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Frankie S

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Everything posted by Frankie S

  1. Frankie S
    As someone who revered Dobbie during his time at Queens, and has followed his career closely since he departed. I'd dispute that he's had a 'huge impact at second tier level down south.' He has been intermittently effective, acquiring a talismanic reputation in play-offs particularly, but for a player of his ability (and he was being touted by some for a Scotland call up at one stage) his career has been disappointingly erratic since he left Palmerston. He hasn't really had a sustained, prolific season anywhere, though he had good spells at Swansea and Blackpool particularly. Has he hit double figures in any league campaign since his departure from Palmerston? I suspect not. He was clearly not cut out for the Premiership, but if he was a hugely effective player at second tier level on anything like a consistent basis, he wouldn't have been loaned out so often by teams of the stature of Brighton and Crystal Palace. To some extent it illustrates the huge chasm between the English upper echelons and the Scottish second tier, as Dobbie looked like a world-beater at our level, but I suspect, as others have hinted, that Dobbie's specific limitations, including relative lack of pace, have contributed. Nonetheless, I am sure that Dobbie could still do a decent job for someone in the SPL.In the course of supporting Queens over the last 45 years or so, I've seen precisely two players at Palmerston (the mercurial Ted McMinn being the opposite, a player that I didn't really rate that went on to better things) that I thought had the ability to cut it at a decent level down south - Andy Thomson and Dobbie (Chris Doig also did ok in England, but only had the briefest career at Palmerston). Neither Thomson or Dobbie quite hit the heights that I'd hoped they might, but both carved out useful careers in England. A testament to just how difficult it is to translate success at second tier level or lower (Thomson generally played in the third tier) in Scotland to an English context. It does surprise me when I see limited players of more recent vintage, who clearly couldn't hold a candle to Thomson and Dobbie, touted for moves to the English Championship. It's an unforgiving destination for any but the best.
  2. Frankie S
    7/10. Knew 5, guessed the Australian Matildas one and Ha Long Bay.
  3. Frankie S
    17/20 on the Guardian history quiz. A year out on Pitt the Younger, a bit more than that on Stonehenge and got longest serving PM wrong.
  4. Frankie S
    It was hardly 'the Readers Digest version of the entire movie.' It didn't reveal the ending for a start, in fact you revealed more about the ending than I did. Read any review of the same movie at random on Rotten Tomatoes and it will reveal pretty much exactly the same plot details. If you're going to have a movie review thread then you're going to end up with reviews of the movies strangely enough.
  5. Frankie S
    Snowpiercer 8/10. South Korean sci-fi film based on a French graphic novel. Starring Chris Evans, John Hurt, Ed Harris, Tilda Swinton etc. Enjoyable nonsense. The last survivors of a failed climate engineering experiment (an attempt to reverse global warming), which resulted in an Ice Age, are aboard a train that endlessly circles the frozen globe, powered by a perpetual motion engine developed by an eccentric entrepreneur (Harris). For some unexplained reason (perhaps a satire of the rigorously class bound British railway system), the passengers in the rear of the train are the lowest of the low, reminiscent of the exploited underclasses of a Dickens novel (the movie has a steampunk aesthetic), left to cannibalise each other until the 'powers that be' in the front part of the train, who enjoy a life of hedonistic decadence and luxury, develop some hideous protein bar composed of ground insects, which is then fed to the wretches on a daily basis. Population culls, child abductions and draconian punishments (such as forcing miscreants to stick their arm out of the train for 7 minutes, then shattering the frozen limb with a sledgehammer afterwards) are routine. Needless to say, an uprising occurs and the wretches from economy class wage war through the train, determined to confront the Machiavellian entrepreneur and the first class passengers at the front. Each successive carriage is a new surreal landscape, with the levels of luxury increasing exponentially as the rebels move relentlessly onwards. It's reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's magnificent 'Brazil' and, indeed, John Hurt's character is called Gilliam. The film is patently nonsensical and requires a level of suspension of disbelief that borders on gullibility to enjoy. If you can accept the premise and the many implausible aspects of the movie, it's definitely a fun ride.
  6. Frankie S
    9/10 for me. Got the tennis one wrong and the Jay Scott Greenspan one was a guess.
  7. Frankie S
    Kenny Brannigan and Stephen Hawking have a collective IQ of 182. Hawking's contribution is 180.
  8. Frankie S
    8/10 on the Australian quiz today. Changed my mind from the correct philosopher to the wrong one at the last minute and didn't know the TV show host. Lee Kuan Yew came up in a quiz I did last night.
  9. Frankie S
    7/10 on the Saturday quiz. Didn't get the English church, London Underground or French fruit questions.
  10. Frankie S
    RIP Turnbull Hutton. He was an eloquent voice against the, sadly endemic, notion that Scottish football revolves around Glasgow's gruesome twosome. So many Scottish clubs were happy to live off the crumbs from the Old Firm's table, including, shamefully, my own (Queen of the South), whose vote in favour of fast tracking Sevco into the second top tier of Scottish football will go down in the annals of infamy.
  11. Frankie S
    9/11. Changed the songwriter from the correct answer to the wrong one at the last second. Got the song lyric question wrong too. Hope the hiatus is a short one.
  12. Frankie S
    6/10 with a couple of guesses. Managed to work out the country name after a while.
  13. Frankie S
    7/10. Guessed US network and chess questions.
  14. Frankie S
    9/10. Got the cocktail question wrong. Buffy was a guess.
  15. Frankie S
    6-10. Missed bike race, spring tides, crocuses and Springwatch.
  16. Frankie S
    Not that qualified to comment as I've only been to a couple of games this season, though will be going to the next two, but allowing a contracted striker, Baird, to leave (subsequently going to our direct rivals for a play off place) and failing to replace him looked, on the face of it at least, like a cost-cutting move by club lacking in ambition, who had probably taken a view that promotion was unlikely anyway with two heavyweights likely to be in the play off spots. Queens seemed to have a lot of momentum going into the window. At that point you would have expected them to consolidate and strengthen the squad, not allow it to become weakened. While not a huge fan of Baird, based on the limited times I've seen him, he has made a significant impact for Falkirk. He would have served our play off hopes better sitting in the stand for us than on the park with Falkirk. Most of my mates support Hibs. For a long time they regarded us as their main rivals for third. Like Falkirk, they strengthened in the window. Speaking to a few of them, they are incredulous that we let two players leave to go to Falkirk mid-season. Kerr we had no control over, but Baird we did. Knowing how critical Hibs fans are of their club, they would have been incandescent had it happened to them. Of course they are a much bigger club than Queens, but for much of the season were no better than us. Now they've pushed on and left us in their wake. Queens have done quite well this season, and in recent seasons, but I get the impression that we've enjoyed a combination of favourable circumstances: a better than usual crop of young players coming together at the same time and a couple of youthful managers on the way up. I'm not sure we can assume that will continue indefinitely, especially on our budget. I think Queens fans, on the whole, have lower expectations than those of other clubs contending for the play off positions. On the basis of the first half of the season, a fourth placed finish should have been the minimum we were aiming for. I suspect most fans, like the board, will quietly settle for 5th though.
  17. Frankie S
    8/10. Definitely easier than usual for a Friday. Knew 7. Guessed CBE journalist, got football and dirigible questions wrong.
  18. Frankie S
    6/10. Knew Morte D'Arthur, glass blowing island, Charlie and Chocolate Factory and pyramid questions, guessed the others.
  19. Frankie S
    5/10. Not the best set for me today. Knew the underground station, chitterlings and the space question, the rest were guesses.
  20. Frankie S
    A resoundingly average 11/15 on the football players quiz.
  21. Frankie S
    7/10. Got A666, Krusty the Clown and the football one wrong. Guessed Rinderpest.
  22. Frankie S
    7/10.
  23. Frankie S
    Edge of Tomorrow 8/10 Just watched it on Sky Movies. Sci-fi meets Groundhog Day. Not normally a fan of Tom Cruise, but he's pretty good in this. Reminds me of a video game where you keep losing lives and have to go back to the start of the level. The repetitive nature of the proceedings could have been boring in the hands of a lesser director, but thoughtfully directed by Doug Liman, who manages to find fresh perspectives every time the action is 'reset.' Some nice black humour in there too. Proves that 'intelligent blockbuster' is not necessarily an oxymoron.
  24. Frankie S
    5/10. Was confident on 4.
  25. Frankie S
    7/10. Got Rio Tinto, pool and Thomas the Tank Engine wrong.
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