Tyrone Shoelaces

No, I was in the machine tool game, building lathes, milling machines etc. I'd been loaned out for 3 months whilst the real weaving shed fitter was off sick. You should be able to give us chapter and verse on looms if you built them.

Oh dear I was hoping nobody would ask me that. The last time I had to deal with these was in 1970 for three months. Most of my time then was spent removing and replacing broken loom crank shafts and not actually working on running machines. Here I go making a fool of myself. The diagrams you are looking at are an actual cross section of the weaving process. As I remember it the " Sley ", carrying the " Reed ", rocks back and forth off a lower pivot tightening up the cloth as it goes. The Reed itself is a frame carrying lots of vertical wires, the threads ( warp ? ) goes between the wires. The " Healds" shoot up and down in conjunction with the sley allowing the shuttle carrying the weft to weave the cloth. I'll ask my mum next time we speak for the real info. She ran a dozen " Northrop " Automatic Battery looms which were actually made in Blackburn, I believe the late Fred Pickering started out as an apprentice at " Northrop's ". I can't be the only one on here who's seen a loom working surely. Blackburn was a textile town with lots of weaving sheds back in the day.

In the article it refers to " Harry Oates & Sons " being the makers of " Reeds & Healds ". I worked in a weaving shed during my engineering apprenticeship for about 3 months repairing looms so those are some of the terms I recall from long ago.

They are parts of a loom to be slightly more precise. My mum was a weaver and my extended family were mill workers back in Blackburn when it was a textile town. My uncle was a drayman at Twaites.

The article mentions a maker of " Healds and Reeds ". How many people on here know what they are ? 60 years ago nearly everybody would have known.

I agree with you wholeheartedly but I suspect a decision will have to be made in the future to sacrifice elements of the populations to ensure the survival of the current economic system. I hope I'm wrong.

No, keep the Fosters for wiping down infected surfaces, that rat piss will kill anything.

Will they be reinstating the " Pools Panel " ?

1961-62 season we played 9 games between April 7th and April 28th ! 7th,10th,14th,17th, 20th, 21st, 23rd, 26th, 28th. The next season , 1962-63 - the " Big Freeze " season we played 8 games in April and 4 in May. I'm looking on the bright side. At least the players can't spoil our weekend !

Yes and according to what I've read the Italian Health Service had more Urgent Care beds than the NHS.

If we aren't careful we'll find ourselves in a situation were doctors will have to be choosing who will live and who will die. " Put the over 70's outside, they've had a good run ".

I was intending to go but now I've chickened out. I'm a bit " chesty " at the best of times courtesy of breathing in all sorts of dust and crap in my engineering career so getting the virus would be really bad news for me.

I'm 71 on Saturday ( PM me if you want to send me gifts, cards, money etc ) and I get the impression that there are plenty of other people around my age on this site. I would have thought there are plenty at Ewood on match days as well. We don't want to lose any of our long time supporters so let's be sensible about this matter.

He'd have to learn there's more to heading the ball than just getting your head to it first.

If he'd been an academy graduate he be at Barrow with the other lads.

I've only seen him in the flesh once but I liked his demeanor. He wasn't a showy goalkeeper but he looked wide awake and agile. I wouldn't be jumping up and down if we signed him but I wouldn't be worried either.

As most people realise the average goalkeeper can normally have a longer career than the average out field player. I thought that was obvious.

We've got a decent season out of Downing but next season he could be over the hill and down the other side just like Mulgrew was this season. When you hit the wall it can come up really suddenly. Speaking from personal experience. In April/May I was going great, the following August/September I was seriously off the pace.

Signing players that age is a big gamble. There are more failures than success stories usually.

Yeah, he wasn't very big. We've had a few " New Bryan Douglas's ". My pal really rated Daly highly when they were lads, he was one of the few who could give Nobby Stiles the run around in schools football. My pal also played against Stiles and he reckoned getting tackled off Nobby was like getting an electric shock up your leg !

Not having Mulgrew at least on the bench yesterday was a very strange decision.

Kalanic had more footballing ability in his left testicle than Brererton has in his whole body.

Or Northern Italy.

Griffiths Wells, Pickering England, Newton Leech Ratcliffe, Bradshaw, Jervis, Daly, Mulvey Barry Ratcliffe played a good few first team games for Rovers but when Ferguson and Harrison came along that was that. Vinnie Leech had a good career at Bury and Rochdale. I played against his younger brother John, he was top amateur midfielder. David Wells was doing really well at Rochdale when he broke his leg.That finished him. Alan Bradshaw was a stalwart of the Rovers Central League team for years with the odd first team appearance. Jervis, Daly and Mulvey had a few games for various teams in the old Fourth Division. A old pal of mine played with Daly for Manchester School boys. He was doing some scouting for City years later and came across Paddy Daly still playing amateur football when he was about 45 and he was still running the game. Barry Griffiths just drifted out of football.

To answer the question. No, we won't be getting promoted. This season was our best chance and it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Other more ambitious clubs will be in for our better players in the close season and I expect us to start next season with a weaker team than we have now. Sorry I couldn't paint a more rosy picture but it is what it is.