[Book thread: what are you reading?]

On 07/03/2024 at 15:11, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Well I love Sharpe, Cornwell one of my favourite authors, and the reason I'd been thinking about reading Simon Scarrow is because I'm interested in learning a bit about Ancient Rome and I thought reading this series would really immerse me in that world. I first got really into Napoleonic history after reading the Sharpe novels so sounds like the same thing should happen here. I think I'll start collecting them. Thanks for the reply mate!

Can I suggest Con Iggledon then, he has wrote historical series covering Ceaser, also very good series on Ghengis Khan and the War of the Roses (Ravenspur)

[Book thread: what are you reading?]

On 06/03/2024 at 06:37, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Has anyone read Simon Scarrow's Eagles of Empire series? Was wondering what it was like. I see them a lot in second hand bookshops, wondered if they were worth getting. 

Read the first two, they are basically a Roman Sharpe, nice narrative, nice story lots of battles. Don't know why I didn't continue the series, probably because at the the time I was all Cornwelled out and needed a change of genre

[Sat 24th Feb: SL: Huddersfield Giants v St Helens KO 5.30pm (Sky/SuperLeague+)]

Saints to win 10-8 that is players left on the pitch

[New Partnership - ABK Beer]

16 hours ago, Henson Park Old Firm said:

Nothing wrong with that, I'm popping out of a Silkcut.

So you have given up smoking then.

[New Partnership - ABK Beer]

This is (in my opinion) a high quality beer, it is stays with the true Hells style

[The IMG Gradings Thread - Post all your IMG Gradings related questions or comments here]

30 minutes ago, Snowys Backside said:

Nail on the head in bold !!

Its the only way any club can remain sustainable in my opinion. You cannot continue to spend Millions on Aussies when you are from a catchment area full of natural talent. 

Being part of the first Leigh Academy back in 91 and knowing what talent we had in that squad, God knows how good Leigh could be with that kind of solid grass roots infrastructure. It needs to be THE top priority over any masking of IMG numbers IMHO.

I think Leigh will be OK  finally to the detriment finally of Warrington, Saints and Wigan have cherrypicked our Homegrown talent for the last 25 years.

Why not Cas and Wakey have been doing just that for 20 odd years. 

[Liverpool St Helens]

As far as Scousers are concerned  their city stops at Huyton in the west, Crosby in the North, and Speak in the south, they even have their own derogatory term (invoking bestiality) for people East of Huyton. So yes there are small minded people in this area but not all of them live east of Huyton

 

 

 

[Another nail in the coffin of the British pub]

No doubt Camra will be putting their oar into this, completely ignoring the discount schemes that they insist on to even consider you for the Good Bear Guild, nor their love in with Wetherspoon which drives local  pubs out of business. Camra go on about Real Ale being a premium product, but it has a short shelf life therefore they should expect to pay more for a decent pint, not get 50p discount.

[Curious about a rule]

Remember the penalty Plays in the 80’s when four players would line up then break in different directions 

[6 again on first tackle]

1 hour ago, north yorks trinity said:

But lying on is exactly what teams like to do on the first tackle; better to defend one extra tackle with no loss of territory and a set defence than risk dealing with broken play.

aint punctuation important (sorry)

Here is my 2 pennarth. Six again is only for 'Markers Not Square'.

Lying On and any other messing about penalty, Oh and moving off the Mark Penalty.

 

[6 again on first tackle]

Here is my 2 pennarth. Six again is only for 'Markers Not Square' Lying On and any other messing about penalty, Oh and moving off the Mark Penalty.

[People who are alive but you thought they had died]

Tony Bennett has finally kissed the good life goodbye 

[Postcode Lottery - who’s going down?]

I have been very critical of Wakefield in the past but it does look like they are getting their off field situation right. Whereas Cas are dropping further behind. 
 

At the moment if Cas go down they may struggle to get enough IMG points to get promoted.

[Glastonbury thoughts]

1 hour ago, redsi42 said:

I think the appeal of Glastonbury is the diversity in acts.  

Im happy to watch the main coverage and just see what pops up. 
 

only artic monkeys have disappointed so far.  Turners current persona doesn’t work for me he seems to over sing everything it’s like tony Christy fronting an artics cover band.  
 

looking forward to seeing Elton today not a fan but he was the only artist my folks both liked so I imagine I’ll know a lot of his early stuff.

Can you imagine in the early 90s suggesting that Ricky Ashley and Guns and Roses share the same set.

 

[Glastonbury thoughts]

43 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

back to glasto= guns and roses need putting out of their misery 

Correct, no energy no anger and Axel can’t seam to sing” more than a few words together (never had a good voice but was good front man)

looks like sex drugs and rock and role finally caught up with them.

At least no one can accuse them of miming 

[Cricket - Matches & General Discussion Thread]

21 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

Smith gone. Massive wicket. 

Even better that he reviewed a plumb LBW

[Where will RL be in 5 years?]

Saints will have won 9 in a row and Wiganers will still claim that Saints are in their shadow.

[What’s going on in Yorkshire]

23 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Wakey have finally come up against a promoted team who aren't going straight back down. Eyes definitely been taken off the ball with regards to on field whilst off field is for once going better.

See also, Widnes, Leigh, Halifax, Salford, it’s just that Wakefield we’re allowed to take the proverbial for decades.

[Proposed Online Gambling Limits]

One thing that I have noticed is the rise of websites providing data that “professional” gamblers use. I used to “professionally” gamble, small stakes as a mathematical experiment to prove it could be done (averaged between 20%-30% returns but never had the balls to go massive because the risks are still there, willing a few hundred quite a year and putting it back in) . I noticed over the past few years the margins were reduced, since the bookies have far more resources to do exactly what you are doing and can drop the odds accordingly. There are very few soft odds now. 
 

the fact that this data is now readily available shows how confident the bookies are and they need people to think they can beat them. You can beat them but it is a full time job and requires a very large disposable investment.

 

Spread betting is just printing money for the bookies and needs to be banned. This is a perfect example of the wisdom of the crowds.

[Book thread: what are you reading?]

Just got into Fantasy novels read Joe Abercrombie and just finished  Mark Lawrence’s Thorns trilogy.

Can anybody more versed in this genre confirm that all fantasy is set in a post apocalyptic world with middle age technology?

[horse/ dog racing]

On 17/04/2023 at 15:09, ivans82 said:

Quite a few years ago i believe the animal rights activists freed some mink from some laboratories , which is all well and good ,but again these are killing machines released into the British countryside , which had a huge detrimental affect on our other wild life .

This is not as clear cut as it appears, the UK has many mustelides each evolved into their own niche with some cross over. We had a very large aquatic mustelide in the otter. Now the success of the released mink is puzzling since there would no be no vacuum for it to fill, one theory to this is that the persecution of otters resulted in a vacuum for an aquatic mustelide which the mink filled. It is now becoming apparent that where otters are gaining a foothold the mink are being pushed out through predation from the otter and natural competition.

[Mistakes in Film & TV]

Just watched The Last Kingdom - Seven Kings Must Die. About the battle of Brunanburgh in which Uthred plays his normal vital role. But this battle was in 937, Uthred was in his late teens/ early twenties when Alfred was crowned in 871, so Uthred would have been in his eighties during the battle of Brunanburgh.

[EDDIE HEARN COMMENTS :)]

I think sports celebrity has waned over the last decade or so, certainly the RU and definitely RL players, but also the football golfers and tennis stars.

I personally could recognise Harry Kane, a few other PL players and Marcus Ratchford ( the latter due to his political work rather than football) I wouldn’t  know any RU player from Adam. Sports now are much more professional and the top players are more likely to be boring and concentrate on their game and training. They can get  money via sponsorship, but this also now has vary strict personal standards so, the characters and celebrities are gone.

we need to sell the clubs and the event rather than the Individual, which brings us back to the unfashionable geographic areas in which we are strong.

 

[IMG Grading Unveiled]

11 hours ago, Big Picture said:

How exactly can St Helens reach into Liverpool?  What makes you think that Liverpudlians will ever care about a club which represents one of Liverpool's suburbs?

Liverpudlians don’t care about anything east of Huyton, north of Crosby or south of Speke. 
 

[IMG Grading Unveiled]

1 minute ago, Tommygilf said:

Dave, I was involved in the various arrangements for Wakey first buying back the ground and then the current redevelopment. 

Ask Mr Carter or Mr Minards their opinion on why they were doing it, and why the Council became so forthcoming with support in recent years, and its because they believed that without the improvements they would be thrown out of the League when a non straight p/r structure returned. 

Why didn’t they think this when Widnes, leigh, Salford, Warrington and Saints were threatened with expulsion because of their ground?