Well done Stu, that was tremendous fun.

Big +1 to that innovation of randomising the results, which, at one stage or another, gave us all a short window of hope before you cruelly changed everything.

Think I had 10 winners or thereabouts including the winner of the first race all 4 days & still failed to cash. Meh. Well done to Alan (knottikay) & David (Doooobs) too. Bastards.

Fter race 5

Well I'm not going to argue, but I seem to be about £200 "overpaid".

the standard way to do this over many years in these competitions is the NR is replaced by SP favourite.

Not sure why you'd be complicating it with a random name generator

Only because the rules as lifted from last year do not state anything about SP favourite, they state random horse.

If everyone is happy with SP favourite I have no issue with this, makes it easier for me, but a little less exciting 

I am happy for it to be SP FAV, as per previous years. Can you put up a link for the sheet again to save me searching. BTW, I didnt spot any errors yesterday apart from the one you picked up yourself . Well done.......should have it cracked by Saturday 

Hi Alan,


Is this what you need?



https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-Ap9F6gyaxhh-gXjq7VriRFmv5qTzB1nDe2PMjQnBXc/edit#gid=0

[The 16.10 (as was) Glenfarclas Chase has been abandoned & will NOT take place.]

Note to all in case anyone missed it;



The 16.10 (as was) Glenfarclas Chase has been abandoned & will NOT take place.




https://twitter.com/CheltenhamRaces/status/1767823611203576001



That means revised timings for all races as follows;



As a result of the abandonment of the 5th race today, the revised race times for Wednesday 13th March are as follows:

Race 1: 13.45
Race 2: 14.30
Race 3: 15.15
Race 4: 16.00
Race 5: NA
Race 6: 16.50
Race 7: 17.30

Farce.

No Idea how Dustin Porier is almost 2/1 for his UFC fight tonight against a really good guy - but one who has never fought top calibre opposition. Just seems like an absurd line based on hype for the Frenchman and the fact that Poirier got KOd by Justin G in his last fight. I'm having a big bet.

Hello tips for tikay!

oioi, well done bergeroo


Dustin Poirier defeats Benoit Saint Denis by KO (strikes) at 2:32 of Round 2

Just reading this snap reminded me of the much missed Vince, aka Mere Novice.


I would prefer you pick a specific horse but to maintain the spirit of the previous comps will take instructions for "random" selections (e.g. first horse alphabetically) for each race if you do not have the time/inclination to make your own selections but, in a rather dictatorial manner, I am not going to allow selections such as "pick the SP favourite for every race" or attempts to circumvent this rule. For anyone who has entered but not submitted their selections by the deadline on any day you will be assigned a random horse.

He had such a distinctive style of writing.

Thanks Stu, £25 paid.


"Your payment of £25.00 to Mr Stuart Hopkin has been successfully made."

Count me in if you run it.

[gangland war]

Try Kin on iPlayer.

Sounds right up my street based on this from Wiki....



The series revolves around a fictional Dublin family embroiled in gangland war,

I swerved The Crown until recently. Yet it’s such a beautifully crafted thing. Well written, great acting, just gets better and better.

Getting older now so glass of sherry and episode of The Crown is a banging night.

The Crown? Seriously?
 
You trolling us MANTIS?

Very disappointed in you, really. 

apropros nothing really but I went to the Driving Range yesterday & bumped into a very healthy looking Neil Giblin.

He seems very happy with life. Works with Matt Russell, who I sense is well on his way to becoming a millionaire. Might already be there. 

Neil hits the ball an absolute mile, and it makes that lovely sound when it comes off the clubface. Now that I AM jealous of. I did manage to win a three-ball at Breadsall Priory against Jamie Moult & another guy last week who is a jacket potato vendor & must be worth fortunes, got a cracking pitch in Beeston, but I'm way too embarrassed to reveal what Handicap they had to give me to make me competitive. Golf is SO hard.   

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

I've had a good google, & I think I'll start with Stu's suggestion, "The Bear".

I started watching the new Prime thing "Married to the Game", which follows the lives of the wives of 5 top footballers.

It's a dreadful watch, so bad I can't stop watching it. When Riyad Mahrez signed for a team in Saudi Arabia his missus said she was "stressed to bits, I've not had time to think about finding a Gym to join out there, or where I'll get my nails or hair done". She also complained she had "no friends in Saudi, & I'll have to sit at home on my own".

I don't do jealousy or envy, good luck to these girls who manage to find themselves a zillionaire footballer, but their complete lack of self-awareness was sickening.

James Tarkowski (Everton) and wife Samantha seemed reasonably grounded, until they revealed they were throwing a huge party (costing well into 6 figures) to celebrate their "2 month wedding anniversary".

 

["Mary Poppins film age rating raised over 'discriminatory language'"]

The world is now a safer place.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68402362

"Mary Poppins film age rating raised over 'discriminatory language'"


Human nature being what it is, I had a ridiculous desire to know what the offensive word or language was, as the film has been around for 60 (?) or more years & I'd never heard mention of any controversy around the language used in it.

So I went googling. I could have had a million guesses & still never got it.

 

Hottentots



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hottentot_(racial_term)



I've made a note not to use the term in future.

I actually recommended The Wire to Tony but stopped watching it myself after series 2. For me it just seemed to get a bit slow.

Similar here Tom. Plus I found that lady Detective character was a bit naff -  bad acting & not a realistic character, just a stereotypical 90's/2000's female police officer, assumed to be dumb but oh gosh, fancy that she's actually really rather bright, who'd have thought sorta thing. And of course she got shot in the throat so there were rivers of crocodile tears from her colleagues.