squealy’s profile

squealy: 468

Name:	Neil
Homepage URL:	http://homepage.ntlworld.com/neil.hill2/
Location:	Nottingham, UK.
Gender:	Brummie
Member since:	June 03, 2002
Last visit:	November 18, 2008

squealy has posted 34 links and 1261 comments to SportsFilter and 9 links and 811 comments to the Locker Room.

Sports Bio

Through a glass darkly is my normal method for regarding England games. Yesterday was no exception despite the early start.

10.30am is an uncivilised time to begin drinking for the day. This hardly explains why I was walking to my local at 10.00am with a can of Carling in my hand. Met some female England fans on the way down with similar luggage. They said they'd cut out the middle-man and stayed up all night.

Now our local is one of those lovely multi-racial boozers where everyone gets on fine with each other though keeps more or less to their own territory. It used to be 3 rooms before they knocked it all through (some say they should have gone one step further and knocked it down, but what do they know?) People still sit in those "rooms" despite the lack of walls - black geezers playing cards and dommies, "normal" white working class people and OAPs, and the strangely bohemian collection of graduates, communists, anarchists, grebos and crusties that we seem to specialise in round here, all in separate parts of the pub.

Anyway today is completely different. Virtually 100% white, 90% male and mostly apparently half-cut as I roll in the door at 10am. The landlord informs us over the PA that "we won't be bloody serving during the game so stock up now and at half-time." The table across from me has 8 lads sat at it. Each with 3 pints. It is 10.15am. Is it just the English who behave this way? Even before kick-off I have managed to collect the final 3 tokens I need for my "free" Carlsberg England shirt. Very nice it is too, if you like that kind of thing.

Game went by in a fairly drunken blur. I meet a Blues fan who shows me his tatoo of the club crest, someone had pointed me out as another Blues fan. This is Nottingham remember. Nice man, crap tattoo. England score, pub descends into a chaos of jumping, flailing jubilant people. Sweden equalise and you could cut the silence with the proverbial knife. Lets face it, England played poorly particularly in the second half. However, they still get a round of applause at the final whistle. I am sitting applauding a tv set. Not for the first time I fear for my sanity.

Numbers drift away during the Spain/Slovenia game. Only 6 of us left for the final whistle, and I'm 6 pints to the worse. Lots of people sat outside soaking up the glorious sunshine and more lagers. I stagger home to find both our internet and digital tv connections down, so I install a game (GTA III) and spend a pleasant, if drunken 2 hours driving aimlessly around, splattering pedestrians. The lager takes it's toll and eventually I go to bed for a "nap".

Woken by the phone at 8.40, curtains wide open, light streaming through the window. Oh fuck I think, looking at the clock, I've missed the Croatia vs Mexico game. "What are we doing for the games tomorrow", my mate asks? "Tomorrow?" I say, "what's wrong with the games today?". Silence, then laughter as it dawns on him and then me that I think it's 8.40am on a Monday and it's in fact 8.40pm Sunday. Back to the pub then for the rest of the evening, after all it's a Bank Holiday. Worryingly, at least 10 people who were there for the England game are here. Even more worryingly, they seem more sober than I feel. An argument breaks out between 5 middle-aged women and the landlord. Voices are raised, fists are raised, people are barred. Ain't it great to be English?

*****************

Oh yes, I support Birmingham City.

Recent Links

The ultimate sports theme tune In the wake of the death of the great Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti the English media discuss the impact of the decision to use Puccini's Nessun Dorma as the theme tune to the BBC's coverage of Italia '90 on both English football and the world of opera.

posted on September 07, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result

Farewell to the "Beckham of the Baize" Popular and talented young snooker star Paul Hunter, three times Masters champion, succumbs to cancer at the tender age of 27. He leaves behind a wife and young daughter. RIP.

posted on October 10, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result

Ferguson must rely on all his ability for Carrick to shine Michael Carrick signs for Man U for a reported 13m rising to 18.6 maximum. And just to take the pressure off a tad he's been given Roy Keane's shirt number. The Grauniad has a take on British record transfers.

posted on July 31, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result

2006 World Worm Charming Championships. The winner has been declared. Silver Jubilee winner Harry Potts, who goes to Willaston Primary School, made sure the trophy stayed in the school grounds as he and mum Annette charmed 167 worms. WWCC official site.

posted on June 27, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result

Get ready to dislike America American soccer players should enjoy being ridiculed: soon enough they'll be boring world-beaters says SpoFi stalwart Steven Wells.

posted on June 06, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result

Recent Comments

Baseball versus Cricket While the NLCS and ALCS occupy our minds, over in England they took a pub table debate and put it into practice. What if a team of professional cricketers took on a baseball team on the diamond? Who would win?

posted by owlhouse at 05:20 PM on October 08

Shame they didn't do the experiment in reverse too.

posted at 08:53 AM on October 08

Spofi Fantasy EPL 08-09 Week 3 Update The top two are unchanged while the typical early season shuffling occurs lower in the table.

posted by gspm at 04:45 PM on September 03

Just played my wildcard; not that the team were doing badly just there's money to be made in the long gameweek, and I hate having the fecking wildcard and want rid of it.

posted at 05:09 PM on September 03

Spofi EPL pool preseason update The EPL kicks off this coming weekend. The door on Spofi's EPL pool will then be shut. So if you want in, time to make it happen. We have 30 participants so far (same as last year) with a few returning entrants.

posted by gspm at 12:04 PM on August 19

Though having said that I suppose as you're both Americans you probably signed up whilst the vast majority of the most likely entrants (Brits) were fast asleep.

posted at 07:10 PM on August 19

posted by gspm at 12:04 PM on August 19

btw, how's everyone doing on their Head-to-Head Leagues? As luck would have it, billsaysthis and I are in the same one.

That's an astonishing coincidence unless you picked your teams in unison. As I understand it the Head to Head leagues are just each 20 entrants in order of registering their teams.

posted at 07:00 PM on August 19

The Yankees ban sunblock at the stadium.....to fight terrorism From the article: Yankee fans are seeing - and turning - red over a ban on sunscreen, which Stadium security guards say was widely expanded in the last few weeks. (via Boing Boing)

posted by cjets at 01:48 PM on July 24

The concession stands sold both bottled water and bottled beer, however the staff had to take the bottle caps off for you, presumably so you wouldn't have a heavy object to throw.... I'm assuming these are plastic bottles? Now don't quote me on this but I have been told that the reasoning behind removing the caps is that empty bottles dumped in the aisles with their caps on represent a hazard. A bottle without it's cap will crush easily under your foot but one with it's cap on won't. Could be bullshit but that's what I was told by a steward at a Premiership football game.

posted at 02:46 PM on July 24

Hockey Scores not deserving of SpoFi Front Page I can't see that this deserves a FPP, but I'm hoping vague hilarity is reason enough for it to survive in here. [More inside]

posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:12 PM on July 23

Those crazy internet kids, what will they get up to next?

posted at 01:38 PM on July 23

It's Salford City Reds and Celtic Crusaders! The Rugby Football League has announced which 14 teams will be awarded a licence to compete in Superleague 2009-2011. The existing 12 clubs have all been selected, plus Salford City Reds and Celtic Crusaders (from Bridgend, South Wales). Missing out are Widnes, Leigh, Halifax, Featherstone, and Toulouse. Wakefield and Castleford must be relieved, but the inclusion of Celtic over Widnes is a huge risk, as the RFL try to expand the game into new areas - in this case, a tradionally rugby union area. PS - Can we have a "rugby" category? Pretty please?

posted by salmacis at 10:17 AM on July 23

I saw this story on BBC Breakfast whilst half asleep this morning and I must admit it did seem a little strange that established teams like Widnes and Wakefield had been overlooked in favour of two teams I'd never even heard of. But then I suppose I don't follow rugby league that closely. However despite my relative lack of interest in the eggchasing I second the suggestion of a rugby category as it's a perfectly cromulent sport whatever the code.

posted at 03:19 AM on July 23

Terrell Owens is a sweet, sweet man. If you get mowed down by a Honda Civic, you'd be extremely lucky to have Terrell Owens nearby.

posted by BoKnows at 03:01 PM on July 22

I don't even really know who this bloke is but he's clearly not very popular on SpoFi. However, he did the right thing for which he deserves credit.

posted at 03:01 AM on July 22

EPL Fantasy 08-09 Open for business Pssst. Sign up. Pass it on. Don't tell squealy. Games start August 16. League Name : Spofi Code : 84936-22714

posted by garfield at 01:03 PM on July 14

Fine by me as I always run out of mini-leagues. You still wouldn't win though.

posted at 04:16 PM on July 14

EPL Fantasy 08-09 Open for business Pssst. Sign up. Pass it on. Don't tell squealy. Games start August 16. League Name : Spofi Code : 84936-22714

posted by garfield at 01:03 PM on July 14

So there are two Spofi leagues as it stands now: the incumbent auto-renewing one and the new one. Are we going to keep both? I'd say keep the incumbent auto-renewing one as it's less effort for the participants. Newbie players can request the code to join.

posted at 08:46 AM on July 14

EPL Fantasy 08-09 Open for business Pssst. Sign up. Pass it on. Don't tell squealy. Games start August 16. League Name : Spofi Code : 84936-22714

posted by garfield at 01:03 PM on July 14

Yeah, I'm in. Who f-n told squealy? No one told me. The admin of last year's league chose to reactivate the old league. I did this myself for another league that I admin. This automatically puts all those teams who were in the league last season into this season's league as soon as they set up their team. Those who don't want to take part in this reactivated league have to opt out themselves. Boy that was confusing.

posted at 08:43 AM on July 14

The ultimate soccer pick-up game this evening (5:30) in Manhattan. Steve Nash putting an all-star group together for a pick-up soccer game for charity.

posted by dales15 at 02:44 PM on June 25

I'm sure Barca will be chuffed that Henry's agreed to play. Not that I have the faintest idea what a pick-up game is.

posted at 06:05 PM on June 25

Remi Gaillard, soccer prankster (video) In celebration of Euro 2008, public prankster ... Rémi Gaillard made the following video of himself using the urban landscape as a soccer pitch. He scores goals into an occupied ambulance, trash cans, a trash truck, a police station entrance, a second storey window, a drive thru window, a fountain, a monument, a lighting structure, a manhole (heh), a pizza vendor truck, all with victims in attendance.

posted by worldcup2002 at 11:47 AM on June 25

I was particularly impressed by how he bravely turned his tail and fled every time he was confronted.

posted at 06:04 PM on June 25

AFI names its top 10 sports movies Two boxing movies "Raging Bull" followed by "Rocky" at the top. Also two baseball movies in top 5.

posted by graymatters at 12:23 PM on June 19

Pfft. Where's Escape To Victory? Fecking septics ain't gotta clue.

posted at 01:18 PM on June 19

Sportsfilter Technology Refresh?
Sportsfilter was founded back in 2002 using a mimic of the Metafilter site code as I understand it- back then, sports posts seemed too "newsfilter-y" back when that was actually frowned upon at Metafilter, and this site was spun up as a dedicated place for that kind of content.

In the intervening years, Metafilter has added a number of features- big and small- that make that site very functional and usable. I'm curious if there is any possibility of having a "technology refresh", in which Sportsfilter gets an update of some of the site code to enable things like live preview, tagging, favoriting, etc.

posted by Hal Incandenza at 12:04 PM on June 11

Who could disagree with such an eminently sensible suggestion? Bravo DrJ.

posted at 06:33 AM on June 11