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2-2 draw away to well established club Peterhead.

Decent result, but The Rangers were forced to play in old training gear bought from the now defunct Rangers club.

Discuss.

Any help would be welcome.

Name one such establishment.

Off you go!

Launched on this day in 1958. Not sure if there are any commemorations in River Rouge, Michigan.

If Paudie Hughes can have his own thread, why not the diminutive (and more highly ranked) Fermanagh whistler?

Caught the tail end of the Laois - Donegal game and saw him move the ball forward for dissent by a Donegal man. Now, I know that you get extra assessor points for using signals to explain your decisions (e.g. over-carrying), but I sincerely hope the "Rod Hull minus Emu" signal for dissent does not become an acceptable or accepted one.

Seriously Marty, it makes you look terribly like an arrogant, jumped up little idiot.

Strange question I know but someone may be able to help. Apparently older versions of the Samsung Tocco do, but not the newer ones. Ta.

Having watched the Corofin St Galls game and seen the sendings-off of Anto Healy and Gary Sice, coupled with the non sending-off of Kieran Fitzgerald, coupled with the performance of Michael Burke last week, coupled with the entire careers of John Bannon  and various incarnations of Gerry Kinneavy, coupled with Darragh O Se retiring without ever being awarded a free kick etc., I feel the time has come to remove referees from Gaelic football. (Much as has been the case in hurling for a long time).

Let either the referee or the bishop throw the ball in at start of the game (and then feck aff).

Would be much much better all round.

Five first round games (one each from Groups A, B, E, F and H) plus one game in the round of 16 will be held in Bloemfontein.

From yesterday's Irish News

THE grave of Magnus MacOrriston, a 16th century gallowglass warrior, lies in a windswept ancient cemetery at Clonca church, near Culdaff in county Donegal.

Obviously a formidable opponent, the memorial tells of a man as well known for his caman skills as his battle skills – certainly not someone to be messed with on either field. Carved into his headstone are a caman, a ball and a claymore sword.

Half a millenium later, MacOrriston's spirit lives on in Inishowen.

Nearby club Burt is an island of hurling in a footballing ocean – the club's caman ties stretch back to the time of the warrior and beyond.

The club's finest hour came in July 1907 when Burt Hibernians, representing Donegal, gave Antrim a stick and ball lesson on the way to winning the 1906 Ulster Hurling Championship.

The Tir Chonnail men ran riot against the defending champions, racking up 5-21. Antrim managed a single point.

It was a final moment of glory for the caman code, Burt's code. But it's time was over and the ioman code was about to take over completely.

Burt Hibernians beat Antrim playing caman, anglicised to 'commons', the game on which shinty, still played competitively in the Highlands of Scotland, is based – 'camanachd' is the Scots gaelic word for shinty.

Caman was played exclusively in the northern half of the country – roughly north of the imaginary line between Dublin and Galway.

It did not allow handling of the ball, was played with a narrow, crooked stick and used a hard wooden ball, the 'crag'.

Meanwhile, ioman, the version played by Antrim in 1906, had traditionally been restricted to the south of Ireland.

In ioman, the ball could be handled or carried on the hurl, which was flat and round-headed. The ball (the sliothar) was soft and made of animal hair.

Caman was a winter pursuit, ioman a game for the summer months.

Antrim's team had adopted ioman after the game had been rubber-stamped by the Gaelic Athletic Association soon after its formation 30 years earlier.

When the GAA was founded, in 1884, Michael Cusack and others were anxious that Ireland's culture and sporting tradition was being eroded and that games like soccer, rugby and cricket would become dominant.

It soon became obvious to Cusack that a choice had to be made between caman and ioman and ioman – the game which he was most familiar because of his childhood in county Clare – was selected as the template for what we know today as hurling.

The standardisation of the ioman game meant that the southern counties had a massive head start in perfecting the skills of the game of hurling.

But, more immediately, it also ensured that the writing was on the wall for the demise of the northern code.

Caman was driven to the fringes of the land, but the game lingered on in isolated pockets like Burt, an area with a rich tradition of ad hoc games which took place from hedge to hedge between rival parishes.

The game flourished in the area until the 1930s when the last team took the field before hurling took over.

Even then, the caman/shinty tradition endured. Hughie Whoriskey, a local stalwart, played with a shinty stick on the hurling team until he retired in the 1950s.

Nowadays, Burt players Niall Campbell, who represented Ireland's shinty side against Scotland in Inverness in 2005, and former U21 stars Enda McDermott and Martin McGrath keep the flame alive.

The Burt club is one of the oldest in Ireland – it predates the formation of the GAA.

Club secretary Damian Dowds grew up listening to stories of caman and shinty and the glorious deeds of yesteryear.

But it was not until he saw shinty being played that history became alive for him.

"It wasn't until I saw the boys playing shinty that I had a 'eureka' moment and I realised that was how the game was played in Burt until the 1930s," he said.

"People sometimes question the links the GAA has with Aussie Rules, but the link between shinty and hurling is true – shinty has preserved the old northern game of caman which was played in Ulster."

Two of Damian's great-grandfathers, George Dowds, the team captain, and the goalkeeper, Jamie McLaughlin, played in Burt Hibernians' historic Ulster championship win.

A keen student of the game, Damian unearthed some of its history when compiling the history of the club.

"There's no shinty now at all, but there is a rich history in the area," he said.

"Even today, a lot of the lads who play for Burt are descendants of the Hibernian players of 1906.

"The game was played from 'deek to deek', from ditch to ditch.

"It was Burt parish against Newtowncunningham parish. Maybe 60 people would play in the game.

"A number of men from the parish – including Willie Dowds who started a club in Dundee – went to Scotland and settled over there and played shinty."

It's hard to make a case that Ireland's sporting fields are worse off for Michael Cusack's

preference for ioman over caman. But maybe there was room for both games?

"I've often said it was the codification of the rules by the GAA that killed the game of caman in Ulster stone dead," said Damian.

"Michael Cusack based hurling on what he remembered being played in county Clare – if he'd been from Antrim (or Donegal) instead Ulster would probably be the stronghold of hurling today (not Munster and south Leinster).

"But, I suppose, it's easy to say that. In 125 years we've had ample opportunity to get our heads around the new rules!"

He added: "The sideline cut is probably the only remnant of the caman game, in that the ball is hit off the ground, not picked up on the stick."

Looking back on the Hibernians' remarkable win, Damian imagines an Antrim side being out-muscled.

"Antrim probably struggled to deal with the shape and size of the sticks the Burt team used. Big camans could easily smash hurls," he said.

"The team in Burt never changed (to the smaller, lighter hurls) and they found it was quite successful."

Over 100 years on from their Ulster win, Burt continue to prosper on the hurling field.

The club, which fields teams at all underage grades from U10s to U21s in hurling set a national record of 16 consecutive Donegal senior hurling titles between 1991 and 2006.

The stick, the ball, the native sod. In Burt they play because they love the game and they play to win.

Just like MacOrriston, the warrior.

Feeling grumpy 'is good for you' 

An attack of the grumps can make you communicate better, it is suggested

In a bad mood? Don't worry - according to research, it's good for you.

An Australian psychology expert who has been studying emotions has found being grumpy makes us think more clearly.

In contrast to those annoying happy types, miserable people are better at decision-making and less gullible, his experiments showed.

While cheerfulness fosters creativity, gloominess breeds attentiveness and careful thinking, Professor Joe Forgas told Australian Science Magazine.

The University of New South Wales researcher says a grumpy person can cope with more demanding situations than a happy one because of the way the brain "promotes information processing strategies".

Negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world

He asked volunteers to watch different films and dwell on positive or negative events in their life, designed to put them in either a good or bad mood.

Next he asked them to take part in a series of tasks, including judging the truth of urban myths and providing eyewitness accounts of events.

Those in a bad mood outperformed those who were jolly - they made fewer mistakes and were better communicators.

Professor Forgas said: "Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world."

The study also found that sad people were better at stating their case through written arguments, which Forgas said showed that a "mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style".

His earlier work shows the weather has a similar impact on us - wet, dreary days sharpened memory, while bright sunny spells make people forgetful.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8339647.stm

Following on from ONeill's Pigs thread and the often barbaric practices visited upon the pigs by farmers, I got to thinking about cattle prods. Surely in this day and age they should be illegal also.

I've done Tequila slammers with Bill Gates.

Anyone beat that?

To-day's lunch time discussions revolved round bodily functions. It started with someone regaling us with the tale of a Tyrone man having a slash on the Croke Park pitch before a championship match.

It was followed by a man from south Derry who told us of a minor championship match involving a neighbouring club. Ten minutes into the second half an unnamed corner back turned round to his full back and shouted "Hye, Kane, watch my man. I'm away for a shite!". I work with a Slaughtneil man.

That in turned was surpassed by a portly former Queen's and Antrim hurler. He was playing for Queen's one day alongside a man from the Ards. In the early stages of the game, the Ardsman reached into his shorts, pulled out a chocolate log and flung it over the sideline. He shook hands all round him after the game.

Anyone surpass that before lunchtime tomorrow?

To the person who spent a lot in the early hours of this morning accessing my profile and reading everything I have ever posted.

I am assuming that you are the person who did the same round about 9:00pm on the night of 30th January.

If you would like to find out who I am, you could save time by simply registering and sending me a PM. I will happily tell you who I am.

The other stuff you're doing is just a wee bit weird.

To the person who spent a lot in the early hours of this morning accessing my profile and reading everything I have ever posted.

I am assuming that you are the person who did the same round about 9:00pm on the night of 30th January.

If you would like to find out who I am, you could save time by simply registering and sending me a PM. I will happily tell you who I am.

The other stuff you're doing is just a wee bit weird.

First in an occasional series.

1. The Glensman

Starting Point: The Waterfall, Carnlough
Finshing Point: Depending on the time of year, either The House Of McDonnell, Ballycastle or The Slemish, Ballymena.

Time required: Forget the watch.
Calling At: The Mariners, Waterfoot; Johnny Joe's (McCollam's), Cushendall; Mary McBride's, Cushendun:
Then (depending on the time of the year) either
Winter: Head inland to The Glensway, Martinstown and The Slemish or
Summer: head further north to The House Of McDonnell.

Best time of the year: Suitable all year round, but particularly impressive in winter (as the waves lash in over the Coast Road and the bars have massive roaring fires) and summer (when you can skim stones in Cushendun harbour or play hurling up and down the only street).

Other details: This tour is best untaken in a hired minibus, or at least with a desginated driver. It should not be tried on foot.

Trying to complete the Tribune Christmas Sports Crossword.  Short the three below. Any help would be appreciated. If I win I'll share the prize.  Feck, if I win, you can have the whole prize.

1. White peg in a multi-racial hole (4) - _A_E

2. Superman: Clarke Bent (6) - _A_R_N

3. Luxembourg young men who once got a draw at Anfield (4) - E_C_

I was serious about the prize by the way.

For those of us of a certain age, MT USA was required viewing of a Sunday afternoon. It ran from 1984 until 1987 on RTE2 from 2pm to 5pm. I watched it every Sunday until I was drafted onto our senior team the day after Self-Aid. Now a compilation CD of many of that show's highlights has been released. It is worth buying for the Dennis DeYoung tune "Desert Moon" on its own, but is let down by a lack of Heart numbers (always good for a triple play). Here's the entire list of songs on the CD for your perusal.

CD1
Pat Benatar - Love Is A Battlefield
Journey - Don't Stop Believing
Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
ZZ Top - Legs
Steve Miller Band - Abracadabra
Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out
Debarge - Rhythm of the Night
Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride
Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days
Kenny Loggins - Footloose
Mr Mister - Kyrie
Peter Cetera - Glory Of Love
Huey Lewis & The News - The Power of Love
Meatloaf - Dead Ringer for Love
Falco - Rock Me Amadeus
Suzanne Vega - Marlene on the Wall
Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance
John Waite - Missing You
Dennis Deyoung - Desert Moon

CD2
Aha - Take On Me
Go West - We Close Our Eyes
Aretha Franklin - Who's Zoomin Who
Pointer Sisters - Jump
Nik Kershaw - I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Dan Hartman - I Can Dream About You
The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian
King - Love & Pride
Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart
George Michael & Aretha Franklin - I Knew You Were Waiting for Me
Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Miami Sound Machine - Dr Beat
James Brown - Living In America
Billy Ocean - When The Going Gets Tough
Nena - 99 Red Balloons
Jim Diamond - I Should Have Known better
Ashford & Simpson - Solid
Dave Lee Roth - California Girls

it is appropriate that he buys a packet of Jammie Dodgers for his work colleagues on Friday as a sort of thank you.

The feckin lengths some posters will go to in their attempts to unmask saffron sam2.

I'll have to retire from the board soon and re-invent myself some time in the future.