turdus merula iirc, stuck in my brain for more than half a century.

The thrush family, while maybe not aristocrats, are certainly upper middle class imo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_thrush

And no offers as he has started his final holes.

I suppose it depends if he has started. He's down to 1.02 now, so I imagine he's at the course.

talking of golf, scottie sheffler, the best we've seen since tiger,  is 5 shots clear of the field with three holes to play and a weather delay. He can be backed at 1.04 on betfair.

You aren't backing whether he will win in the conventional sense, but actually that his wife won't go into labour (I suppose technically labor), before he can finish.

 

You would think that poker players would be the exceptions to that rule. I only got a few reads on people, mostly verbal or timing, I think because I was concentrating on trying not to give info.

Like the pics, just wish I could find a way to love winter as it's half the year in my part of the world.

good luck to your uncle!

I played in a 20/40 LHE game in vegas in 1999 and he was at the table.

Don't know if you are a trekkie, tikay, but even if not this is quite an absorbing little film with Kirk and Spock talking about their lives.

"isn't that simple - anyone can do that"

I think you will get one for £25- £30 on amazon etc, def no need to spend some of the prices on that link.

I'm a bit of a sucker for youtube instruction vids and the board is quite useful for trying out the ideas, and quite quickly working out whether they are going to lead to a more consistent strike.

I jut took out a 5 day membership of a nearby club. It is quite long though (in seniors terms) at 6800 yards from the back tees and was an open qualifying venue in the early naughties, but the main advantage is that I can put a few clubs in a pencil bag and play a nine holes. I think that is more fun than a basket of balls at the range.

I bought one of these

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=golf+divot+board

and if you can swing a club in your house (or back garden), it's the best golf gadget to have imo. The idea is to have the "divot" - where it strikes the board and leaves a mark - fairly straight and not to far behind the mark that represents the ball. You can even use it to practice chip shots - it's completely obvious that you would have thinned or duffed a shot. 

I've not been in these comps for a while, but I think the NR/random horse thing is more about the last day, when if someone is well behind they are probably selecting longer priced horses, so a fav isn't really helping them. A random horse at least gives them a chance that the fav wouldn't.

Hope you are well soon ironside - a vpn of some kind should sort out the hospital anti-gambling firewall. (some betting sites block vpns but racing post etc should be ok)

Down with this sort of thing!

That is nothing compared to the apparently now universal practice of putting some semi-spoilers at the beginning of a tv programme. (And sometimes full spoilers from previous episodes, without any regard for viewers who haven't seen them yet).

Viewers of "Fake or Fortune" know how the show goes. They don't need to see, first of all, segments of previous shows, depicting hopefuls getting fortuned or facked. They also don't need to see, in advance, bits of the show they have chosen to watch, as if, they have such a short attention span, that they might turn off if not assured that they are going to be presented with the kind of twists and turns they have come to expect.

And don't get me started on golf. I am watching the abc masters which is taking place at the same time as the xyz open. I will watch the highlights of the xyz open later. Or would have done, if the presenter of the abc masters hadn't interrupted the coverage of the event he is being paid to present, to tell me what was happening at the xyz open. What the actual fuck? Does he think that there are people in the world who are watching and who desperately want to know what is going on at the xyz open and have no way to find out?

On a lighter TV note - "Bob Monkhouse:The Last Stand" on iplayer was pretty good I thought.