A lot of disgruntled gooners and I can surely feel their frustration. from a team who could have achieved so much to what has been. I agree with many of gooners that we need strengthening, but 1 thing that I cannot fathom is this mad cry for 'SACK Wenger'.
It is indeed a tough time for everyone at the club including the manager as he knows he has to account for not bringing anyone in. A draw or a loss to Utd could see us out of the title race as I dont see Chelsea slipping up so easy.
Wenger has dud himself a hole and I think he deserves a chance to get out of it. If we did sack him who would you bring in? And dont forget once he goes the majority of the players will leave too-they're most attracted to the way he wants his players to play foote & we may call it the 'Arsenal way' but its actually 'Arsene's way'.
Wenger has revolutionised the English Premiership but he is in danger of falling behind in the league that he helped to prosper. Arsenal football club have benefited hugely from Arsene Wenger but Arsene Wenger has also benefited from Arsenal in a big way.
I hope he is given the chance to prove us wrong once again-COME ON ARSENAL!
Is sacking wenger they way?
STDs consist of Viruses and Bacteria. Virus are known to mutate, hence MRSA and VRE in humans as these viruses have mutated into slightly different versions of their original virus that we cannot yet combat. This is called Antigenic Drift. When a virus mutates into a completely new strain it is called an Antigenic Shift and requires 2 proteins to change.
To quote Madeliene McPherson (epidemiologist in Perth, Western Australia who has lectured all over the world) from her Nursing Lecture handouts
Influenza B sometimes causes epidemics but influenza type A can sweep across continents and around the world in massive epidemics or pandemics
These periodic pandemics occur because of antigenic changes in one or both surface glycoproteins of the virus.
Antibodies against the Glycoproteins (two proteins found on the surface of the virus) protect us from illness. The proteins are haemagglutin (H) and neuraminidase (N). Mutations in the H and N genes ("antigenic drift") allow influenza variants to emerge that are not susceptible to antibodies against earlier strains.
Influenza strains with changed H and or N genes (different antigens) are not recognised by cells and antibodies that protected us against earlier strains.
This explains why influenza can recur every winter.
Influenza viruses are remarkable because of the frequent antigenic changes that occur.
The two surface antigens or influenza undergo antigenic varations independent of each other. Minor changes are known as antigenic drifts and major changes known as antigenic shifts result in the appearance of new subtypes.
Antigenic shifts can result from an exchanges of genes (reassortment) between viruses of humans and those of birds and pigs. Following such a major antigenic shift the new virus can cause pandemic by spreading into a population that has little immunity to the changed H and or N antigens.
To quote Madeliene McPherson (epidemiologist in Perth, Western Australia who has lectured all over the world) from her Nursing Lecture handouts
Influenza B sometimes causes epidemics but influenza type A can sweep across continents and around the world in massive epidemics or pandemics
These periodic pandemics occur because of antigenic changes in one or both surface glycoproteins of the virus.
Antibodies against the Glycoproteins (two proteins found on the surface of the virus) protect us from illness. The proteins are haemagglutin (H) and neuraminidase (N). Mutations in the H and N genes ("antigenic drift") allow influenza variants to emerge that are not susceptible to antibodies against earlier strains.
Influenza strains with changed H and or N genes (different antigens) are not recognised by cells and antibodies that protected us against earlier strains.
This explains why influenza can recur every winter.
Influenza viruses are remarkable because of the frequent antigenic changes that occur.
The two surface antigens or influenza undergo antigenic varations independent of each other. Minor changes are known as antigenic drifts and major changes known as antigenic shifts result in the appearance of new subtypes.
Antigenic shifts can result from an exchanges of genes (reassortment) between viruses of humans and those of birds and pigs. Following such a major antigenic shift the new virus can cause pandemic by spreading into a population that has little immunity to the changed H and or N antigens.
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gus ceasar is a legend
- Posts: 9078
- Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:42 pm
Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) is a popular silent film star with humble roots as a singer, dancer, and stunt man. Don barely tolerates his vapid, shallow leading lady, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who has convinced herself that the fake romance their studio concocted and publicized is real.
One day, to escape from overenthusiastic fans, Don jumps into a passing car driven by Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds). She drops him off, but not before claiming to be a stage actress and sneering at his undignified accomplishments. Later, at a party, the head of Don's studio, R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell), shows a short demonstration of a talking picture, but his guests are unimpressed. Don runs into Kathy again at the party. To his amusement and her embarrassment, he discovers that Kathy is only a chorus girl, part of the entertainment. Furious, she throws a pie at him, only to hit Lina right in the face. Later, Don makes up with Kathy and they begin falling in love.
After a rival studio releases its first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, and it proves to be a smash hit, R.F. decides he has no choice but to convert the new Lockwood and Lamont film, The Dueling Cavalier, into a talkie. The production is beset with difficulties (most, if not all, taken from real life), by far the worst being Lina's comically grating voice. A test screening is a disaster. In one scene, for instance, Don repeats "I love you" to Lina over and over, to the audience's derisive laughter (a reference to a scene by John Gilbert in his first talkie[2]).
Don's best friend, Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), comes up with the idea to dub Lina's voice with Kathy's and they persuade R.F. to turn The Dueling Cavalier into a musical called The Dancing Cavalier. When Lina finds out that Kathy is dubbing her voice, she is furious and does everything possible to sabotage the romance between Don and Kathy. She becomes even more angry when she discovers that R.F. intends to give Kathy a screen credit and a big publicity buildup. Lina blackmails R.F. into backing down and demands that Kathy continue to provide her singing voice anonymously. As a contract player, Kathy has no choice in the matter.
The premiere of The Dancing Cavalier is a tremendous success. When the audience clamors for Lina to sing live, Don, Cosmo, and R.F. improvise and get Lina to lip-synch while Kathy sings into a second microphone while hidden behind the stage's curtain. Later, while Lina is "singing", Don, Cosmo and R.F. gleefully open the stage curtain behind her, revealing the deception — Lina then flees in embarrassment. When Kathy tries to run away as well, Don stops her and introduces the audience to "the real star of the film". The film ends with Don and Kathy kissing in front of a billboard that says "Singin' in the Rain with Don Lockwood and Kathy Selden."
One day, to escape from overenthusiastic fans, Don jumps into a passing car driven by Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds). She drops him off, but not before claiming to be a stage actress and sneering at his undignified accomplishments. Later, at a party, the head of Don's studio, R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell), shows a short demonstration of a talking picture, but his guests are unimpressed. Don runs into Kathy again at the party. To his amusement and her embarrassment, he discovers that Kathy is only a chorus girl, part of the entertainment. Furious, she throws a pie at him, only to hit Lina right in the face. Later, Don makes up with Kathy and they begin falling in love.
After a rival studio releases its first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, and it proves to be a smash hit, R.F. decides he has no choice but to convert the new Lockwood and Lamont film, The Dueling Cavalier, into a talkie. The production is beset with difficulties (most, if not all, taken from real life), by far the worst being Lina's comically grating voice. A test screening is a disaster. In one scene, for instance, Don repeats "I love you" to Lina over and over, to the audience's derisive laughter (a reference to a scene by John Gilbert in his first talkie[2]).
Don's best friend, Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), comes up with the idea to dub Lina's voice with Kathy's and they persuade R.F. to turn The Dueling Cavalier into a musical called The Dancing Cavalier. When Lina finds out that Kathy is dubbing her voice, she is furious and does everything possible to sabotage the romance between Don and Kathy. She becomes even more angry when she discovers that R.F. intends to give Kathy a screen credit and a big publicity buildup. Lina blackmails R.F. into backing down and demands that Kathy continue to provide her singing voice anonymously. As a contract player, Kathy has no choice in the matter.
The premiere of The Dancing Cavalier is a tremendous success. When the audience clamors for Lina to sing live, Don, Cosmo, and R.F. improvise and get Lina to lip-synch while Kathy sings into a second microphone while hidden behind the stage's curtain. Later, while Lina is "singing", Don, Cosmo and R.F. gleefully open the stage curtain behind her, revealing the deception — Lina then flees in embarrassment. When Kathy tries to run away as well, Don stops her and introduces the audience to "the real star of the film". The film ends with Don and Kathy kissing in front of a billboard that says "Singin' in the Rain with Don Lockwood and Kathy Selden."
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flash gunner
- Posts: 29243
- Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:55 am
- Location: Armchairsville. FACT.
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SPUDMASHER
- Posts: 10739
- Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:07 am
- Location: London Euston
- Contact:
During the last quarter century, chemists have responded magnificently to the challenges raised by astronomers in their attempts to understand the variety of molecules detected in interstellar clouds. Observations have shown the chemistry of these regions to be surprisingly complex, and now more than one hundred molecular species have been identified in interstellar and circumstellar regions of the Galaxy. The chemistry of interstellar clouds that gives rise to these molecules is now believed to be reasonably well understood (see next section) in terms of a network of some thousands of binary reactions between several hundred species [1,2].
Astronomers are now applying the techniques of astrochemistry to interpret observations of star forming regions [3]. These regions are much more complex in physical terms than quiescent interstellar clouds. In star-forming regions, interstellar gas is being compressed, the force of gravity overcoming the resistance provided by gas pressure, magnetohydro-dynamic (MHD) turbulence, magnetic pressure, and rotation. The chemistry is not in steady state during this collapse, and can therefore be used as a tracer of the evolution of the collapse. In addition, the chemistry modifies and controls the collapse through the provision of molecular coolants of the gas, and by determining the fractional ionization in the gas. It is this ionization that affects the level of magnetic and turbulent support available to the cloud. Molecular rotational emissions at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths are both the main cooling processes and the most effective probes of these regions.
Interstellar gas in the Galaxy is observed to be distributed in an irregular fashion, in clouds of a range of sizes. Much of the mass is encompassed in so-called giant molecular clouds (GMCs) which range in mass from about 104 to about 106 solar masses (the mass is 2*1030 kg) and have linear extents of several hundred light years (a year ly 1*1016 m). The gas in GMCs largely H2 but because that molecule has no dipole moment material most effectively traced 1-0 rotational emission CO next abundant (CO/H210-4 by number). Isotopomers are also used. identifies cold number density molecules cm-3. >
A detailed study [4] of one particular GMC, the Rosette molecular cloud (RMC), shows that it contains almost 2*105 solar masses of gas, extending over 100 ly. The gas in the RMC is fragmented into about 70 clumps with masses ranging from a few tens to a few thousands of solar masses. The clumps are embedded in a more tenuous medium, typically contain 102-103 H2 molecule cm-3, and are cool (<30K). Observations show that clumps with larger column densities of CO (>1016 CO molecules cm-2) are more likely to contain embedded stars. Therefore, clumps satisfying this criterion are likely to be the sites of star formation in the RMC.
Collapse of a clump leads to fragmentation and the formation of a cluster of dense cores. Carbon monoxide (12C16O) is not an effective tracer of gas in dense cores because the CO lines are optically thick and CO level populations are thermalised at lower densities. However, species of lower abundance than 12C16O can trace the dense gas in cores (>104 H2 molecules cm-3), and they include NH3, CN, H2, CO, and CS. A typical core cluster [5] is illustrated in Figure 1. It is a contour map in intensity of 1-0 rotational emission from the minor isotopic species 12C18O. This core cluster contains cores which may evolve to form new stars. Several stars have already formed and are detected as infrared sources (IRS 1-4).
Astronomers are now applying the techniques of astrochemistry to interpret observations of star forming regions [3]. These regions are much more complex in physical terms than quiescent interstellar clouds. In star-forming regions, interstellar gas is being compressed, the force of gravity overcoming the resistance provided by gas pressure, magnetohydro-dynamic (MHD) turbulence, magnetic pressure, and rotation. The chemistry is not in steady state during this collapse, and can therefore be used as a tracer of the evolution of the collapse. In addition, the chemistry modifies and controls the collapse through the provision of molecular coolants of the gas, and by determining the fractional ionization in the gas. It is this ionization that affects the level of magnetic and turbulent support available to the cloud. Molecular rotational emissions at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths are both the main cooling processes and the most effective probes of these regions.
Interstellar gas in the Galaxy is observed to be distributed in an irregular fashion, in clouds of a range of sizes. Much of the mass is encompassed in so-called giant molecular clouds (GMCs) which range in mass from about 104 to about 106 solar masses (the mass is 2*1030 kg) and have linear extents of several hundred light years (a year ly 1*1016 m). The gas in GMCs largely H2 but because that molecule has no dipole moment material most effectively traced 1-0 rotational emission CO next abundant (CO/H210-4 by number). Isotopomers are also used. identifies cold number density molecules cm-3. >
A detailed study [4] of one particular GMC, the Rosette molecular cloud (RMC), shows that it contains almost 2*105 solar masses of gas, extending over 100 ly. The gas in the RMC is fragmented into about 70 clumps with masses ranging from a few tens to a few thousands of solar masses. The clumps are embedded in a more tenuous medium, typically contain 102-103 H2 molecule cm-3, and are cool (<30K). Observations show that clumps with larger column densities of CO (>1016 CO molecules cm-2) are more likely to contain embedded stars. Therefore, clumps satisfying this criterion are likely to be the sites of star formation in the RMC.
Collapse of a clump leads to fragmentation and the formation of a cluster of dense cores. Carbon monoxide (12C16O) is not an effective tracer of gas in dense cores because the CO lines are optically thick and CO level populations are thermalised at lower densities. However, species of lower abundance than 12C16O can trace the dense gas in cores (>104 H2 molecules cm-3), and they include NH3, CN, H2, CO, and CS. A typical core cluster [5] is illustrated in Figure 1. It is a contour map in intensity of 1-0 rotational emission from the minor isotopic species 12C18O. This core cluster contains cores which may evolve to form new stars. Several stars have already formed and are detected as infrared sources (IRS 1-4).
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gus ceasar is a legend
- Posts: 9078
- Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:42 pm
Norbury - gateway to Croydon (if you're coming down the A23 from London)! It is hard to imagine that less than 100 years ago, Norbury was still a rural area, a buffer zone between Croydon and Streatham.
The Official Guide for Croydon (1948) comments: Within living memory... Norbury was a park-like countryside with wooded and meadowed eminences to east and west. It has become a suburb of pleasant villas running down on either side to the roaring London Road.
It is most likely that the name Norbury (=North Burh) arose because of its position at the northern boundary of Croydon manor.
The boundary between Norbury and Streatham, on the London Road at Hermitage Bridge, is one of the few rivers remaining over ground in the area - called Norbury Brook to the east of the Bridge and the River Graveney to the west where it flows on to join the Wandle and ultimately the River Thames.
Hermitage Bridge is probably named after a hermit (or a series of them) who used to live nearby.
Nineteenth Century Norbury
From the earliest records, Norbury was a sub-manor of Croydon Manor. Between the years 1385 and 1859 the manor of Norbury was held by various members of the Carew family - a remarkably long connection of one family with a manor. The Carews also held Beddington. Norbury Farm was the manor house, which stood close to where Kensington Avenue meets Norbury Avenue, but it was demolished in 1914.
The only really old building left is Norbury Hall, Craignish Avenue, now an Old People's Home and a Grade II listed building. It was built for William Coles, in 1802, but its best known owner was James Hobbs, local businessman and fifth Mayor of Croydon who bought the house in 1884. In 1893 he was involved in a major financial scandal and ended up in prison for fraud. The Hobbs Family owned the Hall until 1958 when it was sold to Croydon Council.
Other notable buildings include: St. Stephen's Church, Warwick Road, built 1908; brown and red brick, perpendicular style, and Barclays Bank (1434 London Road) both Grade II listed buildings.
The railway line through Norbury opened in 1862, but it was not until 1878 that Norbury got its own station. This was rebuilt in 1902.
Croydon's horse-tram network never extended further than Thornton Heath, but when electric trams were introduced, in 1901, the tracks were laid all the way up the London Road to Norbury. Passengers could then ride all the way from Norbury to Purley by tram. However, if you wanted to go up to London from Croydon you had to change trams at Norbury. This was because the Croydon trams and the London trams used different systems and couldn't travel on each other's tracks. This was finally sorted out in 1925.
For a few years in the 1870s, horse-racing fans flocked to Norbury. Streatham race-course had been set up stretching roughly from present-day Rowan Road, Streatham Vale to Northborough Road, Norbury. Races were stopped in 1878 - mainly because of the unruly nature of the meetings.
Norbury's main open space, Norbury Park, was purchased by Croydon Council in 1935, having been the North Surrey Golf Course since 1920.
Housing development in Norbury really took off after the turn of the century. Norbury was chosen by the London County Council for the first of its 'Out-County' estates - now Northborough Road, Tyelcroft Road and the roads in between. Between 1906 and 1910, the LCC built 498 small houses on this site, many with their own bathrooms - a major step forward in housing policy at the time.
By the late 1920s most of Norbury had been developed and the area was more or less as we know it today.
Description of Norbury in 1907
From Where to Live round London: Southern Side (2nd edn. 1907) [S70 ROW]
Although nominally part of Croydon, Norbury is growing so rapidly that it deserves separate mention. The main thoroughfare is a wide road, on which large modern and high-class shops have been, and are still being, erected. The demand for houses is great, and this has led to large estates being opened up and developed, and the houses already erected are of good appearance and moderate rentals. There are also some good self-contained flats fitted up with all modern conveniences.
The neighbourhood is healthy, the Croydon district having for the last sixteen years shown the lowest death rate of large towns in the kingdom. A good service of trains accomplishes the journey of eight miles to town in a short time. Electric trams to Croydon and Purley run every few minutes, and omnibuses run to the City or connect with trams at Streatham and thence to the Bridges.
There are tennis, cricket and football clubs. Two golf courses available: the Norbury Golf Club having a 9-hole course, and the North Surrey Golf Club an 18-hole course. Two good local theatres are within easy reach - the Grand Theatre at Croydon and the Brixton Theatre - both good houses, with a weekly change of programme provided by excellent companies.
There are many open spaces in the district, one of the most recently acquired within easy walking distance being Grange Wood. The wood has been left in its natural state, and the grounds adjacent to the house are kept in good order. Standing high as it does, extensive views can be obtained there from of the Surrey hills and surrounding country.
Railway Communication - London Bridge, Victoria, and Kensington by the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway
Rents - To suit all classes £35 to £100 per annum
Rates - 7s 8d in the £ (including water)
Gas - 2s 8d per 1000 cubic feet
Electric Light - Sliding scale 7d to 2d per BT unit; flat rate 5d per BT unit
Subsoil - Gravel and clay
Altitude - About 200ft
Early Closing Day - Wednesday
Schools - Boys: Norbury College, London Road, Principal Mr. Smith; Girls: St. Hilda's College, London Road, Principal Miss Agnes Robinson
Places of Worship - St Philip's Church and Wesleyan and other Nonconformist Churches
Recreations - North Surrey Golf Club, Norbury: Secretary W. Blackford, 18 holes, subscription £5 5s, a good sporting course with close turf and well-kept greens. Norbury Golf Club: Secretary F. Holmes, 9 holes, subscription £4 4s, fairly good, well-drained course with numerous natural and artificial hazards well placed
The Official Guide for Croydon (1948) comments: Within living memory... Norbury was a park-like countryside with wooded and meadowed eminences to east and west. It has become a suburb of pleasant villas running down on either side to the roaring London Road.
It is most likely that the name Norbury (=North Burh) arose because of its position at the northern boundary of Croydon manor.
The boundary between Norbury and Streatham, on the London Road at Hermitage Bridge, is one of the few rivers remaining over ground in the area - called Norbury Brook to the east of the Bridge and the River Graveney to the west where it flows on to join the Wandle and ultimately the River Thames.
Hermitage Bridge is probably named after a hermit (or a series of them) who used to live nearby.
Nineteenth Century Norbury
From the earliest records, Norbury was a sub-manor of Croydon Manor. Between the years 1385 and 1859 the manor of Norbury was held by various members of the Carew family - a remarkably long connection of one family with a manor. The Carews also held Beddington. Norbury Farm was the manor house, which stood close to where Kensington Avenue meets Norbury Avenue, but it was demolished in 1914.
The only really old building left is Norbury Hall, Craignish Avenue, now an Old People's Home and a Grade II listed building. It was built for William Coles, in 1802, but its best known owner was James Hobbs, local businessman and fifth Mayor of Croydon who bought the house in 1884. In 1893 he was involved in a major financial scandal and ended up in prison for fraud. The Hobbs Family owned the Hall until 1958 when it was sold to Croydon Council.
Other notable buildings include: St. Stephen's Church, Warwick Road, built 1908; brown and red brick, perpendicular style, and Barclays Bank (1434 London Road) both Grade II listed buildings.
The railway line through Norbury opened in 1862, but it was not until 1878 that Norbury got its own station. This was rebuilt in 1902.
Croydon's horse-tram network never extended further than Thornton Heath, but when electric trams were introduced, in 1901, the tracks were laid all the way up the London Road to Norbury. Passengers could then ride all the way from Norbury to Purley by tram. However, if you wanted to go up to London from Croydon you had to change trams at Norbury. This was because the Croydon trams and the London trams used different systems and couldn't travel on each other's tracks. This was finally sorted out in 1925.
For a few years in the 1870s, horse-racing fans flocked to Norbury. Streatham race-course had been set up stretching roughly from present-day Rowan Road, Streatham Vale to Northborough Road, Norbury. Races were stopped in 1878 - mainly because of the unruly nature of the meetings.
Norbury's main open space, Norbury Park, was purchased by Croydon Council in 1935, having been the North Surrey Golf Course since 1920.
Housing development in Norbury really took off after the turn of the century. Norbury was chosen by the London County Council for the first of its 'Out-County' estates - now Northborough Road, Tyelcroft Road and the roads in between. Between 1906 and 1910, the LCC built 498 small houses on this site, many with their own bathrooms - a major step forward in housing policy at the time.
By the late 1920s most of Norbury had been developed and the area was more or less as we know it today.
Description of Norbury in 1907
From Where to Live round London: Southern Side (2nd edn. 1907) [S70 ROW]
Although nominally part of Croydon, Norbury is growing so rapidly that it deserves separate mention. The main thoroughfare is a wide road, on which large modern and high-class shops have been, and are still being, erected. The demand for houses is great, and this has led to large estates being opened up and developed, and the houses already erected are of good appearance and moderate rentals. There are also some good self-contained flats fitted up with all modern conveniences.
The neighbourhood is healthy, the Croydon district having for the last sixteen years shown the lowest death rate of large towns in the kingdom. A good service of trains accomplishes the journey of eight miles to town in a short time. Electric trams to Croydon and Purley run every few minutes, and omnibuses run to the City or connect with trams at Streatham and thence to the Bridges.
There are tennis, cricket and football clubs. Two golf courses available: the Norbury Golf Club having a 9-hole course, and the North Surrey Golf Club an 18-hole course. Two good local theatres are within easy reach - the Grand Theatre at Croydon and the Brixton Theatre - both good houses, with a weekly change of programme provided by excellent companies.
There are many open spaces in the district, one of the most recently acquired within easy walking distance being Grange Wood. The wood has been left in its natural state, and the grounds adjacent to the house are kept in good order. Standing high as it does, extensive views can be obtained there from of the Surrey hills and surrounding country.
Railway Communication - London Bridge, Victoria, and Kensington by the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway
Rents - To suit all classes £35 to £100 per annum
Rates - 7s 8d in the £ (including water)
Gas - 2s 8d per 1000 cubic feet
Electric Light - Sliding scale 7d to 2d per BT unit; flat rate 5d per BT unit
Subsoil - Gravel and clay
Altitude - About 200ft
Early Closing Day - Wednesday
Schools - Boys: Norbury College, London Road, Principal Mr. Smith; Girls: St. Hilda's College, London Road, Principal Miss Agnes Robinson
Places of Worship - St Philip's Church and Wesleyan and other Nonconformist Churches
Recreations - North Surrey Golf Club, Norbury: Secretary W. Blackford, 18 holes, subscription £5 5s, a good sporting course with close turf and well-kept greens. Norbury Golf Club: Secretary F. Holmes, 9 holes, subscription £4 4s, fairly good, well-drained course with numerous natural and artificial hazards well placed
Luxembourg, 30 October 2008 - In a press release dated 18 June 2008, ArcelorMittal announced that the principal borrowing vehicle of the Group would be ArcelorMittal, the ultimate holding company of the Group, and that a substantial portion of the debt of ArcelorMittal Finance would be transferred to ArcelorMittal.
ArcelorMittal confirms that the transfer of more than 80% of the outstanding debt from ArcelorMittal Finance to ArcelorMittal will occur on 31 October 2008, and that ArcelorMittal Finance will be released from its obligations in respect of such transferred debt.
ArcelorMittal also confirms that bonds currently issued under the name of ArcelorMittal Finance are expected to remain outstanding and at the level of ArcelorMittal Finance until their final maturity date.
ArcelorMittal confirms that the transfer of more than 80% of the outstanding debt from ArcelorMittal Finance to ArcelorMittal will occur on 31 October 2008, and that ArcelorMittal Finance will be released from its obligations in respect of such transferred debt.
ArcelorMittal also confirms that bonds currently issued under the name of ArcelorMittal Finance are expected to remain outstanding and at the level of ArcelorMittal Finance until their final maturity date.
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SPUDMASHER
- Posts: 10739
- Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:07 am
- Location: London Euston
- Contact:
The house cricket cup at Wrykyn has found itself on some strange mantelpieces in its time. New talent has a way of cropping up in the house matches. Tail-end men hit up fifties, and bowlers who have never taken a wicket before except at the nets go on fifth change, and dismiss first eleven experts with deliveries that bounce twice and shoot. So that nobody is greatly surprised in the ordinary run of things if the cup does not go to the favourites, or even to the second or third favourites. But one likes to draw the line. And Wrykyn drew it at Shields'. And yet, as we shall proceed to show, Shields' once won the cup, and that, too, in a year when Donaldson's had four first eleven men and Dexter's three.
Shields' occupied a unique position at the School. It was an absolutely inconspicuous house. There were other houses that were slack or wild or both, but the worst of these did something. Shields' never did anything. It never seemed to want to do anything. This may have been due in some degree to Mr. Shields. As the housemaster is, so the house is. He was the most inconspicuous master on the staff. He taught a minute form in the junior school, where earnest infants wrestled with somebody's handy book of easy Latin sentences, and depraved infants threw cunningly compounded ink-balls at one another and the ceiling. After school he would range the countryside with a pickle-bottle in search of polly woggles and other big game, which he subsequently transferred to slides and examined through a microscope till an advanced hour of the night. The curious part of the matter was that his house was never riotous. Perhaps he was looked on as a non-combatant, one whom it would be unfair and unsporting to rag. At any rate, a weird calm reigned over the place; and this spirit seemed to permeate the public lives of the Shieldsites. They said nothing much and they did nothing much and they were very inoffensive. As a rule, one hardly knew they were there.
Into this abode of lotus-eaters came Clephane, a day boy, owing to the departure of his parents for India. Clephane wanted to go to Donaldson's. In fact, he said so. His expressions, indeed, when he found that the whole thing had been settled, and that he was to spend his last term at school at a house which had never turned out so much as a member of the Gym. Six, bordered on the unfilial. It appeared that his father had met Mr. Shields at dinner in the town--a fact to which he seemed to attach a mystic importance. Clephane's criticism of this attitude of mind was of such a nature as to lead his father to address him as Archibald instead of Archie.
However, the thing was done, and Clephane showed his good sense by realising this and turning his energetic mind to the discovery of the best way of making life at Shields' endurable. Fortune favoured him by sending to the house another day boy, one Mansfield. Clephane had not known him intimately before, though they were both members of the second eleven; but at Shields' they instantly formed an alliance. And in due season--or a little later--the house matches began. Henfrey, of Day's, the Wrykyn cricket captain, met Clephane at the nets when the drawing for opponents had been done.
"Just the man I wanted to see," said Henfrey. "I suppose you're captain of Shields' lot, Clephane? Well, you're going to scratch as usual, I suppose?"
For the last five seasons that lamentable house had failed to put a team into the field. "You'd better," said Henfrey, "we haven't overmuch time as it is. That match with Paget's team has thrown us out a lot. We ought to have started the house matches a week ago."
"Scratch!" said Clephane. "Don't you wish we would! My good chap, we're going to get the cup."
"You needn't be a funny ass," said Henfrey in his complaining voice, "we really are awfully pushed. As it is we shall have to settle the opening rounds on the first innings. That's to say, we can only give 'em a day each; if they don't finish, the winner of the first innings wins. You might as well scratch."
"I can't help your troubles. By rotten mismanagement you have got the house-matches crowded up into the last ten days of term, and you come and expect me to sell a fine side like Shields' to get you out of the consequences of your reckless act. My word, Henfrey, you've sunk pretty low. Nice young fellow Henfrey was at one time, but seems to have got among bad companions. Quite changed now. Avoid him as much as I can. Leave me, Henfrey, I would be alone."
"But you can't raise a team."
"Raise a team! Do you happen to know that half the house is biting itself with agony because we can't find room for all? Shields gives stump-cricket soirees in his study after prep. One every time you hit the ball, two into the bowl of goldfish, and out if you smash the microscope."
"Well," said Henfrey viciously, "if you want to go through the farce of playing one round and making idiots of yourselves, you'll have to wait a bit. You've got a bye in the first round."
Clephane told the news to Mansfield after tea. "I've been and let the house in for a rollicking time," he said, abstracting the copy of Latin verses which his friend was doing, and sitting on them to ensure undivided attention to his words. "Wanting to score off old Henfrey--I have few pleasures--I told him that Shields' was not going to scratch. So we are booked to play in the second round of the housers. We drew a bye for the first. It would be an awful rag if we could do something. We must raise a team of some sort. Henfrey would score so if we didn't. Who's there, d'you think, that can play?"
Mansfield considered the question thoughtfully. "They all play, I suppose," he said slowly, "if you can call it playing. What I mean to say is, cricket's compulsory here, so I suppose they've all had an innings or two at one time or another in the eightieth game or so. But if you want record-breakers, I shouldn't trust to Shields' too much."
"Not a bit. So long as we put a full team into the field, that's all I care about. I've often wondered what it's like to go in first and bowl unchanged the whole time."
"You'll do that all right," said Mansfield. "I should think Shields' bowling ran to slow grubs, to judge from the look of 'em. You'd better go and see Wilkins about raising the team. As head of the house, he probably considers himself captain of cricket."
Wilkins, however, took a far more modest view of his position. The notion of leading a happy band of cricketers from Shields' into the field had, it seemed, small attractions for him. But he went so far as to get a house list, and help choose a really representative team. And as details about historic teams are always welcome, we may say that the averages ranged from 3.005 to 8.14. This last was Wilkins' own and was, as he would have been the first to admit, substantially helped by a contribution of nineteen in a single innings in the fifth game.
So the team was selected, and Clephane turned out after school next day to give them a little fielding-practice. To his surprise the fielding was not so outrageous as might have been expected. All the simpler catches were held, and one or two of the harder as well. Given this form on the day of their appearance in public, and Henfrey might be disappointed when he came to watch and smile sarcastically. A batting fiasco is not one half so ridiculous as maniac fielding.
In the meantime the first round of the house matches had been played off, and it would be as well to describe at this point the positions of the rival houses and their prospects. In the first place, there were only four teams really in the running for the cup, Day's (headed by the redoubtable Henfrey), Spence's, who had Jackson, that season a head and shoulders above the other batsmen in the first eleven--he had just wound up the school season with an average of 51.3, Donaldson's, and Dexter's. All the other house teams were mainly tail.
Now, in the first round the powerful quartette had been diminished by the fact that Donaldson's had drawn Dexter's, and had lost to them by a couple of wickets.
For the second round Shields' drew Appleby's, a poor team. Space on the Wrykyn field being a consideration, with three house matches to be played off at the same time, Clephane's men fought their first battle on rugged ground in an obscure corner. As the captain of cricket ordered these matters, Henfrey had naturally selected the best bit of turf for Day's v. Dexter's. That section of the ground which was sacred to the school second-eleven matches was allotted to Spence's v. the School House. The idle public divided its attention between the two big games, and paid no attention to the death struggle in progress at the far end of the field. Whereby it missed a deal of quiet fun.
I say death struggle advisedly. Clephane had won his second-eleven cap as a fast bowler. He had failed to get into the first eleven because he was considered too erratic. Put these two facts together, and you will suspect that dark deeds were wrought on the men of Appleby in that lonely corner of the Wrykyn meadow.
The pitch was not a good one. As a sample of the groundman's art it was sketchy and amateurish; it lacked finish. Clephane won the toss, took a hasty glance at the corrugated turf, and decided to bat first. The wicket was hardly likely to improve with use.
He and Mansfield opened the batting. He stood three feet out of his ground, and smote. The first four balls he took full pitch. The last two, owing to a passion for variety on the part of the bowler, were long hops. At the end of the over Shields' score was twenty-four. Mansfield pursued the same tactics. When the first wicket fell, seventy was on the board. A spirit of martial enthusiasm pervaded the ranks of the house team. Mild youths with spectacles leaped out of their ground like tigers, and snicked fours through the slips. When the innings concluded, blood had been spilt--from an injured finger--but the total was a hundred and two.
Then Clephane walked across to the School shop for a vanilla ice. He said he could get more devil, as it were, into his bowling after a vanilla ice. He had a couple.
When he bowled his first ball it was easy to see that there was truth in the report of the causes of his inclusion in the second eleven and exclusion from the first. The batsman observed somewhat weakly, "Here, I say!" and backed towards square leg. The ball soared over the wicket-keep's head and went to the boundary. The bowler grinned pleasantly, and said he was just getting his arm in.
The second ball landed full-pitch on the batsman's right thigh. The third was another full pitch, this time on the top of the middle stump, which it smashed. With profound satisfaction the batsman hobbled to the trees, and sat down. "Let somebody else have a shot," he said kindly.
Appleby's made twenty-eight that innings.
Their defeat by an innings and fifty-three runs they attributed subsequently to the fact that only seven of the team could be induced to go to the wickets in the second venture.
"So you've managed to win a match," grunted Henfrey, "I should like to have been there."
"You might just as well have been," said Clephane, "from what they tell me."
At which Henfrey became abusive, for he had achieved an "egg" that afternoon, and missed a catch; which things soured him, though Day's had polished off Dexter's handsomely.
"Well," he said at length, "you're in the semi-final now, of all weird places. You'd better play Spence's next. When can you play?"
"Henfrey," said Clephane, "I have a bright, open, boyish countenance, but I was not born yesterday. You want to get a dangerous rival out of the way without trouble, so you set Shields' to smash up Spence's. No, Henfrey. I do not intend to be your catspaw. We will draw lots who is to play which. Here comes Jackson. We'll toss odd man out."
And when the coins fell there were two tails and one head; and the head belonged to the coin of Clephane.
"So, you see," he said to Henfrey, "Shields' is in the final. No wonder you wanted us to scratch."
I should like this story to end with a vivid description of a tight finish. Considering that Day's beat Spence's, and consequently met Shields' in the final, that would certainly be the most artistic ending. Henfrey batting--Clephane bowling--one to tie, two to win, one wicket to fall. Up goes the ball! Will the lad catch it!! He fumbles it. It falls. All is over. But look! With a supreme effort--and so on.
The real conclusion was a little sensational in its way, but not nearly so exciting as that.
The match between Day's and Shields' opened in a conventional enough manner. Day's batted first, and made two hundred and fifty. Henfrey carried his bat for seventy-six, and there were some thirties. For Shields' Clephane and Mansfield made their usual first-wicket stand, and the rest brought the total up to ninety-eight. At this point Henfrey introduced a variation on custom. The match was a three days' match. In fact, owing to the speed with which the other games had been played, it could, if necessary, last four days. The follow-on was, therefore, a matter for the discretion of the side which led. Henfrey and his team saw no reason why they should not have another pleasant spell of batting before dismissing their opponents for the second time and acquiring the cup. So in they went again, and made another two hundred and fifty odd, Shields' being left with four hundred and twelve to make to win.
On the morning after Day's second innings, a fag from Day's brought Clephane a message from Henfrey. Henfrey was apparently in bed. He would be glad if Clephane would go and see him in the dinner-hour. The interview lasted fifteen minutes. Then Clephane burst out of the house, and dashed across to Shields' in search of Mansfield.
"I say, have you heard?" he shouted.
"What's up?"
"Why, every man in Day's team, bar two kids, is in bed. Ill. Do you mean to say you haven't heard? They thought they'd got that house cup safe, so all the team except the two kids, fags, you know, had a feed in honour of it in Henfrey's study. Some ass went and bought a bad rabbit pie, and now they're laid up. Not badly, but they won't be out for a day or two."
"But what about the match?"
"Oh, that'll go on. I made a point of that. They can play subs."
Mansfield looked thoughtful.
"But I say," he said, "it isn't very sporting, is it? Oughtn't we to wait or something?"
"Sporting! My dear chap, a case like this mustn't be judged by ordinary standards. We can't spoil the giant rag of the century because it isn't quite sporting. Think what it means--Shields' getting the cup! It'll keep the school laughing for terms. What do you want to spoil people's pleasure for?"
"Oh, all right," said Mansfield.
"Besides, think of the moral effect it'll have on the house. It may turn it into the blood house of Wrykyn. Shields himself may get quite sportive. We mustn't miss the chance."
The news having got about the school, Clephane and Mansfield opened their second innings to the somewhat embarrassed trundling of Masters Royce and Tibbit, of the Junior School, before a substantial and appreciative audience.
Both played carefully at first, but soon getting the measure of the bowling (which was not deep) began to hit out, and runs came quickly. At fifty, Tibbit, understudying Henfrey as captain of the side, summoned to his young friend Todby from short leg, and instructed him to "have a go" at the top end.
It was here that Clephane courteously interfered. Substitutes, he pointed out, were allowed, by the laws of cricket, only to field, not to bowl. He must, therefore, request friend Todby to return to his former sphere of utility, where, he added politely, he was a perfect demon.
"But, blow it," said Master Tibbit, who (alas!) was addicted to the use of strong language, "Royce and I can't bowl the whole blessed time."
"You'll have to, I'm afraid," said Clephane with the kindly air of a doctor soothing a refractory patient. "Of course, you can take a spell at grubs whenever you like."
"Oh, darn!" said Master Tibbit.
Shortly afterwards Clephane made his century.
Shields' occupied a unique position at the School. It was an absolutely inconspicuous house. There were other houses that were slack or wild or both, but the worst of these did something. Shields' never did anything. It never seemed to want to do anything. This may have been due in some degree to Mr. Shields. As the housemaster is, so the house is. He was the most inconspicuous master on the staff. He taught a minute form in the junior school, where earnest infants wrestled with somebody's handy book of easy Latin sentences, and depraved infants threw cunningly compounded ink-balls at one another and the ceiling. After school he would range the countryside with a pickle-bottle in search of polly woggles and other big game, which he subsequently transferred to slides and examined through a microscope till an advanced hour of the night. The curious part of the matter was that his house was never riotous. Perhaps he was looked on as a non-combatant, one whom it would be unfair and unsporting to rag. At any rate, a weird calm reigned over the place; and this spirit seemed to permeate the public lives of the Shieldsites. They said nothing much and they did nothing much and they were very inoffensive. As a rule, one hardly knew they were there.
Into this abode of lotus-eaters came Clephane, a day boy, owing to the departure of his parents for India. Clephane wanted to go to Donaldson's. In fact, he said so. His expressions, indeed, when he found that the whole thing had been settled, and that he was to spend his last term at school at a house which had never turned out so much as a member of the Gym. Six, bordered on the unfilial. It appeared that his father had met Mr. Shields at dinner in the town--a fact to which he seemed to attach a mystic importance. Clephane's criticism of this attitude of mind was of such a nature as to lead his father to address him as Archibald instead of Archie.
However, the thing was done, and Clephane showed his good sense by realising this and turning his energetic mind to the discovery of the best way of making life at Shields' endurable. Fortune favoured him by sending to the house another day boy, one Mansfield. Clephane had not known him intimately before, though they were both members of the second eleven; but at Shields' they instantly formed an alliance. And in due season--or a little later--the house matches began. Henfrey, of Day's, the Wrykyn cricket captain, met Clephane at the nets when the drawing for opponents had been done.
"Just the man I wanted to see," said Henfrey. "I suppose you're captain of Shields' lot, Clephane? Well, you're going to scratch as usual, I suppose?"
For the last five seasons that lamentable house had failed to put a team into the field. "You'd better," said Henfrey, "we haven't overmuch time as it is. That match with Paget's team has thrown us out a lot. We ought to have started the house matches a week ago."
"Scratch!" said Clephane. "Don't you wish we would! My good chap, we're going to get the cup."
"You needn't be a funny ass," said Henfrey in his complaining voice, "we really are awfully pushed. As it is we shall have to settle the opening rounds on the first innings. That's to say, we can only give 'em a day each; if they don't finish, the winner of the first innings wins. You might as well scratch."
"I can't help your troubles. By rotten mismanagement you have got the house-matches crowded up into the last ten days of term, and you come and expect me to sell a fine side like Shields' to get you out of the consequences of your reckless act. My word, Henfrey, you've sunk pretty low. Nice young fellow Henfrey was at one time, but seems to have got among bad companions. Quite changed now. Avoid him as much as I can. Leave me, Henfrey, I would be alone."
"But you can't raise a team."
"Raise a team! Do you happen to know that half the house is biting itself with agony because we can't find room for all? Shields gives stump-cricket soirees in his study after prep. One every time you hit the ball, two into the bowl of goldfish, and out if you smash the microscope."
"Well," said Henfrey viciously, "if you want to go through the farce of playing one round and making idiots of yourselves, you'll have to wait a bit. You've got a bye in the first round."
Clephane told the news to Mansfield after tea. "I've been and let the house in for a rollicking time," he said, abstracting the copy of Latin verses which his friend was doing, and sitting on them to ensure undivided attention to his words. "Wanting to score off old Henfrey--I have few pleasures--I told him that Shields' was not going to scratch. So we are booked to play in the second round of the housers. We drew a bye for the first. It would be an awful rag if we could do something. We must raise a team of some sort. Henfrey would score so if we didn't. Who's there, d'you think, that can play?"
Mansfield considered the question thoughtfully. "They all play, I suppose," he said slowly, "if you can call it playing. What I mean to say is, cricket's compulsory here, so I suppose they've all had an innings or two at one time or another in the eightieth game or so. But if you want record-breakers, I shouldn't trust to Shields' too much."
"Not a bit. So long as we put a full team into the field, that's all I care about. I've often wondered what it's like to go in first and bowl unchanged the whole time."
"You'll do that all right," said Mansfield. "I should think Shields' bowling ran to slow grubs, to judge from the look of 'em. You'd better go and see Wilkins about raising the team. As head of the house, he probably considers himself captain of cricket."
Wilkins, however, took a far more modest view of his position. The notion of leading a happy band of cricketers from Shields' into the field had, it seemed, small attractions for him. But he went so far as to get a house list, and help choose a really representative team. And as details about historic teams are always welcome, we may say that the averages ranged from 3.005 to 8.14. This last was Wilkins' own and was, as he would have been the first to admit, substantially helped by a contribution of nineteen in a single innings in the fifth game.
So the team was selected, and Clephane turned out after school next day to give them a little fielding-practice. To his surprise the fielding was not so outrageous as might have been expected. All the simpler catches were held, and one or two of the harder as well. Given this form on the day of their appearance in public, and Henfrey might be disappointed when he came to watch and smile sarcastically. A batting fiasco is not one half so ridiculous as maniac fielding.
In the meantime the first round of the house matches had been played off, and it would be as well to describe at this point the positions of the rival houses and their prospects. In the first place, there were only four teams really in the running for the cup, Day's (headed by the redoubtable Henfrey), Spence's, who had Jackson, that season a head and shoulders above the other batsmen in the first eleven--he had just wound up the school season with an average of 51.3, Donaldson's, and Dexter's. All the other house teams were mainly tail.
Now, in the first round the powerful quartette had been diminished by the fact that Donaldson's had drawn Dexter's, and had lost to them by a couple of wickets.
For the second round Shields' drew Appleby's, a poor team. Space on the Wrykyn field being a consideration, with three house matches to be played off at the same time, Clephane's men fought their first battle on rugged ground in an obscure corner. As the captain of cricket ordered these matters, Henfrey had naturally selected the best bit of turf for Day's v. Dexter's. That section of the ground which was sacred to the school second-eleven matches was allotted to Spence's v. the School House. The idle public divided its attention between the two big games, and paid no attention to the death struggle in progress at the far end of the field. Whereby it missed a deal of quiet fun.
I say death struggle advisedly. Clephane had won his second-eleven cap as a fast bowler. He had failed to get into the first eleven because he was considered too erratic. Put these two facts together, and you will suspect that dark deeds were wrought on the men of Appleby in that lonely corner of the Wrykyn meadow.
The pitch was not a good one. As a sample of the groundman's art it was sketchy and amateurish; it lacked finish. Clephane won the toss, took a hasty glance at the corrugated turf, and decided to bat first. The wicket was hardly likely to improve with use.
He and Mansfield opened the batting. He stood three feet out of his ground, and smote. The first four balls he took full pitch. The last two, owing to a passion for variety on the part of the bowler, were long hops. At the end of the over Shields' score was twenty-four. Mansfield pursued the same tactics. When the first wicket fell, seventy was on the board. A spirit of martial enthusiasm pervaded the ranks of the house team. Mild youths with spectacles leaped out of their ground like tigers, and snicked fours through the slips. When the innings concluded, blood had been spilt--from an injured finger--but the total was a hundred and two.
Then Clephane walked across to the School shop for a vanilla ice. He said he could get more devil, as it were, into his bowling after a vanilla ice. He had a couple.
When he bowled his first ball it was easy to see that there was truth in the report of the causes of his inclusion in the second eleven and exclusion from the first. The batsman observed somewhat weakly, "Here, I say!" and backed towards square leg. The ball soared over the wicket-keep's head and went to the boundary. The bowler grinned pleasantly, and said he was just getting his arm in.
The second ball landed full-pitch on the batsman's right thigh. The third was another full pitch, this time on the top of the middle stump, which it smashed. With profound satisfaction the batsman hobbled to the trees, and sat down. "Let somebody else have a shot," he said kindly.
Appleby's made twenty-eight that innings.
Their defeat by an innings and fifty-three runs they attributed subsequently to the fact that only seven of the team could be induced to go to the wickets in the second venture.
"So you've managed to win a match," grunted Henfrey, "I should like to have been there."
"You might just as well have been," said Clephane, "from what they tell me."
At which Henfrey became abusive, for he had achieved an "egg" that afternoon, and missed a catch; which things soured him, though Day's had polished off Dexter's handsomely.
"Well," he said at length, "you're in the semi-final now, of all weird places. You'd better play Spence's next. When can you play?"
"Henfrey," said Clephane, "I have a bright, open, boyish countenance, but I was not born yesterday. You want to get a dangerous rival out of the way without trouble, so you set Shields' to smash up Spence's. No, Henfrey. I do not intend to be your catspaw. We will draw lots who is to play which. Here comes Jackson. We'll toss odd man out."
And when the coins fell there were two tails and one head; and the head belonged to the coin of Clephane.
"So, you see," he said to Henfrey, "Shields' is in the final. No wonder you wanted us to scratch."
I should like this story to end with a vivid description of a tight finish. Considering that Day's beat Spence's, and consequently met Shields' in the final, that would certainly be the most artistic ending. Henfrey batting--Clephane bowling--one to tie, two to win, one wicket to fall. Up goes the ball! Will the lad catch it!! He fumbles it. It falls. All is over. But look! With a supreme effort--and so on.
The real conclusion was a little sensational in its way, but not nearly so exciting as that.
The match between Day's and Shields' opened in a conventional enough manner. Day's batted first, and made two hundred and fifty. Henfrey carried his bat for seventy-six, and there were some thirties. For Shields' Clephane and Mansfield made their usual first-wicket stand, and the rest brought the total up to ninety-eight. At this point Henfrey introduced a variation on custom. The match was a three days' match. In fact, owing to the speed with which the other games had been played, it could, if necessary, last four days. The follow-on was, therefore, a matter for the discretion of the side which led. Henfrey and his team saw no reason why they should not have another pleasant spell of batting before dismissing their opponents for the second time and acquiring the cup. So in they went again, and made another two hundred and fifty odd, Shields' being left with four hundred and twelve to make to win.
On the morning after Day's second innings, a fag from Day's brought Clephane a message from Henfrey. Henfrey was apparently in bed. He would be glad if Clephane would go and see him in the dinner-hour. The interview lasted fifteen minutes. Then Clephane burst out of the house, and dashed across to Shields' in search of Mansfield.
"I say, have you heard?" he shouted.
"What's up?"
"Why, every man in Day's team, bar two kids, is in bed. Ill. Do you mean to say you haven't heard? They thought they'd got that house cup safe, so all the team except the two kids, fags, you know, had a feed in honour of it in Henfrey's study. Some ass went and bought a bad rabbit pie, and now they're laid up. Not badly, but they won't be out for a day or two."
"But what about the match?"
"Oh, that'll go on. I made a point of that. They can play subs."
Mansfield looked thoughtful.
"But I say," he said, "it isn't very sporting, is it? Oughtn't we to wait or something?"
"Sporting! My dear chap, a case like this mustn't be judged by ordinary standards. We can't spoil the giant rag of the century because it isn't quite sporting. Think what it means--Shields' getting the cup! It'll keep the school laughing for terms. What do you want to spoil people's pleasure for?"
"Oh, all right," said Mansfield.
"Besides, think of the moral effect it'll have on the house. It may turn it into the blood house of Wrykyn. Shields himself may get quite sportive. We mustn't miss the chance."
The news having got about the school, Clephane and Mansfield opened their second innings to the somewhat embarrassed trundling of Masters Royce and Tibbit, of the Junior School, before a substantial and appreciative audience.
Both played carefully at first, but soon getting the measure of the bowling (which was not deep) began to hit out, and runs came quickly. At fifty, Tibbit, understudying Henfrey as captain of the side, summoned to his young friend Todby from short leg, and instructed him to "have a go" at the top end.
It was here that Clephane courteously interfered. Substitutes, he pointed out, were allowed, by the laws of cricket, only to field, not to bowl. He must, therefore, request friend Todby to return to his former sphere of utility, where, he added politely, he was a perfect demon.
"But, blow it," said Master Tibbit, who (alas!) was addicted to the use of strong language, "Royce and I can't bowl the whole blessed time."
"You'll have to, I'm afraid," said Clephane with the kindly air of a doctor soothing a refractory patient. "Of course, you can take a spell at grubs whenever you like."
"Oh, darn!" said Master Tibbit.
Shortly afterwards Clephane made his century.
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flash gunner
- Posts: 29243
- Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:55 am
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Give it a rest rilub deanparisI will admit that this goals allowed (GA) number is a bit problematic. It’s very early in the season for one, Arsenal could tighten up their defense and keep a couple of clean sheets and turn around their GA average. For example, Chelsea are currently on pace to only allow 13 goals which would be a runaway best ever but only allowing 13 goals in a season is not realistic.
The other problem with the GA is that, historically, the team with the stingiest defense doesn’t always win the league, it’s only a pretty good predictor, and it completely falls apart when trying to nail down the top 4 spots.
And really, isn’t it just a wonkish way of saying “Arsenal need to tighten their defense?â€
The other problem with the GA is that, historically, the team with the stingiest defense doesn’t always win the league, it’s only a pretty good predictor, and it completely falls apart when trying to nail down the top 4 spots.
And really, isn’t it just a wonkish way of saying “Arsenal need to tighten their defense?â€
