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Lidl-Trek reveal signature colourful jersey for 2026, complete with new AI sponsor

Ooh-la-la

Only Nick Cave could get away with an album all about murdering women - although I doubt if he would walk away unscathed in 2025. The Kylie duet gets all the headlines. But it’s the PJ Harvey collab that works best for me. Polly brings out the best baritone in Smiling Nick.

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Government must “move from good intentions to a clear long-term plan” for cycling, campaigners warn, as £626 million active travel investment announced

One Less Car, etc

Wednesday lunchtime at the Table of Dreams. We arrived to find a wet table - which was odd, seeing as though I don’t think there was any rain overnight. We had no cloth. Whatever - let’s play on a wet table.

We also used the wind ball, with a light breeze blowing in. The combination of the unpredicatbale bounce becuase of the water, plus the wind, led to a most odd game of table tennis.

I raced to a 3-1 defecit. I pulled it back to 3-2. I was offered the opportuity to go evens with a final game decider. I lost 4-2, natch.

Oh dear.

I wanted to really like this. I think it’s the idea of really liking it, than actually hearing anything of interest. In the end it was all a load of hippy nonsense, as expected. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) was a rare highlight.

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There’s some decent pop songs in here. But there’s an awful lot of noise. What’s with all the power chords and posturing? Green Day work best when they’re Green Day: back to basics pop punk. No one wants to hear a punk rock opera. I didn’t make it to the end. No shit. Like punk never happened.

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The Caledonian Gladiators rocked up at the Essex Sports Arena for a Trophy semi-final match on Monday afternoon, with the unusual tip off time of 4pm.

Oh.

It was hardly the high thrills of a Rebs Saturday night GAME NIGHT. I was half expecting to be amongst a very selective crowd of ahem dedicated Rebs fans.

I needn’t have worried. The Rebs had done a half decent job in marketing the match to the after school crowd. There was enough of us in there to make a right old racket.

As for Caledonian?

That’s an awfully long way to come down to cheer on your team; it’s also an awfully long way down to travel back for the players if they didn’t get the result they were hoping for.

The away team wasted no time in going about their business. They racked up nine points on the scoreboard before the Rebels could even get going.

A quick turn around in play, and soon it was 10-10, in what was shaping up to be a very physical encounter. Both teams would do well to finish with a full bench.

The scores were tied at 19-19 at the end of the first. Little ground was made up in the second quarter. A very tight game was swaying back and forth, with Caledonian leading 37-24 at the break.

The physical contest continued into the third. Elbows were flying everywhere. The main tactic from the Rebs seemed to be to entice the Caledonian BRUISER of a player to foul herself out of the game.

Job well done, Claire Paxton. Extra points for celebrating the achievement on court.

Neither team could pull away. This one’s going all the way down to the wrire, right?

It was a thrilling game, with the scoreboard showing the Rebs leading 64-63 going into the final quarter.

Any result was possible - a home win, an away win or even OT.

The Rebs seemed on top with one minute remaining. But then Caledonian played a smart game, sinking their shots, and managing the stop clock.

A 95-93 home court defeat for the Rebs was a tough one.

Hey hoe.

At least I only had a short bicycle ride back to base.

A cheeky Monday lunchtime game of table tennis at the University. We were up on campus for pickleball. We passed the outdoor table tennis tables. We had the bats and ball.

Just bloody do it, etc.

Let me get my excuses in early here: I was tired after two hours of pickleball. I was only booked in for an hour.

Plus I had my indoor trainers on. Yeah, yeah - it was outside, natch. But it was also bloody muddy. I spent most of the game having an OCD meltdown with each squelching of the foot in-between play.

BUT OF COURSE I lost 4-1.

Whatever.

Not a bad album, but the NME naming it as one of the Top 500 albums of all time tells you more about NME, than the music itself. And so here we have a very dreamy album. It doesn’t inspire - it sends you to sleep. Which may - or may not - have been the point. Pleasant enough, but hardly a rallying call.

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How do we create a social web using just the web?

We don’t. Tell It Like It Is, Dave Winer.