The FA Cup

It's the second round of the FA Cup tomorrow. And, as usual, it has thrown up a few interesting fixtures. Bradford play a home tie against Leyton Orient tomorrow for the first time since April 2007. That game was a real relegation six-pointer; one side above the dashed line that indicates the drop and one below it. While not decisive, the 2-0 defeat to the east Londoners made it pretty much impossible for Bradford to stay in League One and resulted in a first trip into the bottom division in 25 years, and from the Premiership to the basement in just six years. That defeat was part of a run of one win in 17 home games; it should have been a win but for some terrible finishing, appalling decision making, and when push came to shove, two calamitous lapses at the back to result in Orient's only two shots on target.

Tomorrow is therefore a chance to exact a small amount of sporting revenge. But it's also important from a financial point of view; the Premiership and Championship sides enter in the next round and a lucrative draw (either away from home in a big stadium, or at home and on national TV) against a Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal or (spit) Chelsea could make all the difference to the finances of lower division sides. Take Bradford as an example. Two flirtations with bankruptcy in 2002 and 2004 caused a never-ending procession of better players leaving to be replaced with far inferior ones, causing the headlong slide down the divisions.

Last season finally saw the club running in the black again, but performances on the pitch were patchy through no longer being able to sign players of a good standard, though they were improving by the New Year. In recognition of this, the club decided to slightly increase the wage bill and sign better players in the summer. This has worked to some degree, Bradford lie 2nd in League Two with just over a third of the season gone. But they are now beset by injury problems; the whole first choice midfield is now injured in addition to summer signing Chris Brandon not even kicking a ball yet. Top scorer Peter Thorne's back is giving him trouble and even though he has 11 goals in 16 games he is struggling to produce the form of the early season. Replacements have come in on loan to become injured to the degree that now more loan players are replacing other crocked loanees. Some, including son of former manager Nicky Law, called Nicky Law (!) have come in and done really well. A good cup run could give City the financial leverage to bring in Law and a couple of the other loan players.

And it would also be nice, that while I'm home at Christmas and the New Year for a nice day out to Old Trafford or somewhere similar....since the win at Everton in the 4th round in 1997 the draw for nearly every cup match since has been terrible. Just once, could we have an exciting draw?

The One Word CD Review

My iTunes account has been quite busy of late. So, given that this blog format doesn't seem to have a 'five stars' function, I'll have to take a different approach. So in one word (with a bit of cheating perhaps):

Ben Folds: Way to Normal...vibrant
Kaiser Chiefs: Off With Their Heads...veryveryverymediocre
British Sea Power: The Decline of British Sea Power and Open Season...idiosyncratic
The Killers: Day and Age...patchy
Hotel Lights: Firecracker People...autumnal
Kings of Leon: Only By The Night...dark

As a coda to the second entry, can I say how very, very disappointed I am with it. I don't expect profundity with a Kaisers album, just cheery, breezy pop. It hasn't improved with mutliple listenings. And three more words: Lily bl**dy Allen!

The Anti-Tuesday

Those of you who've known me for some time will know of my fear and loathing of the second day of the working week. For those that haven't a clue what I'm on about, it all stems back to my early PhD days in Leeds where I once overheard two of my more senior lab mates in the McGowan group pantheon having a conversation which ended with the exchange "oh, it's Tuesday, I wouldn't bother, it'll go wrong".

This wisdom apparently came from the lab of a very distinguished research group in organometallic chemistry next door where apparently several major accidents/fires happened on said day. When that group left for Naaaaarwich, one of them joined us as a postdoctoral fellow. Almost straight away, we started having bad days on Tuesdays. As scientists, we weren't/aren't supposed to be superstitious, but I can confess to occasionally putting off large reactions and potentially tricky manipulations. This followed me to both London and Warwick. I do believe my first attempt at making the ketone of doom at the latter ended up with a very loud outburst for trying to do said reaction on the day-that-doth-not-speak-its-name, turning three days of laborious effort into viscous black crud.

So I have been puzzled to note that of late, here in Calgary, for some odd reason that Tuesdays are suddenly turning into good days. Capped today by several odd occurrences: 1) a win for BCFC at the football, turning a 0-2 deficit into a win for the second time in about a month, something I have only seen in the flesh once in nearly 20 years of watching; 2) an easy win for the Flames; 3) finally locating a peak in my carbon NMR that I have been trying to find for weeks...finally having managed to bag an overnight spot on a spectrometer (this is like trying to nail jelly to a wall), 30,000 scans managed to find it. Hussar!

Hockey pool watch: +5 tonight, all from the Flames-Kings game. Up to the vertiginious heights of 6th

Flames Watch

Detroit Red Wings 5 - 2 Calgary Flames

Last night's game at the Saddledome illustrated just how far the Flames have to go to be considered contenders for the Stanley Cup. Last year's winners Detroit raced into an early lead, and added a second in the second period through defenceman Brett Lebda's first goal of the season. The Flames third and fourth lines rallied, and an immediate reply from Curtis Glencross and a powerplay goal from Mark Giordano (his first for the Flames) levelled the scores midway through the third period, only for the Red Wings to go up a gear or two and ease away; Jiri Hudler, on from the bench on a delayed penalty skated up without hindrance to lash home from the left point, puncturing the atmosphere in the Dome.

A breakaway from Pavel Datsyuk ended with a weak shot from the blue line going through Kiprusoff's legs and an empty net goal from Marian Hossa finished things off. This was an odd game. In the early exchanges it looked like Detroit would run away with the game, only for the Flames to come back. But it wasn't the heavily salaried star players who brought them back, but the so called 'lesser lights'. Iginla, in particular, showed no signs of ending a slump which has seen him score only two goals in 5-on-5 play in 20 games. Kiprusoff let in a couple of really soft ones...he can't seem to put a long run of good games together. And a word on the Flames powerplay: terrible

Next up: L A Kings visit the Saddledome on Tuesday

Hockey pool news: stuck in 8th position (+17 Fri-Sun). Despite having seven players in the Wings-Flames game, they only scored 4 points between them; three of them (Datsyuk and Hossa) coming in the dying moments of the game. Three cheers to Marty Biron of the Philadelphia Flyers for being the first goalie to keep a shut out on Friday night.

Flames Watch

Calgary Flames 1 - 0 Colorado Avalanche

If only the Flames could play the Colorado Avalanche more than six times a season. Tonights road win makes it four-from-four against the men from Denver. Carrying on in the same manner from Tuesday's win, the Flames kept the Avs at arms length for the most part, and could have extended the winning margin somewhat had they not rung shots off the right-hand post three times during the game. Only at the end when the Avs pulled the goalie did they threaten, and a chaotic scramble in the blue paint resulted in Jarome Iginla backhanding one off the line in mid air with Kiprusoff prone.

Hockey Pool News: Last night +10 from just four players (Ovechkin +4, Perry +3, Getzlaf +2, Backstrom +1) saw a move to the dizzy heights of 7th place. Tonight so far: +12 (Richards +2, Lidstrom +2, Osgood +1, Datsyuk +1, Langkow +1, Iginla +1, Brown +1, Ovechkin +1, Backstrom +1, Koivu +1), with half of the Kings-Capitals game still to go. I'll probably drop a place or two.

The Calgary Flames

So, carrying on from last night, more hockey and as I type this I'm watching/cheering for the Flames in the long distance absence of my number one team. Arguably the Flames have been the more succesful having won the Stanley Cup in 1989 (the premier prize in hockey), whereas BCFC's only major silverware came in 1911 with occasional promotions before or since.

It's actually quite a good fit, sporting wise since both share one significant thing in common since I've been here: infuriating inconsistency. Whereas Bradford can win five out of their first six league games to then splutter in League Two ever since, the Flames as I write make an awful attempt at a 5-on-3, having dominated the game and outshot the Colorado Avalanche 32-15 through two periods.

Common consensus during the close season was the Flames had improved the squad, but a poor start to the season had the doom-mongers out in force. Six wins in a row followed, but this was papering over the cracks to some degree, and they have reverted to their form of the first few games, losing five of the next seven. This included two 6-1 defeats last week. Teams don't win the Stanley Cup conceding six goals three times in their first 18 games....this culminated in days off cancelled, media criticism and training every day till tonights game.

Looks like it did the trick though. The Flames have dominated the game from start to finish; but for the heroics of the Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj the game would have been over midway through the second period. He deserves a medal the size of a manhole cover. I suspected Colorado would break away and score a really scruffy one, but in the end, a rocket of a shot from Adrian Aucoin in off the pipes after 12:28 in the third finally got them in front. An empty netter from Jarome Iginla with 28 seconds remaining, and a goal in the dying seconds from David Moss put a winning margin on the game reflective of the Calgary dominance, outshooting Colorado 51-23. If they could play like this every night...

Hockey pool news: "Have An Ice Day" are currently six points better off, pending the outcome of Chicago at Phoenix, where Shane Doan is currently +1 in his 900th career game. Tonight: Langkow +2, Iginla +1, Cammalleri +1, Koivu +1, Doan +1.

And to cap the evening, it's snowing. Again!

A Bad Night in the Hockey Pool

Where to begin in terms of adopting Canadian customs and culture? Sport is as good a place as any to start, and north of the 49th parallel there's only one real major contender: hockey. I've seen a few games in Coventry in the Elite League in my time there (the arena was walking distance) and always thought it an entertaining way to spend an evening. Over here, the NHL has status comparable to the Premier League back home and I've been coming to learn the game a little more thoroughly since I got here in early March. And so it has come to pass I've entered the chemistry department hockey pool, the equivalent of 'Fantasy Football' back home to see if I've learnt anything. I should also thank my hockey guru for some assistance. I'll be keeping track of the progress fairly frequently.

So, 21 boxes of five players divided into fifteen sets of forwards, three sets of defencemen and three sets of goalies. Pick one from each box: a point each for a goal and assist, one for a shoot-out winner, one for a winning goalie and two more if he keeps a shutout. Given the start the Calgary Flames have made, I think there might be a couple too many Flames players in there, but we'll wait and see. Perhaps Mike Keenan will stop shuffling the forward lines every game and some consistency might appear in the Flames play. Here are my 21 (with team and score so far):

Ovechkin (WAS, +18), Iginla (CGY, +21), Datsyuk (DET, +18), Getzlaf (ANA, +22), Ribeiro (DAL, +18), Hossa (DET, +24), Doan (PHX, +17), Backstrom (WAS, +16), Langkow (CGY, +12), Richards (DAL, +13), Perry (ANA, +20), Koivu (MTL, +16), Cammalleri (CGY, +15), A. Kostitsyn (MTL, +6), Brown (LAK, +11), Lidstrom (d) (DET, +12), Phaneuf (d), (CGY, +13), Corvo (d), (CAR, +7), Nabokov (g) (SJS, +10), Osgood (g) (DET, +7), Biron (g) (PHI, +5).

After a slow start, Ovechkin and Backstrom scored 21 points between them last week. Ovechkin, Iginla and Datsyuk were 1st, 3rd and 4th respectively in points in the whole league last year and have started where they left off. Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins was 2nd in the NHL last year, and currently leads with +31. Most people at the top of the table picked him over Iginla. The only real bust so far is Andrei Kostitsyn of Montreal. Most people doing well have Patrick Sharp of Chicago or Patrick Elias of New Jersey in that box. But it's a long season, and only 18ish of 82 games have been played by most sides.

I'm quite frustrated with my 3 goalies. Not one of them has a shutout, yet Roberto Luongo of Vancouver has five. The league leader is killing everyone else because of him. Nabokov is now injured after ten wins, Osgood is rotated with his backup more often than I thought he would be and the Flyers had a terrible start, with no wins in the first six games. I was going to pick Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres and really wish I had.

After having moved from third last about a month ago, I've spent the last two weeks in the 7th-8th-9th (of 35) area. Some of that good work has been undone tonight to a small degree. Only 3 of my players were playing, the three skaters from Detroit. Osgood was rested again (typical that his backup would keep a shutout). Yet despite Detroit winning 4-0, not one of my players scored a point (out of a possible 4 goals and 8 assists), so tonight, for the first time I have scored, in Eurovision style nil points.

I suppose that above all, it emphasises the talent in the Detroit squad that a team can be flattened and Hossa, Datsyuk and Lidstrom all fail to trouble the scorers.

Hello again!

So here I am again, cluttering up a small corner of the internet with my waffling prose. For those of you who remember (I think my regular readership was about 20 people, so not that many of you), I used to appear here at www.blogs.warwick.ac.uk/andrewgott with a blog title that used to change on an almost hourly basis. I kept the blog going for somewhere approaching two-and-a-half years, only for me to suddenly disappear off the face of the earth at the end of August 2007.

It wasn't through lack of interest that I stopped blogging at Warwick. Rather, I went from a fixed term contract (because the research council funding that paid for my position stopped, complete with redundancy letter and pay(!)) to a temporary one (where my boss continued to fund me through cash found down the back of the sofa, or something) which ran on a month-to-month basis as from September 1st. Those of you out there who are still at Warwick are apparently still having sporadic problems with your email. So imagine my surprise when I got to work the next day to find that IT services, in a rare bout of efficiency, rescinded my Warwick email address, access control card and IT sevices account on the stroke of midnight, August 31st 2007, the latter paralysing the blog for posterity. Apparently this was at the behest of the head of chemistry's secretary, a truly terrifying lady. So you've her to thank...

I think, to be honest, I had begun to post less on there as it was. Following my inexorable assimilation by the time-wasted-vortex that is facebook, I began to use that as the main tool to let people know what I was up to. The ability to disseminate my daily goings on into bitesize status updates was easier to do via facebook. Trouble was, once my Warwick blog became disabled, facebook wasn't really the medium with which to post longer entries/notes. So with a bit of prompting/inspiration from various people whom I know that have begun here on blogger, I have begun again.

I have no real plans for what shape it will take and what the content will be, other than possibly relating my adventures out here in the Great White North to the folks back home, and passing along some of the oddities of all things British to the readers out here (if there actually are any). The gaps will doubtless filled in with musings about sport and television (and frequently the two combined) seeing as I am usually parked in front of the TV watching some sport or other at this time of night.

Those of you tuning in for a bit of good, old-fashioned "Northern Rage" may be disappointed....