The Bampton raft race is an event the S-Club 5 have supported for a number of years. It has featured in this blog on several occasions, here and here. We always try to dress up and this year we were Grumbies of Monty Python fame. Yes my brain does hurt.
Imagine my surprise then when we were featured briefly on ITV this week. ITV have been following a group of children from when they were seven years old up to the present time, and they put together a programme charting their life, every subsequent seven years. The current series is called 56 UP.
One of the featured people is now a lay preacher and Bampton is one of the villages he frequents. I do remember a film crew being there last year but assumed it was for the local news. Instead, there we are singing merrily as we paddle towards the finishing line, all grumbied up.
I do hope the ITV exposure does not alert the health and safety jobsworths from Kendal to the raft race.It exists in the sort of environment the 56 UP participants will have been familiar with when they were growing up as seven year olds all those years ago. We in the S-Club do feel that our involvement has seen the event grow into the thirty raft event which it is at the moment, and it would be tragic if it is canned as a result of over planning. Long may it continue unencumbered and de-regulated........aaaargh!
Thursday 17 May 2012
Wednesday 9 May 2012
Hall of Fame
I noticed today that the old buffer from the world of golf, Peter Alliss, had been inducted to the Golf Hall of Fame yesterday in America. I am sure the word is induced but that's just me getting my physics and formal reception terminology mixed up. Peter did use the finger during his acceptance speech when gesturing about his old headmistress. It is a pity he does have senile moments occasionally.
Famous people do have the pleasure of being recognised by their peers and voted into these Hall's of Fame, and it got me thinking about whether there should be a series of these places for ordinary folk. One might argue that the Queen's honours process announced at New Year and at her birthday does now recognise Joe Bloggs and the good work they do, and the Guinness Book of Records motivates some people to take part in the excessive and ridiculous, but I wonder if there should be something more.
Cadbury's chocolate launched the CDM awards in the Seventies when people could nominate their friends and relatives for the award. I always thought that if you got two you could indicate you had a CDM and bar but it never caught on.
So what might I qualify for through longevity or talent? 40 years with the same Company never used to be a rarity, but there will be very few people achieving that in the future, and 40 years ( and we hope a few more) of attending England rugby internationals may also be a record to be proud of. The singing certainly has not improved but it has lasted the test of time....
Nothing else really springs to mind, I doubt I am anywhere near the top of the tree for downing pints of London Pride. I am member of the Young's 135 Club though, and did complete the Fullers passport. Both of these entailed drinking in every establishment in their estate at the time. I have no reputation for eating remarkably hot curries. I have never broken 80 playing golf so have twenty years to go before I have any change of shooting below my age. I do have a hole in one although there is no Hall of Fame for that, its membership would be exhaustive.
I won first dividend on the pools in November 1989 and collected £351.85. There must have been loads of draws that day!! I still have an uncashed cheque for 66p from a previous 6th dividend win, It would have cost more than that to print the cheque.
So I will just settle for what I am and what I have got, a brick in the wall at Twickenham Stadium, another in the Olympic Park in Atlanta and a copy of the Daily Telegraph from 6th June 1992 showing me as the joint fourth fastest 200m runner in the Country, same PB as Linford Christie: that must have been some typo!!
Famous people do have the pleasure of being recognised by their peers and voted into these Hall's of Fame, and it got me thinking about whether there should be a series of these places for ordinary folk. One might argue that the Queen's honours process announced at New Year and at her birthday does now recognise Joe Bloggs and the good work they do, and the Guinness Book of Records motivates some people to take part in the excessive and ridiculous, but I wonder if there should be something more.
Cadbury's chocolate launched the CDM awards in the Seventies when people could nominate their friends and relatives for the award. I always thought that if you got two you could indicate you had a CDM and bar but it never caught on.
So what might I qualify for through longevity or talent? 40 years with the same Company never used to be a rarity, but there will be very few people achieving that in the future, and 40 years ( and we hope a few more) of attending England rugby internationals may also be a record to be proud of. The singing certainly has not improved but it has lasted the test of time....
Nothing else really springs to mind, I doubt I am anywhere near the top of the tree for downing pints of London Pride. I am member of the Young's 135 Club though, and did complete the Fullers passport. Both of these entailed drinking in every establishment in their estate at the time. I have no reputation for eating remarkably hot curries. I have never broken 80 playing golf so have twenty years to go before I have any change of shooting below my age. I do have a hole in one although there is no Hall of Fame for that, its membership would be exhaustive.
I won first dividend on the pools in November 1989 and collected £351.85. There must have been loads of draws that day!! I still have an uncashed cheque for 66p from a previous 6th dividend win, It would have cost more than that to print the cheque.
So I will just settle for what I am and what I have got, a brick in the wall at Twickenham Stadium, another in the Olympic Park in Atlanta and a copy of the Daily Telegraph from 6th June 1992 showing me as the joint fourth fastest 200m runner in the Country, same PB as Linford Christie: that must have been some typo!!
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Bonking Boris bounces back
The old boy has bucked a trend in the recent council elections, and been re-elected as Mayor of London. As the Conservative party took a fair old pounding across the Country, the female pro-Boris vote held strong and he was able to fend off Ken 'the con' Livingstone and remain firmly entrenched in County Hall.
It's nothing out of the ordinary for the incumbent Government to get roasted in the mid-term elections, so I suspect Dave and his crew will be fairly relaxed about the wider political picture. He might, however, be looking over his shoulder from time to time to check that Boris is still maintaining that he has no presumptions about being PM. That could all change though.
In the last term we had the introduction of the Boris bikes into London, and he is now well placed to see through the Olympic Games in a few weeks time. I suspect his major focus, and legacy, though will be to try to force through the plans for an estuary airport at the mouth of the Thames.
The four runway airport will reputedly cost between £40-£70 billion and would be built on to artificial islands near Whitstable. Bet the oysters aren't too happy! Norman Foster favours a land side airport on the Isle of Grain and there are alternative options for Gatwick and Stanstead, although Heathrow does now seem to be out of the running. With Gatwick and Heathrow likely to be close to meltdown during the upcoming Olympics, there will certainly be a ground swell for a new facility near London. Link it somehow to the Eurostar and fast trains to the North of England and we could see the Boris Island Airport gather some momentum.
At the moment there are minimal UK flights to China, India and Brazil that the UK are missing out on very lucrative deals with these rising industrial giants. Guangzhou, the main industrial centre in China has no direct flights from Heathrow. Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt have 800 a year between them. So clearly something must be done. Will the finance be there, can the nature and ecology problems be overcome, and would it really take 20 years from conception to delivery. If that's the case Boris better get bonking!!!
It's nothing out of the ordinary for the incumbent Government to get roasted in the mid-term elections, so I suspect Dave and his crew will be fairly relaxed about the wider political picture. He might, however, be looking over his shoulder from time to time to check that Boris is still maintaining that he has no presumptions about being PM. That could all change though.
In the last term we had the introduction of the Boris bikes into London, and he is now well placed to see through the Olympic Games in a few weeks time. I suspect his major focus, and legacy, though will be to try to force through the plans for an estuary airport at the mouth of the Thames.
The four runway airport will reputedly cost between £40-£70 billion and would be built on to artificial islands near Whitstable. Bet the oysters aren't too happy! Norman Foster favours a land side airport on the Isle of Grain and there are alternative options for Gatwick and Stanstead, although Heathrow does now seem to be out of the running. With Gatwick and Heathrow likely to be close to meltdown during the upcoming Olympics, there will certainly be a ground swell for a new facility near London. Link it somehow to the Eurostar and fast trains to the North of England and we could see the Boris Island Airport gather some momentum.
At the moment there are minimal UK flights to China, India and Brazil that the UK are missing out on very lucrative deals with these rising industrial giants. Guangzhou, the main industrial centre in China has no direct flights from Heathrow. Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt have 800 a year between them. So clearly something must be done. Will the finance be there, can the nature and ecology problems be overcome, and would it really take 20 years from conception to delivery. If that's the case Boris better get bonking!!!
Wednesday 2 May 2012
Swiss gnome takes charge
The Football Association yesterday announced Roy Hodgson as the new England football manager. The appointment of Roy surprised a large number of people who had expected Harry Rednapp to be given the job.
There is, however, huge and previous baggage with Harry which remains from his days at West Ham. It concerns his relationship with the players and staff when he was there at the same time as Trevor Brooking. Allegedly Brooking was of the view that Harry would be the England manager while he remained at the FA 'over his dead body'. This view may well have prevailed. Trevor taking a moment to ease off the fence is a monumental event for English football.
The RFU hase recently announced a new head coach in Stuart Lancaster. Many people were surprised by his appointment as well. That stemmed, though, from his limited international experience compared with a number of other candidates.
The RFU were aware of this limitation so they gave Stuart Lancaster control of the 2012 Six Nations championship to see what he was made of. He and his team were a whisker away from winning the title and associated grand slam, and this performance was enough to nudge him over the line, and he was duly appointed.
The FA have appointed somebody with International experience, and success at the World Cup instead of a very successful club manager. The main candidates have contrasting personalities which reflect in the way their teams play football, and the FA could have appointed one or other only for the duration of the up coming European Championships. They have, however, ignored that option and given Roy a four year contract.
Time will tell whether the FA or RFU approach was the right one. Hopefully they will both be successful, and can carry the England name to the top of the World rankings again.
There is, however, huge and previous baggage with Harry which remains from his days at West Ham. It concerns his relationship with the players and staff when he was there at the same time as Trevor Brooking. Allegedly Brooking was of the view that Harry would be the England manager while he remained at the FA 'over his dead body'. This view may well have prevailed. Trevor taking a moment to ease off the fence is a monumental event for English football.
The RFU hase recently announced a new head coach in Stuart Lancaster. Many people were surprised by his appointment as well. That stemmed, though, from his limited international experience compared with a number of other candidates.
The RFU were aware of this limitation so they gave Stuart Lancaster control of the 2012 Six Nations championship to see what he was made of. He and his team were a whisker away from winning the title and associated grand slam, and this performance was enough to nudge him over the line, and he was duly appointed.
The FA have appointed somebody with International experience, and success at the World Cup instead of a very successful club manager. The main candidates have contrasting personalities which reflect in the way their teams play football, and the FA could have appointed one or other only for the duration of the up coming European Championships. They have, however, ignored that option and given Roy a four year contract.
Time will tell whether the FA or RFU approach was the right one. Hopefully they will both be successful, and can carry the England name to the top of the World rankings again.
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