Update Digest

As the strapline indicates, I am back from my trip to Scotland and Northern England, plus a hectic 50 minutes in Amsterdam which I may write about soon, and am trying to enjoy the last few days of my extended summer holiday, and am failing to do so, on account of the huge amounts of things which seem to be pressing for my attention at the moment. However, I am determined that the blog shall be maintained, so what follows are just a few paragraphs covering the usual topics aired on this page.

Charlton 3 Hartlepool 1

Of course, as I told Mush this afternoon, when he rang to ask me to join him and Sam watching the Champions' League match tonight (yes, that one) I am delighted about the current state of affairs at Charlton. Since my last posting from the north of England, Charlton have been in action twice more, the slightly worrying home game against lower-league opposition in the shape of Hartlepool, and then away to West Bromwich Albion, a fixture that could also have been the cause of some concern, considering what happened the last time the clubs met.

Hartlepool, however, were overcome 3-1, and OK, there was a fright in that they scored first, though in the end were only in the lead for a few minutes before Jonatan Johansson equalised from what appears to have been a rather fortunate penalty. The manager had in fact been playing a lot of last season's regulars, and it apparently showed. But in the second half Danny Murphy and Darren Bent came on and wrapped up the prize ticket to the next round.

West Bromwich Albion 1 Charlton 2

Most people felt confident about West Brom away, after the Hartlepool game. After all, everyone else who has come in contact with Chelsea has lost so far, and, with the exception of Chelsea, the same can be said of teams which have come into contact with Charlton, so the flying start was on the whole expected to continue, and so it did. Charlton were 2-0 up at half time and it could have been more. WBA fought back in the second half, playing much better, but as Charlton were this time not also playing against Bolton Wanderers's tame referee Mark Halsey, they were able to keep the scoreline at 2-1, or rather 1-2, as it was WBA who were the home team. This means (and no one in the media has mentioned this either) that Charlton have a 100% away record - four wins out of four.

Hoax

As indicated above, Mush rang this afternoon to say that he's back, and not from the Far East after all, just the Not So Far UK. And he decently mentioned that Charlton were doing well, and as I rang off I felt that I am very contented, and would be even more so were the shades of the Centre (where I work) not once more closing in. And then, continuing my rounds of various web pages, I came across the following words:

Charlton were today rocked by the news that Premiership rules concerning administration have meant the deduction of ten league points, dropping the club down from 2nd overnight to 15th place in the Premiership table.

In fact it was an extract in a sidebar, with a link, to another page, and there was a lot more, comparing Charlton's situation to that of Wrexham last season, and accusing the teams in the North East, particularly Sunderland (1-3) and Middlesbrough (0-3) who have contributed to that 100% away record, of acting on an obscure clause in the Premiership rules which say that if sponsors go into administration, then the club forfeits 10 points.

It took me quite some time before I realised that it is the club which has to go into administration, not the shirt sponsors (though Charlton's current sponsors are indeed in administration) and that the whole story was an extremely convincing hoax, but my heart sank for a while. And in fact if Charlton were to be docked 10 points, they would be 16th, still not in a relegation slot though.

I cannot give a link as the post has now been removed, but the words quoted above were still in place on the original linking site.

Plums

Charlton's reward, incidentally, for beating Hartlepool, turns out to be an away trip to Chelsea, which no one seems to have described as the plum tie of the round (1st Premiership v 2nd Premiership - of not much account, really), There were references to 'plum ties' on the headlines on the BBC webpage on the evening of the draw: "Plum ties for Grimsby and Barnet", they shrieked. And you know, that was the very moment that I knew that neither of them had been drawn against Charlton, for, as is the norm, most of the media preferred to get excited about Newcastle going to Grimsby Town, where on current form they might well get thrashed, oh, and Manchester United being drawn against Barnet, in my view a prime candidate for a 'bore of the early 21st century' award (well, if we didn't already have the Champions' League). OK, I've been persuaded to join God knows how many others at the pub tonight for the Big Match, so I might have to take that last statement back, though I wouldn't bet on it.

The Quiz Team

As the comment by my friend Steve at the end of the last post indicates, there was no quiz on Monday, 19th, as Sam; Mush; Hugh and I were in the UK, and David and Gitte were too, and those who turned up decided it would be not worth while holding the event. The same thing almost happened this week, as Sam and Mush were still away, and Hugh, Tony, John and I looked for a short while as though we'd be asking each other questions, but in the end David and Luis appeared, and our American friend Laura, and the whole of Edu's team, and Jimmy, standing in for Alex, was able to give it a go. This time the scores were reasonable for all; Edu's team coming in first with 137, we had 133 and David and Luis's team, still without Gitte but with Laura guesting, 122. They really do need you back, Gitte! And we'd like to see you, too.

This was the last-ever Monday night quiz, as the Thursday move is now set in stone, and the problem of low turn-outs should be a thing of the past.

Old habits die hard, of course, and Tony and I, for the moment, along with Luis and David, feel there would be something intrinsically wrong with Monday nights in the winter if we weren't quizzing somewhere, so next week a joint team will venture to some other hostelry (most Madrid pub quizzes are on Mondays) and see what we can do.