gingerjon

Some good performances and a pitch that was a lot slower than anticipated

Women's T20 World Cup starts today. Thailand are the whipping girls and I'm not sure you could even find a bookie to take your bet on hosts Australia retaining their trophy. Starting right now with Australia v India. I suspect it will end with the same game in the final.

What level of knowledge are we dealing with in this country? I ran a pub quiz at work and one of the questions began, "Which Chinese city ..." The majority answer was Tokyo.

It's a few years ago but I did an experiment once comparing every team than in Super League with its nearest full time professional football club. In every single case, the football club was drawing a higher average attendance. I'm not sure it's as straightforward as Leeds United go up so Rhinos fluctuates, more that we've lost huge numbers to soccer before we even start.

Yup - I had a Sony phone and the shutter noise 'clicked' even in silent mode. Completely killed my nascent upskirting career. Similarly, I had a friend who married a Japanese woman. She was divorced from an absolutely hideous bloke. A key reason she was in England was because even with the context that her husband was abusive, a waste of space etc, 'society' put the blame entirely on her and she was unable to work. (I'm sure that's not universal but it was notable that none of their Japanese circle of friends found her situation surprising in any way.)

Spot on. And you’re also right about some of the Japanese societal issues.

It would be good to know how much the clubs estimate they would lose by participating.

And, for reference, posting on an internet messageboard is as much social media as any posting on twitter.

The papers are biased and social media is a bit of a trudge. We know that. But if you're not reading them then what do you actually base any of your opinions about anything on?

You're absolutely spot on. It was the Southern League. I think - and Tony Collins probably goes into detail about this - it was because the other professional leagues in the north and midlands (Football Alliance?) had all finally gone and so professional clubs didn't have that much choice. So they replaced Fulham in the Southern League for a couple of seasons.

What was the first league they played in as an association football club?

Your brackets are in the wrong place. It's Bradford (Park Avenue), not that I've ever been.

That's nothing to be proud of.

Just back from watching Parasite. It’s stunning. A great film.

There’s a reason the CPS keep going even when the partner withdraws. It’s because battered partners normally do.