Have it on good authority that King George's Hall has been confirmed as a venue for the forthcoming 'Legends of Darts' tour this summer. Dates are not confirmed as yet though. Players confirmed are Bristow, Deller, Whitcombe, Bobby George and John Lowe with more to follow and will take a similar format to the current PDC Premier League. Should be a good night - I'll certainly be going.

Congratulations to the consummate pro John Part, never was a title more deserved and as 3 time champion he can quite rightly be called a legend of the sport. Although the averages were lower than usual this was more than compensated for by how competitive the games were, there were very few one sided games..the final unfortunately being one of them. Now it's on to the BDO event at Frimley Green on Saturday where, contrary to the diatribe spouted by some in the PDC (who should know better) the standard of play will be comparable to what was seen at the Ally Pally. Only thing different IMO is the standard of coverage and the razzmatazz, Martin Fatzmaurice's intro's don't hold a candle to John McDonald's and no-one's got a better walk on than Mardle. However, should be good entertainment all the same and my money (for what it's worth) is on the boring Yorkshireman with the fat wife , John 'Boy' Walton.

England are sh1te, let's move on.

The Sun, page 21 , column one from Saturday 24th November. Headline - "Swan is hardest in Britain" Story of a swan who's been attacked by a pellet gun, crossbow and air rifle and lived to tell the tale. Never been a swan fan but the question is, could a goose have taken such punishment? I'm not so sure. Respect for the swan.

stymieing , contemporaneously , meritocracy. Is it just me???

This is a cracking tournament as far as averages go. Barney and Wade both averaged over 100 yet still lost. Of the others, Jenkins, Taylor, Scholten and McDine have all been averaging over 100 consistently. Mark my words, if the boy McDine plays as he did last night against Wade and keeps his bottle he will win this tournament. He was absolutely outstanding last night. Watch out for Scholten though, an average of over 107 last time out and he's looking crisp on his doubles. That allied to his usual scoring power makes him very dangerous indeed. Then there's Taylor's old nemesis Johnny Part, he's a live danger too. Darts - it's the new rock 'n' roll doncha know.

You say bare minimum but when you look at the FIFA rankings we ended up where we should be (ie- ranked 5th-8th got to quarter finals). It's time we took a leaf out of the jocks' book and lowered our sights. One major title in history does not make us a shoe in for every major tournament, we're actually not very good. As for good luck, I don't call losing in two consecutive penalty shootouts as good luck. In my opinion Eriksson will go down in history as a poor manager only because of his nationality and nothing to do with his achievements with the team. Remember that Venables played only 5 meaningful internationals (all at Wembley) and only won 2 in regulation time. He had no arduous qualification games as England were the home nation yet he's still revered as some God like genius in regard to football management. Baffles the hell out of me. 50 million does help, granted, so what excuses do Curbishley and all the previous managerial incumbents at Newcastle have?

How did Sven get 'found out'? Only took us to every major tournament, something all Englishmen would go a bundle on this morning if it was true. I notice he's not doing too bad at club level right now either.

Just keep your eyes peeled in the next few days now for Teflon Tel to use the media to distance himself from this shambles. It's as much that wide boy's fault as anyone. Anyway, what shouldn't be forgotten is the way that the media basically hounded Eriksson out and clamoured for an English manager. Sometimes you've got to be careful what you wish for.

As a last resort I offered Lebohang Mokoena a new contract which he duly accepted. As I waited for the work permit problem to materialise it never did. So I clicked on the squad and there he is, in the squad and the letters WP have disappeared. Get in there!! So I get to play him in the next game.......and he's crap. Ah, never mind.

Beat United away and Everton at home in my 1st two matches yet I got no praise in the media or from the board and the only news I keep getting regards 'penniless' rovers and 'cash strapped' Blackburn. The thing is though I'm well within transfer and wage budgets...what's going on? I don't want to have to sell my best players already, what can I do?

Signed Leobhang Mokoena but couldn't get work permit. No problem I thought, farm him out to Cercle Brugge and get him qualified. What happens? He turns the move to Brugge down...what can I do now? And how come I got permits for Nicolas Millan (Colo Colo Chile) and Eddie Johnson (USA) without any trouble yet struggled with Mokoena?

Quality. 'In goes another left hook, and now I'm losing my patience, Someone call out Roger Cook and the United Nations' Think I'll be digging out 101 Damnations and 30 something when I get home.

Never been Mokoena's biggest fan but got to be honest he's improved a hell of a lot. I've no qualms whatsoever about him filling Sav's boots while he's injured, don't think I'd have said that 12 months ago.

Hoddle was quite a good England manager sacked for non-footballing reasons. We may have performed poorly in the World Cup in 1998 but we were beaten by a very good Argentina (and with ten men for the majority). Added to that we actually won our qualifying group, over the Italians. I can remember us going to Italy and getting the draw we needed to qualify, it was a tactical master class by Glenda, but because of his aloofness towards the press he never really got the credit he deserved. The people who go on about Venables ad nauseum (usually his buddies in the press) should remember the procession of boring 0-0 draws at home in friendlies against the likes of Columbia where we were utter pony. As has been mentioned earlier in the thread that side (1996) lived off the demolition of the in-fighting Dutch for years, conveniently forgetting the bore draw against the Swiss and a fortunate win against the tick tocks. If Gary Mac had any bottle we'd have struggled to win that one too. As for England, let's face it, we're not very good. We've not won anything in my lifetime and I don't think I'll be taking a Euro Champs or World Cup win to my grave (unlike a Premiership and Worthy Cup win). What we as supporters have to do is admit this to ourselves and replace the false expectation with a small dose of optimism. Plus we can stop lining the bookies pockets at tournament time. Mind you, Steve McLaren is hopeless. I find it funny when I see Ian Wright's exasperation at another abject performance yet he was the one demanding an English manager. A case of being careful what you wish for methinks.

rover6, yet again you make your point(s) eloquently but to use Wenger as an example is flawed due to the money spent on the youngsters recruited (as said in a previous post). Just on a side note, what's your opinion of Man United's acquisition of Larsson and consequent loaning out of Giusseppe Rossi?

What about the Axe's skill spot in the first half. He was just in front of the back four with the ball bobbling at his feet, options on both wings and Derbyshire ready to peel off into space, so the Axe weighed up his options, thought it through, then leathered the ball into orbit Peter Kay style. Quality stuff.

Love Jarvis Cocker's new single 'Don't let him waste your time', has a cracking video too. Into The Guillemots, The View, The Klaxons and Little Man Tate at the minute also.

Well at least you were on each way!!

A source. Feel free to give me a verbal kicking when it ducks!! Just to prove the fact I'm being genuine check out the ownership and google it and see where it's based.

2:10 Ludlow - Darkshape. Monster Monster.

There's a clarets mad message board but stick to words of 2 syllables max, we don't want the poor apes confusing.

Steady on Al, it's a family board.

I refuse to believe that more 'sport lovers' called in to vote for Zara Phillips than, say, Joe Calzaghe or Darren Clarke. I'm not having it. They've rigged it cos they can't face her being in the audience and not winning. Mind you, wasn't her acceptance speech good? Not rehearsed at all.

Roy Hodgson went for less...