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Folks, former regular poster here who hasn't been about much in recent times but like the talented footballer who decks off to America and then wants his physio bills paid by the club when he arrives home injured, I'm hoping some of you good people can help me out.

Basically what I'm looking for is someone to point in direction of the best way to access full coverage of historic GAA matches that would have been broadcast live. I'm hoping to establish a sort of a DVD series in our club, essentially to try to get people through the door on a Friday evening.

We kicked off with a showing of us winning an Intermediate Final in the 80s (featuring a young Kieran McGeeney no less!) but sadly it won't be long until I run out of footage of Cullyhanna championship final wins!

We're hoping to show some of the full matches from the Armagh glory years like the 1999 Ulster final, the Kerry games in 2000, the 2002 games and so on.

Does anybody have any idea how we could get copies of the full 70 minutes of these matches? Ideally to download online but DVD would work too. I've found plenty of highlights online but getting full games seems more of a challenge. Grateful for any ideas anybody might have. Thanks in advance for your help.

Question for the 26 neutral counties (no political connotations intended!)

I'd be split between Down and Kildare. Kildare because of the Armagh link, I'd love to see Geezer winning another All Ireland even if it isn't with Armagh and Down as I'd be sort of friendly with one of the players. Obviously there's no team I enjoy beating more than Down but I suppose I know a lot more Down supporters than any other county so I wouldn't mind seeing them win it.

Cork are still going to actually win it though but that's not the topic for this thread!

Let hostilities commence......................... 

I assume the team O'Rourke starts in this will be fairly close to the championship line-out. Would like to see Dyas fit enough to start - if he doesn't make this one, surely he'd have no chance of starting the Derry match. Ideally I'd like to see something along the lines of;

Hearty

A Mallon
B Donaghy
P Duffy

K Dyas
C McKeever
F Moriarty

K Toner
J Lavery

G Swift
A Kernan
C Vernon

S McDonnell
R Clarke
B Mallon

As badly as the farce in Newry hurt us supporters, you can only assume the players were much more disappointed. Where better to make amends than Croke Park?

Have to drive to Dublin for work tomorrow. Coming in from M1 and am heading towards Quays area - near the Four Courts and was wondering what's the most inexpensive way to make the journey? Basically looking somewhere with cheap parking and then accessible bus / Dart. Someone suggested parking at Killester Station then getting the Dart in. Is this the best option or does anybody have any other ideas?

Thanks a million in advance.

Use this thread. I know the story of how Ballaghadeeren play in Mayo is an interesting and hotly contested part of GAA history but it has nothing to do with this match and there's no reason why this thread should be ruined by it.

I said I wanted Armagh to face Mayo rather than Down, now I have have I wanted, I may well live to regret it I'm sure. O'Connor took his goals very very well today, thought the match actually followed a similar enough pattern to last week's semi-final. I've been confident about this Armagh team all year so there's no sense in stopping now but its so hard to predict how minor teams will fare against each other.

How many Mayo supporters will make the trip?

Half thinking of getting Sky for the first time. I see one packages plus sky sports 1 or 2 is £27.50 while the whole sports package is £35.50 as well (I assume this include Sky sports 3 also?)

Would I be better goinf for Sky sports 1 or 2? Or is the whole package well worth the money? What sort of sports are on SS1 and what are on SS2? I think I'm right in saying that SS1 has the premiership while SS2 has the champions league. Wouldn't be too worried about missing champs league as have it on rte anyway. Are all the premiership matches likely to stay on SS1, particularly given that sky have extra Monday night matches from this season? What channel gets the Heineken Cup games?

I'd be hopeful in this one as I think this could be the best minor team we've had in my time supporting Armagh. Hell of a good full forward line and midfield was excellent too. Have showed great character against Monaghan and Tyrone in the last quarter to win matches when things seemed to be going against them (sending off today, goalie dropping a ball into the net against Tyrone).

Nice to have an excuse to go to the Ulster Final anyway. Repeat of the Minor final from 2005 and hopefully it'll be a similar result! What have Down been like this year? Guessing we'd start favourites given the league form and the fact that we've beaten Tyrone.

What are people's views on winking? Is it acceptable social interaction or an outdated arrogant trait?

Thought I'd cater for all fans of the Candystripes. Disappointing last couple of results especially after thumping Pats' away. Really need to be picking up more than 1 point from 6 against Bray and Sligo if we are going to challenge Bohs for the title.

Never started an Armagh match thread before.  Little amuses the innocent.

Win in this one and promotion might be a possibility. Is it in Cross next Sunday?

Zimbabwe PM's wife dies in crash 

The wife of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been killed in a car crash in which he was also slightly hurt, party officials say.

Susan Tsvangirai was travelling with her husband south of Harare when their vehicle was in collision with a lorry.

Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, formed a unity government with President Robert Mugabe last month.

Mr Mugabe and his wife have visited his former long-term rival in hospital.

Speaking outside the private clinic in Harare, Mr Tsvangirai's spokesman James Maridadi said of the prime minister: "I saw him. I spoke to him. He walked from the vehicle that brought him to hospital, he is fine."



Robert Mugabe visits the clinic where Morgan Tsvangirai is being treated
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, a senior MDC official, also told reporters that Mr Tsvangirai was "stable", adding that doctors would give further details in due course.
State television reported that the prime minister, who will turn 57 next week, had suffered some injuries to his head and neck.

The report quoted police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena as saying that a lorry carrying freight had crossed into the lane in which Mr Tsvangirai's 4x4 was travelling and had side-swiped his vehicle, causing it to roll over three times.

The prime minister was on his way to his rural home in Buhera, where he planned to hold a weekend rally, when the crash occurred near Beatrice at about 1600 local time (1400 GMT).

The AFP quoted an MDC minister as saying the driver of the lorry had been asleep at the wheel.

 
The BBC's Peter Biles in Johannesburg says that given the fierce rivalry between Zimbabwe's political parties, there will - inevitably - be speculation about the cause of this crash.

So far, though, officials of Mr Tsvangirai's MDC party have said nothing to suggest that there may have been foul play, our correspondent says.

All Zimbabwe's roads are in a poor state of repair, after years of neglect and the collapse of the country's infrastructure, he adds.

'Source of strength'

The crash comes just two days after Mr Tsvangirai delivered his maiden speech to parliament after being sworn in as prime minister in Zimbabwe's power-sharing government.

  It is a very sad day for me and for all Zimbabweans, whether they be at home or abroad

Thabitha Khumalo
MP for the MDC
He and his wife Susan, who married in 1978, had six children.

Thabitha Khumalo, a member of parliament for the MDC who is in Scotland for an international women's conference, told the BBC that the loss of Mrs Tsvangirai, whom she had known well, was a "huge blow" for the country.

"It is a very sad day for me and for all Zimbabweans, whether they be at home or abroad. She was a mother figure for the whole nation," she said.

"Few people knew about her work. Whenever they saw her she was accompanying her husband to court or to vote, but very few people knew she played a very crucial role behind closed doors...

"She was a pillar of strength to [her husband]. In a struggle like his, you need someone to lean on and she was always there for him."



A look at the important role Susan Tsvangirai played in her husband's life
The BBC's Andrew Harding in Johannesburg says that Mrs Tsvangirai was very discreet and stayed out of the limelight, but was a very important part of her husband's life.

She was a great source of strength to her husband when in the past he was charged with treason and assaulted for his opposition to Mr Mugabe, and sat through all his treason trial, our correspondent says.

She also made a point of visiting MDC members who were jailed while the party was in opposition, he adds.

Her death comes at a very challenging time for the fledgling power-sharing government, our correspondent says, and will only make matters more complicated.

Mr Tsvangirai still relied on his own security teams and used his own convoys when he travelled, he adds, in a sign that he was not entirely comfortable with the security provided by the new government.

Tense relations

The UK's Foreign Office expressed "deep sadness" at the news of Mrs Tsvangirai's death.

"We are deeply saddened to hear news of Susan Tsvangirai's death and we offer our condolences," a spokeswoman said. "We are monitoring the situation closely."

Relations between the MDC and Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party remain tense, with MDC ministerial nominee Roy Bennett still in custody, accused of links to an alleged plot to kill Mr Mugabe.

The MDC says the arrest - which happened on the day MDC ministers joined the power-sharing government - is a political manoeuvre by hard-line supporters of Mr Mugabe to destabilise the unity administration.

A magistrate who ordered the release of Mr Bennett was arrested on Friday.

Hard to know what to make of that one. Seems like a big coincidence. Brings the adage about lying down with dogs and getting up with fleas to mind.

Am looking for a place to stay in Belfast for a few months (the living at home experiment has been deemed a failure - never to be tried again). Is there any websites that advertise places to let? Looking something cheap and cheerful handy to QUB. Have tried Gumtree but is there any other sites likely to be of use?

Any of the rugby heads ever stayed near Twickenham in London? Finding it a bit difficult so any suggestions greatefully accepted, the more cheap and cheerful the better!

Does anybody know how best to pick up a decent number of GAA flags (specifically Armagh) for a reasonable price? Are there any suppliers to get in contact with? (And I'm not just looking to make a few pound meself!)

Meant to put this up earlier in the week but only remembering now.

I was interested to read Paddy's article defending referees and having a pop at tv analysts suggesting that they should have a go at referring rather than criticising on the telly.

http://www.irishnews.com/articles/597/5764/2008/7/15/592819_351434365762Timetofi.html

Now fair enough I take Paddy's point that it would be nice for ex-players to have a go at referring but neither would I blame them for having a go at the easier and more lucrative analysts game. After all, its better that we have ex-players analysing the games than people who wouldn't necessarily know what they're talking about. But wasn't it Paddy Heaney who wrote an article decrying the standard of referring and parodying the types of referees in the game. I think the chairman of the Down County board wrote a letter of complaint into the Irish News since at the time Heaney was managing Bredagh as it was fairly obvious which county's referees he was getting at. Is it not a bit hypocritical to be setting himself up as the great defender of referees this week given the views of match officials he has previously put on record?

PS - I hope my facts on the previous article are correct and that I haven't gotten my Irish News journalists mixed up. If so, I apologise!

Just looking a bit of advice - there's a group of friends of mine heading to the States on Saturday for a couple of weeks and they are looking for a bit of a beach holiday for a few days. They're thinking of heading to Cape Cod from 19th to 25th July. Would anybody have any tips on somewhere affordable to stay for a few nights? Hostels, beachhouse etc, any suggestions gratefully accepted!

Thanks.

The Bearded One to appear with Colin Murphy, Neil Dellamare and the lads tonight.