Tuesday, June 28, 2005

The haka

The first test went about as well as could be expected. We got battered. O'Driscoll answered the haka challenge by tossing some grass in the air...the All Blacks responded by spearing him into the ground within 40 seconds of the kick off....no more BO'D.

Not that it makes any difference...we were 2nd best all game but you do expect better from the All Blacks.

I have a friend out there at present who is going to the 2nd test....they have been instructed to scream blue murder at Umaga and Mealamu. England expects...

As a retaliation the Lions took on mid-table 2nd division side Manawatu and battered them by over 100 points. Ha ha, who's laughing now.

Call me cynical but our new power of four anthem is hardly the right way of going into a game with a bunch of screaming Maori warriors. That there Haka is a very good way of throwing down a challenge...compare it to :

http://www.lionsrugby.com/theme.htm

Anyway, As well as someone in Kiwiland I also have a mate currently in Sydney...this coupled with my bro being in South America is giving me itchy feet but for the time being the priority is getting our lovely little house sorted. It's coming along nicely.

Nigel is in another couple of adverts...The boy's a star :

http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=23251

http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=23543

Monday, June 20, 2005

The best bit of post of the year

Mine and Anne's season tickets have arrived and are safely in our possession. It's always an ace moment opening the envelope and getting the ticket in your hand.

I picked them up after footy last week and was looking at them in the pub. A fellow bluenose asked if I'd got my passport up to date at the same time only for a rednose to shout over that we'd only need them once...I looked at my watch and said "Better hurry mate, you lot will be starting their first qualifying match in 5 minutes" he grumbled a bit and shut up.

Even last year when all looked lost actually getting your ticket in your hand was still something special.

COYB!!!!

Seem piccies of the new kit too....now all we have to do is sign some players!

http://images.nsno.co.uk/albums/blue/Everton2_bmp.jpg

More cricket success. The Australians have now lost to England, Sommerset, Bangladesh and England again so far. Peiterson's 91 and Collingwoods catch were fabulous (They played the commentary for the catch and you could here the gasp go up from the crowd, Breathtaking is a much overused word but that's the only word to describe that). 5Live were mischieviously asking whether Australia should retain their test status....funny but let's just wait 'til after the test series before passing judgement.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Not so much a garden...more a James Herbert novel

For a second time since we've moved in I've had to remove enough snails from my garden to feed Paris for a week. Last night I collected at least a kilogram in around 10 minutes. Ugh!

Not having any pellets and lacking the stomach just to dowse them in salt there and then I took them round the corner and dumped them...it should take them a good 2 months to crawl back.

I wonder if I could have taken the squirming bag of escargot to one of the French restaurants in Allerton?

Anyway something needs to be done.

In other news we got in yesterday to find a little hand drawn card dropped in by one of the neighbours. Nice to find such nice people in the street.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

BBC SPORT | Cricket Scorecard

BBC SPORT Cricket Scorecard

I know it's just a Twenty20 warm up game and in the grand scheme of things matters little......but wow. England demolished the Aussies last night. Battered them. We roughed them up too.

England Innings
179 for 8 (20.0 overs)
Australia Innings
79 all out (14.3 overs)


You just don't see scorecards like this from them :

A C Gilchrist 15
M L Hayden 6
A Symonds 0
M J Clarke 0
M E K Hussey 1
R T Ponting 0
D R Martyn 4
B Lee 15
J N Gillespie 24
M S Kasprowicz 3 not out
G D McGrath 5

They'll be like a wounded animal now but battle is joined and it's first blood to us.

COME ON ENGLAND.

The Expeditionary forces aren't faring as well down in Kiwiland though. We got mauled by the Maoris at the weekend and now Lewis Moody is injured. Things may come together for the tests but "Brian O'Driscoll's pride of pussycats" (as the kiwi press are calling them) need to find their best line-up ASAP and losing players like Moody and Dallaglio isn't helping. I had to laugh at one of their newspapers descibing Shane Williams as "small enough to be barred from getting on certain fairground rides".

On the home front Everton seem to be missing out on their first choice signings who favour moves to clubs that will pay them more. Then again if Scott Parker turned his nose up at Champions League footy & £40k per week at a club that's just done something really remarkable in favour of the intertoto cup footy at an anarchic creche managed by a twat and owned by contemptuous & contemptable arseholes (Sorry Newcastle fans) then that's all we need to know.

I am also not too concerned if players are failing our medicals...we can't afford to be paying £30,000 per week for people to warm a treatment table.

SB

Monday, June 13, 2005

evertonfc.com :::: MO AWARDED MBE

evertonfc.com :::: MO AWARDED MBE

Well done Mo. Finally one of my footy team-mates has got an MBE...surely mine can't be far off. I played footy with her in a charidee game ages ago. It's one of my fave claims to fame that I'd played alongside an England captain. She was ace but we still lost...we were playing a bunch of rednoses and another Everton lady (who'll remain nameless) missed a load of chances including a crucial late penalty.

Also recently I played with one of Coventry Ladies...I owe her a kicking but she's just too cool a person to give a kicking to.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

The last night of the Garston riots

Today me and Anne move house...Garston has been good to us and I'll miss the space in our lovely boulevard penthouse (With river view) but you can't rent forever and the area was going to hell in a hand-cart.

Redrow conformity here we come.

I always liked living in L19 however for the last few months it's just been a scallies adventure playground. *Kick shit out of something to provoke the police, give them the run around, scream at you mates that "Ders bizzies everywhere la" *repeat 'til fade**

Carpet bombing the estate between Long Lane and Mather Avenue would have sorted the problem but the railway line might have been hit.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Summer

So the footy season draws to a close with Everton as the 4th best team in the land...the season tickets are renewed, we can't buy the new shirt yet so that's it...we are officially off duty.......so what do we do with ourselves now then?

Official Website of the British & Irish Lions Rugby Tour

I suppose we'll just have to try and batter some chaps from the colonies.

The Lions tour on New Zealand and then The Ashes...It's what summer was invented for.

The Lions are something I'll just enjoy...for me New Zealand's rugby union team are up in that elite bracket along with the West Indies cricket team and the Brazilian footy team. They have the aura, testing 'yourself' against them is always something special....England Vs The Aussies in anything is always a derby.

Doing well in both test series would be great but given a choice it's the ashes.