Thunderbozz

They all go down to Princes Park... To see the Dartford Aces! Yesterday, 2,568 people went down to Princes Park to watch Dartford FC, champions of the league, play their last game of the season. In beautiful Spring sunshine, and against bottom-half scrappers Wingate & Finchley, it was the perfect opportunity to finish the season on a high. The Darts won the game 1-0, and were presented with the impressive Isthmian League, Division One North trophy after the game. Next season, we'll be playing in the Premier division, one step up and just one step below the Conference South. There'll be some tough games, some big games, and plenty of fierce local derbies (arch-enemies Maidstone being one of them). Dartford have always had great support from the fans, and the statistics at the end of the season make for some interesting reading. Our lowest attendance for a league game – 504 – is higher than the highest league attendances for sixteen of the twenty-two teams in our ...

As you might have guessed, I've got a bit of a soft spot for Lucinda. She has her faults, make no mistake: her methods of dealing with people in social situations probably need a bit of work, her ripostes to Sir Alan need a bit of work, and she may well be "a bit of a fruitcake"... but The Apprentice would be a much duller place without her. This week, Luce turned it around, and impressed everyone – well, nearly everyone – with her relaxed but effective management style. I honestly thought that they'd absolutely demolished the other team, led by annoying Claire, and was shocked to discover they'd missed out by a couple of hundred quid. In the firing line, Lucinda's weaknesses were exposed, but she was saved by the bitchiness between Ninja-lookalike Lindi and former B*witched star Jennifer M. It was interesting to see how The Apprentice presents the geography of England. When the candidates leave "London", they enter what's known as "T...

I've got a very important essay to write by Monday, as it carries a 50% weighting for one of my modules. This wouldn't be so bad if the other 50% wasn't an exam (which I don't like, and am not particularly good at). I'm not feeling particularly worried about it (yet), but I am aware that if I do badly, it's going to put a load of pressure on revising for the test. Meh, it's weeks away, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. To pass the time, I've been doing everything else I need to have done for next week – reading lots of books, posting responses on our seminar group's webpage, tidying various parts of the house – thus leaving me with no excuse for not doing the essay, and plenty of time to get it done, too. ● Some fantastic Indio-English on display at the Indian Premier League's website: I wonder how much Pepsi paid to be "Official Pouring Supplier" to the event?

I try to keep my Facebook "friends" list as accurate as possible/as is socially acceptable by only adding people I genuinely know and/or like. Politics plays quite a large role in shaping it, but by-and-large, I quite happily get on with most people who I'm "friends" with online. Which is why Facebook's latest gadget – the recommended friends section – is getting on my nerves at the moment. People who I've never even met are adding me as a friend, because we share a common pal (even if it's only just one). In some cases, this has been a good thing, but in at least three that I've had in the last two days, I wouldn't be able to pick these "friends" out of a room. Even if they were the only people in the room. And had name-badges on. Why do people feel the need to add people they've never met, let alone spoken to? Are they really that desperate to look popular? Surely they must know that all those "cool" peopl...

Before today's game, Dartford Football Club only needed a single point to be sure of winning the Ryman League Division One North. Failing that, we needed AFC Sudbury to drop points. Even if they caught us, we still had a commanding goal difference advantage. The league looked to be ours – but there was still an anxious wait before we could hear the phrase "mathematically impossible" used to refer to Sudbury's chances of victory. As it happens, we lost today's game (away at Edgware) to a last-minute goal. The celebrations started as soon as the final whistle sounded, though, because Sudbury had also lost. Dartford FC weren't victors on the day, but the championship was ours. Winning the league means so much to the club that it's difficult to express it in words. It's the first time we've finished top of a division since the club was re-formed in 1992 – yet in that time, we've played in four different leagues, at three different levels of...

This afternoon saw the first game in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Based on the English Premier League, the new Twenty20 cricket championship is all about making money. Big corporate sponsors, wealthy businessmen backers, and lucrative television rights have combined to bring the wages of the best cricket players in the world into line with the top men in other sports. I've never watched a Twenty20 game before, and because Sky have snapped up all the test series, I haven't been able to watch any cricket on TV for quite a while. The game today, between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore (names which make the Gloucestershire Gladiators and Derbyshire Phantoms sound normal) was a cracker, albeit a little bit of an anti-climax. Unfortunately, because the league is so keen to protect it's financial backers, I can't show you any pictures, because they've banned large swathes of the media – especially those who publish online –...

Week four of The Apprentice , and it was "Chopper" Simon who... well, got the chop. Sir Alan admitted that he fired him somewhat reluctantly, but it was probably a fair decision. Simon looked panicked and out of his depth: managing the team was beyond him. That said, you had to feel sorry for him at the end. As he left the boardroom for the last time, there were tears in his eyes; his parting words to receptionist Francis could have been taken from a romantic old film; his last words in the taxi home were quite sad. Credit where it's due: of the three in the firing line, at least he had the courage to admit he had made mistakes, and to accept responsibility. The other team-leader, Helene, proved to be just a dislikeable as her predecessors. In the brief scenes we saw her, she was rude and didn't show any real signs of leadership at all. Lucinda (in her Technicolour Dreamcoats™) was absolutely useless at her task within the group, but she can't be accused of...

"Part 2" of this year's typically haphazard Union elections is underway this week. Amongst rumours of flouting budgets, defacing opponents' promotional materials, breaching guidelines by campaigning on Facebook and forming alliances with student groups, the candidates standing for next year's officer roles have been asking for our vote. My decisions, as always, were based on solid democratic ideals. My choice for Sports officer gave me a free lollypop; the Finance candidate had the best slogan; most people in my seminar group were supporting one particular Activities officer – good enough for me, they're quite clever people; choosing the best candidate for Women's officer wasn't a tough decision (I always vote for the most attractive one, although I use the phrase lightly here); and finally, my choices for Welfare officer included all those who don't happen to be my arch-enemy. ● As the term draws to a close, it becomes a great-deal easier t...

Yesterday was one of those rare occasions when Dartford FC's game was broadcast live online, so I spent the afternoon watching Soccer Saturday and listening to BBC Radio Kent. After title-rivals AFC Sudbury lost a game in mid-week, the Darts had the opportunity to open up a 6-point gap at the top of the table. They didn't disappoint: we won 5-0, and it sounds as though we could have had many more. The scoreline will give the team (and fans!) a fantastic confidence boost, especially after a few wobbly performances over the last few weeks. Ryman Division 1 North Pld W D L GD Pts 1 Dartford 40 26 8 6 +65 86 2 AFC Sudbury 39 24 8 7 +49 80 3 Ware 39 22 9 8 +27 74 Third-place Redbridge lost, which means they can't catch us. It's now officially a two-horse race, and Sudbury have more ground to cover because they have an extra fixture to play. Who needs the Premier League when you've got Ryman Division One North?

As you might have guessed from the tone of some of my previous postings, I'm not really enjoying my English Literature course at the moment. That isn't to say I'm not enjoying being at university: I love it here in Sheffield, I enjoy the discussions in seminars, I like meeting people in lectures. The work isn't even that difficult. It's just that the books we have to read – with some notable exceptions – are just so boring . Until recently, I'd never been able to put my finger on why I just couldn't get on with reading books like Sense & Sensibility , Wuthering Heights and most recently Women In Love . It isn't because I don't like the writing style, or the stories necessarily... I've realised now that it's because I hold the characters in such utter contempt that I wasn't giving the story a fair chance. Let me clarify. I'm only talking about a fairly specific genre of novel here, but unfortunately it's the genre that...

The second (in a series of several) of my lazy attempts to keep you amused by showing you videos that other people have made. This first one is Alanis Morissette's not-at-all-tongue-in-cheek "cover version" of the Black Eyed Peas' My Humps ... Finally, the very clever and slightly amusing history of dance...

Another cracking episode of The Apprentice this week, this time providing more cringe-worthy moments than ever before. From Ian's point-blank denial that reluctant Head Chef Kevin had given a pep-talk to reluctant Head Chef Kevin's woeful attempts to calculate the number of tomatoes required, Sir Alan's fears that none of the boys possess much business acumen appeared to be sound. It was quite obvious that the boys weren't going to win from quite an early stage. You can sometimes make a guess based on the amount of footage we see of the two teams: as a rule, the losers tend to get more airtime. What gave it away was their woeful lack of planning, resulting in several trips to Tesco to buy supplies. They're cheap, but they're not that cheap. You could tell, however, that the girls team still have issues to sort out. It was surprising to see Claire come out in support of talkative team leader Sara in the boardroom, but as soon as they were away for their r...

As you've probably noticed if you've been exploring this blog, I love using photographs from Flickr to illustrate my posts. Today is no exception. I could spend all day looking at the billions of fantastic pictures that people from all over the world have uploaded. (From today, they're hosting video , too). Unfortunately, I had a shed-load of problems trying to log-in to my Flickr account last week, because I had forgotten that it required a Yahoo! account... and because I'd forgotten, I'd deleted mine. Luckily, it wasn't too painless to sort out, and I'm able to enjoy membership to the full again. Which, in practice, isn't all that far removed from just being a visitor. ● I finished the first of this term's essays at stupid o'clock last night, and thanks to an unplanned nap, my body-clock is all over the shop at the moment. By next week, I have to read Women In Love (542 pages), Never Let Me Go (282 pages), a load of American poetry, po...

Watching the live coverage of the Olympic torch relay through the streets of London yesterday, I was fully expecting to see protesters attempt to disrupt the parade. In a way, I would have been disappointed if I hadn't – and not just because this would have denied the world the opportunity to see Her Majesty's Constabulary laying down the law, old-school style. As many of the torch-bearers tried to emphasise, one should never confuse the Olympics and Politics. Unfortunately, the two are undeniably inseparable. Awarding the games to China was based upon their (rather weak) assurance that they would improve their (dire) human rights record: the extent to which they have taken the world for fools is illustrated in just how little information about their oppressive regime in Tibet is allowed to surface. Britain, and all other free democratic states, should be proud that it's people are allowed to protest and express their views. We should be even more proud of the fact t...

This week, it was the united and rejuvenated boys team who were victorious in Sir Alan's latest task to help him choose an apprentice. It was a remarkable transformation following the apparently seismic divide (between "prince and pauper") that led to their defeat in week one: amazingly, that's all been put aside and it's the girls who are at loggerheads with each other. This week's team leader Jenny (pictured, left) is probably one of the ugliest people you're ever likely to meet, and she's got a personality demeanour to match. Not only was she bad at running the team, she was incredibly rude, unbelievably arrogant, and reduced poor Lucinda (right) to tears. Plus, her quotation on The Apprentice 's website doesn't make sense. (It's "If you’re sitting on the fence, you’re taking up too much space".) I must admit to having a little bit of a soft spot for Luce (the one who refuses to dress in business-like monochrome) beca...