Daily Archives: Saturday, August 31, 2013

  • FA Cup ignored by BBC

    This weekend marks the start of the competition for the FA Cup, the most prestigious trophy in English football, with the start of the preliminary round, when all the amateur teams in the local leagues around the country have their chance of a cup run for glory, i.e. it’s the round where all the Davids battle it out for a chance to challenge Goliath.

    By way of an example, Market Drayton Town, the team from the town of my birth, has a home tie today against Kidsgrove Athletic, which kicks off at 3 pm.

    The FA website has a list of fixtures for the preliminary round, which runs to many pages, a screenshot of which is shown below.

    screenshot of FA Cup fixtures page

    However, if – as many people do – you relied on the BBC as a source of sports news, you’d be completely unaware of the existence of the FA Cup preliminary round, as proven by the following screenshot taken today at the same time as the above FA screenshot.

    screenshot of BBC FA Cup fixtures page

    That’s right! According to Auntie, there are no FA Cup fixtures for the next 7 days.

    The BBC likes to base its reputation on its reliable and accurate coverage of news and events.

    Is this reputation undeserved? Answers in the comments below please.

  • Bristol Post Balls – verb conjugation

    The Bristol Post website carries an initial report today of a fire last night at Ashton Court, a 17th century mansion house in north Somerset owned by Bristol City Council.

    Allegedly penned by someone called DanielEvans1, the third paragraph of the piece reads as follows:

    A total of six Avon Fire and Rescue pumps and an aerial appliance were need to extinguish the fire in the early hours.

    An inability to conjugate the verb ‘to need’ correctly is evidently no barrier to employment as a journalist at the Temple Way Ministry of Truth. 😉