After a 4- nil win away from home against Bristol City the league table looks wild:
Tucked in behind the leaders
Author: telboy2
Les Miserables revisited
The long running LesMis production has just moved to the Sondheim theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. So Joe’s and my return to the show was at a different venue to the one that Shaz and I watched in last year.
As with these it events it was full. We were near the top rung again but not so high and uncomfortable as with other shows.
The show was great and the apparent innovations introduced worked very well in my eyes. The projection of the sewers and the falling off the wall of the policeman to his death.
A wonderful experience for both of us. I would happily see again.
More RAH
Another family trip, all five, to the musical venue. The show was a mixture of classic carols and well known Christmas populars.
Good fun for the most part and of course a bit cheesy in places. There were plenty of opportunities to sing along.
In the news- such a big club-
from the Guardian
French market trips can propel Frank’s Brentford to new heights
The Bees hope shrewd recruitment can fire a Premier League promotion push after ditching their academy
Wed 18 Dec 2019 11.00 GMTLast modified on Wed 18 Dec 2019 11.22 GMT
“The BMW is still running fast,” said Thomas Frank, the Brentford head coach, referring to Saïd Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins after watching his three-pronged attack combine to devastating effect against Fulham at Griffin Park on Saturday. Watkins carried the ball to the edge of the box, where Benrahma took over, buying a yard of space before scooping a cross towards the back post for Mbeumo to fire the only goal of the game, his eighth of the campaign. Brentford will leave their 115-year-old stadium at the end of this season and have designs of going out with a bang.
Mbeumo, a £5.5m club-record signing, has scored in Brentford’s past four matches, including a 7-0 demolition of Luton. The 20-year-old winger is the latest Brentford player to make a seamless transition from Ligue 2 to the Championship after joining from Troyes in the summer, following in the footsteps of Benrahma and Neal Maupay, the striker who moved to Brighton in August for £16m after two prolific seasons.
Benrahma was a £2.7m signing from Nice after impressing on loan at Châteauroux, and Maupay a £1.6m arrival from Saint-Étienne after shining at Brest. The defender Julian Jeanvier, in effect John Egan’s replacement 18 months ago, joined from Reims, while Maxime Colin, now of Birmingham, piqued Brentford’s interest at Troyes. Yoann Barbet, now of Queens Park Rangers, joined in 2015 after a season at Chamois Niortais.
It is not only in the French market where Brentford have found joy; Watkins was a £1.8m buy from Exeter City in 2017, and in the summer they paid Barnsley £3m for Ethan Pinnock, who was playing for Dulwich Hamlet three years ago. Pinnock has been paired in central defence with Pontus Jansson, who was made captain after arriving from Leeds United in July. The pair in effect replaced Ezri Konsa and Chris Mepham, who this year sealed Premier League moves to Aston Villa and Bournemouth respectively, bringing in £27m.
Brentford have sold almost £100m of talent since 2014 and sales are vital to countering the club’s £10m-£20m annual operating loss. At 28, Jansson represented a noticeable shift, being the oldest outfield player to join since Lasse Vibe four years ago, but strengthening the defence was a priority.
Panto
The Christmas binge goes on and Friday night was Panto night at the Questors in Ealing.
A trio for five that was fully enjoyed. It was a different style of performance from last year when Shaz, Joe and I went to Wimbledon Theatre to see Paul Merton among others.
The actors were mainly children from the Questors young person’s school. There were lots of their mums and dads in the audience I think.
The Pantones was funny, good fun and beautiful. Very different from last years but good all the same and still the same classic format.
Cool.
Family visit for readings and song
This was a second time visit and this time with the boys.
It is quite a different event with readings interspaced with music both of the easily recognised and the less typical.
The reading came from the Bible but also thought pieces on believe and religion. There readers were well known – in particular Celia Imrie and Clive Myrie ( BBC journalist) who both clearly are well practised in delivering words.
Mostly beautiful music in Latin, German and English. The traditional carols in English and a selection of others sung by the choir with a very beautiful combined voice. The German version of Silent Night, Holy Night in German (Stillest Nacht) was great. Not all the offerings worked but that is how it goes.
One more event in our procession of Christmas orientated events. Keep it going.
Messiah time
Our annual experience with the classic event at a classic venue.
We sat in better seats this time, closer to the action on the central area.
The choir was powerful and the philharmonic was classy. The performers all seemed to warm up in the second half.
Another positive experience. Here’s to more in the future.
Election result- Tories win big
Not exactly the result I wanted or indeed I think will be fruitful. Brexit will now happen as I am sure the negotiated withdrawal agreement will pass by the January 31 deadline. The format of the future after that is unclear and within the hands of Johnson. He will no longer be beholden to the DUP or the European Research Group cabal so maybe there will be something more integrated with the EU. Who knows as Johnson is a slippery character who has no problem with changing his mind when it suits his purpose.
A big loss for Labour which has already been met with ‘it was all to do with Brexit’ ( and not Corbyn or his project) versus ‘Corbyn is toxic and he must go’. Plenty of infighting to come and to be drawn out for a long time.
Day before election
Football trip down memory lane
In my mind there was always the memory that my first visit to watch a professional football match was at Griffin Park to watch the Brentford, the Super Bees, was against Crewe Alexandra with a result of 1-0. I went with Patrick who was a Brentford regular and at that stage of course a shareholder of one share following the rescue of the club in 1967.
I did some research, the wonders of stuff online, and found the result of 1-0 against Crewe. So it was the 71/72 season on December 27- so clearly the equivalent of the Boxing Day game.
and clearly a successful season with promotion. Though looking through the results they bounced down within one season back to Division 4.
So memory not all bad. First game at Griffin Park aged 8.
And now we are in the final season at Griffin Park, I am in year 2 as a season ticket holder and the move to Lionel Road is imminent.