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Reply | What is the Best Stan Bowles Story?
at 20:26 6 Aug 2025
From Stan The Man's autobiography:
I have the worst record on Superstars: seven points. It still stands to this day. We filmed it down in Northampton at an army base. They were disgusted with me right the way through. I wouldn't do any weights. I told them I had a bad back. I was like farking Arthur Daley: "No, no, that's not for me." The only points I got were in swimming. I dead-heated with JPR Williams, the rugby player. He was about 16 stone and I was about 11.
I did the canoeing; the canoe overturned. In the shooting I shot the table. You had to fire at a target with real ammunition. I had never fired a gun in my life. Fark it: I missed the target I don't know how many times. You were supposed to lift the gun up, put it back down on the table, lift it up again and then fire. But when I put it down again it nearly blew the table in half.
I'd been out with James Hunt the night before and I had a right hangover and it just went off. A hair trigger, you see? I know what that is now. I didn't know that at that time and I won't forget it either.
The presenter David Vine was interviewed on Parkinson and he was asked who was the best athlete to ever compete on Superstars. He said, "Well, that's debatable. But I can tell you who was the worst, Stan Bowles." I did it as a joke. It was just a farking day out. You had to do a bit of training there, three days. It was a joke to me. But the army were really disgusted."
Read somewhere that he only went on it for the Fee - needed to pay off a bill at the bookies I think.
P.S. He didn't actually say "Fark" - I had to get round the swear filter. [Post edited 6 Aug 20:28]
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Reply | Queen Adelaide
at 18:46 4 Aug 2025
Even if you're not interested in the game, you want to get yourself along to Hayes Cricket Club (probably not too far?)
They've a great social club, with prices to match. (Know the couple who basically run it - top people) |
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Reply | Brentford taking their full allocation
at 18:36 4 Aug 2025
Still awaiting the screenshot of where you saw those prices.
Unless you were looking at the Fulham official:
(Click to enlarge, but prepare to be shocked) [Post edited 4 Aug 18:37]
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Reply | Queen Adelaide
at 22:22 2 Aug 2025
Otoh, if you told your son that in your dad's time, pubs had to close at 2pm (2.30?) for four hours in the afternoon - by law - he'd think you're bonkers.
All that said, you're absolutely correct - the pub culture in this country is dying and I really think we're the worse for it. [Post edited 2 Aug 22:23]
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Reply | Corny Joke Warning
at 22:17 2 Aug 2025
Definition of an alcoholic: Someone who drinks more than his Doctor... |
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Reply | Brentford taking their full allocation
at 21:58 30 Jul 2025
Those must be Hospitality Packages, in a Lounge, hence only sold in pairs. (I say "must be", because you can't actually access the Hospitality Prices online, need to phone).
Alternatively, you may be looking at some outside Ticketing Website i.e. licensed touts? Post a screenshot.
Meanwhile, here is the tariff for the game as per the official site (Villa is Cat.B):
https://www.brentfordfc.com/en/ticketing-guide
This shows General Admission to be £40, or £30 for Seniors/Young Adults/Family, and £!0 for U-18's.
Btw, I think those prices are in the bottom 3 or 4 in the Prem, with BFC being one of just two teams to freeze prices from last season. [Post edited 30 Jul 22:01]
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Reply | Brentford taking their full allocation
at 16:03 29 Jul 2025
Yeah, I oknow what he means. But I take comfort from the fact that at the end of last season (i.e before the departures), I and many other fans were thinking of top eight, maybe even Europe, for 2025/26.
Meaning that even if we slip back instead this season, that should still leave us with enough of a cushion - to 15th? - from which to rebuild for the following season. Either way, Bees fans have a huge amount of trust in the guys running the club to have "A Plan For All Seasons".
And even if that fails, our "Get Out Of Jail" card could still be that there will be three other teams - the promoted teams? - who are so crap that they'll have the relegation places sewn up by Xmas. |
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Reply | Brentford taking their full allocation
at 15:52 29 Jul 2025
Fair point that if you cannot compete with PL clubs on equal terms, then you have to find another identity - was "Sh1t but local" one of yours? (No offence meant, btw)
But the only problem there is your ground, since for all that old timers love LR in the way that we loved Griffin Park etc, fact is, it is becoming increasingly unfit for purpose and eventually the new, younger fans whom you need to keep replenishing the fanbase may decide that it's simply not good enough and opt to spend their money on something else shiny and new (not necessarily PL)?
As for WHU, they very definitely had an identity at the Boleyn, but that was lost with the move to Stratford. hence their risible attempt to replace it with 'Brand London' (ugh!)
And if (when?) they ever get relegated out of the PL, unless they come back up again very soon, they'll be right royally farked rattling around a crap 60k athletics stadium in games against Oxford, Swansea, Hull etc. Bring it on! |
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Reply | How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 15:35 29 Jul 2025
Didn't know that, but not surprised upon thinking about it.
For Russia has never really been a maritme nation, seeing as the threat to it have always come across land; they've generally only ever invaded neighbouring countries by land and air themselves, and their only access to deep blue water is via the Baltic or Bosphorus - very vulnerable - or the far north, frozen over for several months of the year.
Worse still, large ships are ever increasingly vulnerable to missile or drone attack, often from hundreds/thousands of miles away - see eg the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet, which Ukraine sunk easily enough with a couple of neptune anti-ship missiles.
Which is why I fear it was stupid of this country to spend billions building the new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, at least now we no longer have an overseas empire. Then again Generals/Admiral are notorious for planning to fight the last war, not the next one.
P.S. I wouldn't be surprised if Russia simply can't afford to build another carrier, what with the way their economy is being stretched over Ukraine and sanctions etc. [Post edited 29 Jul 15:36]
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Reply | Brentford taking their full allocation
at 14:36 29 Jul 2025
Good post.
We should never underestimate the "generational" effect. That is, Bees spent so much time out of the top, even second, division, that while kids maybe continued following their Dads' team, by the time it got to grandkids, the thread was often broken, esp when the grandkids had moved away from the area.
Tbf to QPR, your crowds are still pretty good, esp considering prices, stadium and standard of football etc. I think a lot of this must be because memories to the top division are still reasonably strong amongst people in the middle generation.
But while you still probably get a fair number of youngsters at LR these days, I suspect that that may only be because they cant afford, or even get, tickets to a PL match.
Which may not be enough to maintain the thread over the longer term, if the club still remains outside the PL and those kids become adults themselves and find something else to do on Saturday afternoons?
I'm sure that hit Brentford hard, and it will take more than just a few seasons in the PL to restore - a whole generation in fact? [Post edited 29 Jul 14:38]
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Reply | Brentford taking their full allocation
at 14:07 29 Jul 2025
I think the "once they got promoted to the Premier League" bit is key, though perhaps not in the way you think.
That is, a lot of those people may have been "fans" of Man U or Liverpool etc, but never actually went, if only because they could never get tickets.
So instead they went to Griffin Park every now and then - pay on the day no problem, bring the kids along etc. Then after promotion, the only way you could get a ticket was if you were a Member, hence the sudden arrival of Membership packs etc.
Which is not to get into a willy-waving contest of how many fans we have etc, but a simple reflection of changed ticketing arrangements, rather than changed support.
Of course, we still have a number of "supporters" attending for whom Brentford are the "second team" - it didn't mean that much when they were two divisions lower and never met etc.
But aside from those who are now converting, it is noticeable that a lot of their kids have become ardent Bees fans i.e. their Dads' teams never actually meant much to them if they were living in Middlesex or Surrey and only ever got to see them on TV.
Make of all that what you will. |
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Reply | Brentford taking their full allocation
at 13:54 29 Jul 2025
Eh?
By "only sold in pairs at tickle under £130 each", I assume you don't mean £260. And even £130 a pair/£65 each is misleading, since those are the top priced "Dugout" tickets, which as well as the best seats in the house, offer other benefits (own bar etc). Which reflects that all other tickets have sold out for that game and I don't expect there will be too many Dugout seats left, either.
Aside from that, adult tickets range from £30 (Family Section) through £40, £45 and £50 before you get to Dugout, with decent discounts for concessions.
All of which is before you get to Season Tickets, which offer even better discounts eg my own Adult ST in the West Stand ("home end") works out at £23 per game. Which for PL football with Safe Standing, and an excellent view in a modern stadium offers excellent value (imo).
Perhaps you're mistaking us with Fulham? |
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Reply | How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 12:05 24 Jul 2025
The idea of buying a diamond engagement ring for prospective brides is surprisingly recent - from the 1940's - and was the result of a marketing blitz by De Beers, who had a glut of diamonds they needed to get rid of (up to that point diamonds were mostly used for industrial purposes).
And it all really took off when:
"A young copywriter called Frances Gerety scribbled the words 'a diamond is forever' on a scrap of paper next to a picture of a couple on honeymoon late one night in the early 1950s. Little did she know that the line would outlive her. Advertising industry lore suggests that her colleagues were not particularly impressed by the line but presented it to their client [De Beers] anyway as they had nothing better to offer. "
https://businessleader.co.uk/content/article/498/The-diamond-empire:-How-De-Beer |
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Reply | How about a few “not a lot of people know thats”
at 20:11 23 Jul 2025
GB/British Isles notwithstanding, the Birch as a means of corporal punishment (for boys only and below the age of 15, applied to the bare buttocks) was abolished in the UK in 1948.
But the IoM kept it on, even raising the age limit to 18, with the last such punishment being meted out in 1976. And although the ECHR ruled against it at that time, it wasn't formally abolished in the island until 1993.
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Reply | Technology help please
at 19:44 23 Jul 2025
Reminds me of the joke from years back:
"How did you burn your ear?"
"I was ironing when the phone rang..."
Sorry, can't help with the OP's query - I'm a tech idiot - but I hope this raises a smile for him |
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Reply | Shepherds Bush Green
at 23:14 9 Jul 2025
The same further out West. On chucking out time on the Surrey side of Kew Bridge, the Kings Arms, Greyhound and Rose & Crown etc would empty, as the punters all rushed north over the bridge to the Waggon and Horses, The Plough and the Express Tavern for 11 pm (Middx hours).
What stupid licensing laws we had back then, proper criminal - still are, to a degree. [Post edited 9 Jul 23:16]
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Reply | Chelsea fined £27 million
at 16:53 7 Jul 2025
Absolutely no sympathy for Chelsea (how could anyone?) and feel a much stronger punishment was needed.
That said, it's potentially rather more than (a mere) £27m:
"Uefa's governing body announced an initial fine of 31m euros (£26.7m) and Chelsea could be fined a further 60m euros (£51.2m) over the next four years should they continue to not fulfil the financial controls enforced by European football's governing body.
Further to this, the sanction stipulates Chelsea must balance the books in Europe and make sure to end the transfer window with a "positive balance" or be unable to register new players, including new signings like Liam Delap, Joao Pedro, Estevao Willian and Jamie Gittens.
Not only that, they must sell players that were previously on the A list in Uefa competition, in this case the Conference League squad from the second half of last season.
That means that balancing the £170m of purchases this summer needs to come from those registered from Europe's third tier"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c1lj8zr12gdo
Oh that the PL had the same "teeth" as UEFA, and were prepared to use them. |
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Reply | Source (credibility) effect
at 16:18 7 Jul 2025
From earlier:
"... to isolate [Barton] as if he were the sole repository of evil in this interaction with his wife and family is missing the point. They're a (pathological sounding) network, and he's one player only."
And now:
"I really just want to demonstrate how, for every violator, there's often collusion, protection, and co-dependency."
You appear to confuse explanation with excuse.
There can be no excuse for someone like Barton kicking his wife in the head - unless you consider the mere fact of her leaving her head within kicking distance to be a form of "collusion".
Either way, I find your use of him as an excuse (that word again) to justify your views on personal responsibility etc to be disgusting. |
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Reply | Underfloor bathroom heating
at 14:48 27 Jun 2025
About 25(?) years ago we moved into a house where the previous owner had started renovating the bathroom, then gave up.
We got a painter/decorator in, who also did tiling, to finish the job.
We wanted a tiled floor, but were worried it would be too cold. Eventually he came up with this underfloor system, a bit like an electric blanket, which you laid under the tiles. (Think it might have been Scandinavian - maybe Finnish? - and fairly new to UK; certainly none of us had ever seen one before)
There was no socket in the bathroom (obv), so he drilled a tiny hole in the skirting board through to the bedroom next door to use a socket there, while he dropped the transformer(?) out of the way under the floorboards.
Brilliant job, easy to install and can't have been expensive to run (few pence a day?), since we kept it on permanently during the cooler months, when as well as the floor, it also kept the bathroom nice and warm on its own. (Switched off in summer).
Anyhow, apologies if the technology has all been superceded since then, but I'd thoroughly recommend something like this. |
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