Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “england”

Worst England Performance Ever – England 1 Iceland 2


There can be little doubt that those that witnessed the 90 minutes of misery versus Iceland saw the worst performance ever by an  England football side. These are players paid around 100,000£ a week and Roy hodgson earns 3.5million £. To give some perspective. IMG_0088

There was a lack of passion, organisation and frankly skill, but what really beat us was the delusional belief held both by the team and the pundits (before the game) that we would/should/will the game. These are players also who invest huge amounts of time in furthering their income from advertising and other money-making ventures, and it seems maybe more attention to football related matters and less to advertising might be a way forward. Put simply they are overrated.

The pundits also bottled it saving their scathing comments for after the game when it fact it would be good punditry to state their negative thoughts beforehand. IMG_0095

The England coaching staff ooze mediocrity being full of failed coaches and managers elsewhere. There is something of a history here and the worrying tones of mention of Southgate, Nevill and other equally bland characters is frightening.

Most football fans know that the passion needed starts with the managment and coaching staff, who also have to be ruthless. Why was Joe Hart even playing after his abysmal game versus Wales? Why was Marcus Rashford not playing? He did more in 5 minutes than most did in 90 minutes.

We need a manager who can motivate his team to at least get out of them their best. Countries like Wales and Iceland have this. IMG_0094

The nonsense that gets trotted out by the FA (including that Hodgson wrote his resignation speech in the dressing room) is facile. That Hodgson was not prepared to answer questions is simply rude. Some fans would have spent their life savings to follow England to a tournament and to have answered honestly questions would have cost him nothing other than 10 minutes of his time. It shows a complete lack of respect to the fans.

These players were not ” hungry”, “young” or anything like that, they were clearly a poor group of players unable to step up to the level of a major tournament, through either lack of effort, training,preparation or stage fright. some should never pull on an England shirt again, others need more motivation.

Who next? Most agree that an English manager is essential. The only names that make any sense to me are Sam Allarrdyce and Mark Warburton. Perennial failures need not apply. IMG_4390

 

The Bottom Potato


Some vegetables look ridiculous and some look even more so! Enjoy this humble little potato

IMG_1470

The Bottom Potato

Tim Bresnan. Retirement? Arundel


Doubt it. Still a decent county player. Was somewhat amused by the photograph below at Arundel this week.

IMG_8602 Bresnan2

County Championship Cricket. What is it really like as a spectator? Sussex V Yorkshire. Arundel


As a cricket fan I enjoy live cricket and prefer the 4 day format. I have been a member at Sussex for very many years and might get to half a dozen days cricket in the summer. I have to report with some sadness that county championship cricket is in danger of death. Let me allow you to picture the scene. A sunny June day, cricket being played in the most beautiful grounds of Arundel Castle. A decent crowd mostly consisting of four types, the retired county members, the corporate folks on a corporate bash,  a few schools bringing both boys and girls and the eclectic selection of people who regularly watch country cricket without seemingly having a job. The second day of Sussex v Yorkshire. If I am being totally honest I would love to eulogise about county cricket and how the four day game needs to survive if at least to produce players both for England and the tedious limited overs competitions. But I cannot. In fact this was one of the most miserable days cricket i can ever recall.

There was little interest from the players to turn this into a spectacle at all. Yorkshire batted almost all day at a run rate of 2 runs per over. There were no pieces of excellent fielding nor catches, in fact there was nothing memorable. The food is grossly overpriced, paying £2 for a small cup of tea or coffee and the £7 charge for Burger and chips was compounded by having a small portion of cool/cold chips. Very average indeed Hog Roast. My immediate cricketing neighbours conducted bizarre conversations. For example a middle-aged man started a conversation after lunch with his business colleague/friend by saying ” I am expecting a lot of family funerals you know”, the elderly party on the other side discussed at length how great it was to get a free copy of the Financial times at their hotel and ” that it must have been printed in USA as all the stories are from there”.  Other gems of conversation included ” I know those banks, HSBC and Vodafone”.  And if that was not enough to generate unbridled joy then back to the other side to hear ” did you know someone collapsed and had to be resuscitated at a Jethro Tull concert. His heart stopped for 20 minutes”. The reply was ” does your brain not turn to jelly after 20 minutes”.

Having ranted however I will be back, I know I will.  On a more positive note I was able to see why neither Tim Bresnan nor Luke Wright are in the England squads. Both bowled in a meaningless manner and offered little to the game.

 

Sums up the day IMG_8602 IMG_8688 IMG_8712 Bresnan2 IMG_8731 IMG_8628

St Helena Church Austerfield South Yorkshire


St Helena Chruch in Austerfield that sits on the border of South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire is a small church sitting back from the main road almost hidden by a copse of trees. Inside the church is calm and beautiful and with a lovely mellow feeling not at all at the high end of religion . In short it looks a lovely place to worship. Where however it becomes unique is that William Bradford was baptised there around 1590 and he went on to become one of the most important figures of the 17th century by virtue of becoming one of the founding Pilgrim Fathers. Travelling over in the Mayflower to New England where he became Governor of the Pilgrim Colony.

On Bank holiday monday May 5th 2014 the church hosted an excellent art exhibition by a British artist Ann Wildgust.

IMG_8348 IMG_8348s IMG_8350 IMG_8434j IMG_8435 IMG_8445 IMG_8447 IMG_8484 IMG_8486 IMG_8489 Painting

The Hoopoe bird


To come across this bird twice in a month is quite co-incidental .The first time was when the 12-year old conned me into buying a game called ” bird bingo”. This as it suggests is bingo but instead of numbers one pulls types of birds out a bag. Needless to say I never win just as with normal bingo. There were many exotic and odd birds in this game and in fact only a very few that  I vaguely recognised. The Hoopoe bird caught my eye with an interesting name and exotic looks.

the second visitation of this bird was in Dubai. Peering over my hotel balcony I heard some rustling noises and caught a shadow under a tree. On closer inspection it was a Hoopoe bird. The third visitation was when walking around the grounds of the hotel, I saw one maybe 10 yards away, too far to get a photo on a Blackberry, so these photos are not mine but do demonstrate exactly how this wonderful bird looks. When it flies it has a low trajectory but takes off rather fast. I have chosen a few photos that demonstrate well what the bird really does look like.

They eat mainly insects and live in usually warm climates, but did 30 years ago appear in Southern England. Wikipaedia is enlightening as always. These are a few facts that caught my eye.

In the Bible, Leviticus 11:13–19, hoopoes were listed among the animals that are detestable and should not be eaten. They are also listed in Deuteronomy (14:18) as not kosher. The Hoopoe was chosen as the national bird of Israel in May 2008 in conjunction with the country’s 60th anniversary, following a national survey of 155,000 citizens, outpolling the White-spectacled Bulbul. It is also the state-bird of Punjab province of India. The Hoopoe appears on the Logo of the University of Johannesburg, and is the official mascot of the University’s sports. The municipality of Armstedt, Germany has a hoopoe in its coat of arms.

bird common_hoopoe_09.03.13_a.das images

Scott Perham – Musician


Last week was spent on a cruise boat Navigator of the Seas. A nice way to spend 6 days travelling, mostly at night from Rome to Barcelona. One of the singers deserves a mention, Scott Perham. Each night he had what can be described as a 4 hour residency in the bar on the boat that could most be likened to an English pub. So whilst sipping Amstel or Bud Light , we had plenty of opportunity to listen. This man can play well. He played mostly music in the genre of Eagles, country rock and the suchlike. One song caught my ear that I did not recognise, ” Against the Wind” sung originally by Bob Seger. Sadly spotify does not seem to know this song. But this guy is good. If he were local I would visit regularly. Just saying.

Autumn has arrived in UK


Sudden change in the weather from vaguely warm to positively autumnal, and it has come more or less overnight. Drizzle all day, grey sky and a bit cold. This made me realise that I dont really know what temperature hedgepig is happy being at?
If you have sky in Honduras, Charlton v Bees in the JPT 2nd round is live on Oct 5th.
Just finished watching the most boring football game of all time England 1 Wales 0. Plus Wales missed an open goal near the end. Was like watching a training ground game or friendly pre-season.

Post Navigation

%d bloggers like this: