National Football Museum

The National Football Museum in Preston cropped and resized to 400 pixels wide by 300 pixels high



The National Football Museum in Preston cropped and resized to 200 pixels wide by 500 pixels high



Thumbnail of the National Football Meseum - 100 pixels wide by 100 pixels high





Original Image - image taken, uncropped and not resized

Road Accidents

The number of road users in the United Kingdom is on the increase, as the adult population continues to grow at a rate of knots. In 1999, the UK population was 58,682,466 and in 2008 stood at 61,399,118. As a result, the expectation would be a rise in road casualties...

However, the chart (see above) shows us that the opposite is in fact true. The casualties on the roads have dropped significantly over the last nine years, down by almost 33% (or nearly 100,000 casualties).

An interesting pattern on the chart is the constant and gradual decrease in casualties. This shows that it hasn’t been down to short term government campaigns, which would show fluctuating values in the bars, but rather a long-term crackdown on reckless driving and promoting safety on the roads.

As the chart shows, car drivers have been the predominant casualty in road accidents since 1999, but have also been the type of casualty that have shed the most in percentage terms too. This is shown in the graph by the continual reduction in size of the green bar.

Out of the four main modes of transport on British roads (except Horse and Cart!), pedal cyclists make up the least of the casualties, followed by motorcyclists and there were just over 30,000 pedestrian casualties in 2008. Campaigns such as this recent one will help to further reduce the numbers.

Spreadsheet from the DataStore

Welcome back Kev.

Kevin Pietersen has returned to International Cricket after a fleeting appearance in England’s Twenty20 loss and yesterday’s One-Day warm-up game against South Africa A. It’s a big test of his bouncebackability (Thanks Dowie) at the start of this epic two-and-a-half month England tour of South Africa. But our 'Kev' is expected to be fully fit for the One day Internationals (5 matches) and the proceeding Test Series (4 matches) as England bid to repeat their performance of the last visit to the Proteas four years ago (South Africa 1-2 England in the Test Series), only with more success in the ODIs.

And it's great to have 'the big man' back after an achilles injuries which has hampered him for almost a year; since the Caribbean tour last February. He was supposed to be fit for this year's Ashes Series, but this proved to be a false dawn as he only appeared in the first two tests, and those with clear signs of the injury as he limped during each of his innings.

Perhaps you're thinking; "Hold on a sec. We pretty much won the Ashes without this guy, should you be branding him 'the big man'? I thought only Freddie Flintoff was 'the big man'!" Well, I'm hear to tell you otherwise. I think KP is England's finest cricket player now that Fred is off the scene; and even with FF in the team, I think it's a close call. What's not impressive about Kevin Pietersen's Curriculum Vitae? He averages over 46 in ODI cricket, and is just shy of 50 in Tests; he is currently England's highest ranked One-Day batsman at 17th and is just behind Andrew Strauss in the Test rankings, as he resides in 15th position in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings.

Statistics can perhaps only say so much, but this man has all the attributes to accompany them. He is brilliant. Simply brilliant for English cricket. His attitude is fearsome, his shot-selection is fearless, his mindset is also fearless. I love watching him play, his innings’ are epic battles between egos as much as there are about cricketing technique. But that’s cricket at its finest, a game played in the mind as well as on the well-cut green strip.

I think this is Kevin Pietersen's most memmorable innings, a swashbuckling 158 which made the Ashes safe in 2005 with a draw at the Oval. Four and a half years on, KP is now 29 years of age, and with almost a whole year out of the game (on and off), it could take him time to find that best form which makes him the world’s finest architect at the crease. But I’m confident he’ll rediscover it eventually, and I, for one, am glad to see him back in an England shirt and waiting with excitement as the series against South Africa gets underway on Friday.

Newcastle - A Premier League club in the Championship?

Newcastle United have reacted well to life in the Coca-Cola Championship, shaking off accusations that they are 'The New Leeds'. Following an embarassing relegation from the Barclays Premier League last season, many thought the club would struggle to keep hold of it's best players and fall further down the Football League ladder.

But here we are. Now in November, and Newcastle are top of the Championship with 30 points from the first 15 games, and have managed to retain a number of the club's best players from last season. A side boasting the likes of Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton, Nicky Butt, Alan Smith, Steve Harper, Jonas Gutierrez, Ryan Taylor, Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini should surely be alien to a league below that of the Premier League.

Even branding a team 'The New Leeds' is becoming less insulting, as the Elland Road club are once again knocking on the Championship door, as they lead Coca-Cola League One by an impressive seven points. Things are looking up for the Toon.

But the Championship season is a more of a hard slog. There are 46 games to be played in all, only 15 have been played. Newcastle have already lost three games - all away - to Blackpool, Nottingham Forest and Scunthorpe United. On top of that, a number of unconvincing performances - like the home win over Doncaster Rovers. Only the one demolition job - 4-0 on the road to and awful Ipswich side. I have seen little to distinguish Newcastle from their Championship counterparts.

There is an enormous amount of work to be done. I don't think Newcastle United are a Premier League side in the Championship. The big stadium can be deceiving. The big fan base and big name players are even more deceiving. Judge a club on their performances and results. At the moment, things look good - but the Christmas period will be a testing time, as Newcastle's small squad do battle with a frantic fixture list. January is perhaps even more threatening with question marks over the 'Big Names' leaving the club for more immediate Premier League football.

Lets not count our chickens before they've hatched. Newcastle for the Premier League - wait and see.

How to Shine - Writing for Online.

Recent reading material from Paul Bradshaw and Yackob Nielsen has helped me see the differences between writing for online and writing for newspapers. People read words on a page completely differently to reading them on a screen, which means those who write the words need to take this into consideration.

According to Bradshaw, computer screens have a much lower resolution than in newspapers. "72 dots in every square inch, compared to around 150-300 in newspapers and magazines", he points out. In other words, its harder and takes longer to read words on a screen, therefore we need to communicate in less time. Online journalists need to develop Brevity.

Bradshaw points out articles should be of shorter length, using chunking where necessary, and have succint paragraphs, sticking to one concept in each paragraph.

Nielsen, who specifically focusses his article on writing headlines, points out that the BBC website is spot on and follows SURFP rules;
Short
Understandable out of Context
Rich in information scent
Front-loaded
Predictable

So there it is, quick tips from the experts on how to shine - online.

Who the heck is going to play for England at the Oval?

This is a massive question. After the spectacular collapse at Headingley Carnegie in which England's middle order (Messeurs Bopara, Bell & Collingwood) amassed a catastrophic 16 runs for 6 wickets between them, potential substitutions have been banded around leg, off and centre. From Surrey's 39-year-old veteran Mark Ramprakash to Kent's 19-years-young Joe Denly, the media speculate both ends of the age spectrum as to who will replace 'Bops and Bells'.

South-African (born) Jonathan Trott is perhaps hot favourite to be the only replacement in this team (preferred at three to Ravi Bopara), assuming Flintoff is fit to take his place batting at number seven on his final test match in an England shirt (not that he is going to appear in any other shirt, which can't be ruled out for our 'new bru' Trott). That would mean Bell gets another shot at four, while Harmison is ousted for the returning talisman.

But how about wholesale changes, which robs Ian Bell of his place for the cataclysmic fifth npower Ashes test, and prefers instead the reliable experience of Mark Ramprakash. For a man averaging 54.35 in first-class cricket, a flawed statistic in itself when considering the player's form over the last five years, it is astonishing he is not more seriously been considered for selection since his last test match in the April of 2002. Some will say that he simply floundered during his international career. He had an England career which spanned almost eleven years beginning at Headingley in June 1991. In his 52 test-matches, he hit only two test-hundreds (the latter of the two intriguingly achieved against the Aussies at the Oval) at an average of 27.32, and a suprisingly slow strike-rate of 36.18, although one never associates Ramps with the big-hitters of modern day international cricket. He is more Neil Mackenzie than he is Kevin Pietersen. But there is something more aesthetic about Ramps' thrashing blade against the red leather than that of sturdy defence and the odd thump to the boundary (Mackenzie is more effective than he is pleasing to the eye). He has a graceful cover drive accompanied by a plethora of other orthodox strokes played with twenty years of batting authority. The man personifies the word 'patience', and looks in complete contrast to the hurried strokeplay of Ravi Bopara at the moment.

Onto personal opinion, I would most definitely swap Bops for Ramps as we come into land (as Mike Pilivachi famously said) on the epic Ashes Series (although perhaps not as epic as 2005 - i think the last test will make up everyone's minds). Like-for-like in that I would stick Ramps into the number three role. I would stick with Bell (I'm a fan - see previous post), not least because he'll be coming in off the back of a superb 126 for Warwickshire. I confess I know little of his Warwickshire team-mate Jonathan Trott, other than the information provided by cricinfo.com, which is that of a well-timed 121 made yesterday alongside 'the Shermator' and that he averages a solid 44.31 in first-class cricket, and is likely to at least double the test stike-rate of Ramprakash in his first game. He is described as 'aggressive' by the experts at cricinfo. And Flintoff in for Harmison to complete the eleven; an eleven I believe capable of re-capturing the Ashes.

Pietersen's injury rings a Bell

So with KP gone for the remainder of the npower Ashes test series. Enter the ring... Ian Ronald Bell?

Yes it would seem so. Bell will make his return to the England side for the 3rd test match in the highly-anticipated Edgbaston duel starting next week. I, for one, am pleased to see him back in the test side after a five month absence. However, I am sure that Bell won't be so pleased that his re-appearance is only due to the loss of England's most prolific batsman, Kevin Pietersen.

His record for England is solid but not outstanding. In his 46 tests, Bell has made 3004 runs at an average of 40.59 per innings. In 2008, he was named one of the Wisden Cricketer's of the year after impressive displays against New Zealand. He was ear-marked for greatness from a young age and burst onto the county scene with Warwickshire in 1999 and was in the Enland set-up only a year or two later. His first test in 2004 was against a touring West Indies side at the Oval and Bell hit a confident 70 batting at five for England.

Ian Bell is the ultimate form player. When he's in form, he looks majestic at the crease. When out of touch, as he was in the Carribbean earlier this year and back in the 2005 Ashes Series, you continually wonder if the next ball he faces will be his last. In the 2005 series, Bell only made a timid 171 runs in ten innings. But Bell has been firing on all cylinders for Warwickshire this season with 640 runs at an average of 80.00, with twice hitting three figures for his counties.

Doubters remain about his ability to withstand intense pressure as he will face next Thursday, but I firmly believe Bell has what it takes. I love watching him, an extremely elegant batsman, partially in the mold of Michael Vaughan, partially in his own mold. Here's what Vaughan has to say about Bell; "If he just relaxes and plays he's got so much talent. He needs to not try to play the perfect innings. He should just play it in his natural way and I'm sure things will happen".

So come on Ian Ronald Bell, prove me right!