gingerjon

Within two years, three at a push, that would be an entirely Sydney based club.

It varies massively (not just in RL and not just with shirts).

TBH, that 600 probably has less to do with that and more to do with the fact that Brackley is a ridiculously small ground where segregation is ... dubious.

The one on free to air television will pull in the most viewers.

There's good and bad. A previous employer had some really good online stuff that genuinely kept me engaged and I did feel I was learning. The current one is so poor you can literally start the video and then come on here on a different screen before answering their untaxing multiple choice questions.

Greece votes for Cyprus and Cyprus for Greece because, and this is where it gets harder for bearded wonders like the hatstand in your funny link, their shared culture and history means they really, really, really like each other's songs. Replace 'strategic alliance' (a hilariously OTT and sinister phrase) with 'shared culture' and you explain, very easily, simply and honestly, most of the votes that cause eye brow arching. But most times it's even simpler: people vote for their favourite song. Last ten winners: Italy, Netherlands, Israel, Portugal, Ukraine, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Germany ... Ten before that: Norway, Russia, Serbia, Finland, Greece, Ukraine, Turkey, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark You'll have to help me out about all these strategic alliances because it looks pretty consistently inconsistent to me. And the reason Britain doesn't win can be easily explained by asking people who believe that it's all thanks to dastardly foreigners to, without checking, detail each of the UK's last five entries, their performances on the night and their promotion in Europe beforehand.

Charlotte Edwards Cup starts tomorrow. Given how the Roses match has (somewhat predictably to an extent) gone, I am now all in for the Northern Diamonds once more.

Radio 3, for reasons too complicated to go into, played the 1964 (or 5) Swedish entry this morning. It was, and I think we can say this for it at least, a song. EDIT: Actually 1965 and this

The cowards need to recreate the classic Cumbria v ANZAC XIII

The annual 'non league clubs put out terse statements that fall just shy of calling the FA bent' time has arrived. It's Step 3-6 allocation time.

The vet insists that the front limbs of my dog and cat are 'arms' and the rear ones 'legs'. So ... And, with that, we've put a lot more thought into the England branding and its value than Oxen and the RFL have.

Each new release devalues the brand, such as it is. And clipping the head off one lion and chopping its arms off isn't so much on brand as letting a drunk have a go on Photoshop and pretending to be happy with the result.

Just realised that one of those shirts is the exact same colour combination as Tiny Ginger's compulsory PE kit top at school. I'm willing to bet that SuperStitch is better quality.

This post did make me check the recent titles as a reminder. I can see now why Liverpool fans say Europe is the real title to win. I had forgotten. (I do actually think the Premier League title is the more challenging title to claim - not necessarily the highest 'quality' but then sport isn't about artistic impression - because it is such a slog with so many banana skins on the way.)

How do you qualitatively judge one song against another song?

Obviously not genuine Oxen merch as they've missed off the yellow REDUCED NOW stickers.

Just been doing my morning "learning German by listening to NDR Kultur" and their take on Eurovision is that the UK has one of the standout songs but that the Ukraine song will be the winner because, as said, it's basically good enough and people will vote with their emotions for it.

They may or not be. And investing in PSG with their walk to the Ligue 1 title is a little different. The league remains the biggest deal here regardless.

Even then though, once you get through to the knock outs, everyone is all in for it. The teams that don't care are gone by then.

The group stage is deathly to anyone but the fans of the clubs involved but there are enough of those fans to means that that's fine. The competition gets more bloated from season after next, I think.

Yes but, perhaps uniquely in Europe, it is still *additional* to the league title which remains the one that the fans and boards seem to judge their managers on.

It really could do with someone like David Conn looking at it because this is reporting that doesn't understand the detail and so can't get across which, if any, bits are odd, unusual or something else.

To be fair, it must surely be time for 'My Lovely Horse' to take the prize for real.

Deliberately not watching the semi finals this year as I want to properly enjoy the final without knowing what's coming. A couple of people whose opinions I trust - i.e. they're not the kind that think that Eurovision is lost by us because of nasty politics nor do they think that Eurovision is simply some bizarre camp idea they have in their heads - seem to think the UK song and act are going down well in Europe. But, I presume, Ukraine will win by a country mile, regardless?