Launch of BALLS

We remain totally committed to our vision to:

'Put the Wii into skittles - not take the Wii out of it.'

We have therefore decided to raise the necessary funding through our own efforts. It is with great pride that we announce the launch of the Bristol Academy for Learning the Language of Skittles (BALLS). We have applied to the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills for registration as an education and training provider via our partnership with the University of Manchester Institute of Sports Science & Education (UMISSED).

Overseas students will be able to enrol for a fee of £300 for a six month intensive course. Higher diplomas and degrees via our partnership with UMISSED are available from £1500 per term payable in advance. Distance learning is an option providing students are able to satisfy the residential requirements by living within 20,000 miles of Manchester.

BALLS is fully signed up to Home Office guidelines on student sponsorship, visa requirements and working time limits.

Sport England funding

Towards the end of 2008, the team applied to Sport England for funding to employ a physio, sports psychologist, performance coach and ball tuner (all on a part-time basis). We were quietly confident that funding would be provided since it would help to meet one of Sport England's key objectives: 'a measurable increase in people's satisfaction with their experience of sport'.

In order to demonstrate our commitment we had taken the first steps towards establishing a Wii Skittles League which would have enabled pub landlords to increase their turnover per square metre and return on capital employed by eliminating the need for an alley and its associated maintenance costs. Our vision was to:

'Put the Wii into skittles - not take the Wii out of it.'

Sadly funding has not been forthcoming - amongst other things we were taken to task for having no policy on equality and diversity. We feel particularly aggrieved in view of South Gloucestershire's use of 2012 funding to throw a lifeline to third age swimmers in local pools. If they hadn't gone into the pools in the first place for goodness sake, they wouldn't have needed a lifeline.

Statistics for late season prospects

After each match I calculate the Geordies' prospects for promotion or relegation. I make the following assumptions:

• All teams are equally likely to win or lose a match, i.e. the result could just as accurately be predicted by the toss of a coin.
• There are 16 teams in the division, top 3 promoted & bottom 3 relegated at the end of the season.
• Promotion is pretty certain if a team scores more than 36 points.
• Relegation is pretty certain if a team scores less than 26 points.

Early in the season this set of assumptions may be satisfactory. However, immediate past Captain Tony Hall has pointed out that there is additional information from league positions that reflects teams' abilities. Where there are significant variations in teams' abilities, the coin tossing model is likely to give increasingly misleading predictions as the season progresses. So how do I incorporate all the information from the latest league table into my prediction of prospects?

I propose to start with the latest league table, update the points for each team using the results of the games that we have played, and evaluate the points for all teams in the remaining games by assuming that the expectation for each team in each game is 1 point. Visit the Geordies' website for the resulting 'end of season' table based on the league table published on 23 January 2007 and the known results for the Geordies since that time.

Late swerve - surveying the alley

Thornbury Rugby Club alley has been roughly surveyed with Dr Harbottle's patent cast iron spirit level. There is a slight upward slope along the final three quarters of the alley and a very shallow depression across the alley in the last quarter before the pins. Is the latter sufficient to produce late swerve? And is the late swerve that we observe from either side of the alley towards the centre?

Log in after the festive season for the next exciting instalment in our search for the last refuge of the scoundrel skittler.

Late swerve - the phenomenon

So last season's project to webcast from the alley drew to an unsatisfactory conclusion, limited by funds rather than technology - wife saw vodafone bill!

This season my chosen topic is late swerve, defined as the ability (or uncontrollable tendency) to make the ball swerve within the last third of the alley as it approaches the skittles. We all know that it happens occasionally and, all other things being equal, we know that it can dramatically increase the chances of hitting wood. So what causes it?

Let's start with a visit to The Geordies website where analysis is presented for the swerve of a perfectly spherical, homogeneous spinning ball on a perfectly plane horizontal alley. The conclusion is that any swerve should be exhibited within the first third of the ball's travel down the alley; thereafter the trajectory should be straight. This finding was investigated by nuclear ballistics expert Dr John Harbottle and Head Coach Jeff Price in experiments under carefully controlled conditions on The Geordies home alley at Thornbury Rugby Club on 4 December 2006. Most of the time the swerve due to spin was exhibited only within the first third of the alley. Yet late swerve occurred occasionally!

So we conclude that the phenomenon exists and must be a manifestation of some feature(s) of a real ball on a real surface.

The tests completed by Harbottle and Price showed that delivery of The Geordies' balls without spin resulted in no swerve, neither early nor late. We conclude that the Thornbury Rugby Club alley is a good approximation to the ideal - plane and horizontal. My future theoretical exploration must therefore probe the impact on dynamics caused by the departure of our balls from the ideal.

Walk before trying to run

For many years now I have uploaded files from my pc to websites via ftp, so I have that competence. I had not yet updated a site with images from a webcam attached to my pc so that seemed like a good starting point to resolve my problems.

I have a Logitech QuickCam Web with ImageStudio software that has the capability to set up a webcam via a free trial of SpotLife. But that doesn't get me any closer to posting to The Geordies website. Searching through freeware and shareware presented two main options:

• allow the viewer's browser to pull the image straight from my pc used as a server
• push images to the website at predetermined intervals regardless of whether anyone was viewing the webcam page

The first method makes the pc vulnerable to attack so I opted for the second approach. Of all the available software TinCam seemed to do what I wanted so I downloaded and installed a 30 day free trial. It seems to work so I have now purchased a registration key.

The results of a trial run can be seen here so at least I am now walking more steadily.

Several steps back!!!!!!!!!!!!

While installing some of the ftp options on the Zire 72 I have obviously made some unwise decisions on parameter settings. The results are that the Zire 72 no longer accesses the internet via the mobile and the mobile no longer synchronizes with Outlook Calendar.

There is more to life so I'm going to take a few days to reflect on the problems. I was going to include a photo taken in the alley last night (following an epic defeat by Phoenix) but I didn't even manage to save that.

Gathering resources

It's a blugger but Blogger does not like attachments! I am still hoping to use the email route but need to establish plan B so back to the drawing board and a quick trawl through www resources.

Duke has done it: http://dukecarico.com/blog/?p=163. So far I have downloaded FileZ to rename image files - useful whatever I decide to do. I am now investigating FTP and HTML/blog applications.

The good news here is that I may be able to dispose of the need for Blogger and post straight to The Geordies website. Even better news is that I'm learning how to get the most out of my pda & mobile. OK so the really bad news is that I'll be facing a megabill from Vodafone.

Enough for this Sunday. Time to watch the new Morse - despite the crushing reviews.

Straight from mobile.

So Blogger won't accept emails + attachments

The euphoria of successfully posting text messages to the blog is followed by the irritation of Blogger refusing emails with attachments. Serves me right for dumping the Zire 72 and using the mobile and its camera as the front line! Now I need to find a way of sending emails with images embedded so I'm back to blog or html software for my Zire .... unless ....

Testing email

If you are reading this, emailed text can be sent using VersaMail on the Zire 72, linked via bluetooth to Motorola V550 and thence via Vodafone GPRS to blueyonder mail server and finally arriving at Blogger as an email posting. Can I transmit pix in a similar way? Watch the postings!
PS If you don't see this posting ......................................