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Such a simple solution don't know why it is isn't implemented.

Make the league be seeding of sorts for the championship.

Groups 1,2,3 and 4. Group 1 made up of teams finished 1-4 in the league. Group 2 teams 5-8. Group 3 teams 9-12. Group 4 remainder and newly promoted clubs.

Group 1 teams are drawn against group 4 teams. Group 2 vs group 3.

Also making a win worth three points would help things as well.

Bump

I hate shopping around, so cannot really help on a shoot-out.

What were the issues with your previous laptop?

Compared to the work laptop I use and the desktop it was slow, especially when running a number of different browsers and applications. It was small differences, but just when loading programs or opening things that couple of seconds was quite frustrating. The battery life was awful and the casing started to fall apart after about 1.5 years. It was vista as well and I found it pretty underwhelming, hence the worries about windows 8. It was an Asus and I bought it in store basically because it was sold to me.

By the specifications I thought that laptop looked ok but as another poster says the battery life will be awful (I never would have knew that), not sure what to be looking for.

Bump

Thinking of buying a laptop and just need a bit of help. It will be used for some work like Word/Excel, a work program and research on internet so be a lot of multiple tabs/downloading articles etc.

A lot of general browsing streaming/watching movies, downloading music and maybe some football manager would be the only gaming. Just need a bit of guidance regards processor/RAM/hard drive. Is Intel better than AMD? Is it more RAM/hard drive the better?

From doing some searching I found this HP Pavilion 14-B107sa ( http://www.very.co.uk/hp-pavilion-14-b107sa-intelreg-coretrade-i5-processor-8gb-ram-1tb-hard-drive-14-inch-ultrabook---sparkling-black/1194245157.prd?browseToken=%2fb%2f103340%2fs%2fprice%2c1%2fr%2f24 )

Seemed to have good specifications, plus it is an ultrabook so very portable for a reasonable price (and can pay interest free over 3 months) but I couldn't find any external reviews for this specific model. Does this seem like a decent deal, or is there better out there?

It has windows 8 and from looking at a few videos they really slate windows 8 for use without touch, so sort of worried about that as well.

Sorry for being long winded, but when I bought my last laptop I wasn't too well informed and I definitely didn't get value for money! Any guidance of any sort would be of great help! Thanks!

Couldn't believe the score after 10 mins, is there a big wind lads?

Black Caviar would hardly stay a mile would she?

If she's coming over to Europe I'd presume it'll be for the two sprints at Royal Ascot and the July Cup.

Wouldnt really be fair? Frankels proven at mile, black caviar isn't. Frankel has raced and won at Goodwood before, the mare would hardly have raced at a track like goodwood in aus would she? Plus the fact she'd have to travel round the world! I'd say the arabs might come in with a major move to try match the two! I welcome any moves to pit them together, some horse would probably have to compromise but would be fantastic for the sport!

[Frankel camp unmoved by £1m offer to take on Black Caviar at Goodwood]

Frankel camp unmoved by £1m offer to take on Black Caviar at Goodwood
A £1m offer has been made to connections of Frankel and Black Caviar in the hope that it will bring the two horses together in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood on 1 August. The move by Qipco, sponsor of the Sussex, represents the most aggressive attempt so far to engineer a clash between the champions of the northern and southern hemispheres, but the immediate reaction from the Frankel camp on Wednesday was that it would not affect their plans.

Although the Sussex Stakes would normally carry prize money of £300,000, Qipco will make that £1m if both horses line up. But the race is over a mile and it remains the case that Frankel is expected to be aimed at 10-furlong races by that stage of the season.

"At the moment the plan is to start in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury and then go to Royal Ascot for either the Queen Anne or the Prince of Wales's Stakes," said Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Frankel's owner, Khalid Abdullah. "Depending upon how things develop, we are then considering going over a mile and a quarter for races such as the Eclipse and the Juddmonte, but there's no need to be making those decisions yet.

"If we were to stay at a mile then running in the Sussex Stakes is a possibility, but I'm afraid the extra prize money is not going to influence any decisions, even though it is a very generous gesture by Qipco and Goodwood, and I can entirely understand why they would want to attract both horses."

Grimthorpe denied that protecting Frankel's future value as a stallion would be the foremost consideration in planning his programme. "It's not simply a question of commercial considerations," he said. "The principal deciding factor will be to let Frankel show us where he wants to go. Henry [Cecil, the horse's trainer] will listen to Frankel and let him tell us."

While Frankel beat Canford Cliffs in last year's Sussex Stakes, a notable clash in itself that was billed as 'The Duel on the Downs', Black Caviar has never raced beyond seven furlongs and will be kept to six furlongs when she turns up at Royal Ascot for the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.

"If Black Caviar is ever going to run over a mile, it might just be at an easy track like Goodwood," said Adam Waterworth, Goodwood's managing director. "We realise that it may well not come off, but if Black Caviar and Frankel are going to clash anywhere, it could well be in this race and it would obviously be fantastic for us if they did so.

"There are some criticisms you can make about this kind of offer, but it's not a £1m bonus, it's an addition to the total prize money, so even the horses that finish third and fourth will be big winners. I don't think it's unrealistic to think it could happen and if the additional prize money makes any difference, then it will have been worth it. It would be the race of the year and probably the race of the decade.

"Any racecourse which has a Group One has ambitions to make it a brilliant, must-see race every year and Goodwood is no exception. To some extent last year's race and The Duel on the Downs fell into our laps, but we're trying to be a little more proactive this time."

With the entries for the race closing at the end of May, Waterworth's first aim will be to ensure that both horses are at least given the option of lining up.

Meanwhile Frankel's half-brother, Noble Mission, is one of five horses supplemented by Cecil for the Irish Derby on 30 June. The horse is already entered for the Epsom equivalent. Also added to the list of Irish entries is Godolphin's Swedish Sailor, Noble Mission's conqueror in a Yarmouth maiden last October.

Maljimar, trained in Devon by Nick Williams and ridden by James Reveley, became the first British-trained horse to land a leg of the Crystal Cup series of cross-country jump races since the series began in 2010, scoring at Fontainebleau.

My heart wants Kauto to win today, but my main rule in punting is to always ignore sentiment and my head is telling me the great one will find that extra 2 and a half just too tough. I'll having some of long run at 9/4, any shorter than 2s and value starts to wane. Synchronnised can be got at 16s on Willy Hill and if he jumps well might be able to run a big race. Have also got boston bob at ante post prices.

Big Bucks is 4/5 in Sean Grahams folks.

My god, brought a tear to my eye that. Fair play LL, and best of luck to you and your family in the future.

OK, yet the value of the company has halved?  Forgive me for my very basic understanding of this but I can't see how that helps RBS shareholders unless they pay some sort of huge dividend??

Thebigfella is right franko, but your not far off the mark, the value on the stock market had halved yes, but that is due to the government bailing out the bank when it was in a disastrous position. The aim for Hester is to ultimately help the bank increase the value of RBS, the government can then sell RBS at hopefully a profit so that eventually we (the taxpayer/shareholders) ultimately receive the benefit. But this is not an overnight fix, its long term, so to judge him on the value of the shares at the moment is not an appropriate measure and no matter what anyone says, in basic terms Hester has done a right job in RBS so far.

The anger here should not be directed at Hester at all, he could, and most definitely will in the future, earn a lot more than his 2 million. Yes it is a big bonus but in perspective of the banking world fact is its not over the top, this story has annoyed people is ridiculous considering some of the other bonuses receivedand it is the whole issue of bankers looking after their own interests and bonuses rather than our money that needs to be addressed.   It's reaction to stupid hype about the media of RBS being a publicly owned business, when in reality, Hester is one banker that is actually trying to recover a business that the economy we live in DESPERATELY relies on.

Fat cat, greedy bankers are the reason we got into this mess. And it does make me sick some of the payments they receive,  often quite obviously over the top and the profits some banks make themselves is sickening. However in this case it's actually more in line with what the bonuses should be, and there is no doubt Stephen Hester has had possibly the toughest job in banking over the past 12 months. However the criticism is going to stem fron the fact RBS is owned by the country, and while public sector workers are more increasingly protesting about pay freezes, there is a bonus being paid which effectively doubles his salary, while the average joe suffers.

the lanes its called! it is a good spot for something different

heading to bristol this weekend on a stag...anyone been there before?

where to head/avoid?

went to visit mate working a couple of years ago, pulled stinker and went back, worth f**k all, think it was st johns avenue or road or something like that. number 24 i think, stay well clear of there.

good few bars, cant even mind the half of them, we went to some place with couple of bars and bowling alley just opened that year, cant mind the name of it shouldnt be hard to find on google, i had quick look but no luck, but yeh it had bowling alley and some good live bands and was stuffed, dunno if would be suited for stag but something different,look into it!

DH have you seen much of black caviar? They are always on about how to make racing more appealing to bring in the numbers. Will some numbnut ever get his thinking cap on and try to arrange a proper match up between Frankel and BC, make it in the interests of both parties and market the s**t out of it, imagine the publicity worldwide. I know they are both set to run at different distances this year but surely it makes sense.

Just seems to me that its to easy for trainers/owners to pick these shite races to suit and pick up their prize moeny, rather than giving what the people want to see. Surely there is a way to incorporate sponsors etc to make it worthwhile. If they want to grow interest surely they need to get the "best" vs the "best" on a regular basis like every other sport in the world.