered a little fortunate to get all three points though as they survived a number of late scares with both Thomas Sorensen and the woodwork coming to their rescue. Royals boss Steve Coppell continues to play down their achievements this season but four straight wins in all competitions has confidence flooding through the veins at the Madejski and Europe is a realistic target for them. Striker Leroy Lita typifies the bouyant mood and five goals in his last three - plus one for England U21s in midweek - suggests he is going to be a handful for the visiting defence. The home side are pretty much odds-on across the board to get revenge for a 2-1 defeat at Villa Park early in the season but bet365 have stuck their head above the parapet and go 11/10. That is still a bit on the tight side but they could just edge it - and by the same scoreline would not be a shock. Verdict: Reading 2 Aston Villa 1
Posted on 8/2/07; 8:25:17 AM from the Breaking Even dept.
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