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I started collecting puns from Twitter  some months ago and discovered a disproportionate number were being produced by a few punsters. One such goes under the Twitter label Tolly TB who describes himself as
a bacon butty munching ex-rugby player older than the pyramids' application order. He adds that oval balls are harder to juggle.

I’ve recently found myself in Twitter conversation with Tolly ...

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I watch the Wales Scotland rugby match being played at Murrayfield which is not named after Andy Murray.

I am watching out of duty rather than for pleasure.

 It is the second round of the six Nations international competition. In the first round Wales playing in their fortress at the millennium Stadium Cardiff which is named after the Millenium date not after the Milennium Dome. They showed that home advantage was not enough to counter Ireland currently, ranked No 2 team in the world after France.

Scotland in contrast, had done something, very unusual against England at Twickenham winning a thrilling encounter playing in England’s fortress. Fortresses didn’t do very well last week. Scotland are not supposed to beat England at Twickenham.  Wales are not supposed to lose by a bucket full of points  against anyone at the millennium Stadium. The omens  are not good for this week.

I am in position with a good vantage point for the game, midway between the television set and my chess table now laden with half-time sandwiches and refreshments. I am wearing my ancient Wooly red scarf and bobble hat, each bearing  the war cry Cymru am Byth. 

I join the crowd of supporters in singing the National Anthem Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi,
The team has been coached in the words and singalong, though not at the tempo suggested by the conductor.

The TV camera pans to to show Princess Anne, who has remained above all the scandals of other members of her family. She takes seriously her job as patron of Scottish rugby. Prince Charles had a similar role for Welsh Rugby until he got promoted recently. I can’t  see whether his successor present. 

The game begins ...

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Saturday 11th of February 2023.

The Welsh rugby team heads for Scotland after a traumatic beating in Cardiff by Ireland last week. 

There was a time when Scotland were Wales’s  bunnies. 

And there was a time when Wales reigned supreme as the Northern Hemisphere champion rugby players. This was  the era when competition was for the Triple Crown. The four teams competing were Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.

This was the time when Welsh rugby was at its height. But even then, in the 1950s and 60s, a trip to Murrayfield was not undertaken without trepidation.

My own memories from those days are of glorious victories at the Arms Park against England and Ireland, but losses to unfancied Scottish teams at Murrayfield.

Scotland, remained the whipping boys of the four nations competing for the triple Crown. Their reputation as weakest team continued when France joined in the tournament.

But then Italy I was introduced into the club, and immediately became the whipping boy, leaving at Scotland with one team at least they had chances of beating.

This relatively stable status quo remained for some years, but recently the balance has changed. France and Ireland are now rated numbers one and two in the world, having seized supremacy over the long-time number one from New Zealand, closely followed by the other southern hemisphere teams Australia and South Africa ...

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Wednesday 8 February 2023

Volodymyr Zelensky The Ukrainian President arrives to London with a clear and simple message to the assembled politicians and the nation. Give us your fighter jets..

It was a speech that will be studied and which will enter the history books. Partly for its rhetoric and manner of presentation. But partly because it may eventually prove to mark a dramatic and historic moment , as the war in Ukraine reaches its first anniversary.

Afterwards, Sir Lindsey Hoyle, speaker of the House of Commons, said of the occasion.
‘I watched the audience. Senior members of Parliament were wiping away tears. One told me afterwards he couldn’t stop welling over’.

Leadership as theatre

My blog Leaders we Deserve  has recorded studies of several hundred leaders over nearly thirty years. From time to time a leader’s actions persist in memory. Or more typically, a blog post identifies the weaknesses rather than the strengths of a leader. 

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Book lovers on social media have drawn attention to the rise in numbers books banned from American schools as a result of what seems to be a growing and orchestrated movement. 
The Banned Books Week is  an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. It is sponsored by a wide range of literary organisations.  

The campaign began in 1982 to celebrate the first amendment (specifically the right to freedom of expression, and to encourage the protection of controversial materials. But now, four decades later, book bans are on the rise, according to a new report from the free-speech nonprofit organisation PEN America.

We report the ten most banned books, as evidence of the politically-motivated nature of the recent rise in books.

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Johnathan Escoffery is a young black American author who has published his debut work, a collected series of short stories.
The Guardian book reviewer Ian Williams examines the book, and the impact of the author's ignoring the advice from 'writing instructors' about writing in the second person (the 'you' in the title) to explore the nature of the first person, the 'I'.

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This was the story sounding like a headline from the Star.  It was told me earlier today by my scientific friend Dr Glycol. 

"It’s an example of giantism", he explained. "I’m driving over to witness the site for myself.  More evidence is required before we can say how worms the size of a metro train are able to produce young. Even a normal-sized earthworm possesses both male and female sexual  organs and reproduces in a complex way". 

I had rarely seen or heard such excitement from my scientific friend. 

"Surely it’s some kind of joke, April Fools day come early, I said".

"I very much doubt it. I caught the end of the item on BBC 4 early this morning. The discovery was made by a construction company in Yorkshire". 

...

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This is a true story, but I am explaining it as a teaser for those who enjoy puzzles.

Background

My closest family and friends will agree that my social life is not one of glittering highlights. I enjoy lumbering about a tennis court in what is certainly more social than highly skilled tennis. I travel to my chess club once a week for the pulsating pleasure of more competitive and rather more skilled league chess. I also engage in face to face conversations with members of informal coffee meetings.

So how is this modest lifestyle in need of improving anyway?

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Rugby Union has announced plans for dealing with head injuries and permanent brain damage among players at all levels. The move follows high profile cases in football. Studies have identified Rugby as among the most violent games in which impact injuries lead to permanent damage and eventually contributing to mortalities.

Such cases have drawn attention to the victims as well as to well-publicised fund-raising memorial events.
Doddie Weir, the Scottish international, died recently in November after contacting motor neurone disease and raised millions for research into the condition. 

His efforts were supported by remarkable charity events by a Rugby international Keven Sinfield. His recent event involved him running 40 miles a day for seven consecutive days starting from Scottish Rugby union headquarters at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, and  ending at Old Trafford for the Rugby League cup final.

Contact sports inevitably risk brain damage. The risks provide considerable levels of concern and dilemmas of medical specialists often themselves participants earlier in their careers. It seems to me the charity events are wonderful ways of raising public awareness about the consequences of sporting injuries. I haven’t even mentioned heading injuries and Alzheimer's conditions in football.

That being said, the sporting authorities have been slow to take strong actions. 

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The East Cheshire social chess evening has become a feast of blitz chess, blitz heroes, Cordon Bleu snacks, vintage wines, all in the luxury venue of the Cheadle Hulme Instutute (Valet parking for overflow competitors).

Or maybe I have been a little carried away by the promotional drive which has resulted into a flood of new members into the club. On this day, the tournament registration queue stretched around the room, as new members vied with old.

The chess was up to its stunning quality, matching the sumptuous playing conditions. The top guns had arrived from New Zealand and New Islington, Burnage and Bramhall, Poynton and Parrs Wood. 

I arrived in time to see in the midst of the hubbub the calm figures of David the Dauntless, and Steve O’Kelly de Galway the official tournament organisers.
They moved as a well-drilled team, registering the competitors and preparing to arrange the pairing for first round. 

A racing bike was propped up in the executive parking area. It’s owner was Tom ‘Green Green Grass’ Jones and hot favourite for the Grand Prix event. He is  talking with  John Oldbutfit Reedwarbler, the other top ranked player. Their friendly appearance could not conceal the burning ambition that had led them to the event rather than to the football match going on between Nottingham Forest Outlaws and the Manchester Red Devils.

I had high hopes of taking advantage of Tom’s fatigue after his 8,000 mile return trip from New Zealand by plane and bicycle. Oldbutfit had seriously weakened his chances by sharing his encyclopaedic knowledge  of chess openings in his lectures to club members. Yes, I was in with a chance ...

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