LariatTom

In slightly better news for English cricket, CA have accepted the resignation of Tim Paine meaning that they need to appoint a new captain with 3ish weeks until the start of the Ashes. 

It will be interesting to see where they go with the captaincy with Cummins currently being VC. I'm sure the Smith debate will come up as to whether he's served punishment enough..

Potentially the distraction needed to give England a sniff of pulling off a result?

2 hours ago, Dead Mike said:

There's a lot of questions here. Antique? Working lasers? 

This just popped up on my feed. Reduced down to £40 if you fancy a bargain on an antique Predator mask with working lasers.

I've seemingly missed a trick here by missing out on food afterwards.

Though saying that, I had my first the day before my wife's birthday in March and we had a Chinese that night. My second jab is on Thursday afternoon. I live a 10 minute walk from the hospital where I'm going. No food options along the way, guess it'll have to be a takeaway again.

55 minutes ago, ElCece said:

Finally managed towards the last session from today and it strikes how Archer has shown nothing with the bat in test cricket. He averages nearly 25 in first class cricket but I would consider putting him at 11. He seems uninterested in sticking around. 

I think Archer's mentality is that he's there to hit hard and score some runs quickly (FC strike rate over 65), or get his bowling shoes on. At a county level, you can get lucky with that strategy. He's got 6 first class 50s, so he does know how to hold the bat, but I think the difference in quality between county and Test cricket means that while he can still bat, those sorts of innings will be far less frequent. For that reason, he'll stay at 9 ahead of Leach/Broad/Anderson/Wood.

Root is looking good between the two Sri Lanka tests and this innings. It's a huge year for his legacy between the two series against India and the Ashes fast approaching on the horizon. He's looked confident and assured and crucially, he is converting his scores from 50 to 100 and beyond.

The TV commentators love pointing out that the last time we made a huge first innings score, India replied with 759/7 and we lost by an innings. Even if Leach, Bess and Anderson don't add much in the morning, I think there are enough runs on the board to make relatively secure that they can't lose the game. Bess and Leach need to be tidy with the ball and keep run rate down to build pressure.

And yet my union (NASUWT) are saying the exact opposite and that their members should attend school where instructed to as we are otherwise liable to legal action for breach of contract. My wife is in zero rush to get her Covid test result as she is an EYFS teacher with zero social distancing or PPE available. 

If Starmer has called for a national lockdown similar to that in March, Johnson will say something tomorrow about how it absolutely can not happen. Then he'll have a genius idea on Wednesday morning an announce a national lockdown.

My wife is upstairs feeling like shite, had a bit of a cough a few days ago but it was sporadic so no thoughts given to it. The cough got worse yesterday and so a test was ordered this morning. Think that's the third time I've had to isolate for her showing symptoms, hopefully it'll be three negatives- her immune system is pretty rubbish, so chances are its something else and not Covid.

On the plus, it means I got to tell my boss that I wouldn't be coming into school on Monday because of isolation. With everything that's happening with teaching unions at the moment and a stand off with DfE, it feels like I've dodged a bullet and got to send the easy email. Christ knows how that's going to look over the next few days...

Johnson said from the very beginning that he would make sure Christmas still happened. Even a few days ago, he was holding firm to that. We knew this was coming though. At least we've been given a few days notice of this.

Making that phone call to my mum 15 minutes ago to tell her we wouldn't see them sucked. She had no idea what had just happened on the news because she was buying stuff for Christmas dinner.

3 hours ago, scratchdj said:

Current suggestions are that if another national lockdown is called, schools and universities will stay open. My wife is still off work and still crying quite a bit about the thought of having to go back, so I’m interested to see what the take is for vulnerable people who were told to shield last time. 

Certainly looks like it'll go that way where we stay open throughout all of this, the government are insistent that schools will only close as an absolute final measure. A rota system was proposed by the government a whole back when they set out guidance for education, that would see kids do a week in and then a week home learning.

Personally, if we do have a "lockdown" next month, I would be giving parents the choice for whether they want to pull kids out for this month and be doing home learning. Whether many would opt for that is anyone's guess, but it would at least give the option as long as they are able to still be learning effectively at home. We've been uploading all lessons this year for pupils who are isolating so it wouldn't be too difficult, maybe switch it so they call into lessons on MS Teams instead.

"My behaviour was inappropriate, but I was drunk and don't recollect what happened."

Contradictory wanker. This is the most half arsed attempt at an apology. He may as well have finished this with "I'm now available to take bookings, please book me because I said sorry."

I get that I'm biased because I'm involved, but fuck that piece of shit and fuck any company that books him.

2 hours ago, deathrey said:

That's interesting @LariatTom, ours are not really allowed to the toilet during lesson time. If they want to go, they have a note in their planner saying they have been and aren't allowed to go in a lesson again for the rest of the day (unless they have a medical expemption). 

Typically, they would need a toilet pass because they've got medical exemption. 

At the moment though, the idea behind it is that if we allow more pupils to go during lesson time, less will need to go at break/lunch and minimise the number trying to use them at the busiest time. They need to wear a face mask if they're going out and can only go to the block in their zone.

It seems to be working, just means I'm constantly repeating myself.

Six kids missing from my form on Friday with two more being sent home through the day. Kids are either super happy with the weird timetable or hate it as they have subjects bulked together. For example, my form group have 5 hours of maths on a Friday and nothing else. English on Thursdays is broken by 1 hour of PE. I see them for 2 hours on a Wednesday to break up science and then the other two days they're doing humanities subjects or tech/art/music with no equipment for practical work.

I spend that much time going between zones, I'm starting to think I work in the fucking Crystal Maze. I'm waiting for Richard O'Brien to lock me in the Aztec Zone.

Kids are allowed to go to the toilet whenever so its like a constant cycle of teenagers leaving a room. So I repeat myself every 5 minutes for whoever has just come back. Half of them don't have masks, some are constantly messing with masks, I have to wear an impractical visor if a kid needs help requiring me to leave the little 2m square around the desk (which doesn't cover the area with the board for some rooms).

No confirmed cases as of yet, but with so many off I think its just a matter of time,. The primary school which is our main feeder school has had 2 confirmed cases in children and one member of staff, so it's very openly in the community 

Oh, and I had to actually have a conversation with my form this week about why they should be washing their hands after going to the toilet. For fuck's sake...

Going well.

Kids aren't thick. Few of them started talking to me in form this morning about this new "rule of six" and trying to figure it out. 

"So sir, if I'm hanging out with my friends in school and we're a group of 10 then that's OK because our whole year group is a bubble and that's 170 kids. But if I see those same friends outside school or we're walking home, it has to be in a group of six? Seems pretty stupid."

Kids dropping like flies and it's crazy how many parents are ok sending their kid into school with a bad cough when they know we're turning that kid around. Then again, a lot of the absence comments on the register or those being sent home during the day are kids complaining of stomach ache which is supposedly a symptom in children. 

Issue still remains about not being able to get a test sorted. I'm sending work home for about a dozen kids because they're isolating and can't get a test either for them or someone else at home.

57 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

This is up there with the most idiotic decisions made during this pandemic. So after spending the last month tell us to eat out to help out, telling us schools, universities and work places were safe and to get back to them, legally we can’t be with more then 6 people. My daughter is at school mixing with 120 kids due to lesson classes being split for fucks sake. This not only makes no sense, but people won’t listen. 

This part is utterly insane and where the system is going to fall apart within weeks. Kids are in year groups of hundreds in some schools. My school is 150-180 per year which each are their own bubble. They're in one zone per day, have to use toilets for that zone and have a designated inside and outside zone for break and lunch. KS3 and KS4 have different school days, so the older years have an earlier finish, fewer lessons per day and a short lunch. 

But I'm teaching MFL, Music and Computer Science this year. I'm crossing bubbles during the day, 3 days a week as well as having my form group. 3 kids in my form haven't come back and we've now got kids off because either they're showing symptoms or a family member is.

I'm not actually crossing bubbles at the moment. My wife started showing symptoms on Monday night so I'm sat at home converting my classroom lessons into cover (and being shit at Fall Guys). Getting a test ordered was incredibly difficult and I think I got very lucky by managing to order a home kit. No walk-in facility near us and we don't have a car so completely reliant on home kits being available. Their guidance was a home kit is accurate within 5 days of showing symptoms, anything after that needs to be a drive-in. Yet the confirmation email she received said to not post it back until next Monday. By the time she gets her result, my 14 days will be up so we could potentially both be back at work if she's feeling better. Its a load of bollocks...

I'll throw in my stuff about school. Been back since last Tuesday for inset with pupils starting Wednesday. I had a few kids in my form who didn't come back because they're still shielding or isolating because family tested positive. I'd wager that around 10% of pupils are wearing a mask, and most of them aren't wearing them properly or spend half the day fiddling around with it.

The caretakers put tape on the floor in every room to signal the "teacher zone" where pupils can't enter. We are meant to stay in that all lesson and if we want to leave it to help a child, we have to wear a visor. It's a pain in the arse, but it seems to work.

If schools make it to October half term without mass closures, I'll be very impressed. 

2 hours ago, Divorced Dad said:

I'm a primary school teacher and had a third of my class off today due to having symptoms (that are more than likely part of a cold and not covid). 

Yikes. This is going to be the big issues once secondary schools in England resume "normal" service next week. As soon as child has a cough, a bit of a temperature or feels a bit peaky, they are going to have to stay off. Same goes for teachers where they might just previously get on with things. 

I was in school today getting some things sorted and had a chat with my HoD/assistant head. He reckons we'll get about 85-90% attendance next week since some won't want to send their child back or they'll be ill and it'll go lower. If we make it into October half term without bulk school closures, I'll be impressed. The run up to Christmas will be horrendous though.

The crap about children not spreading it is either going to be very quickly smashed to pieces or it'll be blamed on teachers. I really hope I'm wrong, but when things are "led by the science" which was from a period when a small percentage of pupils were in schools then I'm not convinced that a building of hundreds of people with no distancing or masks/PPE isn't just a disaster waiting to happen.

57 minutes ago, Grecian said:

Leicester Uni has announced they're going to offer places based on mock exam results or confirmed grades, whichever is higher. Some are looking at doing a January intake.

That's excellent, hopefully other universities are going to follow suit with that. January intake could work, are they then going to have two intakes running alongside each other or bring them together over time?

I read yesterday that around 2 million GCSE grades will be knocked down. I can not wait for that shitshow when I go in on Thursday. Like A-Levels, the hours that were put into grading pupils and putting them in a ranked order... meaningless. We may as well have thrown darts with a name onto a board and let luck decide their grades, it probably would have had more accuracy.

A-Levels is a shitshow. Students/schools can appeal, but their choices for uni have refused them based on grades. Those universities aren't going to be able to do a u-turn in 6 weeks time and suddenly be massively oversubscribed for a course because things get reversed. I have colleagues with children who have been in the 40% to be downgraded which means they didn't get into university. Having been predicted As, they've come out with Cs because the system decided that only a handful of her class could get an A. I'm so disappointed in the system.

But hey, Big Gav has said that the government are going to have a fund of £15 million for appeals of grades. Between him, Johnson and Ofqual, these daft cunts haven't set foot in a school for years. It baffles me that the Education Secretary has no experience in education... 

Bit of a stop/start day for cricket. Like Butch, I can see this going into a draw unless there's a huge batting collapse somewhere. Given the two sides, that is entirely possible. Hopefully the weather picks up and Day 2 gets a full allocation of overs in.

I did see one stat from Cricinfo which caught my eye. Shan Masood is the first overseas opener to last more than 100 balls in the first innings of an English Test in 4 years. Think of who we've had since then. India, South Africa, Australia...none of their openers could last 100 balls if batting first.  

Side note, it was bloody lovely watching some county cricket last weekend. Admittedly, its through YouTube but better than nothing. Well done to the counties for realising that people still want to watch the games. They've gone for multi-camera set ups, so not just limited to behind the bowler's arm at either end.

Still life in this game and a chance of all three results.

A lot of talk on Sky was about whether Root declares to allow more than 80 overs and have the second new ball at the end of the day. I guess around 10 overs batting to come out swinging in T20 to add another 50ish runs. If Root sets a target of 275 and dangles the carrot for West Indies to chase rather than digging in and batting out the day defensively, we could have a game on our hands.

Root and Stokes can score quickly in the morning. Then Pope, Curran and Woakes can come out and attack if a few wickets fall. Sibley and Burns can put their feet up and watch Homes Under the Hammer.

What a glorious knock it was too. Proper Test match batting and exactly what we have been crying out for since Cook retired from international cricket. Bat long, bat sensible. I'm in a TMS group on Facebook and it was bizarre seeing people criticise Sibley for batting too slowly. He does need to find that extra gear so he can kick on once a declaration is in sight, but that will come with experience. 

Does this mean the days of Anderson/Broad bowling in tandem are over? Seems that with the rotation plans for this summer, they'll pick one of Anderson/Broad and two of Wood/Archer/Curran/Woakes. 

Bess could be a great spinner and seems handy with the bat too so adds useful depth on both asides.

This was good day of batting, looked like a great contest between bat and ball which is the sign of a good game to me, and Sibley looks the real deal with more leaves than a Nigel Farage dinner party. Crawley will hopefully lock in number 3, though I did get worried when he was out first ball and sensed a collapse coming.

Will be interesting to see how England approach Day 2 and they're happy to bat long on or press on and bowl after lunch. Surely you bat for as long as possible and bat them out of the game? It's Old Trafford, the ball will swing and then it will spin later on. 

5 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

There still has to be an element of being the best right? Like surely every single person that gets into wrestling wants to be a champion in some form or another, despite what some of them may say. I don't think anyone gets in it to be a failure. Sure there's an element of 'okay I must be good, I'm here!' but you get a guy like Drew McIntyre who deliberately went out there on the indys to better himself and prove a damn point, and it clearly means so much to him to reach the top of the mountain now. I can't see many guys not wanting that.

This is something I think is really interesting as a concept. I remember watching a training session at wXw where the session was run by Tommy End/Aleister Black. Must have been 16 Carat weekend or something...  Anyway, Black asked the trainees what their ultimate goal would be in wrestling. Some said that it was to wrestle in front of their family and friends, someone else who wanted to be able to be a champion. After each one, he told them all that their goal was great but isn't the ultimate goal of being a professional wrestler. Maybe the sixth or seventh trainee then said the "correct" answer: Winning the championship in the main event of Wrestlemania. That's what makes you able to say you're the top of the very top.

For so many on the WWE roster, being in the WWE is all they've ever wanted in wrestling. After that, anything is a bonus. You can be incredibly talented by being there and that's great, but the ones who REALLY want it will put the extra effort in, go the extra mile and be that final 0.1 difference.

Well... that took an unexpected turn.

41 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

This can't be swept under the carpet, surely?

 

 

Just so the entire forum is aware, the original tweet (Becky) is my wife. I know everyone is being very good in this thread but tread carefully in case anyone wants to be a dick.

I feel sorry for whoever is working in PR for WWE today, they're in for a shit day.

This is all disgusting. Even from my brief time in British wrestling, it needed changing then and there were clear abuses of power in training schools. There is traction to the movement, more and more people are speaking out and sharing their stories. Whatever is left of British wrestling after this, it will be a different place and hopefully a much better place. Things need to change, there is zero excuse to not any more.

Also, we can add Jack Gallagher to the list of people. He sexually assaulted my wife (she's now gone public so I can speak). Not very gentlemanly.