Apologies for the lack of posts of late, I have been very busy!

Just a quick apology for not posting more recently, have been extremely busy with little or no time to complete any posts. Hopefully by christmas I should be able to update my blog more frequently once again!

Croatia 2 - England 0

Beverley born Paul Robinson was unfortunately left embarrassed as England crashed to a dismal defeat against Croatia in the Euro 2008 qualifier in Zagreb. Scrap the wingback system. Neville got lots of crosses in, Cole didn't. We don't need 3 at the back - they didn't even mark up properly when crosses came in.

Rooney is going to come deep to try and set things up, so we don't need Lampard, Carrick and Parker getting in his way. Play him in midfield and have two out and out strikers up front - Crouch/Ashton/Beattie & Johnson/Defoe/Bent/Walcott probably. Play Carrick/Hargreaves behind Rooney to feed the ball forward and do the defensive work for him so he doesn't tire himself out chasing the ball all over the pitch as he likes to do.

Get Downing back on the left wing. He didn't play well on Saturday, but he wasn't given the ball, and had Gerrard coming over to the left to get in the way. Before Saturday he'd had a couple of good games for England and always looks to cross. The more crosses, the more chances to score we'll have - simple.

Gerrard on the right would be okay as long as he sticks to that position and doesn't go charging all over the place. This is how Benetiz gets the best out of him, to channel him into doing specific things instead of trying to do everything. Wright-Phillips or Lennon on the bench are good impact players to bring on, and Gerrard could swap to a central position, if required.

I'm still not particularly impressed by John Terry as a player, let alone captain. King's always been solid for England.

Robinson was a tad unlucky with the miskick, and he made about 10 saves so we can let him off. We were losing at that point and would have lost anyway.

No huge personnel changes, but we need to rethink the midfield to create more chances. Tonight we had the Rooney shot that went over, and his 20-yard shot from the free kick lay-off - that was it. Hopefully England will learn from their mistakes quickly before the next round of qualification games, goodness should I become England manager, no it is just an opinion!

Scouting 2007!

Had a busy day working on the Scouting 2007 websites, at present everything seems to be working, apart from navbar colouration on the Scouting 2007 websites. A lot of the updates have now being completed and we now have three new functional websites namely;
a. www.thejamboree.org

b. www.brownsea2007.org

c. www.scouting2007.org

I thought I would just update everbody about this, as it has not been mentioned by me much of late. I have not blogged much about Scouting 2007!

Michael Schumacher wins the Chinese Grand Prix!

Michael Schumacher was overjoyed after seizing the world championship lead from Fernando Alonso with a Chinese Grand Prix victory that was as unexpected as it was accomplished.

The German was at a disadvantage in the wet early stages when his Ferrari’s Bridgestone intermediate tyres were no match for Alonso’s Michelins.

But as the track dried out Schumacher hauled himself into contention and then capitalised on a tactical miscue and a botched pit stop for his arch-rival to score his 91st career win.

Afterwards he admitted the result had exceeded his wildest expectations. It now looks like the German may win the world championship in his final season, after Renault manage to underperform once again!

Hull City 1 - Crystal Palace 1

Peter Taylor returned to Hull and we didn't deserve to win, but we certainly didn't deserve to lose. Palace had one shot on target in the ninety minutes and typically, Leon Cort drove it home from 20+ yards; unbelievable. They were the better football team, they moved the ball well and were comfortable in possession, but provided very little threat. If anyone can remember a game when Boaz hasn't made one save, let us know. We had a bright enough first half and hit a few decent efforts from range. Yeates looked a big threat and Marney and Ashbee tidied up well in midfield.

The manager made two good substitutions and showed good intent. Personally, I would have gone with France for Fagan in a straight swap, but the manager chose to use France at right back, which gave us a bit of attacking emphasis from the right. He also threw on Forster for Bridges, which worked well. Bridges had played off Parkin and really struggled to get involved. He hit two good shots when running from deep, but when Parkin was winning the ball up the pitch, Bridges was too deep to take advantage.

It was an amazing response from the boys and showed true grit and determination not to leave empty handed. That was our best quality today. At times we were silly, we were rash and we were outplayed, but we have bottle and lots of it. Last week must have hurt them deeply.

Hornsea Cottage Hospital Saved Again!

Mounting pressure from concerned residents means that Hornsea Cottage Hospital's inpatient ward has been saved from closure!

Yorkshire Wolds and Coast Primary Care Trust had planned to close the ward on October 1 for six months because of staff shortages.

But the PCT has bowed to people power and agreed to keep it open, after a campaign from residents and the threat of legal action.

Scouts!

Went to help at my local Scout group this evening which is always good fun!

Way to Park!

Hull Universities semester has started, so the campus is full of people again. I really like this. Although the peace and quiet of summer is rather nice, I don't really think that things are right unless we have students around the place.

The semester starts with a "Fresher's Week" with all kinds of fairs and events. There is a marquee set up outside the union where various organisations are touting their wares. I was walking back to the labs when I noticed a brand new, shiny, Porsche Boxster parked right across the footpath in the way of everybody. In the windscreen was a handwritten note "Driver on the Barclays Bank stand" (or it might have been Lloyds-TSB - I can't tell banks apart).

I'm not sure if this is impressive or not. Random thoughts sprang to mind:


*I work for a bank and drive a Porsche so I can park where I like;

*I must be a good banker because I have a posh car;

*Bank with us and you can have a car like mine;

*Bank with us and you can help pay for my car;

Hornsea Scouts back from summer break!

Scouting 2007 conference call first and then I did the usual Thursday thing and joined the Hornsea Scouts for their first meeting after coming back from camp and their visit to Brownsea Island earlier in the Summer, during the camp at Marlow! Hopefully there should be a report coming to the Hornsea Scouts website very soon.

Overall, it was a pretty busy evening with everyone seeming full of energy after the summer period! We will just have to wait and see what the period up to Christmas brings as approximately 25-30 Scouts attended the meeting, so it looks as if Scouts in Hornsea may be as popular as it was before the Summer break, I personally hope so anyway!

After Scouts their was the usual explorer meeting which all went to plan and was enjoyable once again, at present we have approximately 15 explorers in Hornsea even though one of our longest serving explorers left this evening (after completing cubs, scouts and explorers in Hornsea). But that as they say is Scouting, you have to get new members to replace people as they leave!

Hull City 1 - Leicester City 0

**ABOUT TIME THIS HAPPENED**

A spectacular strike from Michael Bridges gave bottom-of the Championship Hull City their first win in 12 league games. The last time the Tigers tasted a victory was when they had overcome Leeds United on April Fools Day.

Their winner tonight arrived against the run of play in the 58th minute when Bridges latched on to a loose ball and with Leicester defenders backing off the former Sunderland and Leeds star advanced to let fly with a 25-yard drive which rocketed into Paul Henderson's top right-hand corner. It was his first goal for the club since arriving in a £350,000 move from Carlisle on transfer deadline day.

Although Leicester dominated much of the game they failed to make significant headway against a resolute Hull side whose defensive tactics included fielding two holding midfielders. On the half hour mark Boaz Myhill was Hull's saviour when he bravely blocked a Stephen Hughes' close-range effort.

Before the half-time whistle Leicester keeper Henderson had been called into action just the once on 37 minutes when he reacted well to beat away Nicky Forster's drive.
It was a similar story after the re-start with Leicester enjoying plenty of possession but failing to carve out decent chances.

They paid the price with that goal from Bridges just before the hour mark. I was also a bit dissappointed to see Nick Barmby having to spend the whole match on the substitutes bench!

A mathematical problem!

This came around today and I thought it quite amusing and a good item to blog about so here it is;

A school teacher was arrested today at Gatwick Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule, and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Home Secretary John Reid said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement.

He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the Metropolitan Police with carrying weapons of maths instruction.

"Al-gebra is a problem for us," Reid said. "They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute values .

They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with co-ordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, 'There are 3 sides to every triangle'".

When asked to comment on the arrest, Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking from his holiday resort before the planes stopped flying, said, "If God had wanted us to have better Weapons of Maths Instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."

P.S. Don't forget to sign the petition to save Hornsea Cottage Hospital available in the sidebar!