Speaking at the end of his first official engagement abroad in New York, the Prince said: “There’s times when I thought, I’m really not cut out for this, mentally.
“I hope I’ve got the physical skills to fly a helicopter. But mentally, there are the exams and everything.
“I mean, I can’t do maths. I gave that up when I left school, as anyone does at that age. But I’ve been throwing myself back in the deep end.
I’d love to know what level of mathematical ability he’s talking about.
The 4th Grand Prix tournament was won by Aronian. He now lies in 3rd place in the series of 6 tournaments, behind Radzhabov and Grischuk.
In the final round he thumped Leko with an exchange sacrifice (30 Re5) and a final flourish (after 54 … Qxg8 55 Bxg8+ R or Kxg8 56 d7 forces the promotion of a pawn).
Statebook is a Facebook-like site produced by the Open Rights Group that draws attention to the kinds of information about a (surely entirely fictional?) character called Jack Smith that are being collected by the government.
For example, ‘Jack Smith has two children and their ethnicity and education details were accessed by 7 agencies last week See Youth and Education’ and ‘Update: Jack Smith just jumped a red light in Fulham Palace Road - his third such offence this month. See Locations’.
Taunton: will someone please do some damage to the square? In the Somerset v Warwickshire match 1280 runs were scored for the loss of only 15 wickets.
I’m not feeling very optimistic about my team Leicestershire’s prospects this season. In the match against Northamptonshire they were saved from a possible innings defeat by the loss of a day’s play. (Northamptonshire 387; Leicestershire 183 and 174/4.)
In the IPL Rajastan were all out for a record-breaking 58 in reply to Bangalore’s 133, in which Dravid scored an atypical 68 off 48 balls, outshining KP (32 off 30). Kumble cleaned up the Rajastan tail with 5-5.
Freddie had a mixed day for Chennai in their loss to Mumbai (1-44 off 4 overs and 24 off 23 balls).
I must admit to being a bit worried by Cardiff Blues’ recent form. Today they thrashed Gloucester 50-12 in the EDF (Anglo-Welsh) final. They’re certainly a more formidable proposition that the Ospreys, who are much better on paper than they are on the field.
We must hope that some of the many players who are injured (Louis Deacon, Martin Corry, Marco Wentzel, Richard Blaze, Brett Deacon, Ben Herring, Toby Flood, Derick Hougaard, Aaron Mauger, Lewis Moody and Matt Smith) become available for the Heineken semi-final next Sunday and that Alesana Tuilagi’s club suspension isn’t extended by beyond a week by the authorities. Julian White’s two-week suspension rules him out of the match.
Leigh Halfpenny continues to impress: he’s worth far more than his name suggests!
Today: the last South Africa v Australia ODI, the end of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa and the 3rd day of the first English county championship matches.
Tomorrow: the start of the Indian Premier League in (where else?) South Africa.
In the WCQ Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands and Kenya qualified for the next World Cup (in 2011) and gained ODI status. Afghanistan and Scotland gained ODI status. The ICC has just decided that the event will not be held in Pakistan.
Although Twenty20 cricket isn’t something I can take in large doses, I’ll keep an eye on how Flintoff (Chennai Super Kings) and Pietersen (Bangalore Royal Challengers) get on (in the sense of avoiding injury). As it’s being shown on Setanta rather than Sky I won’t be tempted to watch any of the matches (59 in 5 weeks).
Cricinfo provides a excellent page of live scores.
The online FT crossword is another that I find completely unusable. Only about a quarter of the A4 page is used. The grid containing the solution to the previous day’s puzzle is just a blur to me.
The Harborough Mail reports that the event isn’t what it was:
Mr Marlow, who lives with wife Lucy and their four children on The Grange, Desborough, said: “There’s so many people who love going for the fun of the event. It’s a lot milder now than it used to be. It used to be very rough because it was mostly farmhands. Now it’s all doctors and solicitors taking part.
“It’s still tough though. A lot of the younger lads who take part say its far harder than rugby. It’s being in a scrum, but you can be in it for half-an-hour at a time.
