Very sad news indeed. Condolences to his family

Just seen BBC newsflash. Shocked. Gary Speed has dies aged 42. No details as yet

Very sad. Thoughts with hi sfamily

Ages ago I bought a couple of tickets to see Micky Flanagan at King George's Hall on Thursday 3rd November 2011. Unfortunately my daughter goes into hospital next week so I will be unable to attend.

I'm looking to sell the tickets at face value - £40 for the pair if anyone is interested.

The show starts at 7-30pm and the tickets are in the raked stalls row N seats 8 and 9 - note, over 16's only.

If anyone is interested drop me a PM to arrange...

Ta

I ride with a club. Tend to do endurance stuff rather than races - although I have tried the odd time trial - not really my bag though. Training speed tends to be 18-19mph average

Good link for you biking fellas.

http://www.cycle-clothes.co.uk/mens-8-panel-cycling-shorts-with-professional-moulded-pad--black-with-piping-s

They've had a fire next door so loads of clothes being sold off cheap, fill yer boots!!

I've picked up quite a bit of stuff, free delivery as well.

Nice one - just been on. If a cyclist rides past you smelling faintly of smoke, that'll be me....

I'm in Ribble Valley CRC, mainly white tops with red and blue trim. We had four groups out yesterday. The A group went off on a 100 miler round Ribblehead etc. I bottled out of that and went with the B group - Preston, Chaigley, Waddy, Bolton by Bowland, Tosside for lunch, Dunsop Bridge, Chipping, Longridge, Preston. If you saw us we were a group of between 6 and 9 (some of the ladies took shortcuts at various points) and were all wearing club shirts except one guy in blue. I was on a black and green Dolan.

Going to Denthead next Sunday, one of my favourite rides. Should be fun!

Definitely saw some Ribble Valley guys but can't remember where it was - we were 3 from North Cheshire Clarion in Blue with yellow and Black chequered arms

Yes I think that's very true. Problem is that once purchased it takes a bit of courage to pop into the local bike shop and ask them to sort out the Halfords mess!!!!

Beautiful morning here, really looking forward to today's club run. Moved myself up to the A group last week. First ride and we head off to Bowland Knotts - google it - I had no idea what this meant. Came close to death on the ascent from the Lancashire side but a fabulous descent into Settle on the Yorkshire side.

Ricky I'd no idea Hergest Ridge existed till you posted it!! Do you MTB up there?

Which club Paul - wondering if I may have seen you? Three of us were out yesterday - started in Barley then up Waddington Fell, over to Dunsop Bridge, Longridge, Clitheroe and back over the Nick o' Pendle to the Barley picnic site. Lovely route

Done 7500 miles on my Boardman Team Carbon. Great bike for the money.

If the gears are the same age as the bike they won't be indexed and therefore won't need setting up in the modern sense of the term. A bit of cleaning and lube should be enough. The chain looks like it's stretched so you may want to replace that (shouldn't be too expensive) or remove a link or two. A couple of tyres and tubes could be anything from £20 to £90 all-in depending on make and quality.

That is a Presta valve and most road pumps will be suitable.

The tyres look shot though so I'd suggest replacing them and the inner tubes at the same time.

As for the bike, with a bit of TLC it will lovely. Retro is all the rage at the moment

I've done thousands of miles using garmin, generally following routes I've picked out and plotted first. Quite the opposite to constraining you it gives you a massive amount of freedom to go and ride in places you haven't before with the confidence of not getting (too) lost. It is a bit quirky though!

I hope the person is okay. Pretty shocking really. I wonder how long before the apologists are on here - just a bit of fun, just young lads, just the beer?

Nobody want a free Rovers book then?

I got a copy of this book as a gift some years ago when i already had it and must have forgotten about it at the time. Anyway, one clear-out later and I have a spare copy which is free to the first person who drops me a PM. If you live outside the UK I may have to ask you for postage depending how much it is.

Anyway, it's a 2003 edition of Blackburn Rovers A Football Odyssey by Frank Burns like this

Not sure if it's been mentioned but I'm playing Borderlands on 360 at the moment and really enjoying it. A cross between Fallout3 and GTA all rendered in cel-shaded cartoon graphics. It's seemingly quite cheap at the moment so if you liked Fallout3 or GTA it's worth a look

Forgot to mention - I like the look of Dragon Age:origins - has anyone played it - what do you think?

Avatar 3D. Stunning.

Took my eldest to watch this today. For the first time in ages I actually felt that the overpriced cinema tickets were money well spent.

Fantastic film. Kept me and a 6 year old mesmerised for the full 2 hours and 41 minutes.

There is a definitely a political commentary but it does fit with the plot. There were also shades of Aliens and Matrix about it too.

Went to see it at the IMAX today in Manchester. All I can say is that Avatar in 3D at IMAX has ruined cinema for me. It is absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful. The story is a bit like Dances with Wolves but ultimately you just get lost in the world. And is it wrong to find yourself fancying a 10ft blue female alien with a tail...

Very sad. My favourite England manager of my memory and I suspect we will not see his like again. If you haven't already read it then his autobiography is well worth it

Ronaldo would of done better if he didn't keep looking at himself on the big screens all of the time! Puff!

Arrogance of the united fans beforehand has been breathtaking. Is Ronaldo on the pitch? Best player in the world? When has he ever dictated a game against TOP opposition in Europe? He needs to step up to the plate and prove it...

It's worrying that our two most natural goal scorers are looking to leave. Roberts and Derbyshire are nowhere near prolific enough to rely on which means that we either need free-scoring midfielders (ha, if only) or a guaranteed 15-20 goaler. Where are we going to get one of those with our budget?

Well...if we're talking morals, you could argue it's a bad reflection on us that the vast majority are against employing an ex-convict who should be considered to have already been punished for their mistakes...

Maybe you have a point. But it would be way more valid if he had only one "incident" under his belt

for all our moaning about footballers excesses what this thread proves is that basically a footballer can do virtually anything and still be welcomed by the fans and be paid a fortune. I suspect this would be the case across all clubs too. Which is very, very sad.

for all our moaning about footballers excesses what this thread proves is that basically a footballer can do virtually anything and still be welcomed by the fans and be paid a fortune. I suspect this would be the case across all clubs too. Which is very, very sad.

Don't waste your energy Hughesy.

The usual suspects (joined by some unusual ones) have whipped themselves up in to a frenzy of indignation about the latest media w*nk.

You'll just have to wait until the smelling salts begin to take effect and they've calmed down a bit.

The thing is many of us are making calm and reasoned points about this. You are the one that needs to calm down. You are whipping up a frenzy of indignation about the way the press have treated Barton and the fact that some of his violent offences are actually laudable in your eyes! Do you actually read what you write on this subject?

I'll ask the question for a third time in this thread which hasn't been answered yet by the Joey boys. How many good games has Barton had in the last 18 months? Not for Man City - that was 2006 - we know he was good then. This is now. In the last 18 months? How many games has he actually played, when you take into account his jail sentence and his injuries? So how do any of you know he's better than what we have? Like Reid, he might be shot. Now, overlay his track record of a major incident every 6 months or so, the fact that he is a marked man, the fact that no refs like Rovers. How many games do you think we'll get out of him? How many do you think will be good? The fact of the matter is, without even going into the moral and ethical rights and wrongs of putting my hard-earned cash into that tossers pockets, unless he plays for free then it is a gamble too far. This club is not that desperate yet that we need to take such a gamble.