Bits and Pieces

Life has been quite hectic this past couple of weeks, as I had visitors until last Sunday; then of course I was acting as joint question master at last week's quiz, and there have also been a few social engagements, more than I am accustomed to, during the rest of the week.

Which has meant that it is quite some time since the blog was added to, and while ideas have drifted into my head now and then, the right hook, (not here meant as a boxing term) has not come along. However there are things to be mentioned so:

Charlton 100 Years Old

This weekend in Charlton and environs, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the club is being celebrated. The Inspector has a short but quite touching piece about this, and is worth reading on the other matters currently surrounding the club, too.

Quiz Night

Well, without John and me, but supplemented by Frank, who played with us from the late nineties up to about 2002, and who made a guest reappearance, my team only managed runners-up, as, in an astonishing exact reversal of the winning and second-placed scores from the previous week: - 145 then 126, Luis, David and Gitte's team romped home, my round about various islands having aided them a bit, and David's knowing the lines of poetry I had selected helping as well. One of my 'spot' prize questions to which no one knew the answer, was: "Which well-known brand of confectionery is also the name of a play by the author of Peter Pan?" The answer to this is Quality Street, which I thought someone might have known, but no one did. Mush's suggestion of "Trebor Extra Strong Mints" got a good laugh, though. The quiz was well-received and the night became unusually prolonged. Must be the hot weather.

Liverpool

I have a number of good friends who are Liverpool supporters, and I don't want them to be upset or disappointed in any way, but I do feel that the solution produced by UEFA about the Champions' League is a very fair and well thought-out one. Not the kind of thing one expects from organisations stuffed to bursting with 'managers', as they all are these days. Liverpool will play in the Champions' League, despite having finished 5th in their domestic league this season. But they must play through the qualifying stages against, possibly, obscure teams from the Arctic Circle or the far east of Europe, or Total Network Solutions, of course.

Yet, having stopped whinging about Liverpool's exclusion, some of their fans are now starting to moan because Liverpool are not being parachuted through to a more privileged position. This kind of thinking is utterly counter-productive, for it just makes me start thinking that the wretched competition is even more of a farce than it already is. The domestic league is a truer test of form and quality than winning one match on penalties, and I here repeat what I said the other week, that the final 30 minutes of normal time in that game seemed pretty dire, to a neutral onlooker like me.

So this is fine. Liverpool can defend their cup, and if they are as wonderful as everyone is making out, then winning a handful of games against representatives of the poorer leagues of Europe should be a piece of cake.

And yet, someone else is worried that the extra games will interfere with a pre-season tour of Japan. Well swipe me, as Tony Hancock might have said. If the trip to Japan is all that important, then why not drop the Champions' League, or not play in the Pan World thing, whatever it is. Or Rafa could send the reserves to Japan. After all, he sent them to Turf Moor in the Third Round of the FA Cup.

Mind you, they lost....