Cipriani Again

Either the boy has a pathological desire to self-destruct, and bring everything nearby down with him.
Or everyone is so worried about how good he could be, they all have it in for him.
You decide, Rucker awaits

Foncia

It is with great sadness that Rucker hears that Foncia, Michel Desjoyeaux and Francois Gabart, has had to retire from the two-handed Barcelona World Race.

The top section of their mast, the top 2 metres, has broken, leaving them no choice but to make passage to Cape Town.

Ocean Racing is a lonely old game, someone famous once should have said.
It has become a lot less lonely in these days of satellite broadband. 
Their good friends and close rivals on Paprec-Virbac 3, Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron, sent a heart-warming message: 
“Hello guys, this is really not good news. We really had become inseparable, motivating each other all the time, asking ourselves each day if we could hold up this pace until the end. It's been a great honour to have been in this battle together. Good luck for the rest of the passage and our hearts go with you”.
Indeed, all our hearts are with you.
One thing is for sure, you haven't heard the last from these two RTW sailors.

Matt Stevens

Good to see Matt Stevens hopefully back in the premiership with Sarries.
A certain former ballroom dancer could learn a lot from him!
Welcome back, Matt.
Rucker wishes you the best of Luck!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/9365329.stm

Now is the winter of our discount pants

Was the headline in Google Reader for the BBC Story on the RSC selling off famous actors costumes.
So much better than the "Thousands of Royal Shakespeare Company costumes on sale" waiting on the BBC website.
Shame!

Tony Bliar

Rucker notes that Tone is due to stand before the Chilcot Committee.
Last year Mr Bliar defended his decision to take the country to war, saying he had no regrets about it and that Saddam Hussein was a "monster".
Take my memory to task, but Rucker is pretty sure the reason we went to war was that SH had Weapons of Mass Destruction capable of being fired within 45 minutes.
That turned out to be a load of tosh, and Tone decided to cover up his mistake by encouraging Dubya to take the World to war. Again.
Sorry, Tone, the chair's too good for the likes of you.

Christophe Bullens

Such a shame for Belgian Christophe Bullens and Five Oceans of Smiles to crash out of the Velux Five Oceans Race.
After a first ocean sprint dogged with problems (split mainsail, fever, watertight integrity challenges, immobile marine mammals), arriving in Capetown only five days before the scheduled start of the second ocean sprint, he had a massive job on his hands to fix the problems from the Atlantic.
Fortunately the second sprint was delayed four days due to bad weather and he managed to get everything done in time for the restart.
However, he returned to Capetown just 24 hours later with electronics and steering problems. After restarting three days later, he returned again with mast-track problems. After starting again a third time, two weeks late, the mast-track pulls out again, and Christophe gracefully retires.
“All the problems encountered have finally beaten me and have prevented me from continuing,” he said. “Unfortunately I have no other choice than to withdraw from the race. It is not reasonable, and even dangerous, to go on. At a certain moment one must be realistic instead of being proud and stubborn. We don’t do this race to prove ourselves to others but it is a challenge with oneself and I can’t commit the people who supported me until now on a path beyond reason.”
Rucker Salutes you, Mr. Bullens,
He only wishes he could be as brave as you.