Actually I do the Fingers a disservice.  It was an excellent paper to start the new season.  Your comments with the results you sent me were universally positive with special mention for the numbers questions (nominated as QsOTW below), and general praise for the battle site picture round. 

Add these numbers and give the result:

• games Arsenal are unbeaten in the Premiership

• pillars of Islam

• Brian Lara’s highest first class cricket score

and Question 4:

Add these numbers and give the result:

• years since Manchester City last won a major trophy

• Jesus’ disciples

• most wickets taken by a bowler in a single Test match.

THE WEBSITE

You may notice a few changes to the website:

• the colour scheme has changed (according to Kieran, for the worse)

• the league table page has gone all technical with aggregate scores for and against, averages, etc, etc - as well as a subjective and objective score for each team for the papers they have set.  You will notice I have allocated  a '1/2/3' popularity score for setters based on feedback, so please let me know what you think when you send in the scores

• the 'Team and Contact Details' page has a link to an 'Honours Table' showing who's won what over the past few years - by the way if you can fill in any of the gaps in this please let me know

All feedback on the site is most welcome - and I usually react positively to suggestions.

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BIG EDDIE

One bit of really sad news just received...

I gather 'Big Eddie' from Stumped died last week having been ill for the past few months.  His funeral was this Friday at St John's, Chorlton.  I will remember him as a good friend and team colleague.  He played a few times for the Opsimaths before joining SWMCC (Stumped).  He was much liked by us, and I'm sure we will all miss him.

A Chairde,

Someone famous, I think it was Jane Austen though it may well have been David Beckham, once said that if a young lady despaired of finding romantic adventure in her own village, she should seek it in another village.  Fr. Megson thinks so too.  So it was that, on a dank and dreary Wednesday night in October of the year 2004, shortly into the reign of good queen Kilroy Silk, that his new team, FCEK - THE IRISH CONNECTION, packed their trunks, said goodbye to the circus that is Didsbury Village and embarked on a new life of sordid mediocrity in the adjoining hamlet of Ladybarn (pop. 633 plus an itinerant part-time postman based in Fallowfield).

"A new season and perhaps a new millennium", thunk the ginger-haired, increasingly celibate Adonis as he hung his lovingly-pressed cassock and vest on the single coat-hanger, which also served as a light-fitting, thoughtfully provided by his adopted hostelry, The White Swan.  That same White Swan as was famously bypassed by Prince Rupert of the Rhine on his way to the battle of Marston Moor, largely because it had yet to be built but perhaps also because he feared the Robinsons Best bitter would have a diuretic effect on his men in the heat of battle.

"Pray, what brings you down to these parts?"  inquired a friendly jug-eared local, as Fr. Megson settled his nerves and his team at the bar, soon to be their home from home and, in Roisin's case, her only home.

"A lousy agent, fate and a paucity of success in metropolitan Didsbury", mused the failed urbanite. 

"The world over there is full of married men, aye and Opsimaths and ex-Braggarts too.  They're welcome to their newfangled ways and fancy inventions like Electric Pigs that light up at the merest touch of your finger.  We hanker after the simple life and a single light bulb is about as simple as life gets.  Now move aside, friendly jug-eared local, and allow me to inquire of that denim-clad vision behind the bar if she is unescorted after supping up time.  I wager she will be mightily impressed to hear that I once plied my trade in sybaritic West Bromwich".  She wasn't all that impressed as it transpired and thereby doesn't hang a tale.

For those of you who are cognisant of the fact that Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital of Brunei yet have never dared venture beyond Didsbury for a pint and a packet of pork scratchings, let me assure you that a trip to Ladybarn is not nearly as hazardous as THE GUIDE TO ROUGH WITHINGTON AND BEYOND would have you believe.  Do not however, under any circumstances, attempt it without a duffel coat and a slab of Kendal mint cake.

Route 1 (the most direct):

Take a north bound bus from Wilmslow Road and ask for Fallowfield (Phallo'feel').  No need to ask to be put off when you get there 'cause that will be your natural reaction when you see it.  On alighting, don't immediately panic and think you've landed in the Home Counties.  That's just the way the students speak these days.  Point yourself in an easterly direction towards the dreaming spires of Droylsden and walk, don't swagger.   When the dress sense of the locals begins to remind you of old TV footage of the Jarrow march, start looking for the large sign that says:

WELCOME TO LADYBARN - DESIGNATED BY UNTESCO AS AN AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL MONOTONY.  PLEASE DRIVE CAREFULLY - BOYS WITH HOODS CROSSING.

Then slow down until you come to a pub called the Talbot at which point you should gather speed again and run as if your life depended on it (it does).  Then when you have recovered your sang-froid and rearranged your underclothing, simply follow the Charabanc Parking signs and you will eventually be grabbed by the lapels and "invited" into the hallowed vault of The White Swan.

And that's when your adventure really begins.......

Route 2 (the most expensive):

Take a train to Stanstead Airport where you can get some really cheap flights these days.  Unfortunately however even Ryanair refuses to fly to Ladybarn.  So ask a taxi driver to take you back to Manchester.  This could cost you as little as £550 if you smile winsomely.  The driver will take you as far as The Pie and Porringer on School Lane but he obviously won't take you to Ladybarn after dark.  So your most sensible option at this juncture would be to walk home and pray that you don't draw FCEK -The Irish Connection away in the first round of the Cup.

See, I told you there was nothing to worry about.