I've switched

I decided to move my blogging to Substack. From now on you'll be able to see my posts at usedtobecroquetman.substack.com. I'll maintain this blog and may occasionally post on it; all previous posts will still be accessible. I hope you'll join me at Substack!

Footy updates 2025/31

How did my forecasts fare this weekend? (And ChatGPT's)

Everton Women 0 Arsenal Women 1 CGPT: 1-3 Result: 1-3

When Kim Little is playing (back from injury), Arsenal are a different side

Birmingham 2 Charlton 1 CGPT: 2-1 Result: 1-1

Charlton on a little bit of a bad run

Leicester 1 Ipswich 2 CGPT: 1-2 Result: 3-1

No consistency from the Tractor Boys

Burton 1 Wycombe 1 CGPT: 1-1 Result: 0-0

Looks like mid table is Wycombe's lot this season

Chislehurst Glebe 0 Whitstable 2 CGPT: 2-2 Result: 0-2
Things are going well

Arsenal 5 Wolves 0 CGPT: 2-0 Result: 2-1
That was a stressful watch. Arteta struggling to find the best combinations from his big squad. Not sure Eze and Odegaard can play in the same team. Can't wait to get Havertz back

Nottingham Forest 2 Tottenham 2 CGPT: 1-2 Result: 3-0

You don't know what you're going to get from Spurs

Correct results: 4 out of 7 (ChatGPT: 3)

Correct scores: 0 out of 7 (ChatGPT: 1)

Match score this season so far: usedtobecroquetman 4 Chat GPT 5

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Upcoming midweek game:

Leuven Women v Arsenal Women (Champions League final match day of the league phase)

Wet December

I've never really understood the concept of Dry January. If you believe alcohol has a deleterious effect on your health then just go dry! It was started in 2013 by Alcohol Concern and ChatGPT says "Since then it’s spread well beyond Britain and become a fixture of post-Christmas virtue signalling". So no punches pulled there - who says AI doesn't have opinions?

"Dry" is my default drinking option anyway; pop in any day of the year and you'll see a stock of zero alcohol beers. Mostly the excellent St Peter's Without but with sprinklings of Proper Job Zero and - my current favourite - Guinness Zero. But now it's December and the lead up to Christmas. I feel I should get into the spirit and prepare my body for the onslaught of merry drinking by starting early. So now there's red wine - more than a sprinkling - and a bottle of Jack Daniels which has now been joined by a bottle of Advocaat I bought at Tesco this morning.

I haven't drunk advocaat for years so I can't remember whether I like it.

Wait...I'll just have a taster (it's past noon so that's OK)...

Oo, I do remember...nice. Just a little mo....no, I'll leave it for tonight's match - Arsenal (top of the table) at home to bottom of the table Wolves, who are yet to record a win this season after 15 games. It'll go well with the after dinner coffee and Ferrero Rocher, helping me celebrate the inevitable win or, heaven forbid, drown my sorrows in defeat.

I've been busy helping my kind Christmas hosts in Charlton and Bexleyheath by sending some alcohol of various kinds, to save me having to carry stuff on the train. I just hope they haven't drunk it already.

On Thursday I plan to help my good friend Tony celebrate the season of goodwill by taking a taxi to his house with a bottle of something (his preferred tipple is whisky, so that's probable) and getting a taxi home. Maybe I should take something to eat to soak it up. More on that in due course.

And in January, well I won't be virtue signalling like the rest of you; I'll just be reverting to the norm. For 11 months until...

Footy updates 2025/30

Recent midweek games:

Larkfield & New Hythe 1 Whitstable 2

Great win against the previous leaders

Charlton 1 Middlesbrough 2

Chelsea on their mind?

Wycombe 0 Plymouth 1

It's been an up and down season

Tottenham 3 Slavia Prague 0

Spurs will qualify for at least the playoff round for the knockout stage

Arsenal Women 1 Twente Women 0

Arsenal confirm at least a play-off spot for the quarter-finals

Ipswich 1 Stoke 0

Gradually creeping up the table

Club Brugge 0 Arsenal 3

Six from six, the only unbeaten team in the Champions League and they've qualified direct to the knockout stage

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FA Cup news - 3rd round draw:

Portsmouth v Arsenal

Tottenham v Aston Villa

Ipswich v Blackpool

Charlton v Chelsea

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My forecasts for this weekend: (and ChatGPT's):

Everton Women 0 Arsenal Women 1 CGPT: 1-3

Birmingham 2 Charlton 1 CGPT: 2-1

Leicester 1 Ipswich 2 CGPT: 1-2

Burton 1 Wycombe 1 CGPT: 1-1

Chislehurst Glebe 0 Whitstable 2 CGPT: 2-2

Arsenal 5 Wolves 0 CGPT: 2-0

Nottingham Forest 2 Tottenham 2 CGPT: 1-2

Footy updates 2025/29

How did my forecasts fare this weekend? (And ChatGPT's)

Arsenal Women 4 Liverpool Women 0 CGPT: 3-0 Result: 2-1

Arsenal struggled against the team bottom of the league and without a win. Hard to see how the Gunners can win anything this season

Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 1 CGPT: 1-2 Result: 2-1

Disappointing. Arsenal came back after conceding the first goal but Villa (possible surprise title contenders?) won with the last kick of the game. Still top of the table (just)

Charlton 1 Portsmouth 0 CGPT: 1-1 Result: match abandoned after medical emergency in the crowd

Tottenham 2 Brentford 2 CGPT: 2-1 Result: 2-0

Back to winning ways. They sit in 10th

Ipswich 1 Coventry 2 CGPT: 2-1 Result: 3-0

Best result of the season, walloping the runaway table-toppers. Going from one extreme to the other, impossible to forecast. Up to 4th

Exeter 0 Wycombe 1 CGPT: 1-1 Result: 4-0

FA Cup: Wanderers won't be in the third round draw

Whitstable 2 Eastbourne United 0 CGPT: 2-0 Result: 3-0

FA Vase: The holders on to round 4

Correct results: 2 out of 6 (ChatGPT: 4 )

Correct scores: 0 out of 6 (ChatGPT: 0)

Match score this season so far: usedtobecroquetman 3½ Chat GPT 4½

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Upcoming midweek games:

Larkfield & New Hythe v Whitstable (1st vs 2nd)

Charlton v Middlesbrough

Wycombe v Plymouth

Tottenham v Slavia Prague (Champions League)

Ipswich v Stoke

Club Brugge v Arsenal (Champions League)

Nigel's problem

It's the 1st of October 2029. Prime Minister Farage won the general election in July with a small overall majority and, as a result of incredible party discipline, got his flagship policy of scrapping net zero legislation through the House of Commons.

That's that then - we'll start building coal-fired power stations again. But not so fast; getting a Bill through the Commons doesn't make it law. First it has to be passed by the House of Lords, where it will be supported by...how many Reform peers? Well at the moment they have just...none. What is Nige gonna do about this?

This is the current makeup of the House of Lords:

Conservative Party 283 

Labour Party 210 

Crossbench group 178 

Liberal Democrats 75

Others 80 (including 23 bishops - no knights, rooks or pawns, although you could argue that all members of parliament are pawns when they slavishly pass through the Aye lobby to support their party)

The Labour government gets its Bills through the Lords with the help of enough crossbench members and the Salisbury-Addison convention that says the Lords won’t block Bills that were in the winning party’s manifesto. But how can a governing party with no members in the Lords at all hope to prevent the second chamber destroying its policy platform?

Some obvious answers:

• create hundreds of Reform-supporting peers to provide a majority
• Make a pact with the Conservative party to support its manifesto Bills

But there's a nuclear option. By including a commitment to abolish the House of Lords in their election manifesto, they could argue that the convention means the Lords have to agree to their own abolition.

That sounds fun.

Footy updates 2025/28

Recent midweek games:

Northampton 2 Wycombe 0
EFL Trophy not high on Wycombe's priority list I'd guess

Blackburn 1 Ipswich 1

Almost karma. When this fixture was originally played, it was abandoned after 81 minutes with Blackburn leading 1-0. They took the lead in the 76th minute this time. But Town got an equaliser with the last kick of the match. Tinkerman McKenna made a number of changes, as usual, and Ipswich rescue a point against a team they really should be beating

Newcastle 2 Tottenham 2

Very entertaining game between two teams who will probably end the season higher than they currently are. Spurs in a bit of a transition

Arsenal 2 Brentford 0

The Gunners a bit disjointed in attack but their defence remains rock solid

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EXPECTATION UPDATES

I thought this might be a good time (a third of the way through the season) to assess our expectations (hopes?) for each of our favourite teams, so here goes.

Arsenal to win the Premier League: before the start of the season 2.5/10, now 4/10

Tottenham to finish in the top 5 of the Premier League: before the start of the season 4/10, now 3/10

Ipswich to win promotion to the Premier League: before the start of the season 8/10, now 4/10

Charlton to avoid relegation back to League One: before the start of the season 5/10, now 8/10

Wycombe to duplicate last season's push into the playoffs: before the start of the season 4/10, now 2/10

Whitstable to win promotion from the Southern Counties East League Premier Division: before the start of the season 5/10, now 6/10

Arsenal Women to win the Womens Super League: before the start of the season 5/10, now 2/10

Any thoughts anyone?

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My forecasts for this weekend: (and ChatGPT's):

Arsenal Women 4 Liverpool Women 0 CGPT: 3-0

Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 1 CGPT: 1-2

Charlton 1 Portsmouth 0 CGPT: 1-1

Tottenham 2 Brentford 2 CGPT: 2-1

Ipswich 1 Coventry 2 CGPT: 2-1

Exeter 0 Wycombe 1 CGPT: 1-1

Whitstable 2 Eastbourne United 0 CGPT: 2-0

And What Do YOU Do?

I've been struggling a bit with books. Often I find my enthusiasm wanes as I progress through the chapters. I still haven't quite finished This Is Not The Way - Jews, Judaism and Israel; it's a really good book but I felt it had become repetitive. I will keep going, I have to before I pass it on in a few weeks. I don't know whether I've mentioned This Way Up - When Maps Go Wrong (and why it matters). It seemed like an interesting and amusing purchase. I've read 25 pages and should get back to it; I slightly lost patience with its jokeyness. Everything Is Predictable - How Bayes' Remarkable Theorem Explains The World, a much-valued gift which is heavy maths (my thing) requires appropriate brainpower at appropriate times. I love it but lack the top-line enthusiasm to get back to it straight away. I even haven't finished Diego Maradona's Last Interview, a great book which was also a gift - probably back in January.

There's obviously nothing wrong with any of these books, it's me that's the problem. Maybe I've lost my seriousness of purpose and I need to get it back. I promise not only that I will but that I will share my feelings about each book I finish. They're all on my side table glaring at me and making me feel guilty.

I've also been reading Into The Magic Shop: A neurosurgeon's true story of the life-changing magic of compassion and mindfulness by Dr James R. Doty. It tells of a young boy's meeting with a strange woman who lives nearby - and runs a magic shop - and who takes him under her wing and "teaches" him about self-worth and overcoming adversity. The boy (the author as an eighth grader in California) becomes a brain surgeon; it's beautifully written, heavily presented as heart-warming but somehow feels a bit...creepy. My intensely cynical self is at its worst in questioning whether it really is a true story. Looking back, my attention is drawn to the dedication page. Alongside the usual "to my wife and children" and to Ruth, the Magic Shop guru, is:

To His Holiness the Dalai Lama who continues to teach me the meaning of compassion

I don't know that I have the patience to engage any more with this mystical stuff but I definitely think there are people of a certain bent who will find this book unputtable-down and intensely rewarding. I can't promise I'll get back to it. I'll just quote one of the 24 (!) testimonials quoted at the beginning:

This is one of the most compelling and inspiring books I have ever read. We're with Jim at every step, as he struggles with poverty and trauma, becomes a world-class brain surgeon, gains and loses a fortune and learns deep lessons about the magic in each person's heart. Gripping, profound, extraordinary [Rick Hanson PhD, author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom]

If you're one of those who is attracted to this book, I genuinely hope you will set aside my reservations, read it and be inspired by it.

Moving on: today I've ordered a new book: And What Do YOU Do? by former LibDem politician Norman Baker. I can't start it yet because for some reason isn't available in Kindle edition and I have to wait for delivery tomorrow of a paperback copy. Once I've read it I'll be looking to pass it on because I have limited shelf space. This is what Amazon says about it:

The royal family: the quintessential British institution or an antiquated, overindulged drain on the taxpayer?

For all their foibles and idiosyncrasies, the royal family wield considerable influence and yet rather than facing the scrutiny their position merits, they enjoy sickeningly obsequious coverage which reports their activities with breathless awe.

And What Do You Do? is a provocative and hard-hitting analysis, exposing the royals extravagant use of public money and the highly dubious behaviour of some among their number. Former Minister of State and current Privy Counsellor Norman Baker breaks ranks to explore the wider role the royals play in society, including the link with House of Lords reform and the constitutional position of the monarch.

Now fully updated to include new material on Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, this irreverent and uncompromising account asks urgent questions about the future of the world s most famous royal family.

It's my kind of thing; from childhood I've been sceptical about royalty, an abolitionist who nevertheless has struggled to give a reasonable answer to the question of what would replace it. "Would you want Boris Johnson to be President, Nigel?" Nope. "Tony Blair?" Heaven forbid. "Richard Branson?" You see how hard it would be; maybe better to stick with what we have but limit their power and don't give them any money. Let's wait and see what Norman has to say.

Amazon should get some AI

I'm waiting for a package from Amazon. Been watching the tracking software in despair. My road and a parallel road are joined by a footpath but Amazon's tracker thinks its van can traverse it. It happens time and time again; the little van picture does a few circuits of the nearby streets and eventually the driver notices there's a footpath, parks his van and walks to my door.

This is not some penny stock tech startup, it's Amazon! Get a grip.