This is such terrible news - Ger was such a big-hearted guy and was the life and soul of APAT events.

Yes, they literally just give you half your stake money back after you place the bets.

Dunno if it's still a thing but 9-10 years ago the Betfair Malta office certainly had the tea lady come around with her trolley and selection of little cakes.

Lee Sharpe is another that springs to mind.  Was clearly very good for a few years at Manchester United, but going through the motions for several years afterwards.

Wasn’t the story with him was that he discovered the white powder, and that Man Utd helped cover up periods at rehab with stories of ‘injuries’?

There is a big tradition of the English player who looks the bomb as a teenager, gets some U21 caps, looks set for big things and then just doesn’t kick on. I think with a lot of them all that happens is that, for the first time since they kicked a ball as a kid, football gets tough.

They’d have been best kid at football at their school, then best at their youth team, then the pro game itself is great. Then something will happen, maybe an injury, maybe they get a big money move to a club where they’re not the best in their position and suddenly football’s not fun any more. Couple this with earning £XXk a week, and the attention of every wannabe wag in town and then busting a gut at 100% in training every morning just doesn’t seem worth the effort when you can phone it in, and still get paid, knowing that some other club will probably be willing to give you a chunky contract once your agent gives them the spiel about your ‘unfulfilled potential’

BTW was in the pub tonight and mate casually mentioned he had tips for the winners in the first 3 races.

Me: First two fair enough I could have tipped those but he didn’t have Vintage Clouds.

Him: Oh yeah, he sent that through as well. Did I not text you?

FARCE

Just reading his obituary - amazed to learn he was an advertising exec till he was in his mid-fifties, only went full time with the commentary after James Hunt’s 1976 F1 victory built an audience for it.

It also helped that this was a pretty young woman going missing in London - the media is chock full of pretty young women who live in London, which immediately gives it a ‘that could have been me’ vibe.

Teeks, I assume you're already all over this, but this year's newsletter from Warren Buffet is out.

https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2020ltr.pdf

Click to see full-size image.

He’s put his drive in the deep rough there - difficult 2nd shot coming up.

Inspired by Arbboy’s posts on the darts thread, what are the earliest sporting memories you have? Here are mine.

1982 FA Cup Final - as a QPR fan this is obv huge. I was 7 years old, watched the final on TV (1-1 draw v Spurs). Then MY DAD GOT US TICKETS FOR THE REPLAY. Awesome, though sadly my only memory from that night was Glenn Hoddle’s penalty.

1982 World Cup - I’m sure I watched loads of it but the first bit that sticks in the mind was the Brazil-Italy semi final (best football game ever?). I was filling in my Ladybird World Cup 1982 book through the tournament.

1983 Darts final - Bristow v Deller. As Arbboy said an absolute classic. I can’t remember any other darts from the decade but this always stuck in my mind.
 
1984 Olympics - not a specific event, but the end of tournament round up set to Gold by Spandau Ballet.

Not sure what year this was and not going to Google but there was one year I came home from school and the Cheltenham Gold Cup was delayed because of snow or hail. No idea about the horses or anything, just remember the weather delay.

What are yours?

I’ve been obsessed with watching this all day - even with no shares myself I’m really rooting for these guys to crush the shorties.

Hola from sunny Lanzarote.

I came out here just before Christmas when Lanzarote was basking in the cooling glow of green status. Sitting outside drinking in the sun was glorious.

Why don't you check out this graph of how things have gone since.

Click to see full-size image.

It's a really interesting story that I wasn't previously aware of but Don't fuck with cats is a pretty annoying documentary. One episode ends with us, the viewer, finding out something and then the entire next episode is interviews with police officers as they slowly work their way to learning what we already know.

Also, as Bergeroo said, the keyboard warriors were super annoying as well.