Well done to the winners.

Thanks for organising, Longines.

Great to hear you're doing well, tikay. Absolutely no way I'd be happy with you pulling out, though. Benefiting from a disadvantage is just one of those glorious variance things. Totally fine with you being the leader at the halfway stage.

Basically you've played poker by going all in blind so far. You're the table character. If you want now to nit up with your big stack, you absolutely can. If you want to carry on doing what you've been doing, they're your chips and no one else can stop you.

Rules is rules. It's already a great anecdote.

I'm sure we're all studying the big handicaps for horses that want filthy ground, so this could be quite a fun couple of days, as the ground starts to dry.

Game on!

Sharpest outsourced pin in the game.

Got to pay 4 places with 17 runners 

I've accidentally invented a maths problem and now it's bugging me because I don't know how to work out the answer.

In 12 hours the minute and hour hands on a clock align perfectly with each other 12 times but what, precisely, are those times?

I know the first, (or last) one is 12:00 if that helps..

They overlap 13 times in 12 hours: once every 65 minutes.

12:00
1:05
2:10
3:15
4:20
5:25
6:30
7:35
8:40
9:45
10:50
11:55
12:00

Who remembers Tyrone the Brummie "professional roulette player"?

I think he might have made an appearance on LNP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Night_Poker_series_1_results

Indeed he did, Tyrone Pooley was his name which took me down a bit of a rabbit hole:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4746557.the-southampton-gambler-who-took-a-chance-on-faulty-wheel-and-lost/

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/gambler-tyrone-pooley-jailed-stealing-3020961

And going back to LNP series 1 and a whole host of other "what happened to?" candidates, including one which led me to one of the best clarifications ever:

http://www.victoriacoren.com/main/blog/archive/clarific

And from there a rather unexpected quote from a West Country comic:

https://www.theguardian.com/observer/osm/story/0,6903,377365,00.html

If Devilfish was in a room with Baroness Thatcher, he'd tell her to go and put the kettle on.

Nice.

I happened across one on Sky Documentaries the other day called The Alpinist about a young Canadian rock climber.

Truly extraordinary young man and the only thing better than the incredible camera angles and the stupendous decision not to have any music or commentary for large parts of it is the story itself.

Thanks Simon.

I'll have to construct a little "To watch" list at this rate.

Will put that at # 2, after I've seen the Boeing one suggested by the elderly fella earlier.

Right now I'm watching Spurs upsetting the odds at The Etihad. Can it last? 

Well, as far as this thread goes, it will last until at least 10.30

I happened across one on Sky Documentaries the other day called The Alpinist about a young Canadian rock climber.

Truly extraordinary young man and the only thing better than the incredible camera angles and the stupendous decision not to have any music or commentary for large parts of it is the story itself.

In

Thought you might appreciate this, tikay.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/nostalgia/birminghams-new-street-station-more-22963398.amp

https://www.nationalbadmintonmuseum.com/sir-george-thomas-a-legend-as-a-player-administrator-and-gentlemen/

Leonard Barden's chess column in today's Guardian refers in passing to Sir George. Thought you'd enjoy this rabbit hole.

The established redraft league (the former Yahoo league) has a simple payout structure:

£200 collected
£160 for first
£40 for second

So that's £160 to me and £40 to Ironside.

Think I'll change the name of the league for next time to reflect the Tony Kendall Trophy bit. Also helps distinguish it from the new dynasty league.

Will confirm placings and draft consequences when time permits.

Merry Christmas, tikay.

Brutal game.

So enjoyable to watch.

I have to take a break every 40 mins from poker as my game v low stakes recs suffers from mental fatigue.

These two playing for 7+ hours having to reference 6 months prep just for the openings, and theoretical drawn positions that are only draws when you find the exact move order every time, for 130 odd moves.

Tal, thought you may enjoy this if you haven't seen it

https://youtu.be/Br0AdoKEeIw

He's not the player he was, but it's just wonderful to see a Shirov special.

Vlad Kramnik: What is the conclusion?
Peter Svidler: Chess is very difficult, and also not a draw.

At move 130, Nepomniachtchi played Qe6. This was the moment the dam burst.

Brutal that they have to go straight from over six hours of play to do the press conference. And then play tomorrow.

Draw backers for game 7 in clover.