Gap course summer camp

I’m in Saas-Fee, Switzerland on the Warren Smith Ski Academy’s summer 9-week GAP ski instructor course.

Saas Fee in Summer

I’m here because I realised that I don’t really like what I do for a living very much and at 33-years old, there is a chance to change it so I can be on snow for a living.

The GAP course coaches you to the British Association of Snowsport Instructors (BASI) levels 1 and 2. Level 2 is more or less the base level that you need to have in order to instruct in various countries in Europe and it’s this qualification that I’m here to get.

So I’ve left everything on hold at home and believe me, it was a real wrench leaving behind the missus and the dog. They will both be out to visit at various points but the ‘am I doing the right thing?’ questions soon faded while lounging on the train watching the Swiss lakes and countryside roll by, with the prospect of weeks of intensive skiing to come.

The course itself is based on the Feegletscher glacier that you can ski on all summer and towers above Saas-Fee village. There are around 20kms of pistes to at a height of 3500m with a small network of 3 lifts, an extensive snowpark and a lot of international race teams also do their summer training on the glacier.

I chose the Warren Smith Course because I was impressed by the technical focus of the program and also on the basis of a phone conversation with Warren Smith himself. He seemed pleased that I was going for a full-on career change rather than just gapping. By all accounts he interviews personally everyone that is attending the course, I guess to ensure that the students are serious about it and not just there to party for 9-weeks (!).

I’m the first person from the course here in the resort as I thought I would be clever and get two-days worth of practice in before the course started on Sunday but the glacier doesn’t open until Saturday so I’ve been poking about Saas for a day or two, dodging the electric cars that are the only transport allowed in the village.

The course starts on Saturday and I’ll be updated this blog regularly. New life starts here...


published here

Under strength Bar wilt in the Heat to promotion candidates Hyde

The hottest day of the year so far welcomed Cheeko’s boys to the quaint Hatfield Hyde ground and it was clear from the start that much would depend on the toss on such a searing day.

Unfortunately, the skipper was scuppered by the use of the £1 coin to toss up (always tails for future reference Cheeks), the Hyde skipper won and Bar were promptly asked to field. The 4’s had arrived with a makeshift side, with a number of the 5th team regulars making their debut for Cheeko and the majority of the regular 4th team batsmen making up the numbers and fielding in the 3rd team. This was all prompted by lamentable availability at 1st XI level, with just 5 first team regulars available. This had an inevitable trampoline effect on availability and the 4th team batting line up just didn’t look strong enough to compete.

The strategy then had to be to try and bowl out Hyde for a low total and chase but they hadn’t been bowled out all season for less than 200 and this looked like a big ask. Rupert Pyrah was once again excellent, demonstrating good control with the new ball and really seems to have found a bowling groove in the last month. His economy is good and his bowling at this level is probably too good for the calibre of batting that he comes up against. Endless balls nip past the outside edge with no luck and it really is a very frustrating place to be behind the stumps seeing all of these close calls. One week the luck will go with him and he will get all 10.

As it was, the start of the show was Stavros Rogers who picked up 5 wickets in 2 spells, with a good spell of classic swing bowling. At the other end, Spencer Randon kept things tight and picked up 3 wickets for his afternoon’s work. The Doctor was expensive and largely ineffective and 5th team regular Brad Swaile showed that he is a star for the future with a good spell of serious heat, picking up a wicket.

Bar eventually bowled Hyde out for 197, their lowest total of the season and afterwards, the Hyde skipper conceded that Bar were the best bowling attack that they had faced all season. It was a manful effort to bowl and field so well in the heat but it too everything out of them. To give credit to Hyde’s batting line up, they have guys that turn up who only bat and that is the only thing that they want to do. The opener who very nearly batted through only batted and this could be the problem that faces Cheeko’s boys for the rest of the season. In a team of all rounders, there is always the incentive that you might get a bowl and so the focus just isn’t there on batting where players aren’t as precious about giving away their wicket as they could be. Hyde’s line up had 4 or 5 players who only batted and as a consequence, dominate teams with weak bowling. I feel that this is an area that Cheeko should be addressing in future team selections.

After an excellent tea, Bar’s batting effort was notable for Stavros Rogers’ excellent 54, dispatching the ball to all parts of the leg side boundary off some very dubious (read throwing) spin bowling. Bar eventually collapsed for 125 all out, with an excellent rearguard action by young Ricky Wood, who showed that he is certainly a batsmen of the future and in your scribes opinion, should concentrate on this area of his game as his specialism for the future.

Next week, the 4’s travel to Broxbourne and hope for better availability to arrest their alarming slide towards the bottom of the table.

This week’s report is my last this season as I am off to Switzerland for 9 weeks of training to become qualified as a ski instructor. Jellybean Taylor is likely to take over from me as match reporter and I am sure that he will do an excellent job. From a personal point of view, I know that I have let Cheeks down with the bat this season but I hope that I have made up for it with improved keeping performances. I sincerely wish everyone in the 4’s and also the rest of the teams at the club an excellent and successful season.

Dave Burrows

Cheeko’s boys close but no cigars in sight

Cheeko’s 4th XI met at the school on an overcast and blustery day to take on fellow mid-table outfit Leverstock Green 3’s and a close match ended in a narrow defeat for The People’s Team. In truth, Bar never had enough runs on the board after being bowled out for 103 but ran the visitors close with, securing 8 points in the process.

The batting heart and spiritual leader of the 4’s, Andy Hughes, was trevor-trampolined up into the 3’s on Thursday night and with Steve Moore’s injury not healing in time, the batting line up looked light but with plenty of bowling at the skipper’s disposal. In hindsight, Cheeko may come to regret the decision to bat on Saturday but in truth, neither skipper knew what to do and it was a bit of a lottery as to how the wicket was going to play.

The two slowest scoring batsmen and the latest opening pair opened up for Bar, Burrows and Taylor who struggled early on with the bounce of Ali and the accuracy of May. It’s no coincidence that the lack of a settled opening pair this year is contributing to early collapses for the 4’s. Wickets started falling at regular intervals and there was little to write about down the order as the top score of the day was Doc Sharma with a quick fire 18. Once Ali and May had finished their long opening spells, the rest of the batting was prized out by the bowling of the youngster Sawyer. The young man had a suspicious action and our recommendation is that someone at Leverstock has a look at his action before he gets too much older or is playing cricket in leagues with proper umpires.

After an excellent lunch prepared by Mme Kennedy and some impromptu French lessons from Spencer Randon, Bar attempted the near impossible, to win the game defending only 103. There was some early success for Bar as Roy Rogers encouraged the slightly unfit Rance to snick one behind to ‘keeper Burrows. He was clearly unhappy with this decision and perhaps this had a bearing on his later decisions which had an effect on the outcome of the game. This brought Turner to the crease (who was a startling dead ringer for JellyBean Taylor) who was clearly Leverstock’s gun batsman. He scored 32 and was smashing the bowling to all parts but for some reason, couldn’t fathom the bowling of Rupert the Pirate. He was eventually bowled with a jaffa of an inswinger and there was a feeling within the Bar camp that they had little batting left.

This proved to be true with only 3 of the remaining batsmen scoring double figures. This set up a tense finish with Cheeko’s boys convinced that they had Ali caught behind from an excellent take from Randon’s bowling but the young man had the nerve to stand there and claim that he hadn’t hit it, while the villain of the piece, Rance, kept a straight face whilst he gave it not out. This caused much anger from the Bar boys and left a very sour taste in the mouth from what was otherwise a very enjoyable game.

Afterwards, the Leverstock captain came to apologise to Cheeko for the conduct of Vance and the reaction of the Leverstock players after the game was not one of a team that had just squeaked a narrow victory and 30 points. If ever there was an incentive to try and play a higher standard of cricket and get neutral umpires, this was it and the 4’s can only hope for the services of Breezy on other future occasions.

The 4’s next match is away at Hatfield Hyde and sees the return of Andy Hughes and hopefully Steve Moore.

Match report - 5 June - PBCC 4's vs Old Camdenians 2's

Captain fantastic saves the day

Having only played for Potters Bar for two seasons, I haven't really had an opportunity to see Cheeko's captaincy for what it was until the latter stages of Saturday's game against the Camdenians. One was wondering what all the fuss was about until the moment when single handedly, he took contol of the game from the visitors and never gave it back. That he didn't win the game with the decisive action that he took is down to the type of declaration cricket that we play and how it rewards teams who block out for draws.

Late on in the game at around the 40-over mark, it looked like Bar had let the game go despite posting an excellent 169 on a slow and low wicket, thanks largely to the 'Uzi'd up' Luke Watling. At this point the skipper started to pull the strings and with two men set back to counter the excellent straight hitting from the Camdenian's lower order, started to restrict the run rate and frustrate the visitors. This led to two wild hacks that were calmly caught in the deep by Roy Rogers and Cheeko himself, taking responsibility with bucket hands.

Cheeko forced this situation on the Camdenians after he had noticed his team becoming increasingly agitated at the assorted antics of the visitors. At a suitable juncture that your scribe cannot remember (but was no doubt a wicket from a dubious hack into the leg side) he calmly gathered his troops and told them to calm down and let the game come to them. This had a galvanising effect on the team and powered them to a 12-point draw result, with Camdenians falling 14-runs short with 2 wickets left.

He delivered his message with the gravitas of a field marshall, high on a hill overlooking his enemy, plotting their downfall. He runs games like an supersized Napolean, moving his troops around and pulling strings until he gets the desired results - that more games haven't been won under his stewardship of the 4th XI is more to do with opposition's desire to see us not get 30-points, something that I feel is becoming more prevalent in the league.

There was little to note of the Bar's batting effort apart from Luke Watling's second successive 50 in two weeks. Once again, at better than a run a ball, he smashed 64 and effectively saved the game for Bar. The progression that he has made as a cricketer over the last two years in excellent and he is becoming an important part of Cheeko's promotion push this year.

Napoleon's new favourite opening bowler with the old ball, 'Jellybean' Taylor, chipped in with figures of 11-overs 1-13 to get Camdenians well behind the rate and he was well supported by Roy Rogers, with a rare opportunity to bowl with the wind at his back (11ov 1-26). The run rates were very similar in both the Bar and visitors innings and it was down to the rest of the bowlers to keep the bowling tight and try and force a victory. Ishy Moore was effective but expensive in the context of the game but bowled the Camdenians gun Doshi with a jaffa and 'keeper Burrows snaffled an excellent one handed catch for his second (4ov 2-15).

Bar squandered numerous run out half-chances and there were a number of catches that could have gone to hand but didn't. In the end though, the squeeze that the skipper put on saved the game and kept Bar in the hunt for the top spots in the league. Only the future will tell how important the skipper’s calm effectiveness was but I have a feeling that the 12-points. Our thanks on Saturday also go to Ian Breeze who umpired the whole game from both ends in humid conditions.

There is no music video for your musical enjoyment this week but instead I bring you the trailer for the Swedish ‘Wallander’ feature length film. May I draw your attention to Nina Zanjani who is the hot brunette police chick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo9PddzNH1Q

Next week, the 4th XI visit the Harpenden Dolphins for the rematch of yet another blockathon from last year.

Match Report - 22 May 2010 - PBCC 4s vs Letchworth 4's

If I had to do the same again, I would my friend, Fernando...

Before I delve into the post mortem of the latest adventures of the people’s team dear readers, I would like to take the time to describe to you the intense pleasure of the finest cricket tea that your humble scribe has ever had the pleasure of eating. I recently played at the Royal Household at Windsor Castle and I have to say that I thought that was the best tea that I had ever had until I wandered down the grassy knowl and into the warm bosom of John Erroll’s Mum’s cricket tea.

The tea was much hyped and John Erroll’s Mum’s teas initially did not differ greatly in terms of presentation from the standard (and also very excellent) Cheeko family provided teas but once the tin foil was pulled back on the cake section, the prospect of fielding was suddenly forgotten in a smorgasbord of sweet treats that made for some muffin top cricket trousers during the secondinnings.

The sandwiches were a good selection or various meat and vegetarian options on white and brown bread. I chose grated cheddar cheese and egg mayo, both on brown, which had the texture that only sandwiches that are made with care and love can be. I also dipped into some mini sausages (which were lightly spicy), succulent and juicy cherry tomatos. For desert, I noticed some home jam tarts and I have to confess that they were so good that I had six of them before attempting to keep wicket for the remainder of the afternoon. The tarts themselves had a crumbly cup that was just sufficient in texture to form a base for the sweet strawberry jam but sufficiently supple to melt in the mouth.

There were further cake options including some chocolate muffins and some excellent banana cake that I know Rupert the Pirate (you are not a pirate) was tucking into, which might explain the extra over he took to warm up. In many areas of life, hype and expectation rarely lives up to the actual event but I think that Johnny Erroll’s Mum is made of tougher stuff than that and the tea fully lived up to grand billing that it was afforded. This is to your credit Johnny Erroll’s Mum and I thank you for bringing 30 minutes of joy into our lives that offset the shocking negativity of the Letchworth run chase.

Set 270 to win on the small pitch in 55-overs should have been an easy task for the men of Letchworth given that what looked like a lethal green one was infact a slow flat deck offering little assistance to the bowlers except a bit of occasional bounce. Letchworth’s mind it seems, was made up for them by an opening bowling partnership of Duncan Taylor and Spencer Randon. With keeper Burrows up to the stumps and high quality bowling, the opposition found themselves at 20-overs with just 20 runs on the board. Bar flew through their overs and in no time, Letchworth were under the pump and batting for a draw from very early on. The key was to nurdle out their only two real batsmen, Hughes and Fernando, who scored 100 out of the teams, 165 eventual total.

The strange part about the whole day was that Letchworth had inserted Bar on a hot day on a green pitch, hoping to skittle us for a low score and then chase, as is their modus operandi, especially with Hughes who is way too good for division 9. Their return on their day’s efforts was a megre 4-points, 1 from bowling and 3 from getting to 166. There are clearly teams in our league who value not letting the opposition get 30-points over gaining batting points from themselves. Strange tactics from an ad-hoc Letchworth side but it may have suited the playing strength that they came with. No more needs to be mentioned of their run chase effort that was embarrassing in its execution.

A joy to behold however was Bar’s domination of the batting. The usual opening collapse left Andy Hughes at the crease looking down the barrel of a low score at 47-3. However, Andy Hughes led his now customary fightback and went on to take the easy singles and big hits on offer on his way to a sparkling 95. There was only one 6 in his innings, which goes to show how far Hughsey’s temperament has come in terms of batting time as well as just smashing it. He really is a class act at this level and his loafing singles are arrogant in their casualness. He holed out to long on after hitting a single down the ground a little too firmly and was truly gutted to miss out on his ton.

He was supported manfully by the highlights package that is the Doc Sharma who scored 36, mostly in boundaries, and there was a super cameo down the order by the baby faced assassin, Luke Watling who scored 55 in 8-overs. Spencer Randon scored a cheeky 29 and was the only man to hit a 6 onto the astroturf pitch.

Bar bowled well during Letchworth’s batting effort, with some extraordinarily good figures coming from the oppositions blockathon. The pick of the bowlers were the 2 spinners, Randon and Watling who were a pleasure to watch from behind the stumps and got 2 and 3-wickets respectively. If Bar can learn to hang on to a few more sharp catches, then we can start to convert these high point draws into 30 point victories.

The People’s team sit above mid table in a league where teams are all taking points from each other with a trip to the pretty North Enfield next week. This week I leave you with Abba’s ‘Fernando’ as a tribute to Letchworth’s Chopper Fernando and Cheeko’s string pulling captaincy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQsjAbZDx-4


Dave Burrows

Match Report - PBCC4 vs MPBCC2 - 15 May 10

Roy star of the show in PBCC 4s winning draw at The Feds

A fine day saw the second outing of Cheeko’s 4th XI 2010 campaign, having secured an easy win the week before when Elstree couldn’t raise a team.

Bar arrived at Met Police Bushey (henceforth known as ‘The Feds’) on a fine day and the general thinking was that we would have a bat if we won the toss as early season form suggested that The Feds had a pretty strong batting line up. Cheeko was surprised however when The Feds’ skipper won the toss and opted to field first.

The regular 4s opening partnership of Burrows and Errol was restored now that league football has finished but got off to a poor start when the horribly out of form Burrows cut straight to gully for just 5. The Feds tail was up when they also got Bar’s new number 3, Jellybean Taylor for a duck.

This brought the highlights package that is Andy Hughes to the wicket who batted well for his 19 with a couple of tremendous lofted extra cover drives and only 3 singles in his innings. He was gunned down by a terrible LBW decision but in fairness, he was plumb LBW to the first ball of that over and justice was served.

The brought the Hayden (Roy/Buck/Ginger/Pol )Rogers to the crease for what would turn out to be a spectacular and very nearly match winning innings, one of the best that your scribe has ever seen. He finished on 111 not out and was clever enough throughout his innings to ignore the hugely defensive fields that The Feds set, although in many cases, going over the top of men stationed on the boundary edge.

He was supported in his innings by John Errol, who was rather overshadowed but himself managed to get 60 before gifting a caught and bowled chance. It also looked as if Johnny was also going to get a ton at one point but he can be well satisfied with a 60 in his first game of the season and a partnership of 74 for the 4th wicket with Roy Rogers.
Other players contributed down the order, not least Cheeko and Rupert Pirate (you are not a pirate) who hung in to ensure that Pol Roger got his ton. I think the highlight of the innings was the contempt with which Roy treated the return of the opening bowler with the suspicious action which went 464414. The six was a flat batted swat that went into the sightscreen behind the bowler and was a joy to behold.

The bar finished their innings on 222-9, batting on past 200 wary of the smallish boundaries and fast outfield and went in to enjoy a rather excellent tea, the best this season so far.

Resuming after tea and one slice of fruitcake too many, Bar opened up with Herbie Fennell and the Pirate (you are not a pirate) and The Feds put on an agricultural 38 for their first wicket before the angry cop opener was trapped by an excellent Herbie back of the hand slower ball. Leslie Nielsen look-a-likely was next to go, run out by an amazing piece of work by Herbie again in the covers, who was calm under pressure and lobbed an easy catch to the Doctor to complete the run out. Dave Fennell really is an accomplished fielder and moves with the speed of a frightened gazelle coupled with the confidence of youth.

Wickets fell at regular intervals and the decision was clearly taken by The Feds not to bother with any points for the afternoon (the only managed 4) and to block out for a draw instead of going for 140+. Unfortunately, this is the type of cricket that our league format produces and until we move to a 40 or 50 over format, we are going to have these dull afternoons watching old men stonewall our attack. If a team doesn’t want to be bowled out then it’s going to be very difficult to do so despite the quality of our attack. I expect later on in the season, Cheeko might move to an insert and chase format to play to our strengths.

A note on the bowling. I serious think that we have one of the most potent attacks in the league and I am sure that we won’t come up against anyone as quick as Doc Sharma or Herbie this season. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to face the Doc on Saturday and I’m sure many league batsmen won’t. Rupert Pirate is the most unlucky bowler I've ever played with and the number of times he beats the outside edge and gets now reward is crazy. Duncan Taylor showed his bowling class with some impressive banana shapes being sent down and there is certainly a place for the Spenno’s leggies. The bowling figures are listed below for your reading pleasure;

R Ryrah 15ov 1-52
D Fennell 7ov 1-19
R Sharma 11ov 3-18
S Randon 7ov 1-20
D Taylor 5ov 1-1
I Moore 2ov 0-4

Finally, the song for the day was KRS One’s ‘Sound of da police’ which I have handily linked to here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VRZq3J0uz4


Dave Burrows

DSP Healthcare Market Commentary - May 2010

I read an interesting article on likely falls in commercial property this morning on Bloomberg which tied in nicely with something I was proposing to write on the outlook for the Healthcare market for the rest of the year. Here are some of my thoughts on the direction of things for the rest of 2011;

New government, new direction?

The proposed emergency budget isn’t going to be ready until mid-July but it already looks as if there are going to be drastic cuts all over the place to cope with the UK’s growing debt mountain. There are already noises about the proposed ring fence on the NHS budget being reversed (see here) as a combination of tax rises and spending cuts starts to take effect.

It is likely that the cuts in the already stretched Local Authority budgets will mean that there are less funds available generally and that this could mean even greater attempts will be made to keep service users in their own homes for longer so that funding for residential care places does not need to be made available. Pressure on budgets could also mean further outsourcing of clients who need more specialist care, into assisted living accommodation.

Likely VAT rise?

The general consensus would seem to be that VAT could go up to 20%, this being the quickest way for the new coalition to raise money. I think the timing of this rise is important as growth is still weak in the UK and any VAT rise is going to impact consumer spending from a wider economic perspective.

It will also affect the Healthcare industry as a rise in VAT is a direct cost that is not reclaimable as in other sectors. A 2.5% across the board rise in prices on non-staff costs of running a care home is significant and also a distraction, especially where some operators are under pressure on occupancy and standards.

Interest Rate Outlook

Given the current weak level of economic growth, most forecasters and data that I have read predict that rates will note start going up until the end of the year or possibly even q1 2011. When rates do go up, I anticipate that they will tick up slowly to balance a weak growth pattern. Some of the inflation figures that we have seen lately may cause the MPC cause for concern but I think they will let inflation spike rather than kill growth with rate raises.

This will also affect the availability of Healthcare stock coming to the market. Generally the homes that we are seeing come to the market at present are distressed or have issues. I don’t see this changing until those operators who wish to sell out can generate a decent rate of return on the capital they realise from the sale, so my view is that there will continue to be a shortage of care homes hitting the market.

Bank funding

Lastly, the lenders are as cautious as ever with regards to the type of propositions that they are lending on. Most are looking to restrict their loan to value to 70% maximum and are cautious lending to first time buyers.

In many ways, it looks as if a combination of unresolved capital reserve issues and a big swing to a more risk led approach from the lenders has meant that many deals that we have seen recently that would have been funded with no problem (and limited risk) in 2007/8, are now being declined or offered at a lower loan to value.

That is not to say that deals are not being done, we are seeing an increase in deals over this year but this is tempered with a more realistic approach from those doing the deals about the likely loan levels and interest rates that are available.


Of course, we are always delighted to speak through your funding requirements and if you have a proposal that you would like to discuss, please feel free to call on 0208 362 9700 or email me at david@dspartners.co.uk

David Burrows

David Burrows
Partner
David Stephen Partners

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