Random Stuff!

[TheLocalYokel]

Pollution

The May Government has given Bristol City Council less than a month to come up with a detailed plan for combatting Bristol's seriously polluted environment, on pain of a severe financial penalty. Reducing emissions from diesel-engined vehicles was particularly mentioned.

Given that the same government axed the planned, and partly constructed, rail electrification for Bristol leaving the city and its near neighbour Bath with diesel traction for the foreseeable future, that takes a particular kind of hypocrisy and brass-necked behaviour - even by the standard of politicians.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Not in my back yard

A wry smile flickered across my face when I read the latest village magazine for the village of Wrington in whose parish Bristol Airport is situated.

North Somerset wants to build 3,000 houses to the south of the village with a bypass. Unsurprisingly, an action group has been formed to fight the proposals.

Part of the group's rationale is that the roads from the village to Bristol (A 38 and A370) are already over-used and an influx of houses on the scale proposed would result in these roads becoming completely unviable. Their over-use at the moment, as the group admits in an article in the village journal, is partly down to residents commuting to Bristol and school runs.

So what alternative do they propose? They believe the houses should instead be built on the edge of Bristol. That too would be in the Green Belt but not so nice a Green Belt as around Wrington, and of course it has the overriding benefit to the group's Wrington residents that it's several miles from them and would not impact on them at all.

I particularly chortled to myself when I read this comment, "We did not choose to live here to be in an urban environment. All the local character of a lovely village could be lost".

As someone who grew up in and around Wrington over 60 years ago, the character of the 'lovely village' has already been lost, thanks mainly to the very people who now don't want it to expand any further. Since my time the village has more than doubled in size and population and is certainly not the idyll that I remember.

A lot of the people who don't want the houses built will also be against expansion of the airport.

 

[Jerry]

Steve Lansdown the owner of Bristol Bears has called for relegation from the Premiership to end so they can concentrate on developing English players. I wonder if he has the same opinion for the Premier League of which his football team Bristol City FC are not in.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Steve Lansdown the owner of Bristol Bears has called for relegation from the Premiership to end so they can concentrate on developing English players. I wonder if he has the same opinion for the Premier League of which his football team Bristol City FC are not in.

He's been saying this for a while.

It's something that's been kicking around for a year or two. In his autobiography published several years ago Martin Johnson the former England captain came up with the same idea of ring-fencing the Prem. At the time Bristol were in what is now known as The Championship and Johnson averred that, regrettable as it might be for a club that was one of the powerhouses of English club rugby for much of the 20th Century, such is life. I wondered at the time whether Johnson would have been so keen on the idea had Leicester been out of the Prem at that time and therefore excluded under his ring-fencing plan.

I think the difference between the Premier League and the Premiership is that there are many clubs currently not in the Premier League that have the capacity to flourish there (if not win it although Leicester City did), whereas with the Premiership at the moment, arguably, of the clubs in the Championship only London Irish have the wherewithal to even try to compete in the Prem.

Most years the relegated team from the Prem jumps straight back from the Championship the following season and the promoted team is relegated, and so it goes on. For the past four years Bristol and London Irish have been swapping places between the Prem and the Championship and it looks as though the Irish will be going back to the Prem at the end of this season.

I think that is what Lansdown has in mind. The Championship is a wilderness compared with the Prem and clubs that are continually hopping up and down don't have a stable base on which to build. Mind you, with their resources and level of crowd support there is no reason why Bristol should be relegated at all. They are targeting a top six finish this season (might be ambitious) and European success within five years.

Steve Lansdown isn't usually one for coming out with controversial remarks but he was very vocal recently when it was reported that Leeds United had sent someone to spy on Derby County's training sessions prior to a match against them. He said that Leeds United should be docked points.

Does the Pro14 have promotion and relegation?

 

[superking]

The tv interview with Stephen lansdown was on BBC breakfast sport this morning.

 

[kfs]

One word for Mr. Lansdown : Exeter

 

[Jerry]

Does the Pro14 have promotion and relegation?

No it doesn't.

 

[Cambrian]

The difference between the English Premier rugby and the Pro 14 is the ownership structure. The Irish regions are controlled by the Irish RU, Edinburgh and Glasgow are controlled by the Scottish RU and the Welsh Rugby Union has a financial stake in the four Welsh regional clubs. I do not know how the South African and Italian teams are controlled. The English clubs , I believe, are owned by individuals.

 

[Jerry]

The WRU owns the Dragons but not the other 3. They are independent.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

One word for Mr. Lansdown : Exeter

Exeter have done incredibly well since being promoted to the Premiership in 2010. Until then they were never really regarded as one of England's top clubs at any stage of their existence. Ironically, they beat Bristol in the play-off final in 2010 to gain promotion after Bristol had finished top of the league in the regular season.

Bristol finished top of the regular season league in three of the four following seasons as well, only to lose a semi-final play-off once (to Cornish Pirates) and two play-off finals after that (to London Welsh and Worcester). In 2015/2016 they finished top of the regular season yet again and at last won the play-off final (against Worcester), only to be relegated from the Prem the following season. Last season they finished top of the regular Championship season yet again (the sixth time since 2010) and in the absence of play-offs went straight back up to the Prem.

For a club of such pedigree for much of the 20th Century it was amazing that no-one came forward to invest heavily in it when the professional era dawned towards the end of the last century. 'Sugar daddies' invested in neighbouring clubs like Bath and Gloucester and even Worcester, who in Bristol's heyday of the mid 20th Century, were pleased to get a game against Bristol United (the club's second XV).

By the late 1990s/early 'noughties' Bristol was in danger of ceasing to exist. There were rumours of an amalgamation with Bath and even a move to Oxford to play at the Kassam Stadium as a franchise. Bristol Rovers had moved to the Memorial Ground as tenants of the rugby club in the 1990s, and through a mysterious contractual agreement were allowed to purchase the stadium for a song from the rugby club when the original rugby company ceased to trade. That left Bristol with no ground of their own and with little financial investment.

It's since been revealed that Steve Lansdown began to invest in the rugby club behind the scenes for a year or two before taking full ownership through his Bristol Sport enterprise and eventually moving it to join his Bristol City at a revamped Ashton Gate which is across the city from the rugby club's traditional heartland.

Fears that fans would stay away from Ashton Gate have proved groundless and the support is now amongst the best in the Premiership at one of the best stadiums in that league.

The thinking is that if Bristol can avoid relegation this season, which they ought to, it will be a springboard for the onfield success that the owner and coach are looking for.

The difference between the English Premier rugby and the Pro 14 is the ownership structure. The Irish regions are controlled by the Irish RU, Edinburgh and Glasgow are controlled by the Scottish RU and the Welsh Rugby Union has a financial stake in the four Welsh regional clubs. I do not know how the South African and Italian teams are controlled. The English clubs , I believe, are owned by individuals.

The WRU owns the Dragons but not the other 3. They are independent.

Premiership ring-fencing is in the news again today, with Premierhship Rugby seeking talks with the RFU on the future of the club game, including the possibility of stopping promotion and relegation. A spokesperson for Premiership Rugby said, "Our key objective is to deliver long-term financial sustainability for professional rugby in England". It's reported that some Championship clubs have threatened legal action if they are excluded from the Premiership.

 

[Jerry]

Premiership ring-fencing is in the news again today, with Premierhship Rugby seeking talks with the RFU on the future of the club game, including the possibility of stopping promotion and relegation. A spokesperson for Premiership Rugby said, "Our key objective is to deliver long-term financial sustainability for professional rugby in England". It's reported that some Championship clubs have threatened legal action if they are excluded from the Premiership.

I don't blame them. English rugby should be strong enough to have 2 fully pro league's like France does.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I don't blame them. English rugby should be strong enough to have 2 fully pro league's like France does.

Below is my view on the situation.

There isn’t the depth in English club rugby to sustain two top flight divisions. Looking at the current 12 Championship clubs, their support and financial backing are in most cases far short of being tenable in a Premiership set-up where the second division was automatically a promotion path to the first.

The Championship crowds are in general very poor. For the most part the grounds are tiny too in terms of spectator capacity, viz:

Bedford 6,000
Cornish Pirates 4,000
Coventry 4,000
Doncaster 5,000
Ealing 3,000
Hartpury College 2,000
Jersey Reds 4,000
London Irish 24,000 (they play at Reading FC ground but intend to move to Brentford FC’s new stadium)
London Scottish 4,500
Nottingham 3,000
Richmond 4,500
Yorkshire Carnegie 21,000

To maintain the Bristol forum connection, the three Bristol sides (Clifton, Dings Crusaders and Old Redcliffians) in English rugby's level four National League 2 South possess grounds that hold as many spectators as some of the Championship grounds, and at times they see crowds approaching those of the less well supported Championship clubs, but none of these three Bristol sides would ever get anywhere near the Prem.

Some of the above Championship clubs have appeared in the Prem in the past but in the days when it was a far different beast than it is now, commercially-speaking. London Welsh were relegated from the Prem in 2015 having lost every match. They ceased to exist as a professional club in January 2017 and now play as an amateur side in a regional London area league. Coventry, like London Welsh, were a giant for much of the 20th Century but their fortunes diminished quicker than London Welsh's and they’ve spent most of the past two decades in the second and third levels of English club rugby.

One of the few areas of England where rugby is more popular than football is Cornwall. It would be a marvellous fillip for the game there if Cornish Pirates could find their way into the Prem. Their current ground is far too small but there are moves to build a stadium for the joint use of Pirates and Truro City FC. Capacity would be 10,000 which I think is the minimum allowed by the Prem - I seem to remember a proposed change a few years ago to increase the minimum capacity for Prem grounds but I’m not aware of the idea progressing. Currently five Prem clubs have ground capacities between 10,000 and 13,000: Worcester, Saracens, Sale, Newcastle and Exeter.

The reason that most club owners don’t like the threat of relegation each year is that it cuts across the substantial investment many have made in their club. The Championship is so far beneath the playing standard of the Prem that, as I said in an earlier post, the same promoted and relegated teams swap position each year. There is no chance of a consistent period where an owner is guaranteed a number of years to build their team into a strong, financial and sustainable entity . A consistently strong Premiership is good for English rugby and for the league itself and, it can't be denied, for the clubs that would be ring-fenced.

If it was like football where many Championship clubs do have the wherewithal to compete in the Premier League then I’d have no sympathy with those who want to ring-fence the rugby Premiership. As it is, the relegated team just keeps leap-frogging up and down to the benefit of no-one.

One idea is to increase the Prem from 12 to 13 or 14 clubs. Currently, only London Irish is a contender. The other possible one - Yorkshire Carnegie - is languishing near the foot of the Championship table.

They could extend to 13 now with Irish almost certainly going up. A 14th place could be left open to any other club winning the Championship in the future and meeting all the criteria required for a Prem club. Having 14 clubs might mean a reduction of the cup competition - this season the Premiership Rugby Cup that has replaced the Anglo-Welsh Cup - but whatever it’s called the cup isn’t really a priority for Prem clubs.

If the Prem was eventually sealed at 14 clubs there could still be a future option for any Championship-winning club with the right credentials to play off against the bottom Prem club at the end of a season.

Were there 20 or 22 English clubs with the ability to compete in the Prem then great, and let’s have promotion and relegation, but there aren’t.

 

[kfs]

Below is my view on the situation.

There isn’t the depth in English club rugby to sustain two top flight divisions. Looking at the current 12 Championship clubs, their support and financial backing are in most cases far short of being tenable in a Premiership set-up where the second division was automatically a promotion path to the first.

The Championship crowds are in general very poor. For the most part the grounds are tiny too in terms of spectator capacity, viz:

Bedford 6,000
Cornish Pirates 4,000
Coventry 4,000
Doncaster 5,000
Ealing 3,000
Hartpury College 2,000
Jersey Reds 4,000
London Irish 24,000 (they play at Reading FC ground but intend to move to Brentford FC’s new stadium)
London Scottish 4,500
Nottingham 3,000
Richmond 4,500
Yorkshire Carnegie 21,000

To maintain the Bristol forum connection, the three Bristol sides (Clifton, Dings Crusaders and Old Redcliffians) in English rugby's level four National League 2 South possess grounds that hold as many spectators as some of the Championship grounds, and at times they see crowds approaching those of the less well supported Championship clubs, but none of these three Bristol sides would ever get anywhere near the Prem.

Some of the above Championship clubs have appeared in the Prem in the past but in the days when it was a far different beast than it is now, commercially-speaking. London Welsh were relegated from the Prem in 2015 having lost every match. They ceased to exist as a professional club in January 2017 and now play as an amateur side in a regional London area league. Coventry, like London Welsh, were a giant for much of the 20th Century but their fortunes diminished quicker than London Welsh's and they’ve spent most of the past two decades in the second and third levels of English club rugby.

One of the few areas of England where rugby is more popular than football is Cornwall. It would be a marvellous fillip for the game there if Cornish Pirates could find their way into the Prem. Their current ground is far too small but there are moves to build a stadium for the joint use of Pirates and Truro City FC. Capacity would be 10,000 which I think is the minimum allowed by the Prem - I seem to remember a proposed change a few years ago to increase the minimum capacity for Prem grounds but I’m not aware of the idea progressing. Currently five Prem clubs have ground capacities between 10,000 and 13,000: Worcester, Saracens, Sale, Newcastle and Exeter.

The reason that most club owners don’t like the threat of relegation each year is that it cuts across the substantial investment many have made in their club. The Championship is so far beneath the playing standard of the Prem that, as I said in an earlier post, the same promoted and relegated teams swap position each year. There is no chance of a consistent period where an owner is guaranteed a number of years to build their team into a strong, financial and sustainable entity . A consistently strong Premiership is good for English rugby and for the league itself and, it can't be denied, for the clubs that would be ring-fenced.

If it was like football where many Championship clubs do have the wherewithal to compete in the Premier League then I’d have no sympathy with those who want to ring-fence the rugby Premiership. As it is, the relegated team just keeps leap-frogging up and down to the benefit of no-one.

One idea is to increase the Prem from 12 to 13 or 14 clubs. Currently, only London Irish is a contender. The other possible one - Yorkshire Carnegie - is languishing near the foot of the Championship table.

They could extend to 13 now with Irish almost certainly going up. A 14th place could be left open to any other club winning the Championship in the future and meeting all the criteria required for a Prem club. Having 14 clubs might mean a reduction of the cup competition - this season the Premiership Rugby Cup that has replaced the Anglo-Welsh Cup - but whatever it’s called the cup isn’t really a priority for Prem clubs.

If the Prem was eventually sealed at 14 clubs there could still be a future option for any Championship-winning club with the right credentials to play off against the bottom Prem club at the end of a season.

Were there 20 or 22 English clubs with the ability to compete in the Prem then great, and let’s have promotion and relegation, but there aren’t.

The sad fact is, that like top flight soccer, without the financial support of a wealthy backer, no rugby club can achieve success now. Even in the second tier of English rugby relative success (Ealing) is only achieved if Mike Gooley puts some of his Trailfinders profits into the club. Yes, Exeter have done very well, but without Tony Rowe’s millions would have remained a local club without real ambition. My worry about closing off relegation and promotion would be if the league turned into an American-style franchise system, with franchises being traded and moved around the country. At least at the moment if a club achieves success through a wealthy backer it is usually because that backer has a connection to the club and a genuine commitment – Tony Rowe, Cec Duckworth, Dicky Evans. If that support is withdrawn the club is likely to fall back through the tiers. If the league is closed, then I fear that clubs will become tradeable commodities, with wealthy owners viewing them as a means of making a profit – a certain Glazer family comes to mind. I am biased in that my club, Moseley, handled the transition to a professional game badly and is now languishing near the bottom of the third tier. Clubs like Moseley, Rosslyn Park, Coventry, Richmond, Bedford, and others have traditions and a history equal to any currently in the top tier and should be able to aspire to compete again at the top on merit, even if that merit is based on money. Any club can compete in the future if it has the financial support, and I would prefer this to clubs being traded either based in their current location or as a franchise.

 

[superking]

Localyokel you are the man with answers on information im looking for. I have to be at the eye hospital in march.Im thinking of parking in long ashton park and ride.I have to be in the hospital for 9.15. Is it just the metro busses that run from there and I think its the bus station stop I want,is that the correct stop bus station and metro stops there. Do you know what time in the mornings they start running.
Thank you for any information you can pass.
If I decided to use Avonmouth park and ride time wise start in the mornings would be not much different? TY

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Localyokel you are the man with answers on information im looking for. I have to be at the eye hospital in march.Im thinking of parking in long ashton park and ride.I have to be in the hospital for 9.15. Is it just the metro busses that run from there and I think its the bus station stop I want,is that the correct stop bus station and metro stops there. Do you know what time in the mornings they start running.
Thank you for any information you can pass.
If I decided to use Avonmouth park and ride time wise start in the mornings would be not much different? TY

It's just the M2 Metrobus that runs from Long Ashton Park & Ride to the city centre (there is another route from this P & R to Southmead Hospital via Clifton but that wouldn't be of any use to you).

I've linked the M2 timetable below. It starts running at 0600 and the frequency is every ten minutes before 0900, then every 12 miniutes. Don't rely too much on the timetable in terms of journey time during the morning rush. Once past Redcliffee Hill it turns right and operates along what used to be known as the inner circuit road via Temple Way, Old Market to Bond Street, and then via Rupert Street to the Centre and eventually around the complete circuit back to Redcliffe Hill. That area can be very slow moving at that time of day, especially with the ongoing major roadworks around Temple Circus and there are no bus lanes around the worst of the road works.

The nearest Metrobus stop to the Eye Hospital is at Rupert Street, rather misleadingly called Broadmead (B2) on the timetable. The stop before it called Cabot Circus (S2) is at Bond Street about 150 yards from St James Barton roundabout. Although it's a bit further from the Eye Hospital than the Rupert Street stop the M2 Metrobuses sometimes change drivers at Bond Street and the buses can be hanging around for several minutes.

http://nationaljourneyplanner.travelinesw.com/swe-ttb/TTB/EFA02__00006ce3.pdf

The Avonmouth Park & Ride bus (see timetable below) also does a circuit of the central areas before arriving at the stop nearest the Eye Hospital which is The Haymarket on this route.

If you have a bus pass they can be used on both services but not before 0900. I use the Metrobuses frequently and find them pretty good.

If you have any other queries about this give me a shout on Conversations.

https://www.firstgroup.com/bristol-...ce=PORT&routeid=22679161&operator=3&print=pdf

 

[superking]

Looks like I will have to get the express decker from Weston to get me to the bus station. Thanks for giving me a few ideas where they run to or not. Where the metro stops is too far for me to walk.Thank you Jim I knew you were the man to ask.

 

[superking]

A sad day today with the news release the A380 will be stopped building the model in 2021.Bang goes our A380 rotation to the middle east,so it will have to be a A350 type aircraft. Cant win um all.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A sad day today with the news release the A380 will be stopped building the model in 2021.Bang goes our A380 rotation to the middle east,so it will have to be a A350 type aircraft. Cant win um all.

There will be a lot of disappointed plane spotters and photographers around Winters Lane following today's news.The daily opportunity to see and photograph the behemoth rising from the hills of North Somerset is something many would surely have lost much sleep over in their excitement at the prospect.

When they did eventually reach the state of slumber they would have awoken with the terrible realisation that it was all a dream anyway.

I've flown on 28 sectors with Emirates in the last eight years, 12 on Boeing 777-300ERS and 16 on Airbus A380s. I can't say that the 380 is anything particularly special - well I can, but I'd be lying. From what I read and hear I might be in a minority because many people seem to eulogise the 380.

 

[Jerry]

I've flown on 28 sectors with Emirates in the last eight years, 12 on Boeing 777-300ERS and 16 on Airbus A380s. I can't say that the 380 is anything particularly special - well I can, but I'd be lying. From what I read and hear I might be in a minority because many people seem to eulogise the 380.

I've never actually flown on the A380. Flown the A340 and A330 which have all been enjoyable flights. I think for many the 4 engine aircraft have a bit of romance around them, the 747 is another aircraft that avgeeks seem to love.

 

[aviatorconcorde]

Food for thought: Was Emirates ordering of the A330neo today bristols golden ticket for a middle east flight?