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A paean to Ian Ashbee
The following article isn't for those with a short attention span, but the story of how Ian Ashbee became a bonafide City legend justifies lengthy prose.
Hull or Barnet? I know of two people who have been faced with this choice. One is myself. I ended up in Barnet, purely for career reasons. The other is Ian Ashbee. Happily, he chose Hull, albeit reluctantly. I think it's fair to say that Hull got very much the better of that particular deal.
It seems almost unthinkable that the summer of 2002 saw Ian Ashbee as good as admit that he wanted the Underhill club to come in with an offer to match Hull City's three-year contract so that he wouldn't have to relocate from his Barnet home to Yorkshire. He also didn't seem averse to staying at Cambidge should they offer him better terms. However, both teams refused to budge so Ashbee had to. One Wembley appearance, two career-threatening injuries and three promotions later, Ash must have looked at Barnet's position at the end of any given season – rarely veering outside of the 90th and 94th positions in the English football pyramid – or Cambridge's plummeting through the leagues, and allowed himself a wry smile at the hand that fate had dealt him. For both player and club, that simple offer of three years of employment was to result in the wildest of journeys.
You may be expecting this story of a captain who led a success-starved Hull City to three promotions, the latter of which saw the club promoted to the top flight for the first time in its then-104-year history, to be gushing in its praise of our greatest of leaders. You'd only be partially right. Ash was the lower-league plodder made good. Given what his chief talents were – winning tackles, physical domination, leading men – his career could easily have remained in English football's third and fourth tiers; such qualities are ten-a-penny in English football. With every promotion that came Hull City's way, questions would inevitably be asked about whether Ash would be able to cut it at the next level. When he was leading the celebrations after our 2-1 victory at the Emirates, after spending 90 minutes snuffing out any threat posed by Cesc Fabregas, Ash had, somewhat emphatically, answered his doubters.
Ash was born in Birmingham and raised a Blue. However, it was the Baseball Ground and not St Andrews where he served his football apprenticeship. He was only to don the white shirt of Derby once against Southend in what was to be then manager Roy McFarland's last game at the club. New manager Jim Smith's continental style didn't seem to have a place in it for Ash and he was shipped off on loan to Icelandic club IR Knattspyrnudeild, where he enjoyed an uncharacteristic goalscoring streak, finding the net three times in eight games. His form with Knattspyrnudeild didn't escape former manager Roy McFarland's notice, however, and Ash was soon heading for the Abbey Stadium and the heart of Cambridge's midfield to be reunited with his erstwhile boss.
McFarland was in the process of doing an excellent job of banishing the anti-football stains that John Beck had left at the Abbey, and hard as it seems to believe given their current predicament, for a good while at the turn of the century Cambridge were one of the more progressive, ambitious clubs in the lower leagues. In 1999, the U's were promoted to whatever the third tier was called in those days, with Ash a fixture protecting their back four. While Ash's standards didn't drop, Cambridge never quite kicked on from this promotion, and McFarland was sacked in 2001 after he'd been forced to sell key assets such as Trevor Benjamin and Martin Butler.
John Beck returned to the club for a brief spell in 2001 before, with relegation looming, U's legend John Taylor took over the managerial reigns. The club was starting on a journey that was to see it flirt with relegation to the Conference South, and Ash, with his contract expiring in the summer of 2002, was attracting the attention of other clubs. Ambitious Hull City, flush with new chairman Adam Pearson's cash and with great things expected of new manager Jan Molby, made their interest very clear. So did Barnet. Thankfully, our interest was greater than theirs.
It seems odd that Ash played for City sans the captain's armband, but that's how his career in East Yorkshire started. In Ash's debut for City – a 2-2 home draw at Boothferry Park against Southend – the calamitous Greg Strong led out the Tigers while Ash's most notable contribution to the afternoon's events was to receive his second booking in the 85th minute for a fairly tame foul. City were 2-1 up at the time but were to end up drawing the game. An inauspicious start, then. It wasn't to get much better either. Jan Molby's reign at City was little short of a disaster, even though he signed three players that would be so instrumental in our back-to-back promotions in Ash and Stuarts Elliott and Green. Ash seemed to embody everything that Molby was about: big on reputation and ego, little by way of anything to get excited by on the pitch.
Ash was pretty dreadful in the two games that effectively put paid to Molby's managerial reign at City: a 3-1 home defeat to Macclesfield and a 1-0 reversal away to Kidderminster, the club from which we had poached the spherical Dane. The only game during this time in which Ash gave us a glimpse of what he was capable of was in a 4-2 home defeat to Leicester in the League Cup, in which the Tigers had taken a team two divisions higher than them into extra time and were unlucky to lose.
Molby went, and Peter Taylor came in, but still Ash was behind both Justin Whittle and Marc Joseph in the Hull City captaincy pecking order. His role was that of midfield enforcer, and it was one that he eventually began to show he was pretty good at.
In truth, however, the first season at City for both Ashbee and Taylor was a non-event. Neither seemed entirely comfortable in their new surroundings, and while there were some real high points – such as the first ever league game at the KC in which we beat Hartlepool 2-0, a 4-1 win at Torquay in which Ash netted his first league goal for City with a quite astonishing volley, and a few thrashings meted out later on in the season to the likes of Carlisle, Kidderminster and Bournemouth – there were some pretty grim lows, none more so than a 3-0 defeat to 10-man Southend at Roots Hall in which it seemed that Peter Taylor's managerial style wasn't going to work at City. Alas, Ash wasn't seen after March in that most forgettable of seasons, as he was injured late on in a 0-0 home draw against Oxford. In his next game he was to captain the club for the first time, and it was almost as if his Hull City career proper was about to start.
That game was a 4-1 home win against Darlington on a sunny August afternoon at the KC. City were irresistible, and the performance set a template for a season that no fan will forget. Ash barely missed a game as we tore the division apart, looking every bit the captain that a team could follow, who would seek out and dispense retribution to any defender taking liberties with any of our more skilful players, and who wasn't a bad footballer too. If City and Ash had spent the previous season treading water, we got off to a flyer in August 2003 and established ourselves in the top three of the table, a position we rarely looked like relinquishing.
The flair that we showed – Danny Allsopp and Ben Burgess up front augmented by Elliott bombing on from the left wing, Jason Price from the right, and Stuart Green posing an attacking threat from central midfield – should have put a strain on our sole defensive player outside of the back four, but Ash was a colossus, ending opposition attack after attack while it was still in the formative stages. Fans, team-mates, management and opposition alike all seemed to be in awe of Ash, a captain in every sense of the word.
As the 2003/04 season drew to a close with City well placed to go up, nerves set in. An error-strewn 3-2 home defeat to Northampton at Easter was followed a few days later by a memorable 3-2 win at Swansea, but City seemed to be making hard work of reaching the finishing line. We developed a knack of snatching frustrating draws from the jaws of victory, all of which led us to that game at Yeovil looking nervously over our shoulders at Torquay and Huddersfield, both of whom were closing in on City in the automatic promotion spots.
Before continuing on the Yeovil game, a little context is required. Most of you won't need it, but it never hurts to be reminded. Going 19 years without promotion is a hell of a feat in English football for a team that had spent its entire history outside of the top flight, especially one with the potential of Hull City. The club had spent the 1990s living on something of a hand-to-mouth existence, run by the inept, the hideous and the downright criminal. We'd played more 'last ever' games than anyone could care to remember as threat of closure or eviction never seemed to linger far from Boothferry Park. But these bleakest of times were, somewhat cruelly, interspersed with periods of hope.
The Lloyd/Hateley regime started with euphoria and ended in tears. The form that had seen us avert what looked to be inevitable relegation from the Football League in our Great Escape came to nothing the following season. Brian Little had led us to the fourth-tier's play-offs in another season that had the bailiffs hammering at the door, but would never be able to recreate that magic and would soon be shown the door. Even under Adam Pearson, the money splashed out initially on his arrival and then again once Jan Molby was appointed had simply seen us become the league's big-time Charlies, big on stadium and transfer fees, low on character and points tally. As John Cleese said en route to Hull in the film Clockwise: "It's not the despair. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand," and so it had proved at City.
To an outsider, going into the Yeovil match it looked as if Hull City couldn't screw it up; an inevitable promotion was finally going to be achieved. To a couple of generations of Hull City fans, all we'd known was that if there was anything that could be screwed up, Hull City would find a way to do it. Promotion was anything but a formality. Yes, we hoped, but we'd hoped before, and all we got in return was despair.
Another draw loomed going into the final stages at Huish Park. City had started the better team and taken an early lead courtesy of a Stuart Green penalty, but then we'd tried to sit on the one-goal advantage, only to concede from a set-piece converted by Yeovil's giant centre-back, Hugo Rodrigues. With various misinformation being spread around the City faithful about the fortunes of Huddersfield and Torquay (no smartphones in those days) it seemed as though we were destined for a nail-biting final day of the season, and therefore the potential for yet more despair. Then, in the 76th minute, up stepped Ian Ashbee.
There are some moments in your life that you can't really remember in precise detail yet you know that you'll never forget. I'm not going to cheat and watch it on YouTube or read old match reports, I'm just going to tell it how I remember it. We launched the ball to the edge of the Yeovil penalty area and they didn't clear it properly. It falls to Ash in a bit of space about 25 yards out, he shoots at goal and then the ball seems to hang in the air… The next thing I know, the weight of a few dozen City fans propels me to the front of the terraces of the away end at Huish Park. Not that I mind one bit.
Football has never made me this happy, this delirious, and I feel this way because Ian Ashbee has scored the most beautiful, amazing, brilliant goal that I've ever seen yet can't remember in any precise detail. Twenty or so of the most gut-wrenching minutes imaginable later, and we're celebrating a promotion that for a good decade of our existence had seemed about as likely as the council building us a stadium worthy of the Premiership.
With promotion came what was to turn into an annual summer sport among certain sections of City fans: that of questioning whether Ash would be good enough to deliver on our ambitions in the coming season. In the summer of 2004, these were simply murmurs, murmurs which Ash was soon to make look stupid. League 1 looked just like League 2 had, in that we were too good for it. An up-and-down start had seen Ash sent off, somewhat stupidly, in a miserable home game against Chesterfield for a trademark (very) late challenge.
One of the games he missed in his three-match suspension was our 3-0 home victory that put paid to Luton's unbeaten start to the season, but such was Peter Taylor's high opinion of Ash that he went straight into the starting line-up in our next game at Wrexham. This was the start of an incredible run of form that propelled us to the top two of the division. Typically, Ash's more noteworthy contributions in this spell were two of his trademarks: a long-range goal to set us off on our 6-1 demolition of promotion rivals Tranmere, and a red card in January in a miserable game at Doncaster.
City cantered to promotion, with fewer alarms than had been encountered the previous season. Ash was generally now being partnered with a more defence-minded central midfielder – more often than not Junior Lewis or Andy Hessenthaler – but remained the rock around which the team was built, the man to do all the ugly stuff while Elliott, Barmby et al went about deconstructing the best that the league's defences could muster. In our fourth from last game of the season, Ash was again leading the promotion celebrations, this time after a 0-0 home draw against Swindon. But he was a lower-league journeyman, wasn't he? Surely he wouldn't be able to cut it in the Championship…
Ash barely had chance to extinguish these doubts before he was facing the prospect of never playing football again, and perhaps never walking again. He'd looked more than good enough in the first few games of our return to second-tier football before fracturing his knee. What seemed like a nasty but not too serious injury developed into something a whole lot more sinister.
Ash had a degenerative bone condition called osteochondral defect that meant that the bone would waste away and not fuse back together. Rumours circulated that he was on the verge of retiring, that he'd been seen in a wheelchair, that Dr Richard Steadman in the US had done his best but given up. It turns out that much of this gossip wasn't too far wide of the mark. As City took up permanent residence in the middle to lower reaches of the Championship, Ash looked on wondering if he'd ever don the black and amber again.
That he did is testament to a fighting spirit that was all too familiar to City fans. I may be taking a bit of artistic licence, but I would imagine it's a near certainty that when the bad news about his knee was delivered, Ash clenched his fist, snarled, won a 50/50 challenge with the bearer of the bad tidings and then tried to run the condition off. Ash was to return. And what a return it was…
Well, it was eventually. In the summer of 2006, Peter Taylor – a manager who had made Ash his general on the pitch, the captain willing to make clear what fate would befall any player whose performance level dropped or who wanted to veer too far from the script – left the KC, convinced for some reason that Crystal Palace offered him something we couldn't. Phil Parkinson replaced him, and, as luckless as he was hapless, got off to about as bad a start as was imaginable. Picking up one point from his first five games, Parkinson's side looked rudderless. The players seemed to be bereft of confidence, low on spirit and confused by our manager's tactics. Who better, then, to enforce things on the pitch than a returning Ash?
His first game back was, fittingly, at Birmingham as the boyhood fan played at St Andrews for the first time. Though City were to lose this game, we looked a whole lot better for Ash's presence. This defeat was followed up by our first two league victories of the season, at Leicester and then at home to Sheffield Wednesday. But just as it looked as if Ash was going to help turn around Parkinson's fortunes, eight games passed without another victory. It was being whispered that Ash, a hugely influential presence in the dressing room, was the main critic among a group of players that didn't appreciate the methods of Phil Parkinson.
Whether this contributed to what was probably the most stupid of his sendings off at City – a late, waist-high tackle on a Southend player in an otherwise memorable 3-2 victory at Roots Hall (think Paul Gascoigne on Garry Parker in the 1991 FA Cup final) – we cannot know, but after an initial surge, Ash's performance levels dropped, and City took root in the Championship's relegation spots. A couple of catastrophic defeats at the hands of Colchester and Southampton saw Parkinson receive his P45, and rumours were rife that he had lost the dressing room. Given that Ash was the club captain and one of our most influential players on and off the pitch, you couldn't help but wonder if he was something of a kingmaker within the club.
Regardless, Parkinson's time was up and his recently appointed number two, Phil Brown, was given the task of saving City's Championship status. We achieved this task in a too-close-for-comfort manner, capable of the odd stirring victory, but still putting in some pretty horrible, toothless displays that saw us unable to establish daylight between ourselves and the bottom three. During this time, Ash's popularity among the City fans plummeted to an all-time low.
His performances were often below the required standard, and the stray passes that had been of little consequence in the lower leagues stood out like sore thumbs in the second tier. Whenever City put in an anaemic performance – such as the home defeats to Leeds, Norwich and Ipswich, the latter of which saw the Portman Road side put five past us, and away defeats at Wolves, Sunderland and Coventry – Ash seemed to bear the brunt of most of the criticism. He was, if his critics were to be believed, failing to inspire his team and out of his depth at this level.
Possibly a nadir in Ash's relationship with the City fans was reached in a night match at Barnsley. City had spent the 90 minutes playing with no fight or passion. We'd seemingly turned up to lose the game, something we went on to achieve with aplomb. The massed ranks of City's fans, expecting us to display some sort of desire given our precarious position, vented their collective spleens at the players as they left the pitch. Some of the players still applauded the fans, others just kept their heads down. Ash looked at the fans and shrugged his shoulders.
Why, only he knows. It could have meant many things: a gesture of apology, his way of saying "these things happen", or maybe even one of "what can one person do about it?". Of course, City fans who'd trekked across Yorkshire to witness such a miserable display translated it as Ash's way of displaying his indifference to our battle against relegation – a reaction that was as irrational as Ash's initial gesture had been ill-advised. Four days later he put in a commanding performance as we swatted aside promotion-chasing Birmingham in a 2-0 victory at the KC.
One man who hadn't doubted Ash's abilities and value to the team was Phil Brown. Made our permanent manager after we'd averted relegation, Brown seemed no more likely to dispense with Ash's services than Peter Taylor had been. In the early stages of the 2008/09 season, however, Brown and Ash didn't really do too much to quell the doubts that many City fans had voiced about the duo in the previous season.
Another gesture by Ash – looking at the East Stand at the KC and shaking his head as the fans, to a man, gave oncoming substitute Jay-Jay Okocha a standing ovation on debut – drew further criticism. The back-to-back promotions seemed a long time ago now, and while a goal in a televised game against Blackpool showed that Ash still had qualities worth harnessing, the team didn't seem as reliant on its captain as it once had.
Indeed, City's most impressive performance in the first half of that most glorious of seasons came without Ash. A red card in a home game against a vile, vile Charlton side, for his role in starting a 20-man brawl, saw Ash suspended for a few games and replaced by David Livermore. It was hard not to notice just how slick we looked without Ash's somewhat limited passing abilities slowing down the momentum of our attacks. A 3-0 victory at home to Barnsley saw us play our finest football since our return to second-tier football, and brought with it the uncomfortable truth for many City fans that we looked better without Ash in the starting XI than with.
Thankfully, one man who didn't agree with that assessment was Phil Brown. As soon as his suspension was up, Ash was straight back into the starting line-up with captaincy duties fully restored. Unfortunately, City's form remained patchy. After a miserable 4-0 defeat at St Mary's to Southampton, City looked for all the world more like relegation candidates than a team on the verge of taking the division by storm, and Ash's performance and captaincy could best be described as listless. Phil Brown even felt the need to defend Ash in the local media, explaining to the fans on more than one occasion how Ash's ProZone stats were as good as anyone's at the club. But Ash's critics, who trusted their eyes more than they did a computer print-out, didn't seem convinced. Then something clicked.
City fans' opinions of when they realised that the 2007/08 season was about to become the greatest in our history will generally differ. My initial moment of realisation was a 1-1 draw at Charlton. Back then, Charlton were still thought of as a Premiership team slumming it, regrouping before an inevitable return to the top flight. Except that day City played them off the park and Ash was magnificent. The bad blood from the home game a few months earlier had lingered into this pre-Christmas clash, something that Ash seemed to be relishing.
A more mature approach seemed to envelop our skipper, and he expertly wound up Danny Mills until the ex-City loanee could take no more and foolishly got himself sent off. Though City were to only draw this game, it seemed to mark a changing of our approach, and key to it was Ash. He was at the top of his game again, having reworked out how to play to his strengths while not allowing his weaknesses to be exposed.
City were still in the bottom half of the table at this point, but then went on a run that was to defy belief. We were going to the grounds of the league's big hitters and matching anything they could do, most memorably in a 2-1 win at West Brom. At home we were playing a style of football that few could remember coming from the club. Home victories against Burnley and Scunthorpe saw us serve up a passing game that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Netherlands in the 1970s. This was all done with Ian Ashbee, the lower-league clogger, in the team. It would be foolish to pretend that Ash was the focal point of this dazzling football, but he was, as he had been most notably in our League 1 promotion, doing the job of two men in midfield to allow our attacking players the freedom to do what they did best.
But that's not to say that Ash wasn't contributing at the business end of the pitch. While getting into the top three wasn't easy, the task of staying there seemed to eat away at the nerves of some players. In truth, we had a bit of a wobble in the final five games or so of the league season, but it was in these games where Ash thrived. Yes, he scored two important goals – both outstanding headers from corners against Barnsley and Crystal Palace – but more importantly he seemed to relish the challenge ahead. The scarier it got for the fans, and some of the players, the harder Ash tackled, the higher he jumped, the more inspirational he seemed.
He embodied on the pitch the extraordinary self-belief that Phil Brown had somehow instilled into this group of players. Nothing, it seemed, was going to take away from him this one shot at promotion to the top flight. And nothing would.
The play-off semi-finals were horrible, fraught things, despite the eventual gulf in scoreline between us and Watford. Ash was superb in the away tie at Watford, continuing his form from the end of the regular season. While Ash had won the battle of the midfields in the first half as City went 2-0 up, snuffing out the threat of Watford talisman John Eustace in the process, the home team had dominated the first 15 minutes of so of the second half, repelled only by the brilliance of Boaz Myhill. However, Eustace – no doubt tired of Ash snapping at his heels every time he got the ball – could contain his frustration no longer and foolishly went for Ash when a minor melee broke out.
Ash simply backed away, knowing his job was done. Eustace saw red, Ash didn't, and we got to play against 10 men for the remainder of the game. This put the Hornets on the back foot, and indeed had Fraizer Campbell or Nathan Doyle finished at least one of the trio of straightforward one-on-ones that fell to them, the game at the KC on the Wednesday would have been a mere formality. As it turned out we had the sickening half-hour or so between Darius Henderson's opener and Nick Barmby's equaliser before we could start planning our weekends in north-west London.
On May 24th, 2008, Ian Ashbee became the first captain to lead out Hull City at Wembley. Ash was again one of City's better performers on the pitch that day, doing an excellent job in effectively quelling the not-inconsiderable threat posed by Marvin Elliott and Nick Carle, and was in his element in those final agonising 20 minutes when every Bristol City attack seemed to only be prevented by a last-ditch tackle by one of our defenders or our indomitable skipper.
When the final whistle blew, the national media's attention fell primarily on Dean Windass and Nick Barmby. This was understandable, as both were local lads whose names were known in towns and cities west of Goole and south of Barton, whose stories were pretty incredible by any standards. Ash, on the other hand, seemed to fall below the radar.
His achievement of captaining the club to three promotions – the first player in English football ever to do so – would get the odd mention, but that was it. Nothing on the fact that he'd fought back from a potentially crippling injury, on his background of little but lower-league football, on his constant rebounding from being written off every time City moved up another level. But while the national press may have ignored Ian Ashbee, Hull City fans didn't.
The fact that he was born in Birmingham was little more than a geographical accident. He was Hull, 100%, and embodied everything that we loved about our club and our city: he was unfashionable, written off, ignored, would shrug off the knocks and come back stronger. He was our captain and with him leading us nothing seemed impossible. Indeed, during the second half of 2008, impossible seemed to be one word temporarily erased from the dictionaries in Hull.
The annual sport of writing off Ian Ashbee in a close season didn't happen in the summer of 2008. We were all going to be out of our depth in the Premiership, not just Ash. But the man who had led us to the summit was not going to be denied a shot at 'the biggest league in the world'. Seeing off positional rivals had never really been a problem for Ash.
The more defensive, combative midfielders that came and went during Ash's time at Hull City numbered Dean Keates, Junior Lewis, Andy Hessenthaler, Curtis Woodhouse, Michael Keane, Keith Andrews, Jason Jarrett and David Livermore, but none of them ever really looked like prying the number four shirt from his grasp. And while City signed experienced Premiership campaigner George Boateng in the close season, there never really seemed to be much doubt that Ash would lead us out for our first ever game in the top flight.
Ash didn't just lead us out, he flew out of the traps. As Hull City hurtled uncontrollably towards what looked for a while as if it could only end in world domination, Ash didn't look in any way out of place pitting himself against the likes of Xabi Alonso, Luka Modric, Frank Lampard and Cesc Fabregas. Indeed he was a key figure in our unlikely victory at the Emirates, not giving Fabregas room to breathe all game and thus going a long way to quelling the Gunners' attacking threat. After that most incredible of games, you couldn't help but ponder – as unlikely as it seems now – how Arsenal would have been so very much improved if they had simply imported our spine of Myhill, Turner and Ashbee to replace the feeble Almunia, Kolo Toure and Denilson.
Ian Ashbee, the man who only six years previous had been the subject of the most low-key transfer tug-of-war imaginable between two teams that seemed glued to the lower reaches of the fourth tier, was now taking his team to the finest stadia in the land, competing against some of the finest players in the world and coming out on top. Finally, some of the recognition that had been denied Ash in the summer was coming his way too, with a special award being given at the PFA's annual beano in recognition of his unique captaincy feat and Piers Morgan naming him his British Football Personality of the Year in his Daily Mail column, an accolade that seemed to genuinely touch Ash.
You know what came next, how it all fell apart, how our runaway train-style momentum came hurtling off the tracks. But even as we were found out, as Phil Brown started to struggle under the weight of expectation that he'd heaped upon himself, Ash still thrived. As it became more apparent that we were becoming embroiled in a relegation scrap, Ash's combative qualities came to the fore.
He gave possibly his finest performance in a City shirt in a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea in February 2009, a game in which City were the better team and Ash nearly capped with a late winner as he hit a peach of a volley which went narrowly wide. A month later he was to become the only player of our fabled four – Myhill, Andy Dawson, Ryan France and Ash – to both play in and score in every division for Hull City with a late strike that gave us hope in a 2-1 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers. Sadly, as relegation loomed, we were again to be denied the services of our skipper.
In a game in early May at Aston Villa, the team most hated by Ash presumably, our captain fell awkwardly, twisting his knee in the process. Like a true hardman, Ash tried to run it off. The injury he was trying to run off would see him miss not just the rest of that season, but the whole of the next one too. Ash had played his final game of Premiership football. The injury to his posterior cruciate ligament had aggravated the osteochondral defect, and Ash was to spend yet another lengthy period on the treatment table. Except this time he would have a team-mate to keep him company. That team-mate? Jimmy Bullard.
That the final 18 months of Ash's time with Hull City are so intrinsically linked with Bullard is a crying shame. The two were regularly seen around the bars and clubs of Hull, sometimes with a gaggle of the club's younger players in their company. When question marks were raised about Bullard's conduct and his commitment to the club, when his fleeting appearances on the pitch made it clear that he was not going to be our saviour, and the astronomical wages he was doing nothing to warrant made him seem more like the anti-christ as we struggled under a mountain of debt in the Championship, it was hard to disassociate Ash from it all.
One of the most heroic figures in our history and one of the most villainous seemed joined at the hip. When a Sunday newspaper showed pictures of Bullard getting up to some 'high-jinks' in Las Vegas, it was Ash stood grinning in the background (cruelly described in the caption only as 'a friend' by a sub-editor whose interest in football obviously begins and ends with Soccer AM). As rumours of rifts within the dressing room at the KC circled around Hull in Phil Brown's final days, and Bullard got into a very public bout of fisticuffs with the saintly Nick Barmby, it was hard not to ponder what Ash's role within it all was.
When Ash finally made it back onto the pitch, it was hard not to notice that he was carrying a few extra pounds. A goal on his first game back in the opening game of the 2010/11 season against Swansea meant that any questions over his fitness were delayed, but not for long. Two awful away defeats at Millwall and Doncaster saw Ash playing as badly as he ever had done for City. His touch – limited at the best of times – had gone and his ability to get around the pitch was nothing like what it had been the last time he'd donned the black and amber. In short, in those first few games back he was a liability. And while arguments that we should cut a little slack to a player who had been out for so long were not without merit, it was hard for many City fans not to associate Ash's condition with the social antics and questionable attitude that Jimmy Bullard had displayed.
The first third of that season was miserable as Nigel Pearson went about stripping the club of the excesses and poor attitude that had seen us relegated from the Premiership, and replace it with a disciplined, youthful side that could match the best the Championship had to offer. For a time it looked as though Ash, whose performances improved as the season progressed, would be part of those plans. But then Preston appointed Phil Brown as their manager and City signed Corry Evans.
Rumours had started at the end of 2010 that Preston were going to make a move for Ash, but most City fans just figured that a few over-eager internet trolls were putting two and two together to make five. The stories refused to go away, however, and with Ash's contract running out and Corry Evans coming from Manchester United's reserves with a very good report from Warren Joyce, it soon became apparent that we were to lose Ash. Brown needed a general on the pitch at Deepdale and presumably a presence in the dressing room, so in late January 2011, eight-and-a-half years after he'd signed, Ian Ashbee left Hull City.
Regardless of the associations with Jimmy Bullard, regardless of the, ahem, tightness of his shirt in that final half season, regardless of anything else anyone could think of, it was a sad, sad day for the club. We'd gone through so much with Ash, and to contemplate him wearing a shirt that didn't bear the Hull City crest was uncomfortable. That we'd have to see him doing it in a few weeks' time made matters even worse.
Our home game against Preston in February 2011 was a strange affair, with Ash lining up against Hull City for the first time since he'd scored a 90th minute goal for Cambridge in a 2-0 win at the Abbey in March 1999. Commendably, everyone involved in the game saw it as three points being up for grabs and nothing else. We'd had time to get used to Phil Brown no longer being part of the set-up at the KC, but seeing Ash in a Preston shirt just didn't sit right. While Preston looked ten times the team we'd beaten only four months earlier, Ash's reaction at the final whistle of a 1-0 City victory was to sprint straight to the changing room. It would have been nice for the fans to be able to give him the send off he deserved, but he'd just been beaten and it wouldn't have impressed the Preston fans to be seen lapping up any sort of adulation after a defeat. Sentiment is for fans, not players.
Ash's time at Preston didn't come close to emulating his time with Hull City. Though Preston's form improved in the second half of the 2010/11 season, they were still relegated, and Ash never endeared himself to the Deepdale faithful. Indeed, in the 2011/12 season, as Preston took up residence in the middle to lower reaches of League 1 and Phil Brown's popularity among the fans plummeted, Ash – out injured from October onwards – was generally lumped in with his former manager when it came to any criticism that was being meted out.
Neither had been able to reignite the magic they'd created at the KC, and both were seen as little more than expensive failures. Fewer than two months after Brown was sacked from the Preston job, Ash had his contract with the club paid off. It was a sad way for such a legend to see out his career. Within a few months, Ash – no doubt mindful of what he'd put his creaking knees through – was working in a high-end jewellers in Hull, attending games at the KC. His retirement hasn't been given anything like the fanfare it deserves.
This isn't a rise and fall story, however. Ash's Hull City career perhaps tailed off a bit, and his time at Preston barely warrants footnote status in his grand list of achievements, but that does not taint his legendary status within Hull City or football in general. Few players in their mid-30s can match the feats of their mid-20s. It's a shame that Ash couldn't wind down his career at Hull, carried around the pitch on his team-mates' shoulders after his final game while a packed KC gave him the send-off he deserves, but football rarely works like that. In Ash we'd had a captain in the truest sense of the word. He didn't just shake his opposition number's hand and toss a coin before the kick-off. At his best he cajoled, harassed, enforced and downright terrified team-mates and opponents alike into doing things his way, a way that saw us win games.
He was as comfortable holding the fort in front of the back four as we stuck three or four past some hapless opposition defence as he was throwing himself into tackle after tackle as we ground out a 1-0 win in sub-zero temperatures in mid-January. With Ash, the armband took on a significance that is all too rare in any sport. Despite the wobbles in form, despite the question marks over his ability, Ash would never disappear from a game, never shirk from his responsibilities. He'd have bad games, but never quiet ones. His commitment and bravery meant that even when you were frustrated by a misplaced pass you could never stop admiring the guy. And you never, ever should.
So there you have it: 264 appearances, 13 goals, six sendings off, three promotions, two career-threatening injuries… there's only one Ian Ashbee, and it was a privilege to have been led by him on as thrilling, enthralling and rewarding an adventure as football is likely to throw up anywhere in the world.
Rich Gardham


text: garydavidson 1,443 Report post Posted January 9 6 hours ago, sixties saintee said: Will see if Scott can put Canada under tuk. Sorry was just meaning it seemed a bit strange to me to have England listed as well as cities in England. Obviously no decision making on my part just a query. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites

subset: commoncrawl


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If you have plans for a Memorial Day Barbecue on Monday, May 30, there's no need to worry that you'll be missing ALL MY CHILDREN, ONE LIFE TO LIVE and GENERAL HOSPITAL, because ABC Daytime has planned a full-network encore broadcast that day.
The episodes to air are:
AMC: From October 17, 2008 -- A tornado strikes Pine Valley, leaving Zach trapped in a car, and Adam and Erica stranded together. Aidan spies Ryan and Greenlee in each other's arms, Babe is mortally wounded, and Zach finds a pregnant Bianca in the rubble.
*OLTL: From April 15, 2011 -- * Learning that Shane is being bullied in school, Clint visits his grandson, but Rex won't let him speak to the boy. Bo and Nora debate whether or not Matthew should turn himself in for murdering Eddie, while Phyllis Rose announces that she knows who the killer is. Marty asks John if he would take Natalie back if he were to find out that Liam was his son.
GH: From February 25, 2011 - History repeats itself in this "clink-boom" episode as Sonny and Brenda depart for their honeymoon, only for their limo to go up in flames. But their wedding guests are all shocked to discover who was really inside the car when it exploded.


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'Hue & Cry'
'Hue & Cry' - A 1970 introduction it has received the highest award given Japanese Iris, you can see why. Displaying startling coloration and contrast with unique deep veining in the falls that give a nice 'pinwheel' accent to the overall affect. A 30 inch, mid-season bloomer. $12.00


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Nerd Lunch: 00Walrus #1: Dr. No
04 05
23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33
00Walrus #1: Dr. No
For Christmas, I received the first 20 "official" James Bond movies on DVD. These are the two disc sets and run from
Dr. No
Die Another Day.
One of the longest running franchises and despite its success, it always seems to be divisive amongst its fans. Who was the best Bond? Who was the best Bond girl? The best theme? And so on.
So, I figured I'd make an attempt to watch them all again in chronological order and after each viewing, I'd come back here and share some thoughts about all those things that make a James Bond movie a James Bond movie. In this series, I'm not going to do the full walrus review, but assign a "tusk" score. Two tusks means that component was great, one means it was fairly neutral and no tusk means I could do without ever seeing that again.
Bond: Sean Connery - 2 tusks
Great character from the get-go. Probably the most defining scene was when he killed the scientist in cold blood. Bond doesn't make the mistakes that his adversaries make. When he wants someone dead, he sees to it. Connery has a sophisticated ruggedness early on that not even he ever quite captures again.
Girl: Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder - 2 tusks
Set the tone for the Bond girls to come. I learned on the special features that her voice was dubbed by someone else. Had the look, the exotic accent, and stayed cool under fire. Certainly one of the best in the entire series.
Gadgets: Walther PPK, Geiger Counter - 2 tusks
The gadgets hadn't really made their appearance as of yet. Bond is given the Walther PPK gun to use early in the movie and is sent a Geiger counter to use. I do enjoy the gadgetless Bond much more than the one with gadgets.
Opening Theme: James Bond Theme followed by a Calypso medley - 2 tusks
I could have done without the Calypso medley, but there wasn't a better way to start the series than to use the theme that would go on to become a classic.
Villain: Joseph Wiseman as Dr. No - 2 tusks
Set the stage for all Bond villains to come. I love that we don't see him for much of the movie. It is simply the fear invoked in others that raises his coolness factor. When he does appear, there is payoff and he sets the tone for the calm and collected villain that should be respected.
Watching this again, I came away with so much more respect for it than I had in the past. Really a simple story. More of a mystery and less of an action film. I wish more of the subsequent Bond films had been as good as this one.
Special Features:
Disc Two has a behind the scenes thing that's about an hour long. Really good and goes into a lot of depth about getting the franchise going. Very interesting and thorough. Some extra features aren't all that great, but this one had a lot of meat to it. There was a great little insight into the creation of the theme song that I actually had to rewind and watch three or four times before moving on.
Great movie, let alone a great Bond movie. And the restoration on this film was great. Looked like a brand new movie.
by Carlin Trammel
James Bond
movie review
35 36 37 38


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Posted: Mar 12, 2019
SALISBURY, Md. - The Hood College baseball team got the go-ahead run on base in the top of the ninth but No. 22 Salisbury held on for a 3-2 win over the Blazers.
Inside the Box Score
- Nathan Kessler had two hits and a walk and Jordan Patterson added a pair of base hits.
- Trent Copenhaver doubled.
- Daniel Shepherd stole two bases.
- Hood used the game to get six pitchers work over the nine innings. Connor Henniges took the loss. He allowed one run in one inning of relief.
How it Happened
- The Blazers scored single runs in the third and fourth innings to take an early lead.
- Dylan Beck led off the third with a bunt single and stole second. After a passed ball moved him to third, Shepherd squeezed him home for Hood's first run.
- In the fourth, Joe Kroeger was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Patterson to make it 2-0.
- The Sea Gulls cut the lead in half in the bottom of the fourth when Jimmy Monaghan knocked in Tyler Mayo with a single.
- RBI doubles by Jay Perry in the seventh and Brandon Bonesteel in the eighth put Salisbury on top.
- Beck was hit by a pitch in the ninth and Andrew Wenner singled to put two runners on with one out, but Xavier Marmol forced a double play to end the game.
- Marmol pitched 5.2 innings of relief for the win. He did not allow a run and struck out seven.
- Monaghan went 2 for 5 with two RBIs and Mayo scored twice.
Up Next
Hood, 7-3 this season, opens conference at home against Stevenson on Friday, March 15.


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ColdFusion asynchronous calls (event gateway)
February 1, 2008 at 2:12 am Taco Fleur 2 comments
Do you have some methods that require lots of processing, but don't want the customer to have to wait for the result? I've programmed a cool event gateway today, very simple, but it allows you to pass an object to it, the method to call, and the arguments.
Anyone interested in the component, just leave a comment with your details and I'll forward you a copy of the code.
The code to make the asynchronous call is as following:
myData = structNew();
myData.object = request.new( "Test" ).init(); // creates a new object
myData.methodName = "test"; // the name of the method to call on the object
myData.argumentCollection.ipAddress = cgi.REMOTE_ADDR; // the arguments to pass
sendGatewayMessage( "ASynchronousCall", myData ); // make the asynchronous call
It's that easy, very powerfull and saves your customers from waiting on processing that can be done behind the scenes and requires no response to be returned to screen.
Any questions, just ask 😉
Entry filed under: ColdFusion. Tags: asynchronous calls, event gateway, Programming.
2 Comments Add your own
Please forward me the code so that I can take a look at this. Thanks!
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It's not too late to start, I'm only half way through crocheting my 100cm x 60com rectangle ( above) of pink wool to send to to WAW. My effort and anything you send will be included in the 7miles of work that will stretch from the Womens Peace Camp at Aldermaston to Burghfield Nuclear Weapons Establishment in Berkshire, England. We are protesting the planned replacement of Trident nuclear submarines during this recession or ever.
Check out more details at www.woolagainstweapons.co.uk or on their page on Facebook.
Women (and some men) from all over the world are sending knitting to the organisers of this protest. It's a good buzz.


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Home >> Woodworking >> Pens >> Bolt Action in Gun Metal with Deer Antler
Bolt Action in Gun Metal with Deer Antler
Product Details:
This is a Pen and Pencil Set made with Deer Antler and includes Gun Case.
This completely original and irresistibly fun Bolt Action pen will be hard for any hunting or target-shooting enthusiast to put down. Every detail, from the one of a kind bolt action mechanism to the precision engineered components, was carefully designed to ensure uniqueness and reliability. The realistic bolt-action handle smoothly advances and retracts to securely lock the refill in place. Includes a bolt action rifle clip and a replica 30 caliber cartridge and rose gold bullet tip for added authenticity.
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Items ships from : United_States.
Price: $ 98.00
Product Information
Product name - Bolt Action in Gun Metal with Deer Antler
Price: USD 98.00
In Stock: 1
Price: USD 98.00
In Stock: 1
Listed On 2018-06-05
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The Lancer EVO-driving group "Emperor" have defeated every racing team they've met in the Gunma region. Now they're out to challenge the duo of Mako and Sayuki and their SilEighty - the Impact Blue of Usui Mountain.
Japanese: 頭文字〈イニシャル〉D EXTRA STAGE
Type: OVA
Episode: 2
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Mar 22, 2001
Season: Spring 2001
Studio: Pastel
Duration: 27 minutes
External Links: MyAnimeList


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We always get the urge to type this around the middle of this month. Blame Shakespeare.
Or if you're tired of blaming old Will, take a cue from South Park.
This year, the Ides of March bring us the fourth installment of Robert Weinberg's Collecting Fantasy Art series; this one is titled "Art Mania!" We're very happy to be hosting this series, as it is an important memoir in the history of the art of science fiction and fantasy. Many people have written books about science fiction and fantasy art, but to our knowledge, this is the first (maybe to be a book in the near future) written about the "collecting bug" by one of the premier art collectors in our field.
We hope you are enjoying not only this important series, but also our regular series of short fiction reviews. Our reviewing staff are kept, we believe, very happy in their perfumed cages with the gilded bars; they rest on plump pillows of pure velvet, while a bevy of beautiful robotic servants (who are here, after all, to Serve Mankind) feeds them peeled grapes and luscious chocolates, not to mention the inevitable honeydew and Milk of Paradise, all the while murmuring soft words of encouragement into our reviewers' shell-like ears.
As always, we encourage you to visit our Facebook page and use the "Like" button; and we urge you to recommend us to your friends, who will thank you for it.
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Oakwood Media
Oakwood Info
The Oakwood is a plan sure to please! This home offers four bedrooms located on the second floor with an option to add a bedroom on the main level. The large Great Room features a tray ceiling, adding lots of character to the room and is open to the breakfast room and kitchen. The splendid kitchen with tremendous cabinet space and an expansive island has amazing storage with an unbelievable pantry and bulk storage. The second-floor design features split bedrooms giving lots of privacy. A touch of elegance, in a warm and comfortable space, allows you to relax in your spacious master suite. The master bathroom offers a double vanity and separate tub and shower options and features an impressive closet with an attached walk-in attic storage. Three additional bedrooms and a loft give an abundance of space for a large family.


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County Louth all-time best performers
Latest updates:
M 60m 7.07 i Anthony Dillon 3 Dec 2019
A list of the all-time best County Louth athletes in each event has been compiled. It was published here for the first time in December 2018.
It includes athletes who were members of a Louth club at the time of the performance, as well as former members of Louth clubs who would generally be regarded as being 'originally from' County Louth.
All events currently contested in the Olympic Games or World Indoor Championships are included, with the exception of the 20km and 50km Walks and the mixed 4x400m (for which no significant performances have yet been noted) and with the addition of the Mile and the Weight for Distance.
Performances that meet at least one of these criteria are included:
(1) it's the 'Louth record';
(2) it's worth 900 points or more on the IAAF scoring tables;
(3) it's equal to or better than the minimum standard for the AAI all-time lists.
Note that, in the hurdles, steeplechase and throws, only performances with the senior hurdle heights/hurdle spacings/implement weights are included.
Although significant efforts have been made to make this list as complete as possible, it's likely that several performances are missing. Please send details of any missing performances, corrections (no matter how trivial), additional information (for performances in red or with a yellow background) or other comments to Tom McGrane (email@example.com). All feedback will be very welcome.


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Learning for life
Learning for life
Education under the Lordship of Christ
Thornlie Christian College seeks to develop people of influence who engage life from a Christian world view, providing them with the skills to succeed in their life and calling.
To offer a quality Christian education where students learn the importance of academics, a balanced spiritual life and self-discipline.
In all its endeavours the Learning Community of Thornlie Christian College seeks first the Kingdom of God while providing an environment where:
Thornlie Christian College is a ministry of Thornlie Church of Christ that grew out of a vision held by its members to establish a Christian school based on Christian principles. The goal of the College was and is to offer a quality Christian education where students learn the importance of academic performance, a balanced spiritual life and self-discipline. It is from this that we derive our motto, "Learning for Life".
Founded in 1984, the College has become an interdenominational Christian College which provides a complete christian education from Kindergarten to Year 12. The College produces high calibre graduates and through its commitment to individualised pastoral care and the learning needs of its students, has built a reputation for excellence.
The College is affiliated with Christian Schools Australia (CSA), a national association of Christian schools that provides fellowship, support and advocacy for member schools. Christian Schools Australia member schools provide an education that seeks to establish in students a practical understanding of how the Christian Faith applies to life, through the integration of Biblical teaching in the curriculum.
We recognise that an effective partnership with the family is necessary to ensure success in achieving our objectives. To this end, parents are encouraged to participate in the life of the College in a number of ways including: helping out in the classrooms, supporting College activities and the Parents in Action Committee, joining the College prayer group, providing opportunities for work experience placement, attending weekly assemblies, or volunteering to help in the Library or Office.
The College is a close-knit community and our partnership with parents helps to build and maintain a joint commitment to offering students the best possible educational opportunities. We hope you will see the College as a place where you are welcome to share and participate in the life of the community.


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Test Name: PRA-rcd2
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Testing organization: OptiGen
Regular Price: $130, or $120 if done at the same time as DMS test from the same sample.
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The Convalescent's Soul: Beethoven's Opus 132 (1825)
– J. W. N. Sullivan, Beethoven: His Spiritual Journey
"You never get to the bottom of [Beethoven's quartets]; they may be the most single profound statement that any human being ever contributed to the world of art."
– Peter Oundjian, violinist and conductor (Toronto Symphony Orchestra)
Take the quotes above as an example of the well-deserved and universal praise for Beethoven's late string quartets. The maestro's last five quartets (Nos. 12-16) plus the Grosse Fuge, which was originally composed as a finale for No. 13, have received almost universal recognition as some of the greatest music ever composed.
Beethoven began composing the quartets at the request of Prince Nikolaus Galitzin, an amateur cellist from the Russian aristocracy. Galitzin loved Beethoven's music and offered fifty ducats for each of three quartets. Two years after Galitzin made his offer Beethoven delivered what the prince had requested — three quartets — and was only paid for one. Even so, Beethoven wrote two more quartets and a different finale for No. 13. No one had asked him to write the new music, and he composed it with no commission. One can't help but feel that Beethoven had discovered something to say with the first three quartets and felt compelled to get the rest of his ideas written down. Whether or not he was paid seems to have made no difference, and the quartets serve as one of history's greatest examples of art that was created for the sake of art.
As with any music containing as much content as Beethoven's late quartets, listeners must do some research and expose themselves to repeated hearings. Rest assured, however, that the time invested in Beethoven's late quartets will provide tremendous rewards.
If you are new to the quartets, I recommend beginning with the Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132. Although Beethoven composed it as the second of his late quartets, it was published as the fourth and is therefore labeled No. 15.
Listen to Opus 132 and think of it as an exploration of the universal human struggle against both physical and spiritual pain. The first, third, and fifth movements provide the greatest intellectual and emotional challenges, while the second and fourth movements provide a respite from those challenges. If you have never heard the quartet, the third movement is the one that is most likely to catch your attention. The movement shows a spiritual side to Beethoven that allowed him to create one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed.
Beethoven titled the third movement, "Holy Song of Thanksgiving by a Convalescent to the Divinity in the Lydian Mode." The title speaks volumes about what is in the music.
First, the Lydian mode heard in much of the movement was used in medieval church music to represent healing and recovery. If you are a musician, think of the Lydian mode as a major scale with a raised fourth. If you are not a musician, think of the Lydian mode as sounding "bright," somewhat like music in a major key.
Second, the movement is a hymn of Thanksgiving that Beethoven composed after surviving an illness in April 1825 that almost killed him (possibly Crohn's disease). The movement was a product of Beethoven's premonitions of death.
Third, take note that Beethoven describes himself in the title as a "convalescent." He had suffered for years from health problems associated with lead poisoning. And, as almost everyone knows, Beethoven was deaf, an affliction that caused him also to suffer from the pain of loneliness.
As Beethoven biographer Maynard Solomon writes in Late Beethoven, "He was a deaf composer, painfully confined within an ever-darkening inner space." In reference to Beethoven describing himself as a "convalescent soul," Solomon states, "the invalid is another kind of prisoner, afflicted and weary, in whom there is need to cross a threshold, or to awaken from a frightening dream. The invalid, too, yearns for an open space, looks upward to the presumed realm of the deity. Beethoven's sufferer — later convalescent — prays for deliverance more from a sickness of the soul than of the body."
Watch the animated recording I've embedded below and notice how the music moves back and forth from a hymn of thanksgiving to an expression of joy for being alive. Use the following outline to guide yourself through the piece.
0:00 — Hymn of Thanksgiving
This section explores the world of the spirit. It is composed in the Lydian mode and employs few flats and sharps.
3:18 — Interlude
This section explores the world of the flesh. The music in this section is highly chromatic.
5:38 — Hymn of Thanksgiving
8:16 — Interlude
10:44 – Hymn of Thanksgiving
15:07 – Coda
If you have not yet heard all of Beethoven's late quartets, I urge you to do so and wish you the very best on your journey.
Happy Holidays!


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Making Cities Inclusive, Equitable and Sustainable
Panel discussing the need, the opportunities, and how to advance inclusive and equitable cities.
Panelists: Mark Chambers, Director, NYC Mayor's Office of Sustainability;
Marcos Sanchez, VP of Marketing, LISNR;
Shamina Singh, President, Mastercard, Center for Inclusive Growth.
Maya Wiley, Senior Vice President for Social Justice & Henry Cohen Professor of Public and Urban Policy at The New School.
Moderator: Sander Dolder, Director and Assistant VP, NYC Economic Development Corporation
[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]
Primary Entry: Music Badge, Platinum Badge, Film Badge, Interactive Badge
Event Type: Special Event
Track: Cities Summit


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2014 National Parenting Center – Seal of Approval Award
From National Parenting Center Seal of Approval Award
The National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval program is...
Custom vehicles with dramatic rocket boost feature. Pop a wheelie and trigger the exciting rocket-launch action when motorized forward drive is activated. Push buttons for lights, realistic sounds and great music.Available Toy Styles:
Teal, Green
Ages: 3+ Years
6" to 12"
Item #: 33347 Teal, 33346 Green
Vehicle Batteries Required:
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Today we celebrate International Hat Day. I personally love, wear, buy, and covet hats—all kinds of hats. Since the book of the day I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen was published last year, it has already gained an enormous number of fans. Klassen is a master of the minimalist form. Starting with sumptuous […]
Discover the stories behind the children's book classics . . .
The new books on their way to becoming classics . . .
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Boone County area residents were digging out Tuesday morning, Jan. 23, after the blizzard Sunday night and Monday dumped 10 inches of snow or more across the area.
The snow was driven by north winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour, causing big drifts throughout the area.
Schools and many businesses throughout Boone County were closed Monday and Tuesday.
Snowfall depths of 12 to 18 inches were forecast across portions of North Central and Northeast Nebraska, with winds of 30 to 45 miles per hour. Visibility was very limited. Travel was extremely difficult and not recommended.
The state had plenty of advance warning of the impending storm. Blizzard watches were being posted by Thursday of last week.
The storm began with light rain Sunday afternoon, changing to snow Sunday night. Local weather observer Steve Wright measured four inches of snow by Monday morning. The storm intensified through Monday, and snow was ending by late afternoon, with an additional six inches of accumulation. Strong winds continued into the late evening.
City of Albion had declared a snow emergency starting Sunday evening and continuing through Monday. Snow removal Monday was on emergency routes only, including south 11th Street, south Sixth Street and Fairview Street.
Cleanup work continued through most of the day Tuesday, and schools were to be back in session Wednesday.


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Juliette Mendelovits
Australian Council for Educational Research
Not just for the kids: Adult skills in the 21st Century
School students are not the only ones whose skills need to keep pace with 21st century developments. Adults are living longer and are able to remain active longer. The skills acquired in early life constantly need to be updated in order for people to remain engaged and be able to contribute to society and the economy. International adult skills surveys, in which Australia has participated since inception in the early 1990s, are an evidence-based means of tracking Australia's performance in this sphere. Juliette will co-present this session with Dave Tout and it will examine how the assessments of adult skills have evolved since the late 20th century and what we can learn from the results – from different states and territories, from different social and economic backgrounds, and for ages ranging from 15 to 75 years.
About Juliette Mendelovits
Juliette Mendelovits is Research Director of the Assessment and Reporting (Humanities and Social Sciences) research program for the Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER). Since joining ACER in 1991, Juliette has been involved in the conceptualisation, implementation and management of large-scale assessment projects. She played a leading role in the development of the reading domain in the OECD's Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), from inception until 2012, and was PISA consortium editor for volume VI of the PISA 2009 international report, Students On Line: Digital Technologies and Performance. In the sphere of adult literacy, Juliette directed the new literacy test development for the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies; oversaw ACER's contribution to the New Zealand Literacy and Numeracy for Adults Assessment Tool; and developed the Australia-wide literacy and numeracy assessment for students enrolled in initial teacher education courses, which was launched in 2015. From 2015 to 2018, Juliette was based in London as Research Director and General Manager of ACER UK.


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St Kilda Festival – St Kilda 14/02/16
"What a fantastic way to celebrate our incredible music scene."
"What a fantastic way to celebrate our incredible music scene."
Melbourne's free fest is back with over 50 acts over six stages.
And it's her dream that it gets played at Westfield during extended Christmas shopping hours.
Lovers of music and meat — assemble. Sydney's new "music and meat festival", Meatstock, has dropped its juicy 2016 lineup, lead by the beardy beard-lovers The Beards, Sydney rockers The Snowdroppers, Henry Wagons and Mustered Courage. Other acts on the inaugural Meatstock bill include Davidson Brothers, Big Blind Ray and The Buffalo Grass Boyswith, with
Things are about to get hairy, because Australia's most bewhiskered band is back on home turf and celebrating a decade of razor-free living. The Beards are preparing to unleash a special double-album to commemorate the milestone, and will embark on a limited run of shows across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia under
The first artist lineup for the Sunshine Coast's 2015 Caloundra Music Festival has arrived, as it's led by the likes of Angus & Julia Stone (pictured), Xavier Rudd & The United Nations, indie-pop outfit San Cisco, hip hop group Thundamentals, Josh Pyke and Blue King Brown. The ninth annual Caloundra Music Festival will also feature
Australia's hairiest exports The Beards have just shaved a new single, dubbed Strokin' My Beard, off their acclaimed 2014 LP, The Beard Album, and to celebrate, they've taken things to new lengths with a sizeable tour announcement. The Strokin' My Beard Tour will see Adelaide's razor-shunning rockers return to Australia for a list of dates
A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of NSW warns that the rising tide of facial hair threatens to consume us all, or at least our love for hirsute handsomeness. The study indicates that society may have reached "peak beard" and will soon fall out of love with the facial appendage. "It appears
Australia's premier hair-related exports, The Beards are returning to centre stage with a brand new album, along with the most comprehensive Australian tour the band has ever embarked upon. The Beard Album: Australian Launch Tour will traverse almost every corner of the country the band has visited so far, as well as new territories and
Joss Stone, The Beards and more join jam-packed lineup!
North American fans of The Beards will have to wait a little while longer to be heckled, insulted and amused by the bearded totalitarians. The band have announced that they will be unable to go ahead with dates in the region after US immigration knocked back their visa applications. Without obtaining band performance visas it's
The lineup for Festival of the Sun 2013 has arrived and it looks like it's another blistering celebration of summer, Australian music and East Coast living. The organisers have announced rockers You Am I, The Rubens and Ash Grunwald as headliners, with a slew of hot acts supporting, including The Beards, Kingswood, Spit Syndicate, and
The Beards have been chosen as the flagship band representing the celebration of beards and bearded fellows at this years World Beard Day 2013 Celebration. The stubbly fun doesn't stop there, with a small crowd of other well hairy bands set to take to Sydney's Annandale Hotel. Normally celebrated on the first Saturday of September,
Coming up after 2:00pm AEST today!
Adelaide sensations The Beards will play a string of dates across Australia in late May and most of June as part of their The First World Tour. The tour, which will run from March through to June will see the band playing their home-grown brand of beard-related rock anthems across North America, Europe and Australia,
Just like Oxford Art Factory and The Standard before it, the Bondi Beach Road Hotel has now been taken over by the party hooligans at Sosume. Wednesday nights at the venue will now be a haven for all those seeking some awesome party vibes. From December 5th, Sosume will host its "99% genre free" live
Those jokesters and purveyors of the most impressive form of facial hair The Beards have announced their comprehensive 29-date national tour, which kicks off later this year in November. The hairy four-piece from SA released their third studio record earlier this year, the well-titled Having a Beard is the New Not Having a Beard. The
The world's greatest beard tribute band, aptly named The Beards, has responded via the band's blog to a recently proposed policy to ban beards in the Victorian Police Force.
The APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) has just announced its 2012 nominees. Awards over nine categories ranging from pop, blues and roots, urban, rock, dance and country are up for grabs with an impressive list of contenders including Drapht, Boy & Bear, Daniel Merriweather and Charlie and David Yunupingu. As for the most prestingous prize,
Ahead of their national tour and in preparation for the March 9 release of their hilariously-titled third album Having A Beard Is The New Not Having A Beard, notoriously bearded band, The Beards, have premiered their latest film clip You Should Consider Having Sex With a Bearded Man. Watch: You Should Consider Having Sex With a Bearded Man The Beards


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Constellation Diagrams: The Fault in Our Stars
Constellation diagrams are 2D graphical representations of digitally modulated signals. They are used for the display and analysis of digitally modulated waveforms, and provide valuable insight into the performance of a digital communication system. Digitally modulated signals encode information within a sinusoidal carrier wave by mixing it with a discretized message signal, therefore modifying the
How Wireless RF and Microwaves Affect the World Around You
Radio wave applications have come a long way since it was first theorized by James Clark Maxwell in his 1873 work "A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism", where he laid out mathematical theories showing the potential applications of radio technology. Only fifteen years later, German Physicist Heinrich Hertz became the first person to produce, transmit,
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We've all been there. The client is late, the train is delayed, the meeting just won't end. The interminable seconds ticking by like a swinging blade slicing away at the raw flesh of your patience. You need a distraction, and fast. That's the beauty and ingenuity of a mobile casino. Delivering the kind of instant entertainment that's at your fingertips within seconds and offering a huge range of options and possibility to turn a profit while you wait, mobile casinos are the obvious response to those long stretches of time that are threatening to whittle away your sanity.
If you're tired of wasting your time in between meetings, on a lunch break or when she's late again, it's time you started maximizing your on-the-go moments with a little fun that never gets old. From All Slots to Vera&John, dive right into the mobile casino scene with any of these top rated casinos today:
How We Rate Our Mobile Casinos
Now all these rating systems can give you a pretty good idea of who outranks whom in the wide world of mobile casinos, but unless you know how our ranking system works, the actual scores might not give you the informative assessment you are looking for. Our scores are given based on various factors that include:
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Casino App Vs Mobile Site
Most of you are probably thinking, "What's the difference?" If you can play the game on your mobile device, does it really matter whether it's being run through a mobile site or dedicated casino app? Actually, it does. Both options have their pluses and minuses, so there isn't an empirical "better" option. It's just a matter of preference.
Dedicated apps generally run better and have more involved games, but you will have to download the app to your device, something that not everyone has the luxury or desire to do. Alternatively, a mobile site is on the go with you, just plug in the website, but you'll have to deal with a slower loading time or possibly dropped sessions based on your current Internet connection (that's not to mention the hazards of piggybacking off of unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots).
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Now that you know why you want to get on the mobile bandwagon and where to find the best mobile casinos out there, it's time to get techy. Don't worry if you're not a computer geek, this is broken down into terms that we can all understand.
Games: As with any online casino, mobile Canada casinos have a variety of games. The most typical ones are online slots, scratch cards, bingo, poker, roulette and blackjack. The more graphics and animation involved in a game, the longer it will take to load, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Graphics won't affect downloaded games, and if you have a decent Internet connection, your whole experience will be enhanced with superior graphics. In other words, it might take a little balancing, but the more high-def games, the more exciting the experience.
Popular choices include Tomb Raider, Gold Rally, Jacks or Better and Blackjack.
Devices: You're probably looking at your phone right about now, wondering whether or not a mobile casino is compatible with your device. Good question. Many mobile online casinos will work with Blackberry, iPhone, Android and Symbian phones along with various tablets, but not all have such far-reaching capabilities. All Slots, Royal Vegas and Casino.com, for example, support nearly all brands and devices, while Bet365 can be played on more current iPhone and Android models.
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In fact, game developers are working fastidiously to create better games that will auto-adjust size, images and style elements to fit your screen. High def, 3D images have replaced the flat, characterless images of the past and touch screens and motion detection are paving the way for a bigger, better, faster and more responsive gaming experience like you wouldn't have dreamed of just a few years ago.
The Down Low on Downloads
There are several means through which to access your mobile casino, and different casinos will accommodate you in varying ways. Casinos with a proper mobile application can easily be downloaded via the app store (Apple or Google Play respectively). Mobile site casinos, on the other hand, are accessed differently. Either you can enter your mobile number on their browser website, and an access code will be sent to you via SMS, or QR codes are also available for scanning. Finally, many casinos are simply reached by typing the URL into your device's web browser.
*Note that some casinos offer a downloadable version for Androids but only an online site for iOS or vice versa you can check the full list of casino reviews.
Remote access is no longer a luxury but a necessity for online casinos that want to keep their clientele active. Our advice to gaming providers: take your casino mobile, Canada is ready to get busy! For punters who want some real action on the go, tap into the best mobile casinos around today.


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Amazing London Hotel Locations with Guoman25 March, 2019
Guoman Hotels' impeccable service and attention to the smallest details ensures we have a sterling reputation of which we are very proud, however, it is our breathtaking locations, near some of the most iconic landmarks, which really wows our guests. Here's what you can expect to find near your chosen Guoman Hotel. Welcoming Hard RockDiscover
Easter in London 201913 February, 2019
As London shrugs off its winter layers and advances merrily into the spring sunshine, we can't wait to share with you our top suggestions for things to do over the Easter break. Easter Sunday falls on April 21, however, there are lots of things happening throughout London from Good Friday throughout the weekend. Our centrallyDiscover
What is the Perfect Fried Breakfast?07 February, 2019
Here at Guoman, we pride ourselves on the quality of our breakfasts. We know that your morning meal can have a huge impact on the rest of your day, so we want to provide exactly what you want at the start of your day. To better understand what that is, we surveyed 1,015 people fromDiscover
2018 London Christmas Market Guide16 November, 2018
Avoid the high street madness and soak up the festive charm whilst browsing the best of London's Christmas markets this winter. From mulled wine, luxury gifts and international street food, you can find all your Christmas delights and more within walking distance from your Guoman hotel. Southbank Centre's Winter Market International traders bring the riversideDiscover


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By Mike Welsh
SPARE a thought for recently re-elected ALP member for Fenner Andrew Leigh.
Poor sod spent countless hours smiling on early morning TV and arguing on late night "Q&A", building a national profile, only to find himself on the backbench.
The factionally unaligned Leigh was heading for a ministry in a Shorten government, but has been overlooked for a spot on Albo's opposition team.
ANU economist Warwick McKibbin's tweet: "When Andrew Leigh, the best economist in the parliament is not in the shadow ministry, you know something is wrong", may test Leigh's commitment to Labor's cause. And the general consensus that Albo's team is lined with "mediocrities", would add to Leigh's misery.
THE cruel dumping hasn't dampened Leigh's liking for a sledge, though. Leigh tweeted: "Since 2016, Labor has had a shadow minister for charities, now the Coalition has decided to copy the idea. Just two small downsides: 1. It's an assistant minister. 2. It's Zed Seselja. Perhaps they should be honest, and call him the assistant minister against charities?" Seselja fired back: "On the other hand, there appears to be little downside for the ALP in dumping you". Ouch !!
FANS of angry-old-man-radio are pleased to learn Alan Jones remains on the wireless until at least his 80th birthday. AJ signed a two-year contract with 2GB, which relays parts of his breakfast show to Canberra via 2CC. The shock jock's stablemate Ray Hadley, recently touted as a replacement should Jones "walk", was quoted as being "comfortable" with the signing. Sources from inside the conservative bunker suggest Hadley is anything but.
RUGBY superstar David Pocock usually has plenty to say on issues dear to his heart but was more measured recently. As the sporting media gathered to hear his plans of enhancing his World Cup chances by quitting Super League and the Brumbies, Pocock virtually confirmed a post-rugby political career by impressively sidestepping the inevitable question about his future.
The South African-born athlete, who came to the capital in 2013, said: "The Brumbies have given me a home for the last seven years. They've supported me through injury and given me the opportunity to work on my game and my leadership as part of an incredible group of men".
The activist also thanked fans and the city: "Canberra has well and truly become my home. Em and I love living here, being part of the community."
THE shock 2017 announcement of Belconnen Myer's closure has been reversed. After a "new lease arrangement" was reached between the retail giant and Scentre (operator of Westfield), a downsized Myer will emerge at the Belconnen landmark.
AT nearby Hawker the pharmacy is now under the bright purple and orange banner of the Hawker Discount Drug Store, part of a chain spreading down the east coast and through the ACT. One local wag, showing his age, wanted to know if the drug store sold "ice-cream sodas" and if "Richie Cunningham and The Fonz would be dropping by".
CANBERRA AFL stalwart Aaron Bruce has reached a special milestone in his long career. The Canberra Demons' skipper notched up 150 NEAFL games, becoming only the fourth player in the comp's history to do so.
Rupert Murdoch may be spending more time at his Yass weekender after the announcement of a new news site dedicated to Canberra (the 'burbs not the bubble). Murdoch, who started "The Australian" in Braddon in 1964 has launched the Canberra Star digital-only site that will focus on "connecting with local communities who are often seeking new ways to stay in touch with what's happening on their doorstep".
FRIGHTENING reports are emerging across social media of food, possibly laced with poison, being tossed into Canberra backyards. A Flynn dog owner warned owners to be vigilant after her dog returned home with dark chocolate in its mouth. And a Bonython resident reported finding a raw chicken stuffed with rat poison in her yard.