An old, fat fool starts a log. Hope no-one minds

billynomates said:Hi Pete. I for one completely subscribe to your views in this matter. Seems quite silly that people get so het up about something that ultimately isnt very important at all. People are curious beings!

Bod said:Certain sports allow the complete suspension of all rationality. You know, in your heart, that the referee/umpire/judge doesn’t have it in for your team, for example. but you decry them anyway. Probably wishing death upon them. Some people have such vast parts of their personalities defined by their attachment to sports teams that their actions are difficult to comprehend without that shared experience.

I have supported my football team for 45 years. I used to travel the length and breadth, spending more money than I should have but my emotional investment peaked at the age of 17 I would hazard. A bad result has a minimal impact on me and yet friends, who would be considered intelligent and well-rounded by most observers, will often say ‘That result has ruined my weekend.’ They really mean it too and mope around, probably kicking felines if they happen upon one.

That was a long-winded way of saying it’s all a bit daft, but I can kind of see from where it stems. The shared euphoria of victory can be intoxicating but also troubling when you take more enjoyment in the feats of other actors than creating those of your own.

Bod said:
I then remembered that the word that I was plumping for had already been used on a previous day.

Rick said:xxxYx
xxGxY
GGGYx
GGGGG

The third guess left me in considerable puzzlement, because now I knew the first four letters and that the fifth wasn't what it seemingly had to be. I am not a fan of the answer, for no especially rational reason.

Fatpete said:Yesterday, Leigh Leopards, a rugby league team whose ground is around three miles from where I live managed to win a large silver cup by beating a team from Hull at Wembley. By all accounts it was an excellent game and even contained some excitement of sorts.

Today, the victorious team will travel several miles to their home ground in an open-topped bus which will be driven at hearse-style speeds so that people can line the streets, look at them and probably cheer, presumably along the line of "Come on you Leigh" and "Jolly well done chaps"

I find this a very strange thing to do but I suspect that there will be thousands of people lining the streets and generally getting in the way. Is it me ?

I have read posts on facebook this morning where men of my age could not sleep last night due to the excitement of winning said cup. Again, is it me ?

Leigh last won this cup thing fifty two years ago, that apparently makes it all the more exciting. I was at school then, and I remember the parade coming through Tyldesley all those years ago. It passed about one hundred yards from where I lived. I couldn't be arsed walking that distance to see it then and I can't be arsed to do it now.

How do you bring yourself to care about something that matters so little ? Is it me ?

Answers on a postcard please.

Bod said:
I have always liked you Rick and even more so now. An irrational dislike for certain answers is speaking my language. I cannot, nor will I ever, let go of my fury at Wordle for using ‘email’ as a word of the day.

matthewvc said:
Leythers (residents of Leigh) are a unique bunch. They are forever in the shadow
of the far more successful Wigan RLFC when it comes to the oval ball game, feelings of insecurity that are far worsened by their town's amalgamation into Wigan Metropolitan Borough in 1974 (Wigan fans are known to sing 'you're just a bus stop in Wigan' when playing each other). There's even an independence campaign 'GLOW' (Get Leigh out of Wigan). Not quite USA 1776 levels, but quite passionate all the same. So winning the Challenge Cup has a sense of getting one over their colonial masters, Wigan, both legislatively and sportingly, which Leythers will celebrate long and hard.

Fatpete said:
Thank you for that. I remember the brouhaha of 1974 very well. People were livid that the bit of ground they lived on had changed it's name. To this day there is dispute over our correct postal address. Some say Greater Manchester and others insist on Lancashire. But as the police, fire and ambulances that respond to 999 calls are all labelled Greater Manchester, the Lancashire mob have their work cut out for them.
Wiganers are known as "Pie eaters" and their return phrase for the people of Leigh is "Lobby gobblers". I have done both :-)