Hal MacLean

I am not sure I am well qualified to speak about this, but I am watching the Brazilians play the Ivory Coast. I have high hopes for Brazil – they play with such flair… normally.

In the 89th minute, Kader Keita from the Ivory Coast ran into Kaka from Brazil, and then fell on the floor clutching his face. Kaka did nothing wrong, and certainly didn’t raise a hand to his opponent’s face. With much writhing on the floor and wringing of hands, a row erupted, and the ref sent Kaka off the pitch.

How can this possibly be right?

The game has deteriorated into a pass time for cheats if this is normal behaviour. Shame on you, Kader Keita. You have brought the good name of the Ivory Coast into disrepute.

On Wednesday this coming week (23rd June) the new ‘Science Alive‘ centre will open its doors for the first time and we’ll see visitors coming to see what it is all about. Based in the new buildings erected in the grounds of Harlow College, along Velizy Avenue, Science Alive will present a number of unique spaces and activities, including a studio space set up by Cleveratom.

The studio will be a Chroma Key experience, using a live chroma system from Reflecmedia. Visitors will be able to stand in front of the specially designed screen and talk to camera, which will have a ring of green LEDs attached, providing the essential ‘green screen’ effect. From there, the image taken by the camera will be fed into a Reflecmedia ‘Ultimatte’ box which will deal with the removal of the backdrop, and then send the image to a computer for video capture.

The captured video can then be edited (using an iMac and Final Cut software) and popped out to DVD for the visitor to take with them before they leave.

Cleveratom have been doing this kind of work in schools for many years, and our good friends at Reflecmedia have been extremely generous in supporting the project with their excellent technology. I’ll be there on Monday, setting the space up, and there again on Wednesday to see it be used for the first time.

I have been looking for a small, friendly and (mostly) affordable golf club to join. I found Elsenham Golf and Leisure Club just north of Stansted airport and have been going there recently to play a few rounds, and to use the driving range.

I am quietly impressed with this place – there is a nine hole course that has enough tee spots to play 18 holes without using the same tees for both 9′s, and is an interesting little course. In general, those who play with a slight draw will find the course easier than those with a slight fade (or more likely, a vicious slice), but there is enough of interest to keep you going. I particularly like the 6th, 7th and 8th holes, but what I enjoy more than anything is that there is a wide range of wildlife in and around the fairways. I should take my camera one day…

There is a small pro shop, bar and a decent little gym all attached, and plans are afoot to add a swimming pool and better overall facilities.

What sets it apart is that it is friendly, and the membership won’t kill your bank account. There is no ‘enrolment’ fee and annual membership, it’s just a simple, single payment after which you can wear the greens out.

Superb. Suits me just fine!

I don’t often comment on political matters, but this needed saying.

Closing Becta will potentially be a retrograde step for thousands of schools, and thus hundreds of thousands of children.

If the very good work that Becta currently undertakes is not replaced by something equally capable and focussed on the benefit of schools and colleges, then we will have lost a very great deal of expertise and will leave schools and colleges wide open to problems. This means children may suffer as a result… and learning will certainly suffer. We have come so very far in the world of education in the last ten years, and to send us back in time would be immensely upsetting.

If the work of Becta is to be taken back to the Department and then continued under a different guise so be it, but I’m not sure what effective savings there are in doing this. If £80M can be recovered by closing Becta, then less can be recovered by moving it elsewhere and continuing what it is doing.

There are other equally hard messages from the Treasury today, and whilst I agree with the need to make savings on some of the ridiculous stuff (like travel and expenses), I’m not entirely clear what positive impact there will be on a £156Bn deficit by making a £6Bn recovery in the current financial year… it seems like a small amount overall. I guess savings need to start somewhere, and every journey starts with the first step.

It’s been quite a while since I last played golf with anything like regularity. In my last post I wrote about the new Nike Slingshot irons I was given as a gift, and the Taylor Made Burner driver that went with them.

For the last week or so I’ve been going to the driving range (the rather excellent Elsenham sports and leisure centre in Hertfordshire) and spending an hour at a time smacking golf balls up the range. So what’s the verdict?

The Nike irons are a joy to hit. Simple.

In the time since I last played regularly and now, I have lost some flexibility and probably picked up some bad habits. However, I was delighted to see the ball generally flying straight and largely to the place I intended it to go! As a guide, the seven iron was landing at roughly 150 yards and rolling on well past that. I don’t consider myself a long hitter by any means, so seeing a seven iron go past 150 was quite pleasing. I’m sure that in more experienced hands it would go even further, but I’ll settle for all I can get.

The five iron shot to about 170 and rolled on from there, and the hybrid irons were simply awesome. A hybrid 4 was reaching nearly 200, and the hybrid 3 was just a touch longer as far as I could see. It is actually quite difficult to assess the actual distance that far away – and I am only talking about where the ball landed first, not where it subsequently rolled to.

The Tour Burner Driver was frequently breaking 220, and at times I could have sworn it landed nearer 260 (but was probably 230).

My biggest issue was that I enjoyed hitting the balls so much I got through them at a rate of knots. The other slightly annoying niggle is that I normally have a very slight draw, but was pushing a lot of shots wide to the right (as a right handed player). The driver was prone to slice. I adjusted my grip, slowed down the swing (lost some yardage) and got some very straight and true shots. I don’t know about you but I’d rather use a 3/4 swing and lose 20 yards than be forever digging a ball out of the right hand side of a fairway.

I then took the pitching wedge out onto a pitch and put area, and was very glad I did. This wedge is superbly forgiving and I found I was more accurate with it than any other I had used before! Working from ranges of just a few yards to approximately 70 or 80 yards I was dropping the ball right on the apron of the green with apparent ease. If I knew how to apply back spin I’d be very happy to drop the ball right near the pin. I can say that boldly because I believe this pitching wedge allows me to be far more accurate. I can’t imagine I have somehow managed to get more accuracy through not playing the game for ten years…

All in all these irons seem to suit me very well indeed. They hit longer than I expected and they seem to be very forgiving. Having worked on my grip a little and stopped pushing everything wide, I am confident these irons will help me take quite a few shots off my game. A very, very minor issue is that the grip on the irons doesn’t have those very useful lines that help you form your grip consistently. This means I have to stop and think about the grip every single time, which itself is no bad thing. I still have much to learn about golf, and am in no way a ‘good’ player with a low handicap, but I would say if you are looking for some new irons, and think you’d benefit from some forgiveness, go and try out the Nike Slingshots. American Golf have them in stock, and should allow you to test them in store, too. I am very pleased I got them.